MOVIE REVIEWS!
1998 ARCHIVE!

Star Trek Insurrection
Starring Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner and the rest of the "TNG" crew. This is the ninth motion picture outing for the Star Trek franchise (and we all know about the "odd" numbered movie superstition don't we...that it seems like the odds have always been thought of less than the evens). I can say that at least this one doesn't sink to the level of the worst of the rest (for the record, Star Trek I, V, and VII were awful with the fifth one outright horrible in all respects). Let me add that I am biased about the Star Trek universe, because I consider myself a huge fan (but maybe not quite an obsessed fanatic) and I want so much from the franchise. To me, this one delivered on some counts while failing in others. The storyline has the Federation dealing with a droopy skinned race called the Son'a. It seems that the Federation is agreeing to relocate a community of inhabitants of a planet who have lived hundreds of years due to strange radiation that bathes their atmosphere and allow the Son'a to take the planet for their on needs. Of course, also allowing the Federation to benefit from "mining" the radioactive material from the planetary system. Needless to say, the Enterprise gets pulled into the scenario and Captain Picard doesn't quite see eye to eye with the Federation's ideas. Now Picard has to go against his superior's orders, attempt to save the inhabitants of the planet, and fight the Son'a. To me, the plot would have made for an average to good episode of the television series but was too weak and had too much "cutesy" humor to satisfy my Star Trek craving. I don't know what it is about me, but I want an EPIC Star Trek movie centering around the conflicts of the Federation with either the Klingons (too late for that now!), Romulans (not much conflict in that neutral zone lately), Cardassians & Dominion (although DS9 has had a couple of very good episodes concerning that), or the Borg (but don't make three quarters of the movie a planetary-based comedy) or SOMETHING. I want to get goosebumps seeing massive Federation fleet movements and grand battles as characters fight to survive. It is truly sad to me that I still say that some of the episodes of STTNG and STDS9 have outshined EVERY Star Trek MOVIE! I want the essence of Star Trek within an awe inspiring scope of Good vs. Evil. Let's see if we can finally get away from the "Laurel & Hardy take over the Enterprise" type of plot lines.

The Siege
Starring Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, Bruce Willis. Denzel portrays ethical, all-around good guy FBI agent Anthony Hubbard. As the movie progresses we see Mr. Hubbard drawn into more and more investigations and involvement with terrorist activity within New York City. When a city bus is blown up in full view of the media, he meets a CIA operative portrayed by Annette Bening. She obviously has some secrets that she is not letting Hubbard in on and seems to be at odds with his pursuit of the investigation at times. When the case cannot be solved before more violence erupts, martial law is enacted and in comes General Devereaux portrayed by Bruce Willis. The movie definitely has some sobering moments as we see many American citizens of Middle Eastern descent rounded up and placed in holding pens in efforts to stop the terrorists. The movie was definitely thought-provoking and well done. I did have some problems with Ms. Benings character...she just seemed to have too many things going on and just wasn't an easy character for me to like. Still an enjoyable flick though.

Enemy of the State
Starring Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight. Will Smith plays a young labor attorney named Robert Clayton Dean. He is obviously ambitious and daring in his dealing with some rather unscrupulous union leaders. Little does he know that he is about to become involved in so much more when a chance encounter with a former college classmate points some very desperate bad people in his direction. It seems that without his knowledge, he has been given a video tape of the murder of a senator that was faked to appear as natural causes. Once everybody and their dog begin pursuing Mr. Dean and anyone that he associates with, he does realize that something is wrong, but doesn't know why. As he is pulled further into the mess, he becomes entangled with a shadowy anonymous private investigator that he occassionally hires for background checks and/or surveillance work. In my opinion the movie has some weak moments but overall it was an enjoyable "everybody is out to get me and I don't know why" thriller.

John Carpenter's Vampire$
Starring James Woods, Daniel Baldwin, Sheryl Lee. Based on a book that I've read by John Steakley titled, appropriately enough, "Vampire$". James Woods portrays Jack Crow, a vampire hunting specialist in the employ of the Vatican. He, along with his rag-tag bunch of troops flush out the evil vampires wherever they might hide and kill them with any number of hideous ways (of course, the favorite is to drag their undead non-cooperative victims out into the explosively deadly sunlight). The movie definitely has some over the top violence and language (just 'cause Jack works for the church, doesn't mean he acts like a good churchgoing fellow should). Director John Carpenter has had some hits and some blunders (The Thing is one of my favorite horror flicks, while Escape from L.A. was abyssmal), and this movie falls somewhere in the middle to me. Some of the acting got way to corny for me but the underlying theme attempted to be serious...but usually the corny was definitely more prevalent.

