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Reviews
Kissing Jessica Stein (2001)
Does gender matter when it comes to romantic love?
Kissing Jessica Stein is an enjoyable movie that has a great deal
of fun playing with gender roles and the notion of romantic love.
Jessica Stein (played by Jennifer Westfeldt, who shares writing
credits with her co-star) is a young, single, woman in New York, a
victim of the dating scene. None of her potential suitors (blind
dates, office mates, friends of friends, children of friends of
parents -- the -- the single person's nightmare) are up to her
standards, or ours as viewers. Jessica despairs of finding the
right person. Until she reads an ad in the personals section to
which she cannot resist responding. Jessica is a writer, and loves
words for their own sake. The language of the ad strikes a chord in
her heart. However, she realizes the ad is in the Women Seeking
Women section. After much anguish, and several more failures on
the singles scene, she calls and sets up a date with Helen
Cooper (Heather Juergenson).
What follows is an always funny, often poignant, exploration of
what love is all about. Does gender matter? How do you come out
of a close you've never been in? And most of all, is happiness the
most important thing?
Riding in Cars with Boys (2001)
It gets off to a good start, but doesn't keep up the momentum
I'm usually a sucker for Drew Barrymore movies, but I did not enjoy
this one as much as I had hoped. The first half of the movie I
thought was quite good, but it lost steam in the second and never
recovered. Barrymore plays a bright, talented, and 'going places'
high school girl, Beverly D'Onofrio, who gets a bit too involved with
a boy and ends up pregnant. The pregnancy changes the direction
of her life in numerous ways -- from damaging her relationship
with her father, to a marriage to someone she knows deep down
is not right for her in the long term, to denying her a chance to go to
college. The movie is told as a series of flashbacks showing how
her life had gone out of control. While the entire movie is generally
well acted, the flashback sequences were much more powerful
and cohesive than the present-day ones. Steve Zahn plays her
husband, a ne'er-do-well who dabbles with various addictions,
with humanity. Barrymore is solid as the younger Beverly, but
doesn't seem to have a strong sense of who the older Beverly
should be.
Monsters, Inc. (2001)
Great writing and phenomenal animation -- a Pixar triumph!
Fantastic. Wonderful. Cute. Humorous. Monsters, Inc. is everything
I've come to expect from a Pixar movie: a clever story told with the
most stunning digital animation there is. Pixar has never before
allowed its animation skill to carry the film, and this movie is no
exception. The monsters children see in their closets and under
their beds are real, but they are more scared of the children than
the children are of them. You see, it turns out children are highly
toxic to the monsters of Monstropolis. These gentle critters -- the
product of animator's wild imaginations -- are harvesting energy
from human children's screams. The plot turns around the sudden
appearance of Boo, a small human child, who accidentally finds
her way through the closet into Monstropolis. As the story unfolds,
the kids and the monsters learn more about irrational fear and
trust -- certainly a lesson well suited for an America after
September 11.
As is Pixar's tradition, they created a wonderful animated short that
runs before Monsters, Inc. Birds of a Feather had me in tears of
laughter about 60 seconds. This alone was well worth the $8.50
admission price.
Mission to Mars (2000)
A good cast, numerous allusions to other great sci-fi flicks, and a hole-filled plot combine to produce a mediocre film.
Earth's first mission to Mars is all but wiped out in a hard-to-explain disaster (an accident that is even harder to rationalize once you know the whole story). A hastily-planned rescue mission leaves Earth orbit, has its own problems, finds the lone survivor of the first mission, and learns Mars' great secret. Yawn. Some good suspenseful moments, some wildly improbable scenes, and beautiful Marscapes can't save it.
Titus (1999)
A different interpretation of the Bard
The stunning imagery in this version of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus initially gave me a similar sensation that I get every time I see or read the Bard. Shakespeare's language always takes me a scene or two to grasp, until suddenly the rhythm clicks and I understand it clearly. Julie Taymor's staging of the movie struck me exactly the same way: the first scenes were so different from that to which I'm accustomed that it took time to adjust. Then the style of the movie stopped distracting from the story, and started becoming it, just as the language style, for me, suddenly becomes a part of the play. And once it did, I was left with a good play, well performed. Not one of Shakespeare's greats, I have to say, and not one that I would hurry to revisit. It is a violent, cruel, and spiteful story, and the film leaves little to the imagination. Jessica Lange turns in a wonderful performance as the Goth queen Tamora. Alan Cumming interpretation of Saturnius borrows heavily from his work in Cabaret -- I half expected the Roman emperor to burst into song. And Laura Fraser's Lavinia is heartbreaking in her descent into insanity.
