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Reviews
Heartbreakers (2001)
A charming romantic comedy . . .
I admit that I don't particularly like Jennifer Love Hewitt. She has never before been able to leave behind her terrible role in the long suffering, now-defunct series "Party of Five." However, as Paige in "Heartbreakers," Hewitt is delightful. She and Sigourney Weaver play a mother-daughter con artist team who may be in trouble with the IRS if they don't make some money quickly. So, they go after a tobacco magnate who may be on the way out thanks to his own cigarettes. Gene Hackman is hilarious as Tensey, the tobacco king of phlegm. The real reason anyone should see this film, though, is Jason Lee as Jack. He's so adorble as the bartender Hewitt falls for/scams. Ray Liotta, who I haven't seen in a while, is really fun as the latest of Weaver's jilted husbands.
"Heartbreakers" is probably not for guys, unless they REALLY want to see Jennifer Love Hewitt in some VERY VERY short, tight dresses and high high heels. But for all you romantics, this is a must-see!
Still Crazy (1998)
The Greatest Film . . .
Brian Gibson's Still Crazy was not a film on my list. However, one afternoon I was channel surfing on a satellite dish and came across this AMAZING film about a 1970's rock & roll band who comes back together twenty years after their disasterous final concert. For keyboard player Tony (Stephen Rea), guitar player/backup singer Les (Jimmy Nail), lead singer Ray (Bill Nighy), drummer Beano (Timothy Spall), "road dog" Hughie (Billy Connolly), and manager Karen (Juliet Aubrey), a second chance is a God send. Unfortunately, they are lacking two players, Keith, who died of a drug overdose two years before the Strange Fruit's final concert, and Brian, his brother, a stunning guitar player who was the genious and the glue of the band. Still Crazy is a fabulous mixture of British comedy, damn fine music, and superb performances, especially by Bill Nighy as the pathetically egotistical Ray Simms. Helena Bergstrom is also hilarious as Ray's over-protective wife, Astrid. Watch especially for a couple of poignant scenes between Juliet Aubrey and Bruce Robinson, who appears in a touching cameo. Out of 10 stars, I give this hilarious and sweet rock & roll resurrection film a good, solid 10!
Bounce (2000)
Terrible, terrible, terrible . . .
Bounce is an awful movie. I can think of about five ways to make this flick better without involving Jennifer Grey, Alcoholics Anonymous, a hearing, Johnny Galecki, and real estate.
Don't see it. It's a waste of 2 hours and Don Roos' talent.
Roswell (1999)
Episode on 10/30/00--The Goodbye
*WARNING: Plot elements discussed.*
On Halloween Eve, the WB played an episode of "Roswell" that will forever stick with me.
Max Evans (Jason Behr) goes back in time from 2014 to the present day to beg Liz Parker (Shiri Appleby) to fall out of love with him before their connection becomes too deep to ever be broken again, leading to Tess leaving Roswell, and an alien take-over of the world. So Liz must do something that breaks her heart (and ours): make Max hate her so that he will stop loving her. It turns out that on the night of a concert, Max came to Liz's room and, instead of attending the concert, they made love, thus cementing their relationship to the point where they eloped at age 19.
This was the most romantic and heartbreaking episode of any show I have ever seen. The look of Max's face when he discovers Liz in bed with Kyle (platonic)is gutwrenching.
But always remember that true love lasts forever.
The Replacements (2000)
Heroic, Romantic, Keanu Reeves
Keanu Reeves as a football hero? About as likely as that slacker dude from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure becoming a major action hero in a flick about a speeding bus. Or that pale prisoner in Bram Stoker's Dracula making it big in a sci-fi movie about something called The Matrix. Believe it when you see it, because Keanu makes one great football hero.
After a humiliating loss at a past Sugar Bowl game, Shane Falco is a retired quarterback recruited by coach McGintey (Gene Hackman)to finish out the season for the Washington Sentinels, whose "real" players have gone on strike. Shane winds up leading a ragtag team, which includes Jon Favreau, of Swingers and Orlando Jones, of "Make Seven, Up Yours." Shane also falls for the bartender/head cheerleader (Brooke Langton).
What strikes me about this movie is how sweet it is. It is genuine filmmaking that's entertaining and romantic. Reeves has a great rapport with Hackman and his teammates and a good chemistry with Langton. I love how the "real" football players come off as whiny, money-grubbing babies.