Pleasantville
10/24/98 - Starring Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William Macy, Jeff Daniels, Joan Allen, Don Knotts. Tobey Maguire plays David, a nerdy high schooler, who yearns for something better than the complete dysfunctional family he has. Dad is gone, Mom is leaving town for a date, and sister Jennifer is quickly becoming the local "easy" girl. David finds solace in watching the old 50's black and white television show "Pleasantville" (with all the "Father Knows Best" cliches intact). David and his sister should have known when they break the TV remote and the television repairman (Don Knotts) mysteriously appears at their door immediately, that something was not quite right. Suddenly, they are magically transported into the show. To me, the movie basically carries the theme that just because something looks too good to be true, doesn't necessarily mean it is so. At first David (who is now son Bud on the show) appreciates his new world, while his sister immediately attempts to disrupt everything. With each new bit of strong emotion or act of change, mysterious new "color" begins to appear in the character's lives. The movie is kind of a simple, entertaining morality play that has some fairly cool effects and I enjoyed most of it. It uses the media of television to tell it's story in some ways like the movie Truman although I will admit that I enjoyed this one more than that one.

Soldier
10/25/98 - Starring Kurt Russell, Jason Scott Lee, Gary Busey. To be honest, I didn't have much hope for this film...but what the heck...there is just not much sci-fi going around this year. Unfortunately, it lived up (or down) to my expectations. We start the movie seeing how new children are selected from birth to become top soldiers. These kids are not expected to let any emotion deter them from the appointed duty...which is killing whatever enemy is appropriate for the moment. We witness in clips as one of these children is trained and reaches adulthood to become Kurt Russell (or Sgt. Todd). Again, we see in more clips as Sgt. Todd survives and thrives through various wars. One day (between wars) we are introduced to a batch of new soldiers...this time not only selected for their genetic makeup...but actually genetically manipulated for optimum performance. Quickly, Sgt. Todd is put to the test and easily deemed obsolete...to be dumped in a garbage carrying spaceship to be discarded on an uninhabited planet. Here, the almost non-speaking Todd finds it is inhabited by the occupants of a crashed colonization ship, and, guess what...it is scheduled for military patrols in which "any" inhabitants are to be deemed hostile. Can we see where this is going? I thought so. I don't mind a movie having a large number of cliches...if they are done well. Unfortunately, although I don't have a problem with Kurt's limited performance, the direction and storyline simply left a lot to be desired. Had some decent scenes but overall it just didn't measure up.

Antz
10/18/98 - Starring the voices of Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Christopher Walken, Danny Glover, Dan Ackroyd, etc. This is an animated movie from Dreamworks rather than Disney (and beat Disney's animated feature A Bug's Life out of the gate). I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would going into the theatre. Sure the plot's been done before (but it seems like you can almost say that about any movie nowadays), but still, it was done well. Woody Allen plays the voice of a worker ant named "Z". Expected to do his daily labor and be excited just to be part of the colonies grand plans. One problem, Z has ideas of his own and dreams of being able to do something different. The next thing you know, he becomes involved with the Queen's daughter (voiced by Sharon Stone), becomes a target for her fiance, the power hungry General Mandible (voiced by Gene Hackman), and goes in search of a fabled "insectopia". The animation was pretty cool looking, and I think a lot of the dialogue is definitely aimed at adults rather than small children. In a year with so many crappy movies (or at least non-spectacular by any means), I'll take anything enjoyable that I can get.

What Dreams May Come
10/11/98 - Starring Robin William, Annabella Sciorra, Cuba Gooding Jr. Robin williams portrays pediatrician Chris Nielsen who meets and marries his "soul-mate", portrayed by Annabella Sciorra, while on a trip. Of course, it's almost just too perfect. That is until, years and two children later, the children are killed in an automobile accident. Then four years later, Chris himself is killed in another accident. This is when Chris finds out that everything doesn't end when the brain stops receiving oxygenated blood. Cuba Gooding Jr. is his "spiritual guide" who shows him the ropes and how things get done around here, including the fact that Chris has chosen to surround himself with a landscape of one of his wife's paintings, including the wet paint. Later, when Chris finds out that his wife couldn't handle going on with life and has committed suicide, he is devastated but at least happy that they'll be together...only one catch...suicides go "down there". Thus an ensuing journey to retrieve his lost soul-mate. This movie has some pretty good special effects (but also quite a few people hanging on wires), but it almost overdoes the syrupy "love will conquer all" theme to the point of messing it up. It has some decent tear-jerker parts but they just don't all fit together as nicely as I would have wished.

