Review – Trial and Error

Light comedy of errors wherein a lawyer and an actor who have traded places learn the value of telling the truth. A couple of mildly amusing points, but for the most part just preachy and tedious. Mildly amusing

Review – Kiss the Girls

One could write a book on the sexual politics in this film. I have neither the space nor the inclination to write a book, so I’ll just say that this is another one of those profiler cop versus psycho killer pictures a la The Silence of the Lambs, not strictly speaking a rip-off but still very much the mincemeat pie of MO’s from various real serial killers. Generally wavers between mildly amusing and extremely offensive. And an aside, though it seems almost beside the point in a film so full of misogynist mayhem: gratuitous fish violence. See if desperate

Review – Mercury Rising

Bruce Willis is a virus. He gets into films that might otherwise have had at least a chance at life, and he infects and destroys them. Without Willis, this would have been a trite little piece about an autistic kid who can decipher indecipherable codes, the sinister NSA poo-bah who orders the kid “hit,” and the tough, street-wise FBI agent who plays by his own rules as he tries to keep the kid alive. Cast Willis as the FBI guy, and suddenly the autistic kid who does little besides decode and scream a lot is only the second most irritating part of the movie. Wish I’d skipped it

Review – Top Gun

Here’s a fun game: try and count all the veiled homosexual allusions in this film while you’re watching it. While I didn’t actually keep count, I imagine that the final tally would probably exceed the number of times the word “bondage” appears in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (and that’s saying something). Guys, you’re among friends and supporters. It’s okay to go ahead and come out of the closet. Though properly considered a Tom Cruise vehicle, the diminutive (watch his scenes with Kelly McGillis and try to figure out what he’s standing on to make him look taller than she is) hunk is backed up by such intense young actors as Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, and an odd bit part played by uber-liberal Tim Robbins. Back in the heady days of the Reagan era this was quite an ad for the Navy, though with a little more experience under our belts we can now look back on most of director Tony Scott’s flag-waving, MTV-edited spectacle as more than a little silly. Mildly amusing

Review – Men in Black

This is a fairly clever send-up of the bane of UFO cultists everywhere. The first time I saw it I didn’t know all that much about the whole MIB mythos, but before re-viewing it I read a book on the topic and thus was able to appreciate some of the details in their proper context. Even if you’re not in on the in-jokes, there’s still plenty of mass-market fun to be had here. Worth seeing

Review – The Lost World

Normally I don’t count movies that I saw on TV, but I’ve seen this one a couple of times already (including once in the theater), and the network premiere was sort of a special deal because it included some footage that wasn’t in the theatrical or video releases. Ultimately the extra scenes didn’t amount to much beyond a little extra character development for the sleazy nephew and the way-too-sympathetic big game hunter. I guess this one started out on the wrong foot when the only character from the first one that has more than a quick role in the sequel is the Jeff Goldblum character, whom I couldn’t stand in either film. Meandering and occasionally preachy plot. Impressive, expensive effects. Better on the big screen. Mildly amusing

Review – Jurassic Park

Despite a lack of affection on my part for both Steven Spielberg and Michael Crichton, I really like this film. Some of the criticisms leveled against it when it first came out are legit, particularly the caveat that despite all the dinosaurs and other ostensibly kid-oriented elements, it’s probably too violent for the younger set. Further, some of the science is a bit off (especially the chaos crap spouted by the Jeff Goldblum character, though he almost redeems himself with the line about the Pirates of the Caribbean). Still, if you can set aside all the pseudo-scientific sanctimony and just sit back and enjoy the show, the ride’s worth the price of admission. Worth seeing

Review – Boogie Nights

This saga of a small corner of the porn industry in the late 70s and early 80s turned out to be more grim than the ads made it appear. Still, as a whole this was a really good movie, with impressive acting (surprisingly impressive from a couple of cast members, specifically Burt Reynolds and “Marky” Mark Wahlberg). The high points, however, were probably the music and the art direction, which combine to travel beyond mere kitsch to really re-create the time. Worth seeing

Review – JFK

Oliver Stone must have done something right with this one, since apparently it bugs the crap out of conservative media critics (though why they’d care about Lyndon Johnson’s tarnished reputation is beyond me). On the other hand, exactly what it is that Stone does right is a bit more elusive. The preachiness would be annoying if it wasn’t so obviously ridiculous, sort of like Pat Robertson taking credit for using the power of prayer to change the course of a hurricane. Overall the film is a pleasant experience provided one is in the mind-set to just let the imagery and paranoia flow by without trying to glean logic or meaning from it. The DVD version features some of the most entertaining director’s commentary I’ve ever seen. Stone mixes a handful of interesting technical tidbits (including a fair amount of candor about which scenes feature “artistic license”) with some absolutely captivating paranoid rants that go well beyond even the high levels achieved by the movie itself. David Ferrie as a latter-day Davy Crockett? Yeah, inasmuch as they both went around with mangy animal fur on their heads. Mildly amusing

Review – Jackie Brown

Wow, I haven’t seen this many long tracking shots since film school. Jean-Luc Goddard would be proud of the lethargic pace of this failed atmosphere piece, enfant terrible Quentin Tarantino’s attempt to make an old Elmore Leonard novel into a 30-minute caper movie stretched out over two and a half hours. What a waste of good acting talent, too. The normally excellent Samuel L. Jackson is the delivery vehicle for most of the film’s 30-some appearances of the N-word, and by the time he lets his hair down toward the end he starts to look like the Crypt Keeper. See if desperate

Review – Tomorrow Never Dies

James Bond versus the evil news media, here represented by Jonathan Pryce as a sort of combination Rupert Murdoch, Ted Turner, and just a little Bill Gates stirred in to make him extra hateful. I suppose I would have completely ignored this one if I hadn’t gotten hooked on Bond movies when I was a kid. I’ve been watching these things since I was so young that I couldn’t understand why a guy as cool as Bond would spend so much time playing with girls (who, after all, were commonly known to be a major source of cooties) when he could be out killing bad guys. But in all fairness, this one is a bit better than the last Pierce Brosnan Bond effort; the actor seems a little more comfortable with the role, though he’s still a far cry from Sean Connery. Speaking of whom, did anyone else notice that the Brosnan Bond in this one is mystified by a Chinese computer keyboard, while if memory serves the Connery Bond (in You Only Live Twice) is supposed to have possessed a degree in “Oriental languages”? Nobody else noticed that, huh? Go figure. Mildly amusing

Review – Ronin

Akira Kurosawa and Frank Miller fans alike are likely to be disappointed by this mediocre pot-boiler of fakey international intrigue. And who would have thought that after all these years John Frankenheimer’s secret ambition was to be William Friedken? If you don’t like your car chases and shoot-em-ups marred by interfering details like plot, character, script and the like, check it out. Mildly amusing

Review – The Rock

Here’s another five minute movie stretched out over two hours by a lot of macho posturing and expensive action scenes. The plot’s nothing special: a chemical weapons expert (Nicolas Cage) teams up with a former-British-commando-and-ex-inmate-at-Alcatraz (Sean Connery) to go after rogue Marines who have taken over the Rock and are threatening to launch chemical munitions into San Francisco. I guess the intrigue is clever enough and the acting’s not too bad, but the big budget effects are what really keeps this going for as long as it goes. Mildly amusing

Review – The Replacement Killers

About the most John Woo you can get without hiring John Woo. Despite the fortune cookie-cutter plot, the film keeps moving pretty well. The action scenes are good, and the acting isn’t too bad either (an unusual bonus for the genre). Worth seeing