Reviews

Like the other reviewers, I caught this late at night, sat there stunned and mesmerized, and I've since tried to get my hands on it. It's the kind of thing the motion picture camera was invented for, but to go into detail would be pointless. Find it, somehow, and watch it.

I found the first Terminator scary and the second a perfect piece of pop entertainment. The third is just what you think it is: little better than an afterthought. The parts are there: The situation is urgent, The new Terminator is terrifying, and Arnold's bot is milked for even more genuinely funny deadpan, but with a surfeit of choppy action and dearth of any other emotional material, you're left with a movie that doesn't take itself seriously enough to warrant the audience's loyalty. Not to mention the unforgivable lapses in logic and decidedly unintelligent hunting techniques of the new cyborg. The buddy I went with remarked about the lack of pause or reflection that made the previous films relatively moving experiences and I agree; without them, the franchise has devolved into an extended chase sequence.

Part 1 - A young aspiring writer with a cerebral palsied writer boyfriend both attend writing class taught by a seething, viciously critical novelist.

Part 2 - A schlubby wannabe documentary filmmaker finds his perfect subject: an abjectly apathetic teenager living in privilege with his volcanic father, dithering mother, jock brother and supremely smug, tactless baby brother.

There's nothing in movies more frustrating to me than when a director/writer finds fertile soil and only digs two inches deep. They're precocious enough to stumble upon a great subject but they're content(or shamed or frightened into) going on autopilot from there, lazily applying whatever moldy stylistic preconceptions they made their name with, their auteristic "trademarks", if you will(in director Todd Solondz' case, it's awkwardness, embarrassment, and pain heaped upon pain). I don't have a problem with Solondz' unpleasant modus operandi so the self conscious apologias and justifications found here are superfluous for me - what I wanted out of the film is a deeper examination of the themes of race, fetishistic exploitation, and lack of compassion Solondz is so quick to point out but not address to my satisfaction. His indictments of other films(American Beauty, American Movie, whose resident burnout Mike Schenk gets a cameo here) are impassioned but unconvincing. On the whole though, I think I mainly had a problem with what's not here. Truth is, there was great acting all around, and it was suitably provocative.

As much a document of primordial hip-hop culture as it was an arbiter of what hip-hop would become(for a time), this film perfectly encapsulates the earthshaking inventiveness and fun of hip-hop and, upon this viewing, reminds me of how much of that loose, experimental spirit is missing in the current scene. The flimsy story(carried, as it were, by the singularly inarticulate graffiti legend "Lee" Quinones) is aptly subordinate to the raw, bouncy hip-hop soundtrack(provided by Blondie's Chris Stein and the ever-smooth Fab 5 Freddy, who folks of a certain musical disposition might remember from Yo! MTV Raps and who also co-stars). A must not just for hiphop heads but also for anyone striving to understand why this "fad" caught on like it did. 10/10

Spike Lee gets a full two points in my book just for his ambition, the bad news is the other aspects of the movie rate about a 4. Among the points he asserts and attempts to cover: **The history and purpose and evolution of degrading black images in American culture **the complicitness of black Americans in their own degredation **how satire is not one size fits all, it's easily misunderstood and easily used to veil hostility **the battle between personal ambition and not "selling out" **does internalization and/or subversion of offensive images make them any less destructive? **What is "authentic blackness"? Is it a certain mindset, or a set of dialect and swagger that you put on like a hat, or is it something experienced?** Is there such a thing at all?