Ronin
10/03/98 - Starring Robert DeNiro, Jean Reno, Natascha McElhone, Jonathan Pryce. This movie looks like a remake of some older espionage and action flicks of the 70's. It was reminiscent of The French Connection and Day of the Jackal. DeNiro plays a kind of mercenary for hire who meets up for a job with a group of similar characters from around the world. A mysterious woman with an Irish accent is the person bringing them all together for one job, to get a mysterious briefcase that is being transported by a group of armed escorts. This movie has quite a few things going on as the group plan for the assault and threatens to lose the audience at times. If you hang with it, though, I believe you'll be in for an enjoyable ride. There are some lengthy chase scenes that are staged pretty effectively. Also, there are some pretty decent gunfights during various confrontations.

Rush Hour
09/27/98 - Starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. Well, another buddy-movie with two cops. Carter, portrayed by Chris Tucker, is an obnoxious, loud-mouthed LAPD officer who gets the job of keeping visiting Hong Kong officer Lee, portrayed by Chan, out of the way of a FBI kidnapping investigation of a former Hong Kong dignitary's daughter. Of course, neither Carter nor Lee intend on staying out of the way but instead set out to solve the case themselves. The movie really doesn't take itself too seriously and it definitely gets some well-deserved laughs. It's just too bad that they couldn't have taken some of the over-the-top comedy out and had more of an edgy semi-serious mismatch in the 48 Hours style.

Dead Man on Campus
09/19/98 - Starring Tom Everett Scott and Mark-Paul Gosselaar. Tom Everett Scott portrays Josh, a pre-med student with a high GPA and all the best intentions of being one of the best students at college. He is thwarted, though, when his roommate, a partying stoner loser son of a wealthy father, coerces him into giving up too many of his studies. When he finds that he is failing, they stumble on an old rule that stated that if a person's roomate dies during the semester, the dorm-mates will automatically receive a passing grade due to the "trauma" of it all. Hence, the search for an already suicidal roommate begins. The movie definitely has some funny scenes, but it seems that for all the "good intentions" that Josh had, he fell for the "evil" side of dorm life entirely too easily. Thus, it was kind of hard to really care if he succeeded or not. It was kind of hard to like most of the characters in the flick because none of them had a lot of redeeming qualities. So, if you see it, laugh at what is funny but don't dig to deep for any meaningful comedy.

Blade
08/23/98 - Starring Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff, and Kris Kristofferson. The movie opens in 1967 with a pregnant woman being wheeled into an emergency room while bleeding profusely from the neck. We see a baby as it is saved. Cut to the present where we see a young man being led into an underground dance party inside a slaughterhouse. Everybody is moshing and dancing away when suddenly the overhead sprinklers turn on and showers the crowd with blood. All of a sudden our boy doesn't really want to stay when everyone around him starts beating and toying with him. Suddenly the music stops and everybody looks to see a lone man dressed in black...enter Blade who proceeds to start kicking butt and destroying all those who are a little long in the tooth. We find out later that Blade has inherited many of the vampires strengths but doesn't suffer from all of their weaknesses. His mission has been to destroy all the vampires for making him what he has become. Kris Kristofferson portrays his crusty old sidekick who makes his weapons and provides other things to help Blade in his quest. Along the way, Blade rescues a female doctor who has been bitten to round out the group. Many scenes in the film are filmed with a "music video" quality which accentuates the action. Of course, the movie had it's share of one-liners that threatened to turn me off, but the director did a pretty good job of just going to the edge but not quite over. The fight scenes were for the most part well choreographed and most of the SFX were decent other than a couple of pretty cheesy looking CGI effects. At least the movie-makers didn't target it exclusively for the kids and gave it a pretty hard edge in many scenes. Over all, it heads in the direction that I would like for these type of movies to take, so I hope that more get made but better.

The Negotiator
08/16/98 - Starring Samuel Jackson and Kevin Spacey. Well, I almost let this film slip by without seeing it on the big screen (once last weekend due to power outage at the theatre). What a loss that would have been for me. Now that I've seen it, I can pretty safely rank it and Saving Private Ryan as the two best movies that I've seen this year up until this time. Samuel Jackson portrays Danny Roman, a Chicago PD "hostage negotiator" who has quite the success rate for successful crisis conclusions. Later, he is confided to by his partner of possible involvement of other officers in a pension plan scam. When his partner is killed, he is suddenly cast as the suspect and watches his life being ripped apart. When desperation sets in as he sees all the cards stacked against him, he himself loses control and takes some hostages as he confronts those he believes to be implicated. Kevin Spacey portrays Chris Sabian, another negotiator that Roman asks for personally due to his inability to trust any of the other officers. The acting was very good and the tension during some scenes was almost so thick you could cut it with a knife. It's too bad that this movie did not get a lot of marketing hype because many people will not get to appreciate it until it comes out on video.

