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Reviews
Rumor Has It... (2005)
This is a biased review
Let me get this out in the open immediately so there is no confusion - I will pretty much give any movie that Jennifer Aniston appears in nothing less than an 8. I say this unabashedly and with the realization that, to the general public, some/most of her movies have been average at best. I can't help it. After watching "Rumor Has It", I turned to my wife and admitted that I don't know if Aniston is a good actress or not; I simply love watching her. Any, yes, I will also admit the "Along Came Polly" is one of my favorite movies of all time. Having said all this, and trying my best to appear objective, I found "Rumor Has It" to be an enjoyable movie. Reiner does a nice job of keeping a good pace, and the performances are capable, with exceptional being the word I would use for both Shirley MacLaine (as Aniston's Grandmother) and Kathy Bates (as Aniston's Aunt Mimi.) Perhaps it's not the best movie ever made, or even the best movie made in 2005, but as a rental, it's definitely worth the $2.50. Jennifer Aniston alone is worth at least $3.00.
Sling Blade (1996)
About as perfect as a movie gets...
This is one of the few movies that, whenever I'm scanning channels and I come across it, I can't help but watch it through to the end. It is mesmerizing. Billy Bob Thornton created the perfect movie. The characters are so well portrayed that it is uncomfortable to watch them. Thornton loses himself in Carl to the point that it's difficult to remember that this is an actor playing the part. In my life I've come across people like Doyle Hargraves, the boyfriend played alarmingly on-target by Dwight Yoakam. This character is hard to watch, but if Thornton and Yoakam hadn't made Hargraves as real and despicable as they did, the movie would not have been as good as it is. Lucas Black as Frank Wheatley and Natalie Canerday as Frank's mother Linda Wheatley are also perfectly cast. They present a credible picture of a struggling mother and her son. The setting is almost without hope, from the clothing and houses to the jobs and landscape. There is a foreboding that something bad will happen, yet there is an undercurrent throughout the movie that all will be saved. (Note the scene in the bedroom with Carl and the hammer, then the baptism scene that follows it.) Music is used sparingly, but when it is, it enforces the underlying angst of the scene. The movie is a perfect 10, gently, yet forcefully, telling a story of compassion, love and hope.
Timeline (2003)
Disappointing...
While reading the book I remember thinking "What a great movie this will make." I still feel that way, however, this wasn't the movie I envisioned. The casting of Paul Walker and Francis O'Connor was a mistake, although the scripting left much to be desired too. A couple of bright spots were Gerard Butler as Marek and the action sequences and scenery, which were spectacular. This was such a disappointment that I don't want to waste any more time on it other than to say that I hope someone re-makes this movie in about ten years and does it the justice it deserves.
Destination Vegas (1995)
I've watched a lot of bad movies to the end, not this one...
I watch a lot of movies - some good, some great, some terrible - and I pride myself on being able to watch the whole movie, even if it's awful. Not this movie. I just could not bring myself to waste 90 minutes of my life with this disaster. Eight minutes was all I could take. Poor acting, stiff dialog, and an absurd plot combined to force me to hit the "eject" button on the DVD player. That's all, I've already wasted too much time on this film.
Flawless (1999)
The sum of the parts is greater than the whole...
Rent this movie, if for nothing else, to see Philip Seymour Hoffman shine. In his role as drag-queen Rusty Zimmerman, Hoffman is flawless. In the three movies I have seen with Hoffman in them, "The Talented Mr. Ripley", "Magnolia", and "Flawless", Hoffman has consistently lost himself in the character. He is able to do this to the point of the viewer not being able to recognize the actor - the greatest compliment an actor can receive. De Niro is De Niro, delivering a spot-on performance of a man struggling with change due to a stroke. The rest of the cast delivers an entertaining array of characters, which just adds to my disappointment with the film. Because, as good as the acting was, the directing - and to some extent the writing - was a let-down. Much of the violence seemed misplaced in what was a touching, humorous story. A few times I found myself pulled away from the story and wondering why Schumacher felt he needed to add someone being shot in the head. The ending was simply ridiculous - meant more for a Sylvester Stallone I-can't-believe-this thriller than for the emotionally-gripping story that Flawless should have been. This is a good movie. However, had the direction been more true to the main story, it could have been a great movie. And had it not been for superb acting, this could easily have been a bad movie. Keeping my eyes and ears open for the next "Fifth Element", I'm M.P. Silbernagel.
10 (1979)
A defining moment in a young man's life...
All right, so this isn't a great movie. It just happened to come along at the right moment in my life to have an impact. As a young man not yet turned 20, I could certainly identify with both Dudley Moore wanting to recapture youth through a fling with Bo Derek, and Bo Derek just wanting to have fun (and show her appreciation for Dudley's saving her boyfriend's life.) Add to that the fact that I was working at a record shop and remember selling about 9832 copies of Ravel's Bolero, and it boils down to this; "10" brings back a host of good memories for me. - mps
Anywhere But Here (1999)
This was done better by Cher in "Mermaids"
The trouble with consistently doing good work is people expect it of you, consistently. Unfortunately, this piece of work does not measure up to the standard of what I have come to expect from Susan Sarandon. Quite formulaic. However, Natalie Portman does a wonderful job of using understatement to project her character's feeling of loneliness and frustration with her mother. Two more things, if you're going to write about Wisconsin, know about Wisconsin. In the summer, we also have beaches to go to (it gets above 50 here occasionally), and we do "do" that special thing you can do to a woman to let her know how much you care - and we're quite good at it. (What else do we have to do during the long cold winters here?) - M
The Awakening of Gabriella (1999)
Gabriella should have remained asleep...
Just a bad movie. Not erotic, not funny, not worth watching - That's why I fast-forwarded through the last half of the movie. Poor scripting combined with poor acting,save possibly for Mark Ritter. Even though the "rated" version of this movie had extensive editing done to it (to receive an R-rating), I'm not sure it would have been any more worth watching had all the scenes been left in. "Wild Things" was much more erotic. For that matter "Will and Grace" is more erotic than "The Awakening of Gabriella".
Very Bad Things (1998)
Very bad movie.
Painful to watch. Emotion shown in how loud someone can yell. Let's see, which actor can out-shout the other. Yep, that's acting. A movie designed to be black comedy, just turns out to be mean. When a prostitute is killed, by accident, during a bachelor party, the gentlemen involved decide it would be better to cover it up. Have these guys never watched a 1960's sitcom where the moral of the story always is "tell the truth now, and save yourself a lot of trouble later"? Of course their situation quickly goes from grim to grave. I've seen black comedy. I know black comedy. This is not black comedy. (But it does rank right up there with "War of the Roses".)