heethcliff Reviews

The Tick (2001–2002)

heart-broken

[27 May 2005]

how on earth could they cancel one of the funniest things on TV ever? Brutal.

Brutal.

Imaginative, creative, brilliant, and awesomely funny, this series, short as it is, is one of the great things I've seen on TV in my short existence on planet earth.

Beyond funny most of the time, and sublime in its other moments, it is a great tragedy that this was axed.

I feel ashamed as a fellow Aussie (Fox, owned by Rupert Murdoch, axed it) that this was killed off.

ouch. it hurts Rupert. please allow it another season or two.

come-on dude, you know people, and what they want.

Give us some more.

maybe the end of the season, and then preferably a season or two after...

come-on Mr. Murdoch, do it for the fans...

I'm sure there's cash in it...

I promise to buy the DVD....

Meatballs and Macaroni (1988)

Not as good as the first three

[3/10 · 13 May 2002]

Well, given the title, I was expecting more screwball comedy from the original Meatballs team, this time with more of an emphasis on Italian food, as opposed to summer camp sex. What I got was a turgid tale of brotherly love and loss, and what's more, it was subtitled! Where was the jock humiliation, and nerd sexuality? Where was the customary food-fight, and grubby porn viewings? Wind howling over the wastes of Greenland is just no substitute for a good fart joke.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

Confused by what I feel inside...

[13 May 2002]

Dear IMDb,

I saw this film on a VCD that a friend of mine had bought. It was a

handy-cam job, and cost her about $3US. Paying nothing for the

privilege of seeing this film in first-release in the comfort of my own

Taiwanese forth-story apartment, I immediately wanted my money

back. I guess paying nothing gives me no rights to claim, but still, I

feel bitter. What can I do to overcome my feelings of violation?

How can I restore my faith in Hollywood?

Confused and Bitter,

Taiwan

12 Monkeys (1995)

Disappointing

[13 May 2002]

The title promises so much, yet the film delivers so little. I was

expecting, given the title, something along the lines of a Lancelot

Link, Secret Chimp, re-telling of the Last Supper, or a related

Jesus story. But instead the film holds off on real monkeys until

the very end, and even then, it's a case of too little, too late.

Perhaps if the budget had been larger, we would have more

footage of monkeys, instead of Gilliam's cheap substitute -

stylised "graffiti"-art versions of man's closest and most humorous

relative. If you are interested in primates, then this is a film to

avoid at all costs.

Disturbed (1990)

extraordinary film, Scorsese take note!

[10/10 · 12 May 2002]

I first saw this film a few years ago when I was viewing Dom d Louise's early works, and became interested in other actors who had once had their names written in the stars, but were now little more than B-vehicle and up-staged stars of bad sit-coms.

Malcolm, of course, was one of the first to make the leap from a rather desperate film career to mediocre sit-com, and has since been followed by such lights as: Cybil Shepherd (Cybil), Joan Cusak (Joan), Bette Midler (Bette), and Courtney Cox (Friends).

I hadn't realised this was his first film sporting the future-villain hair-style, but this only adds to the value of my ex-rental copy of the film.

Much has been said of the camera work in this film, as a sort of a chart of a man's descent into madness, but few people mention the shot that, I feel, is the key to the entire film. When one of the patients exposes himself to a nurse, we get a - filmically - rare penis POV. I have never seen such a thing attempted in a movie, and if you add this to the tremendous whirling tracking-shots, you end up with a film that I think proves beyond doubt that Scorsese owes more to Winkler than he dares reveal.

Brilliant, and standing up to multiple viewings, I have seen it several times, and truly covet my copy of this obscure American classic.

BTW, watch out for the genuinely "disturbing" scene, after the closing credits, where Malcolm "interferes" with the camera, raising all sorts of philosophical questions on the nature of madness, the truth of film, and Crossing The Line (on several levels). Once again, Brilliant!

Short Circuit (1986)

Sick, sick story of robot-lust. Avoid this film unless you seek moral corruption.

[12 May 2002]

I believe that Howard the Duck, and recently AI and Bicentennial Man are the only other (Hollywood) films to dare cover such taboo-ridden territory, dealing as it does with the highly un-natural relationship between a woman and robot. Why else would the producers choose such a bland leading man so obviously past his Boys-From-Brazil bankable days? Just as The Riddler is there to distract us from the sordid male-only fantasy-club world of Bruce and Robin, so too Guttenburg is there to distract us from the truth that lies in the dark, dark heart of this offensive film.

This is not a love story, this is the sick, sick tale of a robot's lust for a human women. Why can't they go for their own kind? I would never fall in love with a robot, unless it was truly beautiful, and soft.

If this is the way robot's are going to behave, then perhaps we should dismantle them and send them back to where they came from before it is too late. We must, at the very least, take steps preventing them from infiltrating our society, and causing the mayhem they are designed for. I suggest "re-programming" camps or something similar.

Avoid this film unless you seek moral corruption.