Reviews

I came into this with low expectations, understanding it was going to be aimed at children. They missed and hit some toddlers instead. It actually could have been quite a bit better (all the way up to a 5, maybe) if it had been a bit more subtle. As it is, the acting was WAY too grotesque. Uncle Fester's character is a joke. Not funny at all. The same script with a different director and some new actors might have worked.

Terrible, icky, bad, BORING, superficial. The more you might believe real people would behave even remotely like the characters in this film (without falling asleep, that is), the less you would care what the heck ever happened to them. It's too bad the adults weren't in the bus instead of the kids.

Want to see a good, lethargic character study with some decent dialogue and some balls? See "Hard Eight."

I just saw "The Sweet Hereafter," which is a kinda lethargic character study in which the plot is moved forward primarily by dialogue interrupted by brief moments of action. It deals with themes of death and redemption. Ebert gave it four stars. Yet it is by far one of the WORST movies ever made.

"Hard Eight" is somewhat similar in these respects, but Ebert gave it only three and a half. Yet it is one of the BEST. What's different? This one has a STORY, some CONFLICT, a REVELATION, some GREAT DIALOGUE, and some really cool ACTING by people who you felt really liked this script. What more do you want in a movie?

This is a pretty good movie heavily influenced by John Huston's "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" with Humphrey Bogart, but original in its content and conflict. It is not so much a comedy as a quirky drama, like Treasure, though its point is not as sharp at the end. You should see Treasure (again) before or after seeing this.

I get the feeling others were expecting to see an action-packed shoot-em-up a la Bonnie & Clyde or maybe even Goodfellas. I wasn't expecting anything, so I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. First of all, it has excellent music that helps the movie flow along at its own pace -- but not too slow. Good acting, great cinematography, a good script, a true story, outstanding costumes, and the essence of the early 20's all made this film an interesting and refreshing change of pace.