Saving Private Ryan
07/26/98 - Starring Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Matt Damon, and many others. Director Steven Spielberg has gone back to WWII for another intense drama. Unlike his other film "Schindler's List" in which the horror of the war was in the almost quiet suffering of huge numbers of people, this movie almost slams you in the face with the horrendous events that accompany actual battle. If, after seeing this film, you continue to fantasize about the "action" and "heroics" of true battle...then I would hazard to say that you might be one sick puppy. The movie basically opens with the invasion of Omaha Beach on D-day with an extended sequence of the raging battle to just make it on the beach alive. This is where we first see Tom Hanks as Captain Miller. Afterwards, he is selected to lead some troops behind enemy lines in order to bring back a private named Ryan (hence, the title) due to three of his brothers all being KIA (killed in action). Captain Miller must put together a team find a way to survive in order to find the private. The performances were all very good and the battle scenes had a huge intensity to convey what it must have really been like for the mostly young men facing such horrors. Some of the dialogue in the scenes between battle seemed to be slightly forced at times, but this is a minor complaint that does not take away from the overall effect of the movie.

There's Something About Mary
07/19/98 - Starring Ben Stiller, Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon, Chris Elliot. First, let me say that this is one of those movies that I place into the following category, "you will either love it, or hate it". This is a romantic comedy that goes for the lowest types of humor. There are very few "politically correct" ideas that don't get skewered in this one. Ben Stiller plays a geek who, while in high school manages to have a date to the prom with the school cutie who is portrayed by Diaz. We can all pretty safely assume that things don't work out as nicely as could be hoped. Now, it's 13 years later and Ben is still obsessing about his lost chances. When a friend convinces him to hire a shady "claims adjuster" to search for her, things go downhill from there. By the time the movie is over, everybody has fallen for Ms. Diaz. Now, if you want to see this one, be warned, there are no subjects that are taboo, including mentally and/or physically challenged individuals, sexual preferences, and creative uses for various bodily fluids. If you wonder what all that means, you'll just have to take a chance and see the flick....'cause I ain't going into any more detail than that. I will say however, that it is one of the few movies in a while in which I've heard the audience laughing out loud throughout the feature.

Small Soldiers
07/13/98 - Starring some people I don't know, Kirsten Dunst, Phil Hartman, Denis Leary, and some famous voices including Tommy Lee Jones and Ernest Borgnine. This movie begins with the evil Defense industry trying to find ways to stay affloat without any real good enemies to keep up the funding. How about the toy industry. Needless to say, after some highly advanced weapons processor chips get placed into two sets of toys, the Commandos and the Gorgonites, the fun begins. After one kid gets an early edition of the toys for his father's toy store, chaos breaks out when the toys attempt to satisfy their programming at all costs (the Commandos have been programmed to hunt down and destroy the monsterish Gorgonites who are actually peaceloving pacifists). These events are carried into the boy's neighborhood to involve his home and that of the girl next door, who is a romantic interest, of course. The effects were decent although, for some reason at least to me, the continuity of the story didn't flow real well. I know that this movie was definitely aimed at kids (and I have no problem with that), but it just seemed that the director couldn't figure just how much of a truly violent edge to give to his marauding toys. In some instances it was hard to take seriously some of their threats (I know, I am talking about "dolls")...and then in some glimpses, they would do something to make you realize that they weren't just "playing around". I suppose it's just hard for me to go to both extremes...it's either a "non-violent" fantasy in which nobody can really get hurt or it is truly a threatening experience. I suppose that I can't say much more than that it is basically another theme on one of the director's earlier movies, "Gremlins".

Armageddon
07/05/98 - Starring Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler, Steve Buscemi. I went into this movie knowing that the humor quotient was going to be high...but hoped that it's context in the movie would be one that I liked. Let me start by saying that I enjoyed the humor and did not find it too detracting from the overall experience. As we all know by now, Willis is a entrepeneur roughneck oil driller who, with his crew, are called upon to save the world from impending doom from an approaching asteroid the size of Texas. Of course, he also has to deal with the fact that his number one man, Affleck, is "associating" himself with Wills' strong-willed daughter, portrayed by Tyler. The action is fairly relentless once we get started. Everything was fine and dandy with me until the actual mission itself has begun. I would wholeheartedly recommend this movie if it just weren't for some of the scenes once the shuttles had taken off. Now, I'm no expert on gravity and/or the dynamics of spaceflight, but...I don't think you can impart full gravity to the "floor" of the Mir spacestation by just giving it a spin (everything I learned about centrifugal force said that it might be possible in a large cylindrical object to impart a gravitation mimicking force on the inside of "outside" diameter). Also, when the crew is experiencing 11 g's in a slingshot acceleration around the moon, I actually think I've seen better high-gee effects in the comedy movie "Spies Like Us" with Dan Akroyd and Chevy Chase. Director Michael Bay just shook the camera a lot and had the actors go "oooohhhh, that hurts, when's it gonna stop!" (not an exact quote). The shuttles fly like jet fighters in atmosphere. And I definitely want a car made by the manufacturers of Ben Affleck's "Asteroid Rover"...after surviving a shuttle crash, a meteor storm, and a secondary crash back onto the surface of the asteroid (don't ask), it just keeps going and going without a single problem. Now, after ranting about the things I didn't particularly care for, I will still say that the action was fun to watch.