I don't necessarily agree with the points he makes(or tries to make, or that I think he's trying to make) but these themes, properly juggled, could have made for incisive, truly important cinema but Lee just throws them in the air and presents it as a movie. Damon Wayans, affecting a terribly unrealistic "uptight white guy" accent, stars as Pierre Delacroix, a television executive trying to get himself fired by pitching an outrageously offensive blackface coon show. Of course, in a Spike Lee polemic, his white "wigger" boss loves it and so does the American TV audience, creating a dilemna for Pierre and the poor but talented pair street performers who perform in the show(Tommy Davidson gives a great performance, and Savion Glover gives...great tap-dance). Throw in some self-righteous black revolutionaries, a superfluous, half-assed love story, and a complete lack of subtlety(rendering whatever satire there is rather impotent) and you have Bamboozled. Lee's ambivalence and lack of sharpness and/or courage in attacking present-day black images stands out the most, since to me, that should have been a large part of this type of exercise. I agree with Roger Ebert's assertion that using blackface is a cop-out, and obscures a screenplay already filled with competing and contradictory visions of what it's trying to say about present-day race relations. A mess of a movie, intermittently interesting and worth seeing despite what I've said but just a mess of a movie.

Peppy, funny office temp satire that coasts on the likability of nebbishy writer/actor Josh Kornbluth, who adapted it from his play(and you can tell by the many breathless "talking to the camera" interludes he inserts to emphasize some of the jokes, usually to the detriment of said jokes). Not quite as funny as the great Clockwatchers or Office Space but it thankfully covers ground that they didn't, and is funny and observant enough in its own right to highly recommend. Needless to say after 6+ years of temping I related too well to the main character, a temp who sees taking a permanent position in the corporate world somewhere as tantamount to losing your bachelorhood or going to jail. His description of just what a "haiku tunnel" is is hilarious and almost poignant in its simplicity, but you'll get to that.

Lovely, amateurish slice of the southern rural life of a small group of youngsters in a dead town one lazy summer. I can't really explain how it unfolds but it kind of reminded me of The Thin Red Line(a lesser film in my opinion), full of half-chewed, impressionistic dialogue, slow pans of life and landscape, jarring events to break the mundanity, only to melt back into the mundanity as a matter of course. The story isn't at all successful but I'd love to see what the first-time director can do with clearer, more engaging material

Shows how easily intelligent direction, great cinematography, and bona-fide star power can redeem what could have been a stale heist genre exercise. The mechanics of the heist and the love story -between George Clooney and the snappy, dazzling Julia Roberts- are preposterous but Soderbergh is more interested in dialogue, cool(not hip, but genuine cool), and elevation/subversion of the mainstream aesthetic than airtight storytelling. Good choice, it turns out, as we get to witness Brad Pitt, Carl Reiner, Don Cheadle, Andy Garcia and others riff on familiar "dirty dozen" type setups and fashion memorable characters out of just a few minutes of screentime each. An imminently forgettable good time. 8.5/10

I'd dubbed this a quiet classic when I saw it last summer but the second viewing definitely pales next to the first, if only slightly.

Nicole Kidman's performance is Oscar-worthy, the atmosphere and intrigue is established perfectly, the supporting cast is wonderful, but the story doesn't quite stand up to too much scrutiny. The emotional development of the story is deliberate and thoughtful while the supernatural logistics of the story seem kind of arbitrary, and that kind of undercuts the final punch of the plot - the suspense is strong but the explanations are invariably weak. Themes of penance and spiritual absolutism introduced at the start don't quite make it to the finish line, at least not explicitly enough. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend but the weaknesses made themselves known the second time around.

Gothic trappings and dreamy visuals try desperately to cover the stench of exploitation in this violent, speculative retelling of the Jack the Ripper incidents. Johnny Depp, who plays the clairvoyant detective on the trail of the murderer, is a wonderfully intuitive actor but has always lacked a certain screen presence/charisma, an attribute that works in his favor in films like Dead Man or Nick of Time but detracts from performances in, say, Blow from last year, films where we need to believe he has the magnetism and deep motivations the script is telling us he has. His ethereality, for lack of a better word, is a mixed bag here, as the murders and intrigue behind the killer's identity far overshadow and out-interest whatever internal conflicts the Depp character carries. On the plus side, the love story, between him and a potentially doomed prostitute(Heather Graham) makes sense and adds needed poignancy to balance out the carnage the directors(Hughes Brothers) are so eager to wallow in. The murders are inventively, brutally shot, and as the camera lingers unsympathetically on the grisly aftermaths the connection is eloquently, methodically made between the polite economic violence of the London elite and the cold brutality of being on the bottom rung. Nifty piece of work there. The fact that the Hughes are good at what they do(exploitation) doesn't get them a pass but it does lead them into some interesting territory almost in spite of themselves. 8/10

