Category: 1997
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Terminal City stops more than ends. Maybe closes is a better phrase. Motter closes the series. There’s no finality to it and there’s lots of openness–in the last pages, Motter’s still introducing next things. It’s a capsule view of these people, important in the city, years after their glory days. Sure, events occur in Terminal…
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Anyone remember the Spider-Man trailer with the reflections of the city in the eyes? Because DC and Lark should have sued or something–it’s in this comic book, down to the pacing of the shot. Anyway. The penultimate issue. Motter is hurrying things along here. He’s sort of still introducing new stuff, but not too much.…
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This issue, presumably, starts the winding down of Terminal City. It ends with the first really action-oriented cliffhanger of the series, but Motter’s also winding down the characters. He’s moving Cosmo, still the ostensible lead, into a smaller role. His chances at romance dwindled this issue and, what’s really crazy good about Motter’s writing, is…
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Dante’s Peak came in the slight post-Twister disaster movie resurgence–and might have helped end it–but it really doesn’t know how to be a disaster movie. Leslie Bohem’s script film follows Jaws‘s plot structure–no one listens to Pierce Brosnan’s roguish geologist (has Brosnan ever been asked to do an American accent, it seems to be part…
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The only “real” pro-war movie I can think of is The Green Berets. But Starship Troopers is also pro-war, even if it’s, well, startlingly so. I mean, the scene where Casper Van Dien grins after getting his battlefield promotion, following a colleague’s horrific death, is a fine example. What Verhoeven does here, in Starship Troopers,…
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Critical Care opens on its main set–sets are important in Critical Care–with Helen Mirren (as a nurse) checking up on ICU patients. The ICU is a circle, Mirren rounding it by the end of the titles, returning to the station at the center, where James Spader (as a resident) naps during a thirty-six hour shift.…
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Boogie Nights is so well-made, so stunningly made–I’m not even thinking about Anderson’s wonderful, lengthy steadicam sequences, I’m thinking about Philip Seymour Hoffman alone in his freshly painted car–it’s hard to think about anything else while watching it. The omnipresent soundtrack–Nights is a combination of American Graffiti (the prolific use of songs), Goodfellas (the way…
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As I recall, there were lots of production issues with As Good as It Gets, specifically in terms of boosting Cuba Gooding Jr.’s role (after winning his Oscar) and maybe shortening Skeet Ulrich’s. It all shows, as does the uneasy rewrite Brooks did of Mark Andrus’s script. I have no idea what Andrus’s original script…
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I’m having a hard time understanding certain aspects of Switchback. Primarily, Dennis Quaid’s terrible performance. I’m wondering if Jeb Stuart instructed him to imitate a log or if it was just Quaid’s read on the character. To be fair (to Stuart, not to Quaid), the character is a pretend protagonist. Stuart’s more interested in his…
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The last time I saw a Luc Besson movie and thought it was really good, I tried watching Joan of Arc. Then I stopped exploring his filmography. This time, therefore, I’m prepared. I haven’t seen The Fifth Element in years and I’m not sure why. Considering its cast, it’s something of a breath of fresh…
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This year (2007), I saw more summer movies than I have in at least five years. I avoid big Hollywood franchises (the modern ones, the revitalization attempts… it’s fifty-fifty), so I really don’t know how bad the acting is in most of those films–from what I saw this summer, it’s probably atrocious. But there’s a…
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I was going to start saying the amount of Elmore Leonard adaptations had dwindled, peaking after soon Get Shorty, Out of Sight and Jackie Brown. However, it appears Leonard adaptations are a mainstay, whether theatrically or–mostly–on television. Gold Coast actually might not even have come from that period (except David Caruso’s hero is in the…
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Joss Whedon has never met a cheap, cheesy one liner he didn’t like. He also feels the need to revise future technology based on modern developments (androids with wireless modems, which they would have had in the first Alien movies… except the lack of that technological possibility when said films were made). The first problem…
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For what it is, George of the Jungle is a rather successful film. It has to appeal to kids (since it’s a Disney movie), teenage girls (who I presume liked Brendan Fraser and might buy the soundtrack–from Disney Records, of course), and even “George of the Jungle” fans. Viewers of the show would be parents…
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Superbly acted, superbly directed, middlingly written thriller about average guy Navy officer Aidan Quinn drafted into an international program to turn him into a super-spy. Turns out Quinn looks exactly like infamous terrorist Carlos the Jackal. Quinn is fantastic; Ben Kingsley and Donald Sutherland are both good as his handlers (see, they’re training him to…
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Excellent drama set on one winter weekend in 1970s Connecticut about two families and the various ways they’re connected, through infidelity, lust, and tragedy. Great performances from the cast–Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, and Jamey Sheridan are the parents, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, Adam Hann-Byrd, and Elijah Wood are the (teenage or older) kids.…
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The Rainmaker‘s got some beautiful stuff in it. My history with it is somewhat sorted… I discovered it on DVD, then abandoned it–and have now rediscovered it. I can’t remember what my last problem with it was–probably the same as my current one–but I was selling DVDs and needed cash. It’s not perfect and has…
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Dreadful thriller has poor old me millionaire Michael Douglas getting the ultimate birthday gift from estranged brother Sean Penn: a live action role-playing game, just one with femme fatales (Deborah Kara Unger–or is she), killer clowns (or is it), and inevitable car chases. Lousy performance from Douglas. Good one from Penn but it’s not enough.…
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Middling (at best), “handsome,” Oscar-bait adaptation of James Ellroy corrupt cops novel set in early fifties L.A.. Good performance from Russell Crowe and a great one from Kevin Spacey can’t make up for ineffective lead Guy Pearce, risibily bad Kim Basinger turn as femme fatale, or director Hanson and Brian Helgeland’s disjointed script. It also…
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Outstanding sci-fi set in nearish future when eugenics is the norm. Uma Thurman and Jude Law are perfectly bred humans, Ethan Hawke’s a genetically inferior love child. Thanks to tragedy, Hawke’s able to pose as Law, but then his true (genetic) self becomes a murder suspect. Great direction, awesome production design (by Jan Roelfs) and…
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Sylvester Stallone’s a small town sheriff taking on dirty New York cops after internal affairs guy Robert De Niro inspires him to be a better cop. Beautifully made, some wonderful performances, but it doesn’t quite come together. The director’s cut adds thirteen minutes of not significant enough to make a difference side plots. DVD.Continue reading…
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Obnoxious jerk Thomas Jay Ryan befriends (and exploits) introvert garbageman/unknown great American poet James Urbaniak, seducing his sister (a spectacular Parker Posey) but encouraging his writing. Very long, very difficult. The last act is truly phenomenal stuff. DVD, Blu-ray.Continue reading →
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Nicely paced disaster movie about a volcano growing out the La Brea Tar Pits. Anne Heche is the scientist, Tommy Lee Jones is the city guy, Gaby Hoffman’s his daughter. It’s occasionally annoying, with bad dialogue, but the cast is great. Heche and Don Cheadle are outstanding; Jones is fine. The film takes itself just…
The Stop Button 