Review – Event Horizon

Here we have an odd little mix of Alien-style sci fi and Barker-esque horror all rolled into one. The basic plot is that humanity’s first faster-than-light ship has returned not from deep space as expected but rather from a journey to the hell dimension. After awhile the whole show starts to reek of Hellraiser, especially toward the end when Sam Neil starts waltzing around with his head bedecked in linear lacerations (sans nails, at least). But despite this generally derivative character, the film manages a few genuine chills. And for a picture wedged so completely in this particular genre, the truly amazing part is that some of the best moments are genuinely understated or at least only briefly glimpsed rather than lavishly paraded across the screen until they wear thin. Mildly amusing

Review – The Glass Menagerie

Paul Newman takes the director’s chair for this production of Tennessee Williams’ play. Though the actors (particularly Joanne Woodward, the director’s wife) take a few liberties with the dialogue, the film remains reasonably true to the playwright’s sentimental vision of three fragile characters and a “gentleman caller” in pre-war St. Louis. Worth seeing

Review – Entrapment

Yet another entry in the realm of the high-tech thriller. This time around it’s Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones as a pair of thieves in perpetual search of the bigger score. Of course we also get a seemingly endless parade of double-cross and triple-cross, until the plot reaches the point where it’s hard to even care who’s trying to one-up whom. The gadgets, plot twists and acting are almost enough to keep it going. Almost. Mildly amusing

Review – The Thin Red Line

I guess if I’d been in more of a mood for a ponderous war movie I might have been a lot more receptive to this particular offering. After all, I enjoyed Farewell to the King, which was similar to this film in more ways than just the appearance of Nick Nolte in both. As it was, I found the characters and plot insufficient to sustain nearly three hours of screen time. Most of the big-name actors appear in roles that amount to little more than cameos – I’m surprised they had the guts to plug the film with promises of appearances by John Travolta and George Clooney, both of whom were onscreen only briefly – leaving unknowns and semi-knowns to play the key parts. Though all do workmanlike jobs, the casting director put guys who looked too similar in several of the lead spots, making it hard to tell what was happening to whom, particularly in the heat of the battle scenes. Lots of little things fail as well, such as the throaty, Apocalypse Now-esque voice-overs and a lot of the special effects. Still, the film as a whole is better than many other war movies with bigger budgets, including contemporary release Saving Private Ryan. Mildly amusing

Review – Campfire Tales

As the name suggests, this is a set of three vignettes with a bracketing plot, all based on urban legends. Though the first one has a few moments (it’s a monster story blended with a couple of shots from the hook-man thing), for the most part the whole thing’s pretty strictly for the high school crowd. Mildly amusing

Review – Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers

Okay boys and girls, let’s play a fun game called “unanswered questions.” Judging by the first sequel, the unanswered question from the original would have to have been “what happened to the Boogeyman at the end of the first one?” Halloween 2 in turn left unanswered the question: “what would happen if we made a sequel that had nothing at all to do with the first two?” Next came “would audiences forgive us for #3 if we brought Michael Myers back?” But by this point in the cycle, the only unresolved curiosity has to be something like “how many more of these will audiences sit through?” The Myers niece returns, only this time she’s mute (which is not as big a blessing as one might imagine, especially inasmuch as it doesn’t last). So basically this is just a continuation of #4, with even less plot (if such a thing can be imagined) and more random screaming and slashing. See if desperate

Review – Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

I like how the title takes care to assure us that Michael Myers is indeed back for this one. Having done in his entire family either via direct butchery or simple attrition, The Shape has now been reduced to stalking his prepubescent niece. Seriously, this guy has trooped back to Haddonfield so many times that the kids in the local grade schools must have Boogeyman drills just like kids in Kansas have tornado drills and kids in Japan have Godzilla drills. Donald Pleasance and photos of Jamie Lee Curtis are about all that’s left from the original, with the saga otherwise reduced from helping to spawn the slasher genre to becoming just another pathetic example thereof. See if desperate