An ostensibly tongue in cheek documentary about the nuclear age of the late 40's and 50's, juxtaposing the horrific realities of the arms race with cheery misinformation(and simplistic redbaiting) doled out to the public by the US government and private sector. The overall effect is chilling-for every scene of hilariously misguided propaganda and dismissal of nuclear danger(an army film cheerfully assures a fictional fallout victim that his hair will grow back in no time) there's scenes of Pacific islanders affected by fallout from remote nuclear tests and US soldiers getting debriefed on the minimal dangers of witnessing a nuclear detonation a few miles away(with goggles on, to be fair). Not an objective documentary by any means - not that it should be - the filmmakers excoriate the duplicity of the government and the mock the complacency of the public with equal zeal, but there's a certain absurdist charm to the whole affair.

Refreshingly devoid of heroism(while remaining gleefully knee-deep in sensationalism), this movie honestly surprised me with it's depth. Lee Marvin is a marvel as a tough Army major assigned to whip a bunch of violent Army felons into shape for a covert mission in German territory. John Cassavetes and Charles Bronson, both smoldering, anchor the charismatic cast of convicts(half of whom remain rather anonymous, unfortunately), and Telly Savalas adds an addled charm as the psychopathic Pvt.Maggett even though his character's story arc is somewhat mishandled down the stretch. The film is rollicking at times but it remains clear-eyed throughout, and revels in the coldness of armed conflict as opposed to cheap dramatics it could have plumbed out of such a familiar story.

Dark, frantic screwball-like romp. It's certainly not Cary Grant's best work or best script he had to work with but strangely the saving grace is Raymond Massey all but stealing the show as a haughty, brooding sociopath with a boozy Peter Lorre for a sidekick. Massey's menacing presence never gels with the rest of the film but it's riveting nonetheless, and offers respite from the rather pedestrian antics of the rest of the cast. 7/10

This show had atmosphere, dialogue, and a general toughness and realism that made it endlessly watchable. One of the best acting ensembles ever assembled, gripping storylines, the series moved so fast there was never a dull moment. Dennis Farina was perfectly cast and did amazing work, as did every other cast member and guest star. Shame I didn't tape the series when the USA channel ran it a few years ago.

Last Days of Disco was most notable for it's excellent choice of music. A soundtrack full of disco can easily have been intolerable but the songs are excellent. Aside from that, neither the plot, the dialogue, nor the "character study" elements are anywhere near interesting. The pseudo-philosophical yuppie banter is clumsy when it tries to be hip and casual, tired when it tries to be insightful, phony and forced when it tries to be real. Woody Allen and 50 other filmmakers have covered this territory already, and in a fresher, sharper, simpler way. The "witty conversation" consists of the actors spouting over-articulate, long-winded monologues at each other, and ending up not saying much at all. Reminded me of a long, highbrow episode of Friends( that's not a good thing). The performances were mostly good, actually, they were just undermined by the dull, redundant script.

The Phantom Menace has everything the other SW movies had save for passion, sophistication, subtlety, warmth, humor(Jar Jar is not just unfunny but anti-funny, since he sucks the life out of whatever scene he is in-and yes he is offensive too), suspense, soul, and respect for the audience. That leaves us with a movie that is basically a long, boring, shiny commercial for the next movie in the series.

On the bright side, I enjoyed seeing R2 and C3PO, Darth Maul's surprise CAMEO appearance was exciting, and you get to see a little more of what jedis are capable of, which is kind of cool. The star actors did OK considering but the characters were severely lacking in personality, in stark contrast to the endearing humanity and friction produced between the principals in the original trilogy.