X-Files The Movie
06/28/98 - Starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. Let me preface my opinion with the following: I have only seen one episode of the television series upon which this movie is based. I don't know why I have not watched more since I have a high interest in sci-fi, etc. With that said, I still was able to basically follow the plot, although I did not have in-depth knowledge of some of the characters that have had recurring roles on the series. The movie takes the theme of the television series and expands on it to answer many questions the characters have had over the last five years. FBI agent Mulder, portrayed by Duchovny, is a kind of shoot from the hip type of player who has evidently developed some fairly "far-fetched" conspiracy ideas including extra-terrestial involvement. Agent Scully, portrayed by Anderson, was assigned to work with Mulder in order to provide an anchor of reason and scientific approach to Mulder's investigations. The movie actually brings many of Mulder's "ideas" to fruition as the pair of agents gradually become more and more entangled in a seemingly endless covering up of strange events. The movie did not have a lot of action but was somewhat thought-provoking at times. I found it fairly enjoyable even without the prior knowledge of the characters. Both Scully and Mulder are not too emotionally animated, but it fits with their cynically humorous exhanges.

A Perfect Murder
06/21/98 - Starring Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow, Viggo Mortensen. I bet that you can already guess that this film is going to fall into the "murder, suspense, thriller" genre can't you? This film basically centers around three people (all of whom are basically lying cheating scum) and their interactions with each other. Michael Douglas portrays Steven Taylor, a rich financial market tycoon whose wife is Emily (portrayed by Ms. Paltrow). The opening credits show us that Emily is having an illicit affair with a "struggling" artist named David Shaw who is portrayed by Mr. Mortensen. As the movie builds, Mr. Taylor seems like he might know more than his wife thinks he does (or is it just that his financial dealings have been going into to dumper lately). What ensues is the interactions between all of the characters as plot twists continue to be introduced into the story. As I stated, you basically have the choice of rooting for the "least" of the scum, as all three have a few problems with the truth and/or "skeletons" buried in their closets. Overall, it was an enjoyable movie for it's type that follows the "who is going to screw up and get caught next?" mentality.

The Truman Show
06/20/98 - Starring Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Ed Harris, Noah Emmerich, Natascha McElhone. This is a movie about a television show which portrays a single character's entire life, 24 hours per day. This character, Truman Burbank, is portrayed by Jim Carrey. He is happily married in the quaint town of Seahaven, a small town populated by friendly people. What Truman doesn't know is that everyone in his entire life is simply an actor playing a role as hidden cameras broadcast every detail of Truman's life. That's the gimmick...everybody watching knows that Truman is not "acting" but truthfully portraying his real emotions. This has made "The Truman Show" the highest rated show for over thirty years. The movie basically takes place when things begin to happen around Truman that make him begin to see that things might not be as they seem. I enjoyed the movie although I did not leave the theatre feeling like I had seen the "movie of the decade" as some reviews have placed it. Many of the scenes in which a "hidden" camera followed Truman seemed a little contrived (it's okay to explain a following minicam shot when someone or something is behind you...but when nothing is there?). Also, the ending was without much impact....oh well.

Godzilla
05/22/98 - Starring Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno, Hank Azaria. Well, once again the adults get left out in the cold to just appreciate some fairly cool special effects in a movie directed and marketed for the children. I suppose the "sure" money on movie tie-in items force all productions to allow younger viewers into the theatre (at least as far as monster movies go). Since the Jurassic Park movies tamed the terror and violence of the original story, I don't know why I would expect Godzilla to be any different. I wish someone would make a no-holds barred monster movie with great specialfx that truly tries to scare the heck out of the audience. It doesn't have to do it with over the top gore, language, or nudity.....it just has to approach the subject SERIOUSLY!!! Unfortunately in Godzilla, while the monster looked almost real at times, all of the "human" characters looked like comic buffoons. Take this scene, for example, Matthew Broderick is basically cornered on both sides by creatures (that's all I'll give away) that want to kill and/or eat him alive. Now, here he is, supposedly in incredible fear for his life and trying to find some way out of this desperate situation when he basically just looks around doe-eyed and states "this is NOT good" a couple of times. And of course, the children and audience chuckle at this "comedic" relief while Mr. Broderick starts punching the nearby elevator buttons as the creatures inch ever closer. Folks, I don't know about you, but that is NOT a serious monster movie in my book. Oh well, although the movie's approach didn't thrill me, it did have some fairly cool action sequences.

