Review – The Talented Mr. Ripley

Before I dig into this, I should admit that I have no affection at all for plots in which a character tells a lie early on and must spend the rest of the movie engaged in ever-more-elaborate deceptions in order to avoid being found out. Stories tend to get on my very last nerve when their protagonists could easily escape peril at any point by either bailing out and vanishing into the night or simply telling the truth. So if your tastes in this regard differ from mine, you might well have a much more pleasant experience with this movie than I did. As things stand, however, I found the darn near endless parade of unhealthy obsessions, contrived stumbling blocks and false endings more than a little annoying. Further, Matt Damon and Jude Law don’t exactly float my boat, and Gwenyth Paltrow was woefully under-cast as the straight, female love interest in what proved to be a gay murder thriller. See if desperate

Review – Supernova

Will spaceship crews never learn? When you find some sort of alien object in deep space and bring it aboard your ship, it’s just going to be nothing but trouble. It doesn’t help that the deus ex machina in this one looks like something you could have found on the back shelves at Spencer Gifts back in the 1970s. The script is generally inoffensive if more than a little predictable, the acting is passable, but the camerawork is abysmal. I don’t think there was a single stationary camera shot in the entire movie, and around half the time the picture was blurred by some uneven, translucent object in the foreground. It was like trying to watch a movie through the eyes of a fidgety pre-teen on a blurry-eyed Sugar Shocker high. Not fun. See if desperate

Review – The Outlaw Josey Wales

I’m so glad they make movies like this, because it turns out I was badly bewildered about the true nature of the Civil War. It seems the people who started the war so they wouldn’t have to give up their slaves were actually the good guys. Who would have thought? Sarcasm aside, if the politics could somehow be yanked out this would be a not-half-bad personal revenge flick. It’s also a good example of the epic western era of the 1970s. It starts to get a little old after awhile, but the violence, occasional though it may be, more than justifies sitting through the slow spots at least for audience members who enjoy a good gun battle. See if desperate

Review – Superman

The world’s most powerful Boy Scout finally makes it to the big-budget silver screen in this relic from the 70s. I admit that even as a comics-reading kid I was never exactly the biggest fan Superman ever had; his invulnerability and his sanctimony were always a bit much for me. But those who like the Man of Steel should genuinely enjoy Christopher Reeve’s performance as much as I liked Gene Hackman as his arch-nemesis, Lex Luthor. If you’re in the mood for a cinematic comic book in the classic style, you could do a lot worse. But you really do kinda have to be in the mood. Mildly amusing

Review – Run Lola Run

Though this film made several critics’ top ten lists, to me it looks like Wim Wenders on speed. I guess I’m glad some German film-maker has discovered MTV-style editing techniques, and it did manage a happy ending (though it took three alternate realities to finally get there). Now if we can just break them of making these humor-impaired productions reminiscent of the French new wave from two or three decades back. See if desperate

Review – Marked for Death

With the possible exception of Under Siege, this is my favorite Stephen Seagal movie. For the most part it’s the usual, run-of-the-mill tale of an ex-DEA agent who goes out for personal vengeance after a Jamaican drug posse threatens his family. The distinguishing element here is Screwface, the head of the drug gang and thus the chief villain. He’s delightfully creepy and almost a match for the Great White Dope. The filmmakers even try to offset the racism inherent in the plot by including a Jamaican cop who explains that not all Jamaicans are criminals. Racial politics and creepy villain aside, the gun and fist battles are the same caliber as ever. Mildly amusing

Review – The Maltese Falcon

Though academics could probably find some way to argue the point, I think most folks with an opinion on the subject regard this as the ultimate example of film noir. So if you see only one hard-boiled detective movie from the 1930’s, make it this one. Humphrey Bogart does a flawless job as the bitter, tough-talking protagonist, Sam Spade. The movie features a lot of the genre’s less desirable characteristics (especially extreme sexism). But if you can get past all that, this is a wonderful movie, as well-made and entertaining as it is seminal in film history. Worth seeing