I wish I didn't love Star Wars so I could just excuse this film and maybe even enjoy it but this movie was terribly disappointing. The plot is both more complicated AND more simpleminded than the other movies in this series. Lucas needs to hire a good director and a screenwriter while he's at it before his space epic becomes a bad running joke

This predictable, plodding,"thriller" belongs in the deepest basement of the Nicholas Cage Hall of Shame, next to Con Air and Amos and Andrew. Laughably, the filmmakers must have thought that they were covering new ground or "exposing the unspeakably horrific side of pornography to movie audiences everywhere!". I heard of snuff films in JUNIOR HIGH so I was somewhat baffled as to how a man could be a private investigator and be taken totally by surprise by these movies. OLD NEWS-get over it, work through it. The moral crises and transformations Cage supposedly goes through are overwrought and about as intense as you might see on an episode of Dawson's Creek. Joaquin Pheonix had a mildly interesting character but his ominous nitwit profundities weren't half as insightful or deep as the filmmakers must have thought they were. The lady who played the missing girl's mom put in the best performance. Cage's wife was simply annoying.

The villains were also underwhelming-A bunch of sleazy pornmeisters and a husky guy in leather and chains-who is he? Who cares? James Gandolfini was memorable as a particularly vicious and foulmouthed porn king, though.

My friend actually fell asleep during long stretches of the movie-I wasn't so lucky.

This is one of the funniest, most satisfyingly outlandish movies I've seen in a while. I love it for the same reason most critics and audiences hated it-it's rambling, incoherent, and overblown. Johnny Depp is simply brilliant in his performance, cartoonizing the character but in a way that enlivens the whole film and keeps you mesmerized and laughing out loud at this most eccentric creature Raoul Duke. Benicio Del Toro's excessive mumbling got in the way of an otherwise good, intense performance(Between this movie and the Usual Suspects, he has about two sentences worth of intelligible dialogue). I love his performances but I never know why. The situations and set pieces were all inventive, especially the scene when they first check in to the hotel and spaz out at the bar(perfect recreation of being inebriated in a crowd, where the people around you seem to be bizarre caricatures, talking their own language). Same with the hilarious Drug Convention scenes.

It's understandable that fans of the book(which I have yet to read) are disappointed (I read L.A. Confidential almost ten years ago and I found last year's critically hyped movie an overly sanitized, pale shadow of the brutal book) but I'm glad I came to this movie without the prejudice and expectations. This is my favorite Terry Gilliam movie, in fact-funnier than Brazil, more fantastical than even Baron Munchausen- although bingeing on psychedelics on the Vegas Strip is not quite as fun as it looks in this movie. The movie(by way of the book) even manages to sneak in some pointed criticisms against the kind of aimless and/or idealized hedonism that the characters engage in.

I highly recommend this movie.

Being in the woods in the middle of nowhere is scary in and of itself-scarier when you tell ghost stories-scarier still when you're in a ghost story. This simple truth has finally been exploited to(almost)maximum effect and create a truly gripping movie.

Blair Witch Project is a brilliantly conceived and executed film

that unfortunately cuts itself too short just as it's momentum finally starts to build to a fever pitch. The situation for the three protagonists gets increasingly desperate and weird and genuinely scary but the climax is overly abrupt to say the least and leaves the viewer distinctly unsatisfied(although the last shot is haunting).

The film also spends too much time concentrating on the three tired young filmmakers bickering amongst each other and basically breaking down mentally(although the actors all give very impressive performances-It's easy to forget that this is a movie and not a documentary while you're watching it). These scenes are very well done but go on too long and it's nothing you haven't seen in Deliverance. They detract from the overall impact in the long run.

I would still recommend this film but I have to admit I needed just a little more gore and a little less mystery.

This movie is very disturbing at parts but frequently funny in its small insights into human behavior and motivations. Todd Solondz seems to have an inexhaustible fascination with the random pain an loneliness inflicted on every on of us and I dont mind that he doesnt let the viewer off the hook with feelgood endings where the innocents are comforted and the victimizers get their just desserts. It makes his films singular, although not necessarily comfortable to sit through.

