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Braveheart: ****1/2; (review to be provided as time
permits)
Chain Reaction: *; (review to be provided as time permits)
Daylight: ***; Sylvester Stallone does what he does best:
playing the hero, this
time trying to rescue people in a collapsing tunnel.
The Devil's Own: ****; Brad Pitt plays a top IRA terrorist
who travels to New
York to make an arms deal. Harrison Ford is the New York
cop who houses him, not knowing his real reason for being in the United
States. This movie is a nice balance of drama and action, with neither
element threatening to dominate the movie. The supporting characters are
only fair, but the considerable star power of Pitt and Ford easily carries
the picture.
Face/Off: ****; John Travolta plays an FBI agent who's
son was killed
accidentally by Castor Troy (Nicholas Cage), with a bullet
meant for Travolta.
Troy, the world's most dangerous criminal, is captured,
but not before he can
plant an incredibly destructive bomb. To discover the
location of the bomb,
Travolta agrees to have Cage's face surgically implanted
onto his, to enable
him to very effectively go under-cover. When Cage awakens,
and has Travolta's
face put on his body, the fun really begins. Despite
an admittedly far-fetched
premise, this movie is exciting and enjoyable throughout,
mainly because of the
monumental acting talents of Cage and Travolta. Each
does a phenomenal job
mimicking the other, from to the cadence of their speech
to the way they walk
to the way they hold a cigarette. Believing that each
is in fact the other one
is not the problem. The only problem I had with "Face/Off"
was the ridiculously
overblown "grand finale", with the obligatory explosions
and wreckage in
its wake. But that certainly doesn't detract from the
escapism of the movie.
Fight Club - ****1/2 - Ed Norton plays an insomniac who attends a wide array of terminal illness support groups, even though he's not dying of any disease. He does this as a way of finding meaning in an otherwise empty life of crass white collar consumerism. Then, he meets up with Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), an anarchist who introduces him to the joys of being uninhibited. Norton is drawn to Tyler's wild charisma, as he's everything Norton never imagined he could be. When Norton's apartment inexplicably blows up, he moves in with Tyler and the reeducation of Norton's character (who is never named) begins. Tyler pushes Norton to relieve his frustration at his life by getting into a fist fight with him...a ritual they repeat every Saturday night. Over time, other "lost men" like Norton join in, and Fight Club is formed. The fight sequences are brutal and graphic. To be honest, it's hard to accurately characterize this movie. It's got its comic moments, but even in its comedy it's dark and dingy (it comes as no surprise that this is the director who brought us Seven). If you can make it through the violence (and there is a fair amount of it), the ending is well worth the wait.
The Ghost and the Darkness: ***; Val Kilmer and Michael
Douglas try to kill a
pair of lions that have started to stalk human prey.
Gladiator - *****
Go - ****1/2 - The film features a pulsating techno soundtrack and a cast of hot young actors who engage in an adrenaline-fueled joyride about late-teen/early-20s slackers. The script is exciting, witty, original material, and this film's got the talent to match. Ronna (Sarah Polley) is a jaded 18-year-old supermarket clerk who takes a second shift as a favor. Hard up for some extra cash, Ronna tries selling Ecstasy to a couple of TV stars (Jay Mohr, Scott Wolf) on the side, but the deal gets botched. That's when the wild ride, replete with thugs and narcs, goes into overdrive. The story is actually told more than once from several perspectives. Don't worry: you'll be enjoying yourself too much for you to think that this reminds you of Pulp Fiction. From the director of Swingers.
Jackie Chan's First Strike: ***1/2; First off, I think
it's only fair to
confirm the suspicions that this is not a movie that
most women would enjoy.
Likewise, those looking for a well-crafted piece of cinematic
storytelling had
best look elsewhere. Now, since all the men are still
reading, I can continue
with the review. For those who haven't seen Jackie Chan
in action, here's a
quick summary: he's a cross between Bruce Lee and the
Three Stooges. This is no
invincible warrior, like Lee or Schwarzenegger or Van
Damme or Segal. Instead,
Chan (who always seems to play a character named Jackie
Chan) is a special
agent who would just as soon *not* storm an enemy stronghold
while they open
fire with Uzis, no matter how noble or macho it might
be. In "First Strike",
the story starts in the frozen Ukraine. And, since it's
horribly cold out,
Jackie frequently stops to shiver or warm his hands while
he snowmobiles after
the bad guy without wearing a warm jacket. This small
touch of humanity is are
a refreshing change from seeing unstoppable killing machines
like Rambo or The
Terminator (as much as I might have enjoyed them). In
"First Strike", the
story isn't as dumbly obvious as it at first seems, with
the CIA and the former
KGB both vying for Chan's services to defeat a terrorist
organization. Yes, the
acting is mostly pretty bad. But how can you ignore the
phenomenal acrobatics
that Chan has used to make a name for himself? No one
else in the history of
movies (except possibly for Lee himself) can do what
Chan can do. And the fight
scene choreography is far more realistic than the martial
arts movie cliché of
the bad guys waiting their turn to attack one at a time.
