Reviews

While the movie doesn't have all that much of a plot, it is definitely worth watching. Nice shrimping montage. Multiple instances of quality rear projection of river scenes while characters are talking or doing stuff on boats. Great underwater scene. Good prison segment at the beginning. Some funny, Bowery Boysesque dialogue, like when one guy is saying he knew another character since she was little, he says "I knew her since infantry." Also a funny bit where a character is offered jambalaya and gets offended, though I'm not sure if he was just offended by the sound of it or thought it sounded like some other offensive thing. Standard, quality performance by Robert Young; everyone else is solid to good. Lots of very Chinese people who are pretty interesting/colorful. Very well done rumble. Solid and somewhat limited romance/love triangle. Overall good movie.

The story is quality and has some decent twists. The action-oriented scenes (there aren't really any actual action scenes) are well-done and entertaining.

There are a lot of flashbacks which help explain what is going on, though it is often hard to tell who is who in the flashback scenes because it seems that different actors are used, if only for some of the characters.

There are a few neat aspects to the movie which are somewhat unique and contribute to its quality.

Most of the actors are high quality and well-cast, especially the two leads. There are some comic relief henchmen who are also quite good.

It could do to be half an hour shorter, though there is not much else to complain about.

The score is offensively generic.

Nice performance by Terry O'Quinn. He doesn't get much screen time but displays an exceptional tuft.

Haim is solid. He wears a very bright sweatshirt at one point, which may be the high point of the movie, aside from O'Quinn's tuft. The girl wears a very neat sweatshirt at one point as well.

Nice hair on Haim and Busy. Busy's outfits are sometimes nice, but he generally looks very goofy, which isn't surprising.

The movie is much too long and should have been compressed into a forty-five minute TV episode. The silver bullet elements are forced, only there to play to the title. Scenes really really drag while rarely building substantial tension.

There are a few humorous scenes, as when an old lady holds a gun.

The horror scenes and effects are OK and seem pretty typical for the era. The main effects segment is pretty sweet.

The voice-over seems contrived are is somewhat bothersome. At least there's not much of it, though that fact contributes to the problems with it.

Quality song on the closing credits.

There is some good stuff in this movie but it is just way too long.

The scenes with the male actors (Murphy, Greer, Lawrence) have some humor. The jokes are OK, the actors are good, and they have very nice chemistry together.

The love scenes, which there are several of, are very lame. Adrian Lyne should have brought in to direct them.

The scenes of Murphy with the female characters are boring and repetitive. It becomes a struggle to get through them after awhile, which is a problem as they make up most of the movie.

Score and soundtrack are nice, very early-90s.

Some of the details are neat, such as the advertising spots.

Most importantly, Eddie Murphy is portrayed as a huge stud. And quite effectively so.

There is a good deal of filler in this movie, and scenes take way too long. Most often this occurs with scenes with no redeeming elements, such as when one character translates the prehistoric language of another. It keeps going on, and is only lamely jokey at best, but never humorous.

The low-grade visual effects aren't really bothersome at all; they are actually somewhat interesting. Some are slightly amusing, but they are never bad enough to be actually funny.

Ferrell is fine overall, but the material is too lame for him to make much out of it. He has a few decent scenes/lines/gags. The other guy is visually and aurally unpleasant and has no business having a major role in a movie. Strictly a character actor. The prehistoric man character is terrible for the same reasons.

The inclusion of Matt Lauer is the best part of the movie. There are some good shots of his hair, though you keep wishing the director had held them for longer.

The movie is about a girl who finished near the top of her class in college (possibly second) and completed three internships in her field (publishing) yet cannot find a job. I get that there could be a situation where everything goes wrong and she isn't able to get such a job, but that doesn't happen in this movie. The worst thing that happens to her is that her car breaks down. There is no sensible explanation as to why she cannot get a job she wants, which is her only concern according to the introductory segment.

There are quite a few jokes in the movie. Many (most?) take the form of Seinfeld-style comments about everyday things and people's behavior. I cannot think of any other movies with this sort of humor. Anyway, it fails. The actors seem pretty competent handling it, so I guess the writing is the issue. The everyday things that are turned into jokes are just very lame (people shrugging their shoulders in response to things, etc.) As unfunny as it is, it would probably be more passable as a TV show, if only because it would end more quickly.

Bledel, Keaton, Lynch, Simmons and others are fine. Zach Gilford is annoying. The directing and sets and things are fine, but the story and dialog are just too pathetic to compensate for. There is just so little notable content.

The look and style of this movie are pretty original, but that isn't a good thing in this case. There is extremely little movement: most shots consist of one or two weird-looking characters with only their lips moving, and only slightly (if at all.) You almost never see a character move his head or body or arms as he talks. That, combined with the severe lack of background activity makes the movie unbearably static. The lack of activity in the scenes really forces you to look at the characters, who often look stiffly silly.

Most of the characters aren't badly drawn/designed, though one is particularly hideous and unpleasant to look at. She looks like a fat, uglier Rosario Dawson. Having a character like that makes it tough to watch a movie.

The music is decent, somewhat interesting. The scenes of explosions and whatnot look mildly competent and are the best-looking ones in the movie. The palette is really bland otherwise.

The plot was tough to follow with the characters and character motion being so distracting, but it seemed somewhat convoluted. Many scenes seemed to come about rather randomly, though one might not get that impression if he were able to pay better attention.

The voice work seemed fine, though it was tough to hear Vince Gallo's voice coming out such a generic, bland, inanimate character. Hearing the voice, I kept hoping for some Galloesque antics, either verbal or physical. But they never came.

I suppose this movie could be enjoyable for some, but the animation style, stasis, blandness, and sometimes poor syncing were too unpleasant for me and made it impossible for me to appreciate anything else the movie may have had to offer, or to really even follow what was going on.

Movie is incredibly static. Scenes in which nearly nothing (or less) happens take minutes. Single shots of characters sitting in a tub talking or riding in a car talking or sitting in a diner talking drag severely, even when they aren't very long. The actors are bland and unemotive. The score is quite sparse, if sometimes solid. The effects are generally uninteresting. There is really nothing to recommend besides the main girl's upper lip which looks like it could support a decent mustache.

Again, it's basically a very long string of inconsequential, undynamic dialogue scenes in different, consistently bland settings with a few mediocre horror scenes interspersed. As it progresses it also manages to incorporate competent montages that move the plot forward as well as some gratuitous overhead and insert shots.

Has to be disappointing if you were expecting anything.