Reviews

In 30 or 40 years, music critics are going to look back at the 80's and see the dire straits of rock 'n' roll. Pop music was huge, but rock and roll, aside from hair bands and aging 70's stars didn't see too much promise. I know that some new wave lovers are going to jump on my back for saying that, and I do believe that U2, the Police and the Clash were among the best bands of the 80's. However, when it comes to finding the one guy who never got suckered into the gimmicky 80's and stayed true to Rock 'n' Roll and continued to write powerful lyrics, you'd have to look no further than Bruce Springsteen. This anthology follows the Boss from his post-Born to Run hype to his peak in popularity in the mid to late 80's. This anthology is a testament to Springsteen's skill as a performer. The showstopping live performance of 'Rosalita', in which Bruce summons the spirit of Elvis by enticing 5 separate girls to run onstage and kiss him, is among the greatest live performances ever caught on film. It borrows 'Thunder Road' and 'The River' from the No-Nukes Film. It then moves into his teen idol years of 1984-1986. His explosion on the pop scene in 'Dancing in the Dark', directed by De Palma and featuring Courtney Cox. His holy trinity of videos directed by John Sayles, 'Born in the USA', 'Glory Days', and the best video of this entire collection, 'I'm on Fire'. It moves into live performances of 'My Hometown', 'War', a peculiar acoustic version of 'Fire', and a masterpiece summary of the Born in the USA tour in 'Born to Run'. The video for 'Brilliant Disguise' is one drawn out shot for 4 minutes of Bruce playing an acoustic guitar. 'Tunnel of Love' and 'One Step Up' are powerful videos as are the live performances of 'Tougher than the Rest' and 'Spare Parts'. That ties up all the loose ends. This is a good indication of just how huge an impact that Bruce had on Rock and Roll in the 80's. Overall, this anthology is a must own for die hard Bruce fans and pleasantly enjoyable for the fans passing by.

there wasn't much hype surrounding this movie, so i wasn't sure of how good it would be. then i looked at the cast laden with excellent veteran actors and the fact that it was directed by clint eastwood and said to myself, "it has to be good." i was right. it was a great movie laden with a good story,likeable characters, and excellent dialogue. i was surprised by the humor. this is a very funny movie. clint eastwood taps a comedic side rarely seen before in his previous films. james garner, donald sutherland and james cromwell all contribute to the film with stellar performances. i enjoyed the chemistry all these actors had together, especially the raport between clint eastwood and tommy lee jones. it's great fun and a great way to spend a sunday night with your dad. my mom's a huge fan of james garner, but she didn't go see it with us. i was impressed by loren dean and courtney b. vance in their roles as the younger astronauts, but feel that they didn't get enough screen time. neither did james garner for that matter. the first hour of the movie show such promise that i was convinced that it was the best movie of the summer. however, they don't dabble into space suspense on the level of 'apollo 13', but they do a much better job of telling a story in space, then say 'mission to mars' and 'armageddon'. clint eastwood serves up his best picture since his masterpiece, 'unforgiven' and does a great job as the lead character. the movie seems to peak too soon and feels sort of anti-climactic and also leaves a lot of questions unanswered. i'm not sure if that is what eastwood was aiming at, but he still churned out a great film far better than most of the movies at the multiplex this summer. great entertainment, doesn't disappoint. you'll enjoy it. you get your money's worth.

***1/2 stars on a 4 star scale

i caught a sneak preview of this with my dad, which i thought was appropriate for this male bonding suspense-thriller. It was very entertaining, featuring a confusing, yet extremely interesting screenplay and excellent performances by Dennis Quaid, Jim Caviezal, and Andre Braugher. I was amazed that a movie this good could be released so early in the year. It's a definite crowd pleaser that should make serious bank at the box office. smart, suspenseful, thrillers like this don't come around to often. many films try to create the euphoric level of suspense as this one has, but fail to do so. This movie was a great way to spend a Saturday night and is worth seeing at least once. It starts off with a bang that sustains you until the plot twists start popping up. Most of these plot twists are enjoyable. I thought this was the best movie to be released this year and should be recognized as a great film. A-

With the exception of 'Magnolia'and 'The Green Mile', I don't believe that there was a movie as great as 'Three Kings' last year. It was a brilliant look at the Gulf War and stretched beyond the boundaries of all war movies before it. David O. Russell did an excellent job writing and directing this movie and George Clooney gave one of the best performances of the year. Mark Wahlberg proved that his work can go beyond that of Dirk Diggler. Spike Jonze was hilarious as Wahlberg's lacky. Watching the movie is a memorable experience. It's way out there with it's comedic sense of timing, awesome action sequences, and morals to match. It dealt with the political issues of the Gulf War which was seen as a pretty harmless war from an American's standpoint. Russell showed us the plight of the freedom fighters in Iraq and told a very serious story, but did it with a sense of humor that was neither tasteless nor melodramatic. Russell kept an even tone throughout the entire movie and perfectly blended the action,black comedy,and war genres into what was one of the year's best. An entertaining movie that never ceases to amaze me. I still am trying to figure out why it didn't get nominated for any Oscars. I hope that one day people will see this move for what it is...a masterpiece.

This movie was very good. Ed Burns did a great job directing his second feature. He also did a terrific job acting and writing. While it's not as good as Burns' brilliant 'The Brother's McMullen', it's still a good movie. The acting was great, especially John Mahoney as the dad. The saga of an Irish Catholic family dealing with sibling rivalry parallels my life so I identified with the picture. However if you're not Irish Catholic, you may not like the movie as much as I did. So I liked it, but I guarantee nothing. What I didn't understand is why he stole the title from a Bruce Springsteen song, but he didn't use the song in the movie, he just had a bunch of Tom Petty songs?