Hamlet (2000)
The most ironic "to be or not to be" ever filmed.
here are 70-some (according to the IMDB) filmed versions of Hamlet. While this might not stray as far from the traditional as some, it brings a new setting to this Shakespearean classic. Hamlet (Ethan Hawke) is the son of the CEO of Denmark Corporation, a multinational company in present-day Manhattan. His mother Gertude (Diane Venora) has married his murdered father's brother, Claudius (Kyle MacLachlan). He lives in the Elsinore, a trendy apartment building, and delivers the "To be or not to be" soliloquy in Blockbuster Video -- pondering his future course as he wanders up and down aisle after aisle of action movies. While many of the non-traditional stagings of Shakespeare are clumsy attempts to breathe new life into a play that is doing quite well on its own without help, this staging is an exception. The members of the cast deliver their lines not as if they were reciting them, but as if they were speaking them from the heart, of their own accord. It's a pleasure to watch, despite the occasionally jarring setting of mid-town Manhattan. A particular highlight of the movie is Bill Murray's Polonius, a toadying middle manager who slips his son, Laertes (Liev Schreiber), a wad of cash as he heads off to Wittenberg University, even as he destroys his daughter Opelia's life by forbidding her romance with Hamlet. Polonius, or better or worse, is far more sympathetic in this rendering of the story than I have thought before.
What Lies Beneath (2000)
A good old-fashioned summertime suspense thriller.
Riding on the coat tails of such recent thrillers as "The Sixth Sense," "What Lies Beneath is a good old-fashioned thriller with a supernatural twist. Claire Spencer's (Michelle Pfeiffer) life begins to fall apart when her daughter goes to college. She sees the ghost of a young woman in her house, and odd things begin to happen around her. Doors open and shut, computers and stereos switch on and off, and mysterious neighbors come and go. Her husband Norman (Harrison Ford) doesn't believe what she is seeing is really happening. As we find out more about who this young woman was, and why she is appearing in Claire and Norman's house, the pranks become less amusing and the tension mounts. Director Robert Zemeckis builds the suspense masterfully, creating an increasingly tense mood, punctuated frequently by "Boo!" surprises. As formulaic and predictable as these tension-release episodes are, they work. Though the ending is predictable, it's still a good ride. And it's a pleasure to see Harrison Ford in a role different from his usual summertime typecasting.
Mission: Impossible II (2000)
Mission Unlikely but not Impossible
While the plot of this movie is pure fiction -- a story that relies on technologies and coincidences that boggle the mind -- there actually is a self-consistency at work. Once you buy into the basic story line (which, for your sanity, I advise doing early on), the rest of the movie flows nicely, with none of the jarring "now what was *that* all about" moments of the original movie. The story centers on a doomsday virus which Ambrose has stolen and threatens to let loose on the world. Hunt and the MI team must retrieve it; to do so, he enlists the help of master thief Nyah Nordolf-Hall (Thandie Newton) who was formerly involved with Ambrose. Of course, Ethan and Nyah fall in love, making an oddly believable love triangle when she returns to her former lover and current nemesis. The inevitable choreographed clashes between Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt and Dougray Scott's Sean Ambrose are poetry on film. John Woo's movies always intrigue me; his films are perhaps the most easily recognizable of any of today's directors.
Gladiator (2000)
A hero, denied his rightful reward, is cast out of society, and makes his way back to his rightful place.
The Roman Empire is back, in all its glory and filth. The plot is simple and mythic: A hero is denied his rightful reward, is cast out of society, and makes his way back to his rightful place. Russell Crowe's Maximum oozes honor and dignity, even when all he knows is destroyed around him. Joaquin Phoenix's Commodus is his antithesis -- an insecure, scared, and malevolent ruler. You know good will triumph in the end (it always does in such blockbuster films), but the hows and wherefores are worth watching nonetheless. Ridley Scott has created a visual masterpiece in his recreation of ancient Rome (the cityscapes reminded me, oddly, of Naboo in the Phantom Menace; surely my imagination was running overtime?). Depicting the Roman circus in all its gore (although most of the truly awful stuff is just off camera, leaving too much to the imagination), this movie deserves its R rating. But I enjoyed it, overall.
Joan of Arc (1999)
The Messenger is a beautiful film to look at, but beauty, as they say, is only skin deep.
Luc Besson (director) creates fantastic images of early 14th century France -- so bright and clear, they're almost surreal. The movie traces Joan of Arc's (Milla Jovovich) life from childhood mysticism through her almost cult status as a populist leader of the French armies against the English, through her imprisonment, trial, and death at the stake. While I'm admittedly not that familiar with the historical Joan (I have a few memories of learning about her in French class many years ago), the movie to me plays heavily on the voices she hears, and the effect they have on her. Certainly, the voices she sees drive her and France to great things. Yet, the movie loses steam about halfway through, and drags on to its inevitable end. I found myself wishing they'd just get on with it.
