Reviews

As with other TC Christensen films, it tells and portrays Mormons as Mormons want to see themselves. His earlier film, 17 Miracles, has the same problem that everyone has Tide-clean clothes, perfectly shaved and groomed Schick faces, and nobody sweats, houses are perfectly painted like an early Disney movie. The acting is really community theater level.

This is one of the times where the trailer for the movie promises way more than the actual movie itself provides. While the characterizations in "Running With Scissors" are quite interesting and the depictions of a uber-dysfunctional family are admirable, the movie itself fails to hold itself together. Actress Annette Benning, actors Brian Cox, Ralph Fiennes, and Alec Baldwin provide good performances, the movie's pacing and storytelling quality seems to be dysfunctional by itself. The integration of 70's rock songs to nail down the film's main points disrupts the flow of the story to the point that one starts to reminisce about the song being played and the message of the song while you have to play a game of catch up as the story starts up again. Overall, the story of Augusten Barrows could be quite engaging but just like its characters, is schizophrenic. In order to gain perspective on the writer's experiences SOMEONE needs to be sane.

Most people know talented actor and comedian Andrew Bowen from his short time on FOX-TV's sketch TV show, "Mad TV." Unfortunately they more than likely have not learned about him as the producer/director and head writer of a self-produced film from 2000 called "The Haven." "The Haven" is a loving and poignant story of four friends and the the trials and tribulations of what their "circle of life" has meted them from their chance meeting in grade school, the carefree days through high school and college, and that awkward time between late adolescence and the beginning of "the rest of their lives." The story also honestly depicts the not-so-fun underbelly of the realities of life and relationships when maturing personalities clash. While "The Haven" has many moments most audience members can relate to, the script has its moments of implausibility from a storytelling standpoint, and moments of way-over-the-top overracting especially as it relates to the four boys' relationships and conflicts to their outside world (parents, girlfriends, etc.). These moments unfortunately distract from the intent of the main storyline and are compounded by what some may view as totally unmotivated gratuitous violence and possibly mar what could have been a "great" movie into a "good" movie. Despite this, "The Haven" is an a notable artistic achievement from Andrew Bowen and one can only hope he will be able to capitalize on this milestone of a project in his future endeavors on his obvious talents as an actor "and" producer/director/writer.

It is quirky. It is bizarre. But this telling of five lives crashing into another from different unrelated yet related directions is fantastic. While 11:14 is clearly low budget, the richness of the movie is its story of five characters converging into each other in a telling of a plot of lies and how often lies can have unexpected results is not low budget. All of the characters are bizarre and quirky, but ring true in their own ways. The convenience store scene featuring Hilary Swank and Shawn Hatosy is particularly notable and where director Greg Marcks shows a real eye for pacing and editing. Other notable performances are given by Clark Gregg as Officer Hannagan, noted TV and theatrical screen actors Barbara Hershey and Patrick Swayze.

Albeit this flick from Harrison Ford clearly rests on Harrison Ford's laurels from his work in Indiana Jones and Star Wars, Air Force One is exactly what a good entertaining movie is supposed to be. Although it is pretty clear from the beginning that the Americans will prevail and the Russians were going to have to eat crow, the cat-and-mouse aspect of the movie is what keeps the story moving. Glen Close as the Vice President was and Gary Oldham as the villain numero uno were good casting choices. There was a certain "feel good" aspect with the main quisling aboard Air Force One getting his just dessert in the end. The story and the gadgetry and CGI tricks do stretch the bounds of credulity, but it still is very enjoyable and will keep the viewer on the edge of his seat for the entire length of the movie. I'm happy that the flick ended as it did avoiding scenes of backslapping, etc.

"Brokeback Mountain" is a beautiful yet bittersweet study of relationships and how social mores often put a straitjacket on two hearts while still living in the world under wraps. Heath Ledger performance as "Ennis Del Mar" and Jake Gyllenhall's performance as fellow cowboy "Jack Twist" and Michelle Williams as Ennis' wife rely on a complicated interwoven subtexts as Ennis and Jack grow and bond together. "Brokeback Mountain" is not about what some may characterize as "two gay men" who happen to be rough and tough cowboys, but rather, two fragile souls which bound together in a union in the midst of an unforgiving and misunderstanding world. Ang Lee's direction and Gustavo Santaolalla's musical score is sensitive yet never gets in the way of the story. "Brokeback Mountain" has the ingredients to covet all of the awards to win big in the Golden Globes and the Oscars -- especially the hopelessly wrought Gordian Knot which drives Heath Ledger's character.

A new spin of your typical evil scientist movie who want to take over the world type of story which it introduces the concept of an evil pharmaceutical company who has a cure for AIDS but makes more money not releasing the cure so people are not cured. An incredibly and irresponsibly bad and predictable sophomoric script in this movie starring Dean Cain and Brain Bosworth actually has you wanting to see more just to see how bad and predictable it can get. Dean Cain is severely beaten up by four hooligans, yet his wife and child in tow approach him after the fight inquiring, "Are you OK?" From the white haired United States Senator, the black leather wearing hooligans, the nerdy scientist the characters throughout the movie are very TV movie like are stereotypical and uncompelling. The plot introduces many twists and turns which in the end are unresolved. The spectacular panoramic views of a craggy Halifax, Nova Scotia coast momentarily divert your attention from the incredulity of the plot.