That, alone, is worth
the price of the rental. Throw in a pretty decent nemesis
for Chan and an
engaging plot, and you've got a great time waster.
Last Man Standing (1996): **1/2 ...not to be confused
with the acclaimed
prizefighter movie from 1988. This one stars Bruce Willis
as John Smith, an
opportunistic ex-cop in a Depression era small town.
The town is ruled by two
rival gangs, the Italians and the Irish, who have an
uneasy truce. As the truce
deteriorates, Smith, as the most accomplished gunman
in town, tries to make
some extra cash by selling himself to the both sides
as a gun-for-hire. If this
sounds like a familiar story, it should: Clint Eastwood
appeared in virtually
the same story, "a Fistful of Dollars," which in turn
was a remake of the
samurai film, "Yojimbo." The producers of "Last Man Standing"
claim that
it's based on "Yojimbo," not the Eastwood film. If that's
true, then why does
Willis insist on talking with the same raspy whisper
that Eastwood uses? Not
only that, by chief villain Christopher Walken *also*
talks in a raspy whisper!
The action sequences are excellent, though. And, yes,
a lot of people get
killed.
The Long Kiss Goodnight: ****; Geena Davis is a mild mannered
school teacher
who can't remember anything earlier than a few years
ago. When a thug shows up
at her house trying to kill her, she begins to realize
that she must have had
avery, very interesting past. When she finds out that
she herself is amazingly
adept at various means of killing, the fun *really* begins.
Samuel L. Jackson
is hilarious as a small-time private investigator who
agrees to help Davis
discover her past...and ends up joining in on a wild
ride that doesn't stop
until the end of the movie. This movie has the over-the-top
violence and action
of a video arcade game. But, unlike many movies that
have the heroes doing the
impossible, this one makes all the incredible escapes
at least somewhat
believable. If you have an aversion to violence, then
you may want to avoid
this one: approximately a bazillion people get killed
during the course of the
movie, though the bloodshed itself isn't particularly
graphic.
Metro: *1/2; Isn't Eddie Murphy tired of trying to recreate
the charm of Axel
Foley? This time, Eddie plays a hostage negotiator. However,
unlike his Beverly
Hills Cop character (in the original and the first sequel,
at least), Murphy's
character is far from charming or funny, though he tries
to be. Fortunately,
there seems to be a hostage crisis every day in San Francisco,
so Eddie is very
busy. Eddie also has the task of training his replacement,
a young SWAT team
member. When a friend of Eddie's is killed by a psycho
jewel thief, Eddie makes
it a personal vendetta, even though the police department
has taken him off the
case. There are lots of explosions, gunshots, and car
chases along the way,
and...stop me if you've heard this one before. When the
jewel thief is
captured, the movie seems to be over, and you may find
yourself saying, "That
wasn't such a bad movie." Unfortunately, the bad guy
escapes, and there are
another 45 minutes to sit through. This movie isn't "48
Hours"...it only seems
that long.
Mission Impossible: ****
Mission Impossible 2 - ** - The really "impossible" thing about this movie is that it got so many good reviews! Everyone seems to just happen to have exact masks and voice synthesizers to simulate anyone they want. The action is cartoon-like, so it's hard to get a sense of danger or suspense. *yawn*
The Patriot - ****1/2
Playing God: ****; An excellent entry in the "If You Liked
Pulp Fiction, You'll
Like This" sub genre. David Duchuvney plays a drug-addicted
former surgeon who
lost his license because of operating while high. When
he sees someone gunned
down at a blind pig, the Hippocratic Oath kicks in, and
he rescues the man with
some impromptu surgery. This sets into motion an interesting
chain of events,
since the man he rescued is the underling of a big shot
black market
smuggler (played entertainingly by Timothy Hutton). Duchovney
ends up being a
personal surgeon for Hutton, who frequently finds it
inconvenient to bring his
underlings (and captured enemies) to public hospitals.
There is a lot of
gunplay in this movie, and everyone takes a bullet at
some point or other.
Reviewers that didn't care for this movie universally
complain that it pales in
comparison to "Pulp Fiction." Well, of course it does...but
what stylish,
violent action/black comedy doesn't? This is clearly
a vehicle for Duchovney.
He comes across engagingly as a sort of deadpan Harrison
Ford: a regular guy
swept up by circumstances. Hutton may seem miscast as
the bad guy until you
realize that his character is like the devil himself:
tempting you with riches,
but not seeming particularly menacing until you realize
what he does for a
living. So, just watch the movie and shut up about Pulp
Fiction, already!
The Rock: ***1/2; (review to be provided as time permits)
The Saint: **; (review to be provided as time permits)
Space Cowboys - ****
The Substitute: ***; Tom Berringer is a mercenary who
poses as a substitute
teacher to catch a gang that attacked his wife, the previous
teacher.
The Whole Nine Yards - **1/2