It's a must-see. Highly reccommended.
Magnolia (1999)
Haunting . . .
The opening sequence of Magnolia is one that I will never forget.
Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights can best be described as a seedy film about a seedy business (the pornography industry). I loved Boogie Nights. I loved Magnolia, which can be described as a haunting epic about forgiveness.
PT Anderson uses much of the same cast members as he did in Boogie Night, including the superb Julianne Moore, William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Baker Hall, Melora Walters, John C. Reilly . . . to convey his brilliant film about the intertwining lives of several people, including a dying television producer, his beautifully screwy wife, his estranged son, a gameshow host dying of cancer, his drug-addicted estranged daughter, a young genius, a sensitive nurse, an interviewer, a police officer, and a former child genius.
Two additions that Magnolia couldn't have done without were Tom Cruise as Frank T.J. Mackey, the man behind the "Seduce and Destroy" method of dating, and Jason Robards, as the dying television producer. The performances of Cruise, Robards, Moore, and Walters were my favorites. They bring such misery to their roles.
Memorable scenes: opening scenes, Aimee Mann song "Wise Up," frogs (no further explaination)
Also, buy the soundtrack by Aimee Mann (plus a few others). It's haunting and mesmerizing.
The Patriot (2000)
The Fight For Freedom Has Never Looked So Good . . .
Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger play father and son freedom fighters Benjamin and Gabriel Martin in this summer's blockbuster The Patriot.
The Patriot is about a man who refuses to get involved in the American Revolutionary War after seeing his share of bloodshed during the French and Indian Wars. It is not until his oldest son enlists and his 15-year-old son is murdered by a truly worthless excuse for a gentlemanly British officer (Jason Isaacs) that he joins the fight.
The battles are epic, as we would expect from a movie released almost exactly a week before July 4, and the story is relatively familiar ground. The film is saved by the spectacular job done by the whole cast, especially Gibson and Ledger, two Aussie's who do a fine job pretending to be Americans. It's all about acting.
Down to You (2000)
Not What You'd Think . . .
The previews for Down To You had me believing this was another movie where the couple gets together, falls in love, he does something stupid, and has to win her back. Instead, I got a film about a couple meeting, falling in love, and becoming so afraid of settling into domesticity that one of them DOES do something rather stupid and they must depend on time to bring them both maturity and back together.
Down To You is not a great movie, in my estimation. But it is watchable and interesting to see the cycle of romance that might have begun too young.
10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
Not Just Another Cheesy Teen Flick . . .
There's a moment in 10 Things I Hate About You when our hero, Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) goes that extra distance to secure the affections of our bitchy heroine, Kat Stratford (Julia Stiles). In that moment, we figure it out. He is not just after her for the money.
Based on one of William Shakespeare's funniest plays (if you haven't read it, read it!), The Taming of the Shrew, 10 Things I Hate About You is about that hero who gets payed to date the heroine so that her younger sister, Bianca (Larisa Oleynik), can also date her suitors, Joey (Andrew Keegan) and/or Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Naturally, problems ensue when Kat discovers that Joey, her mortal enemy, is the one who payed Patrick to ask her out.
Remain in your seats after the show for some of the funniest outtakes I've seen.
Déjà Vu (1997)
Non-Believers Need Not Apply . . .
Henry Jaglom's Deja Vu is about destiny. It's about two people, Dana (Victoria Foyt, the co-writer and wife of Jaglom) and Sean (Stephen Dillane, of Firelight and Welcome To Sarejevo), who find that, even though he is married and she has been engaged for six years ("It's become a condition of my life", they MUST be together. Something pulls these two together. For the true romantic, Deja Vu is a must-see film, written and directed as though it were happening in real life. For the non-believer, it will be a waste of two hours.
Dangerous Beauty (1998)
Beautiful Romance . . .
Dangerous Beauty came and went from the movie theaters without even a ripple in the pond of big budget action fare. But this true sleeper of 1998 has recently made it onto my list of Favorites.
Dangerous Beauty tells the story of the love affair (emphasis on "love") between Veronica Franco (Catherine McCormack, Mel Gibson's wife in Braveheart), a courtesan in 16th century Venice, and Marco Venier (Rufus Sewell), a married senator.
Dangerous Beauty has everything a true romantic desires: true love, destiny, a trial, an explanation, and a realization that two people can sacrifice everything for one another and still have given up nothing in comparison to their love.