Review – Sunset Boulevard

Usually I don’t care much one way or another about cameo-studded movies about the decadence of “Hollywood Babylon.” But this classic is so full of odd little touches and intriguing plot twists that it’s possible to forgive the heavy-handed sanctimony and the sometimes-stultifying dialogue. I was especially fond of the scene toward the beginning in which our hero, fleeing from a pair of repo men, happens across aging Hollywood has-been Norma Desmond and her butler conducting a funeral for a dead chimpanzee. Though much of the movie has become a bit cliché, it’s still well worth a look. Worth seeing

Review – Ancient Evil: Scream of the Mummy

At no point in this entire movie does the antagonist make the slightest noise, let alone scream. Sadly, that’s nowhere near this picture’s greatest defect. That honor is evenly shared between the amateur acting, dreadful script, and intensely uneven pace. I’ll let horror movies get away with a lot, and leeway typically extends even further when a mummy is involved (even when it’s an Aztec mummy like this one rather than the more traditional, Egyptian variety). But even my lax standards don’t accommodate dull movies, and this one goes so long between interesting moments that even “dull” doesn’t do it justice. Just about the only novel or noteworthy element here is that the teenage guys spend more time stripped down to their underwear than do their female counterparts. So if that floats your boat, you might want to check it out. Otherwise ... Wish I’d skipped it

Review – Magnolia

How sad it is when good filmmakers take a successful film as a cue to make their next picture as self-indulgent as possible. This movie is a prime example. Many of the folks who worked on this effort also worked on Boogie Nights. But the two movies are little alike. Gone are the senses of time, place and humor that were such a big part of the previous success. In their place, well, to be honest there just isn’t much here. The characters and their stories (all loosely connected by an uninteresting lattice of coincidence) pack all the emotional depth of the “gloom, despair and agony on me” routine from Hee Haw, and the script is executed with the aplomb of the old, drugged-out Elvis stumbling through the lyrics to “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” I kept hoping that once I made it through the nerve-grating opening sequence of jump cuts set to the tune of Til Tuesday refugee Aimee Mann crooning “One Is the Loneliest Number” that things would settle down and the movie would stop sucking. No such luck. The picture just kept stinking right up to the final joke. And as if the rest of the production wasn’t enough of a plague, the last gag served as ample support of the David St. Hubbins adage about the fine line between clever and stupid. Wish I’d skipped it

Review – Rollerball

Strap yourself in and get ready for some heavy-handed allegory from the depths of the 1970s. In a dystopian future, corporations run the world, individuality is discouraged if not absolutely forbidden, and all society’s former violence is now concentrated into the cathartic experience of an bloody football/basketball/roller derby combination called Rollerball. Star athlete Jonathan E (James Caan) has become a little too popular for his own good, to the point where he’s in danger of engendering a cult of personality that might re-introduce individualism to an otherwise-happy world. In order to encourage him to drop out of public view, the powers-that-be alter the rules of the sport to make it more and more likely that Jonathan (not to mention all his teammates) will be killed. The result is a gaggle of impressive action sequences punctuated by a lot of preachy posturing. Mildly amusing

Review – Amistad

Though I’m usually not fond of Steven Spielberg’s efforts to be a serious film-maker, this one’s not too bad. Sure, it’s shamelessly manipulative, freely bending several historical truths for the sake of a more clear-cut drama. And it would be easy to dismiss it as yet another Hollywood version of slavery and other race issues portrayed as a conflict between good white people and bad white people. On the other hand, it does feature some strong African characters. And it’s particularly notable as one of the frankest and most brutally honest portrayals of the trans-Atlantic slave trade ever put on film; those who always thought Melville’s “Benito Cereno” might have benefited from a fresh perspective should enjoy this take on slave ship mutinies. Though ultimately it plays a lot like an Americanized version of The Mission with a happy ending, it’s not bad for a sentimental, feel-good version of history. Worth seeing

Review – Day of the Dead

This odd little apocalypse concludes George Romero’s Dead trilogy. Though not quite as good as Dawn of the Dead, the final entry stands up well on its own. With society now completely destroyed by the zombie plague, a few survivors try to hang on in an abandoned missile silo and storage caves. The small group is divided into factions, with scientists trying to unlock the mystery of the plague as they struggle for cooperation from an increasingly hostile military support staff. The result is one of those films that can be watched as light-hearted social allegory or just a plain, old fashioned blood bath horror movie. Worth seeing