Erin Brockovich (2000)
I enjoyed it, but didn't love it.
Julia Roberts' odd turn in a serious (rather than a romantic or comedic) role usually turns out pretty well. Her character is mostly believable in this drama about a down-and-out woman who bullies her way into a job with a small personal-injury law firm and then tackles a major case against Pacific Gas & Electric. PG&E have been polluting a small town in the California desert for years, and it's time to pay. More enjoyable even than Roberts' performance is that of Albert Finney as the head of the law firm. If you haven't seen it yet on the big screen, wait for video -- you won't be missing much.
The Runner (1999)
A good plot and well-developed characters, but it ends up being too simplistic.
It is never pleasant to watch someone dig himself deeper and deeper into a hole, despite others' attempts to save him. Or because of others' attempts to make the hole deeper. Edward (Ron Eldard) is a compulsive gambler, born and raised in Las Vegas, who finds a solution to his money woes: run numbers for Deep Throat, a big-time gambler and thug (John Goodman). For a while, it looks like he's doing well -- Edward falls in love with Karina (Courtney Cox Arquette), and makes a good sum of money for Deep Throat. He cannot resist the temptations of gambling, however, and slowly, yet inevitably, slips time and again. Goodman is fun to watch -- no Mr. Nice Guy here. Arquette also acts well, showing a depth not seen in Friends or the Scream movies. Still, the movie lacks something -- there are a few subplots going on in the background that are never explained, and the ending, after a good build-up, ends up being too simplistic for my liking.
U-571 (2000)
The plot is formulaic, but it's a good formula.
If nothing else, this movie convinced me that I will never serve in a submarine should I ever find myself in the Navy. A young, untested, submarine crew is handed its first mission: go out and capture a German submarine in order to obtain a working Enigma code machine. So off they set in the World-War-I-era submarine with a single Germany-speaking crewman on board (surely the Navy wasn't that hard up for German speakers in 1942...). They reach the German sub, and start the voyage home. Although this is not as claustrophobia-inducing as Das Boot, it was enough to make glad to be in a large theater -- when I could remember that's where I was. U-571 will not be remembered as a great war movie in the vein of Patton or Saving Private Ryan, but it is content a good story well told. The plot is formulaic -- it's not too hard to guess which of the cast will survive through to the end, and which will not -- but it's a good formula. Worth seeing on the big screen if you're going to see it.
Lost in Space (1998)
Why I watched this until the end, I'll never know.
Three words to describe this movie (with apologies to Dr. Seuss): stink, stank, stunk. A complete absence of intelligible plot, shoddy and/or wooden acting, a silly premise, and the most hopelessly convoluted time-travel paradox I've had the displeasure of seeing, all combine to make this one stinker of a movie. Where's Mystery Science Theater 3000 when you need them?
High Fidelity (2000)
A well-thought-out movie about being single and 30-something
Ever since The Sure Thing, I've been a John Cusack fan. High Fidelity tells the tale of a 30-something man who hasn't found his direction in life, someone who has drifted from relationship to relationship while ignoring the things and people that made him the happiest. His self revelation is not overly surprising, but was to me tremendously satisfying. The conflicting urges we all feel to see what is around the next bend, while simultaneously hang back and not commiting to the present and its potentials, are a large part of what makes us human. This portrayal of his struggle to figure out where his failures have been (or, more precisely, why he has viewed certain events as failures), is enlightening and well-acted. An excellent film.
Romeo Must Die (2000)
Good kung-fu, so-so plot.
Jet Li's English is improving, and his kung-fu moves are truly impressive. Out to revenge his brother's murder, Jet Li is caught in the middle of a gang war between Chinese and black mafias in San Francisco. With fight scenes clearly inspired by Face Off and The Matrix, and with a poor substition of Vancouver for the San Francisco setting (San Francisco does not extend all the way around its bay, and it's a lot further from SF to Oakland across the water than half a mile.) Amusing mind candy.
SLC Punk! (1998)
Alienated youth in search of their true calling. Who cares?
SLC Punk reminded me of somewhat of Sid & Nancy, and somewhat of The Commitments. But not in a good way. SLC Punk was simply not all that interesting, despite the premise of young punks in Reagan-era Salt Lake City. Their individual voyages of self-discovery (with one exception) ended where you'd expect, and the trip wasn't that interesting.