I come away from his movies(especially Welcome to the Dollhouse) thinking about the true consequences of the hurt people(and, by extension, I) perpetrate on other people- you cant help but thinking that these semi-comical tragedies and victimizations are happening as we speak and that speaks to the power of Solondz' vision. He does not, as Ive seen critics suggest, just throw a pile of anguish and pain on the screen just for it's own sake or to shock-I think there's a moral lurking about but it's one that the viewer has to discern.

This movie is a beautiful, nostalgic, thrillride with some of the funniest, slyest deadpan comedy I've ever seen in a movie. EVERYONE in the cast sparkles and creates a believable, engrossing, character-from Jack Horner, played with supercool pomposity and grace by Burt Reynolds to Don Cheadle's Buck, the vulnerable artist trying to find himself and everybody in between. They perfectly capture the goofy, decadent cluelessness of the late 70's and early 80's. If you don't like this movie because it's "idealized" or doesn't truly capture the porn business, you miss the point-this movie is about a group of slightly deluded outcasts brought together for dubious reasons but finding themselves in the midst of a family. Paul Thomas Anderson was the real star of the movie, however. The period touches were so dead on and he was successful in capturing the palpably different vibes of the late 70's and early-mid 80's. Julianne Moore was totally robbed by not even being nominated for her performance and Burt Reynolds was a shoo-in, in my opinion. This is one of the most exhilarating, satisfying, and creative movies of the 90's and it is highly underrated, just like the director's first movie, the superb Hard Eight.

This was one of the (relatively)better sci fi flicks shown on MST3K in that I could *almost* see someone sitting through it when it came out.The main alien, Derek gave a limp performance and the rest of the cast looked like they were just happy to be there. However, the guy who played Thor, the grumpy, hair-triggered evil alien, must have thought he was in a real movie, turning in a performance that was driven, energetic, and (hammily) passionate- he earned his pay, assuming he was paid very little. Catch it on MST you wont stop laughing at this thoroughly un-menacing bunch of aliens and their pet lobsters.

Jackie Chan is a physical genius and this film is the the one that most fully utilizes his awesome comedic talents. This is the best film I've seen by Chan by far and it gets better every time i see it(I was so mesmerized by the martial arts that i didnt pay attention to the story the first time I saw it) The lady who plays the mother is also very funny and tough as hell too. Why dont they release this and some of his better movies in the U.S. theaters?-instead we're treated to Operation Condor, the worst of his movies that I've seen. This is topnotch entertainment.

This movie is like a great plate of beans and rice-not too complicated, nothing new, but very satisfying when you do it right. OUS is an extremely rare combination of good crime caper stuff mixed with a really compelling romantic story. Usually in action or crime movies the romance seems out of place and tacked on but it actually is the heart of this movie, the engine that makes it go and makes you want to watch more. Jennifer Lopez is HOT-She is cute as hell and made the best of her great role. Clooney is worthy to be called the new Cary Grant, with his effortless charm, charisma, and confidence-he's fun to watch and you want to be just half as smooth as some of his characters. The rest of the cast was good as well, especially Don Cheadle and Dennis Farina and the spaced out guy with the sunglasses. Watch it and you'll definitely like it- what more could you ask for?

Harrison Ford was the only thing that made this stunningly typical action movie(Think of it as Passenger 57 if that passenger were the president) worth watching. It was just barely believable but Ford gets you kind of involved as a man who puts saving the people he loves before any high ideas about saving the office of the presidency. Gary Oldman's character also brings up good points when he calls the President(Clinton, Bush, and especially Reagan, listen up) the biggest terrorist of the world, one who hides behind speeches about freedom and humanitarianism before he bombs and starves people to death on a mass scale.

The premise was laughable, though. The terrorists can manage to hijack the most highly protected vessel in the world but cant seem to get rid of a middle aged man hiding in the pantry who's killing them one by one. And a handful of mall cops could have done a better job of protecting the plane than the Secret Service did in the movie, with or without a traitor in their midst. The traitor's motivations didn't seem too clear, either. He was just a distraction throughout the movie.

This is not groundbreaking or special but an OK action movie if you're really really in the mood for one.