Deep Impact
05/17/98 - Starring Robert Duval, Tea Leoni, Elijah Wood, and Morgan Freeman. Well, I suppose that this was the first of the supposedly "big" summer blockbuster releases. To be honest, I almost didn't go see this one based on other reviews (not something that I normally trust to make a judgement). I gave it a shot anyway and it actually wasn't too bad. Elijah Wood plays and amateur student astronomer who first documents the "strange" uncatalogued star in the night sky. Tea Leoni portrays a struggling reporter who later believes she is uncovering a government sex scandal when she gets too near the truth and finds out what the government already knows...the comet is on a collision course with earth. The movie had some slow moments and it's share of pushing the plausibility envelope, but I will give it credit for one thing...it didn't resort to too much outright comedy or one-liners to make the audience laugh. It did (at least a few times) conjure up the ominous thoughts about the potential destruction of the earth due to a simple coincidence of two large bodies trying to occupy the same space at the same time... Anyway, not fantastic but better than I thought it would be.

The Big Hit
04/26/98 - Starring Mark Wahlberg, Lou Diamond Phillips, China Chow, and Christina Applegate. This is an extremely over-the-top comedy/action thriller. Mark Wahlberg portrays a "hitman with a heart" who teams up with Lou Diamond Phillips and two or three others to make any required hits for the big guy portrayed by Avery Brooks. Of course, when the character portrayed by Mr. Phillips, Cisco, goes on his own to make an unauthorized kidnapping, everything falls apart and Cisco points the finger at everyone but himself. The movie is filled with ridiculous violence that is so outrageous....some of it is pretty cool to watch (I almost hate to admit that some of this flick was fun to watch). The movie definitely had it's share of people surviving machine guns spraying bullets from 15 feet (at least our stars) but the body count was plenty high for everyone else. Be prepared for some harsh language and violence, when I characterized the movie as "comedy"/action, the comedy comes from scenes like this...."the group makes a hit, Mark goes through dozens of guards, killing them relentlessly and screaming for backup...Cisco and another wait until the shooting stops, then he runs in shooting the bodies that are already dead on the floor, all the while talking about how bad he is"......funny huh? Unfortunately, in a demented sort of way, it was. Oh well.

City of Angels
04/19/98 - Starring Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan. Nicolas Cage plays Seth, one of many angels that inhabit the earth to oversee our lives and escort our souls to the "light" when required. During one of his routine "escort" jobs, he is standing by in a hospital operating room waiting for his "client" to kick the bucket as the doctor, portrayed by Ms. Ryan, desperately attempts to save the man's life. As she frantically tries to resuscitate the man, she suddenly looks up directly into the eyes of Seth for a few fleeting moments. Being invisible to humans, this experience kind of shakes Seth up. After this, Seth starts observing the doctor more and more and thus begins the plot of the movie. This movie attempts to pull at some of the same strings that Ghost did a few years ago. Some of it was fairly slow going. It was kind of interesting and almost eerie the way that the angels were portrayed being around us all of the time. For most of the movie, Mr. Cage basically just stares with empty emotion as he continues to look after the doctor. This isn't a slam to Nick because the part basically calls for a being that has no sense of pain, touch, and taste but that can hear "music" just watching the sunset ( I know....it's starting to sound a little bit syrupy....but it's not too bad). Anyway, if you are a religious person, you probably have to check your preconceptions of what angels are at the door, because I doubt very few will think that this film portrays them accurately. All in all, it was a decent "angel sees Meg Ryan, angel falls in love with Meg Ryan" type of movie.

Lost In Space
04/05/98 - Starring William Hurt, Mimi Rogers, Matt LeBlanc and Gary Oldman. Let me start off by saying that I've had various hopes for this movie since first seeing previews for it in mid-1997. The first previews made it seem that a "serious" approach to the subject matter might be attempted, then, I became worried when a later preview looked like it might be just a little bit goofy. Well, before I go into details of my opinion, I suppose we should be sure we're all on the same page. Most people are at least probably familiar with the basis of the movie, the campy, unpretentiously goofy television show of the same name. Well, the big screen treatment retains the same characters and basic plot of the TV show without the outright campiness. Unfortunately (for me, at least), the movie didn't live up to my expectations. To begin with, the editing of the film was horrendous in my opinion. The continuity between scene changes just didn't seem to work at all (and let me say this to anyone else who might see the movie, either the theatre I was at actually skipped an entire reel of film or I missed something big time during one part of the movie. WARNING!!! I'm about to give just a little bit of plotline away but it's near the beginning so I don't feel too guilty. After the ship is damaged and plunges toward the sun, Judy Robinson's cryogenic chamber has malfunctioned and she is dying. Mom and Penny are with Dr. Smith trying to save Judy's life as the ship engages "hyperdrive" to escape the sun's gravitational pull. Then there is a pretty cool effect where time seems to stop in mid motion as the ship enters "hyperspace". NOW FOR THE PROBLEM....the very next thing we see...and I mean without any transition at all...is suddenly everybody standing around saying things like, "man, that was strange" or some such. Judy is fine as they all figure out that they are lost. Now, if anyone sees anything more between when time stops and when everybody is suddenly standing around chit-chatting, let me know. If not, somebody must have cut some of the wrong footage and left it on the editing room floor before shipping the final print). One more gripe, if you are going to produce a big budget movie, don't have a "monkey-like" computer generated character if you can't get the money or computer power to make it look real. Anyway, enough slamming, this movie did have some parts that looked promising, but once again, they didn't come together to form a complete sci-fi experience.

