Change Your Image
rajulkabir
Reviews
Rules of Engagement (2000)
Just makes no sense
(warning: plot elements, such as they are, revealed)
This movie was contrived to an extreme; basically none of the seminal plot events make the least bit of sense.
1) What happened to the Marines already stationed in the embassy?
2) Where were the rest of the embassy staff? When, in the history of the State Department, have the ambassador's spouse and child remained at a post which had already been evacuated of other staff?
3) Where were the Sana'a police?
4) Where was the Yemeni army?
5) The shooters were obviously not in the crowd on the street; they were hitting people who were running low on a flat roof. How can a Marine officer with 30 years of combat experience fail to realize that? How can that fail to have come up during the court martial proceedings?
6) The U.S. Embassy to Yemen, which according to the film is rowdily protested on a weekly basis, has a wooden door that gives in at the first attempt with a makeshift battering ram? Come on.
7) Even the most caricatured slimeball bureaucrat would not stick a tape in a drawer without first watching it to see whether it vindicated his position.
So this makes it all the more a shame that the movie was, in sum, so reprehensible. It amounts to an hour-and-a-half of glorification and justification of a barbarous and indefensible act. The outcome made no sense, the penultimate scene (the salute) made absolutely no sense, and the film made no sense. Two thumbs amputated.
20 Dates (1998)
Best movie about dating I've ever seen
I'm surprised at some of the vitriol that's been heaped on this movie - and on its auteur, Myles Berkowitz - by commenters here. People call him egotistical, but the movie at its core is a candid, plain-spoken exploration of his numerous flaws. This is not the movie that a fundamentally egotistical person would make.
There are so many movies about falling in love, but as Berkowitz has figured out, not a whole lot of them are documentaries. The other movies are all about fantasies of love, fantasies that almost always fail to ring true, fantasies that are not instructive, that do not inspire, that it's not possible to relate to. Here we finally have a movie about a real person - however contrived the situation - trying to meet another real person. Now that's something special. And despite the fact that I don't act like Myles, and I wouldn't choose to act like Myles, the fundamental human realism of it made it possible to identify more with this movie than a thousand glorified romance fantasies.
It doesn't have to be that way. There are plenty of entirely fictional films that draw me in, make me feel a part of the story. But the love parts never do, because they're always so patently caricatured. The unqiue thing here, the key to Berkowitz' success, is his sacrifice of ego, which enables viewers to ride along into a subject that is all about sacrificing ego.
Galaxy Quest (1999)
If you watched Star Trek for laughs, you'll love this
If you've ever caught yourself yelling "Oh, come ON!" at the TV during an episode of Star Trek when the plot contrivances and gratuitous alien character flaws went too far, this is the movie for you.
Galaxy Quest pokes fun at the likable weaknesses of Star Trek, as well as the bizarre spectacle of fans consumed with obsession for such a show, and stays good-natured all around while doing it. To really enjoy the movie, then, I think you have to be able to laugh at yourself for spending time watching Trek. If you can do that, you're in for a good time.
Two actors in particular really elevate this from a decent spoof to full-on comedy: Tony Shalhoub and Enrico Colantoni. Shalhoub's rather distinctive take on the earnest and excitable Scotty's engine-room antics is hilarious, dry and perfectly-delivered. In fact, from the moment the crew first arrived on the alien dock it was clear he was going to be a scene-stealer. And Colantoni's Thermian affect really surprised me in being consistently funny throughout a 100-minute movie. Most comic gimmicks wear thin after a while, but his was sufficiently engaging, and he was having so much fun doing it, that it just became infectious. I started grinning every time he came on screen.
About my only objection to the movie is the same thing that consistently bothers me about mainstream American TV and movies: People kept choking on the language they'd naturally use and instead substituting "gosh, darns" and "golly"s. I suppose this was necessary in order to get the PG rating, but it's distractingly awkward. Why do Americans entertain this fantasy that four-letter words don't exist? Why do they give them so much power to offend? Surely we are smarter and stronger than that. After all, we can defeat wicked, advanced aliens without even trying.
Just an aside: Probably the only thing I've seen in a while that's funnier than this movie, has been the delicious irony of so many commenters here objecting to the actors appearing in makeup and uniform at a sci-fi convention, "which would never happen in real life."
Dancehall Queen (1997)
Jamaican Cinderella story
No fancy Hollywood production values, no special effects, not even the particularly outstanding acting grace Dancehall Queen. But the movie does have a great score - and I know nothing about reggae, wouldn't even call myself a fan. Add to that the fun of trying to make sense of the lilting Jamaican accent and you've got time well spent. The first few minutes I had no idea what anyone was saying. Somewhere along the line, and I didn't even notice transition, everyone's lines were coming through clear as a bell. It's a treat for the ears, and an interesting peek into the sometimes seamy, sometimes violent, sometimes charming life on the island.
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
The movie? Not bad. McDowell? Disastrous.
The movie was funny, easy to watch. Hugh Grant's character - the same one he plays in every film - is sufficiently charming that it can pull you through any number of storybook plots without all that much trouble.
But Andie McDowell - and I was so seized by this that I registered on this site just to make this comment, marking the first time I've posted anything on one of these - acts so badly I was squirming in my chair with vicarious embarassment every time she stood in front of the camera. At first, I thought her character was simply being sarcastic and thus speaking with an exaggerated indifference. Then I realized that the story called for nothing of the sort, and it was just her. Each sentence was blurted in the same vacant monotone, like she was the voicemail lady sitting in a room reading off disjointed phrases to be pieced together later by a computer. Out of the hundreds of engaging, beautiful, talented actresses who would be champing at the bit to appear with Grant in a sure-fire feelgood movie such as this, how, I ask, how could they have selected her? And after all the film was in the can, available for objective review, what callous laziness prevented the studio from employing the best CGI talent available to excise her visage and droning voice from every frame and replace it with something more lifelike, such as perhaps a Dalek from an old Dr. Who episode?