Reviews

Average court drama that is not truly original. The bad guys wear black hats and the good guys wear white and the predicable plot goes to its predicable end. The only thing going for it is the acting, and that a major sin in a way because the acting deserves to be in a better movie. Gene Hackman and Rachel Weisz are with out a doubt the best things about this movie because they are able to make lemonade out of lemons with their great performances, no thanks to the script. John Cusack and Dustin Hoffman also give good performances but don't fair as well because of the limits of their characters. I have not read the novel which this film is based on, but I hope its better than this.

A mediocre script that is saved by the performances of its actors. Ed Burns does pretty good job as the lead in this film and Dustin Hoffman whose brief appearance here shows how a true legend works. Rachel Weisz makes this film a lot of fun with her performance as a sexy female con, and Andy Garcia continues to make himself into one of the great character actors of our generation. The big problem this movie has is its script, and the plot holes and continuity problems that come with it. You can tell that the story really was not though out well, and you can see the rewrites in some of the scenes in the film. Maybe if the script were more though out, we would have had a better movie than we have here right now.

The second in the Harry Potter series not only does justice to the source material but managers to better than the first movie in terms of style, acting and substance. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson once again do justice to their characters and manage to bring more to the table this time around in a sense of character study. The late Richard Harris is fantastic as always as Dumbledore, and it's another great performance in his fine career. This fine actor will be missed, and the series will not be the same with out him.

Chris Columbus does justice once again to JK Rowling's original novel, and bring out all the charm, and heart that made it such a beloved classic.

Bring on the next one.

Fine comic caper that has a lot of heart, but over stays it's welcome with it's own sentimentality. Leonardo Dicaprio is fine as Frank W Abanale Jr, the young man who manages to become every thing from a lawyer to a pilot in his quest of fun, and Tom Hanks is fine as well as The F.B.I agent dedicated in catching him. The movie easily captures the frizzy fun of movies of a forgotten by gone era, and gives a hype vibe to all the scenes it has. The only problem with it however is the fact that it takes way too long to come to any real conclusion. The story could have been much better if it thirty minutes were taken out of the film, but it's fine for what it is.

The first in the Harry Potter series of movies does the book series justice by not only staying true to the book core but by capturing the book's magic and heart. Daniel Radcliffe is an excellent choice for the role of Harry. He captures the pale innocents of his character with ease. Rupert Grint and Emma Watson are just as good as Ron and Hermione, Harry's best friends. They capture their characters essence with a natural ease. Richard Harris is perfect as Dumbledore; He brings a strong center of claim to his character and the movie as well.

Chris Columbus does the fans proud by staying true to the roots of the story by not watering down the drama and tension, keeping up with the sprit of JK. Rowling Novels.

The series is in good hands.

I heard reviews raging from bad to horrific concerning this film, and I still wanted to see it regardless of the extreme bad word of mouth. The word of mouth had kept me away from it for so long because I'm such a fan of the first two films, and I didn't want to ruin the experience of those films by watching this movie but I gave in out of sheer weakness. Now I know why the movie received all the bad feedback.

The movie is a complete mess from start to finish. The plot absolutely makes no sense what so ever, even going as far as to contradict itself in certain points of the film. The acting is tepid at best, with Sam Neil giving the best performance out of the group, which is not a big feat considering the fact that he's sleep walking through out the entire movie. Jeff Goldblum is not in this film, and it's painfully obvious because he at least brought an intelligent sense of reality and danger to the first two movies, and top of that he was interesting character to follow. The cast of characters in this film are so unbearable to watch that you as the viewer will want to be transported into the movie in order to kill each of them in a slasher movie kind of way. Interesting enough, The movie itself feels more like a slasher film that a Jurassic Park Flick because the dinosaurs look and act like murderous monsters that actual animals.

Speaking of Dinosaurs mind you, the big creatures are more like live action puppets than the real dinosaurs we saw in the first two movies. I don't know what happen but these dinosaurs can't be from Stan Winston, because he of all people should know how to make a monster but hey, he like every one involve with this cinematic piece of trash probably took the easy way out thinking that people were stupid enough not to notice. In reality, who were they kidding? Themselves actually, because the movie itself is now being touted as one of the worse films ever made, and it deserves that reputation.

It's a give that a sequel will never live up to the original, but The Lost World at the very least a worthy effort to The original. This film does not even deserve to ride on those movie's reputations which it shamefully does.