The Big Lebowski
03/29/98 - Starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi and Julianne Moore. Jeff Bridges plays a doped out loser named Jeff Lebowski. Of course, he is completely happy retaining this status as the highlights of his life are meeting up with his buddies for their bowling league. John Goodman is his "best friend" who happens to be still living out his Vietnam battles and is ready to kill anyone who disagrees with him, while Steve Buscemi just kind of hangs around for the ride. The plot of the movie takes shape when two doofus thugs mistake our Mr. Lebowski (who insists on being called just "The Dude") for another man named Jeff Lebowski who happens to be a millionaire (hence, the "Big" Lebowski....get it?). What happens then is that the Dude becomes more involved than he ever expected in kidnapping plots, ransom deliveries, porno producer threats, and psychadelic drug induced bowling dreams. I liked parts of this movie but the overall effect is a little too strange. I have liked some of the movies that the Cohen brothers have made in the past (Raising Arizona, Blood Simple) and not liked some (Barton Fink comes to mind). This one falls somewhere in the middle with others like Millers Crossing and Hudsucker Proxy.

U.S. Marshalls
03/15/98 - Starring Tommy Lee Jones and Wesley Snipes. Well, as you know, this is actually the sequel to The Fugitive which starred Harrison Ford. Tommy Lee Jones reprises his role as head fugitive hunter Sam Girard. Wesley Snipes plays the guy who just might or might not be as guilty as we think. Of course, it's up to Sam and his team to hunt him down (after a plane crash of inmates) regardless of whether he is guilty or not. Where the first movie had simple greed as it's plotline that entrapped our good doctor played by Harrison Ford, this movie get's a little bit more convoluted in setting up why our fugitive has gotten caught up in the chase. The movie was definitely okay for an action flick, but we have seen it all before. That's not detracting from it being a pretty good flick. Just don't go to the theatre expecting to walk out of the theatre going, "Wow". In other words, enjoy it for what it is.

Dark City
02/28/98 - Starring Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, John Hurt and a bunch of pale, trenchcoat wearing, creepy dudes. Rufus Sewell plays John Murdoch (or, at least, that's who he "discovers" he is). This is because he "wakes up" in his bathtub not knowing his identity. Kiefer Sutherland portrays a strange doctor who is a part of the weirdness that ensues once John Murdoch attempts to figure out what the heck is going on around him. Let me put it this way, there is a lot of really weird stuff going on all of the time. I don't know that I could recommend this movie to many folks just because I'm not sure if many people will like it. I can say that I thought it was pretty good "just because" it was so weird. Some reviews of the movie have slammed it because they claimed it never "came together" to make any sense, but I can say that although it took a long time for any explanations of much, it finally did attempt to tie some things up. I suppose that if you liked the movie Brazil, then you will probably be able to enjoy this one.

L.A. Confidential
02/15/98 - Starring Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, Kim Basinger, Danny Devito and James Cromwell. This was one that I wanted to see when it was originally released but never got around to it. Now that it has been re-released (due to it's Oscar nominations) I finally got a chance to catch it at the theatre. It is a very well done period movie recreating Los Angeles of decades past. The movie is a police melodrama, suspense, murder mystery "who-dunnit". There is a lot of convoluted (and I mean convoluted in a "good" way) plot development as we are introduced to a wide variety of characters. It centers around a group of LA cops and their interactions as a mass murder at an all-night diner is investigated. It lets us see the seedy underbelly of political motivation and greed behind the scenes of the police force. The acting is all top notch. The only criticism that I can aim at the movie is the fact that, at times, it seemed that the director was attempting to get four hours worth of movie into two (probably the editor's fault). This made some of the character's development a bit abrupt and sudden. Still, it was a very entertaining movie. It will probably be a toss-up between this one and Titanic for best movie....and although this one is very good, my money is still on Titanic.

