Tag: Matthew Modine
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Full Metal Jacket is a film of big swings. Director and co-writer Kubrick hits them all. The three most prominent are the structure, the character study, and the whole arc. The structure and arc are different because the film's got two distinct sections. Minutes one to forty-five or so is a "We're in the Marines…
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Short Cuts is about a weekend in Los Angeles. It’s a Robert Altman ensemble piece with twenty-two principle characters (though at least six of them are questionable–it really has three stories and then some tangents). It’s “based on the ‘writings’ of Raymond Carver” (emphasis mine), but I’m pretty sure it’s just an adaptation of his…
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Linda Fiorentino might be a year older than Matthew Modine back she's supposed to be playing a worldly twenty-one year-old to his eighteen year-old high school senior in Vision Quest and they sure don't look it. Modine looks about twenty-four, his age at the time of filming. Fiorentino looks twenty-one. She isn't the problem with…
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A self-reflective video essay can’t be rare these days, not with the Internet. Jesus Was a Commie is a little different though. It’s not an amateur recording on a cellphone, it’s Matthew Modine walking around New York City while his essay plays in voice over. Having the narrator walk around without any incidental noises is…
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Gross Anatomy is harmless and diverting. It’s got some good performances–Christine Lahti is fantastic, Matthew Modine barely does any work and is solid as the lead. The supporting cast has some bright points (Alice Carter and John Scott Clough), but it’s also got Daphne Zuniga. Now, Anatomy is a big bright Touchstone movie. It’s less…
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Memphis Belle runs just around an hour and fifty minutes. It takes the film about a half hour before it’s even clear the titular plane is going to have a mission in the narrative. It opens with a masterful introduction to the characters and the situation (a bomber has one more mission before the crew…
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About halfway through Bye Bye Love, I realized it was reminding me of “The Bradys,” the hour-long drama sequel to “The Brady Bunch.” Two very successful sitcom writers wrote this movie; it’s like an hour-long comedy drama… Only the movie runs about a hundred minutes. It’s way too long. What’s interesting—there’s not a single laugh…
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Atrociously written action sequel about “transporter” Jason Statham and the trouble he gets into because of one of his jobs. His jobs transporting things. Good thing he also knows kung fu. Terrible acting besides Statham and reluctant cop sidekick François Berléand. Kate Nauta’s performance is probably one of the worst ever in a theatrically released,…
The Stop Button 