The Replacement Killers
02/08/98 - Starring Chow Yun Fat and Mira Sorvino. Chow Yun Fat plays John Lee, a hit man working for an evil drug lord (as opposed to a "good" drug lord?). He's done all right so far taking out competing scum bags but he has an attack of conscience when told to do a revenge hit on an American cop's seven year old son. When he goes against the drug lord's wishes,he becomes a target himself. Mira Sorvino plays a streetwise document forger that John Lee contacts attempting to get forged documents in order to travel to China. They are attacked and, of course, form an unlikely and (at least at first) unfriendly partnership to survive. There are quite a few decent shootouts throughout the movie (although the constant dodging of machine gun fire gets a little old to me). Mira plays a pretty good tough girl part that didn't resort to the stereotypical "oh, I've fallen and sprained an ankle, please come back and rescue me from the bad guys". The movie was not spectacular but wasn't a bad action flick worth at least a matinee viewing.

Good Will Hunting
02/01/98 - Starring Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Minnie Driver and Ben Affleck. Matt Damon plays the main character Will Hunting. Let me say that Will is no different than any other struggling young man with minimal formal education who is working menial labor jobs to make ends meet. He does this by working as a janitor at a very prestigious university when he's not drinking with his buddies, getting into fights, and getting arrested. Let me back up...he IS slightly different...he is a naturally gifted savant who has self-educated himself to have more deductive abilities than even all of the professors at the university. This is fine until one award winning theoretical mathematics professor finds out about his abilities and bails him out of one of his scrapes with the law on condition that he work with him to develop his talents. Also as part of the deal, Will must go through counseling to curb his uncivil outbursts. After a string of psychologists turn him down, enter Robin Williams as a seemingly burnt out professor of Psychiatric studies who can perhaps get Will to realize his potential. The movie basically follows this theme as Will constantly fights against his own inner demons in order to open up to others. It is a well done emotional drama played out on the screen. The actors were all up to the task and did a fine job. One note of warning, though....the language used throughout the picture is most likely very true to the way many people of lower income South Boston talk (which means probably like a lot of people of all incomes everywhere)...the profanity might not be up there with Goodfellows, but it wasn't too far from it.

Phantoms
01/24/98 - Starring Ben Affleck and Peter O'toole. Well....although I figured that this was not going to be too fantastic of a flick, I went and saw it anyway due to the fact that it is based on the book of the same name written by Dean Koontz. Usually, this means that the movie is going to completely suck. I will report that in some spots, the movie at least attempted to be fairly good. The basis of the movie is that there is a creature/being/seemingly omnipotent force that has been responsible for huge dissappearances of animals and humans for centuries. Of course, our story starts with two gals returning to older sisters small hometown that had a population of 400.....that was "had".......now it appears to be an entire population of two (including our sisters). Not only is almost everybody gone, what evidence there is of any people comes in the way of horrible murders or disease ridden corpses. Finally we have the entrance of a neighboring sheriff and a couple of his men investigating the dissappearance of the local police during a call. Now, since suddenly no vehicles work, they are trapped in the town overnight. I know, I know....although it's not "much" better than it sounds...it wasn't completely horrible. Later on Peter O'toole is introduced as an "educated" man who has resorted to writing his research into mass dissappearances for the tabloids since nobody gives them any credibility. Well....I could probably go on.....if you like some mediocre attempts at a "horror" movie, you might give this one a chance....otherwise, read the book....it's much, much better.

Fallen
01/17/98 - Starring Denzel Washington, John Goodman and Donald Sutherland. This movie's theme was very reminiscent of The Hidden which involved an alien who could enter and switch human bodies while wreaking havoc on society. Fallen takes the same concept but places a "religious" spin on it by having demons (explained in the movie as angels that had fallen from grace....get it) being able to enter human hosts by touch. The theme that develops is that these demons are driving the human society towards "Revelations". Denzel plays a homicide detective named Hobbs that is responsible for apprehending a serial killer who is put to death at the beginning (and who, of course, lets Hobbs know that it's not over prior to his death). Afterwards a possible "copy cat" series of murders begins happening and Hobbs starts putting together 2 + 2 and coming up with weirder and stranger explanations for what is happening and becomes more and more involved in the events as they unfold. This movie had some pretty thin plot stretches at times and some other places it got fairly slow going. BUT, I am still always glad to see a movie that takes a fairly dark subject and not make it outright goofy, slapstick silly (say that three times fast). Anyway.... no wild standing ovations for this one, but it was an entertaining passage of a couple of hours.

Firestorm
01/09/98 - Starring Howie Long, Scott Glenn and William Forsythe. Yeah, I actually did go see this at the theatre (What can I say.....there are just not many new flicks coming out right now after the holidays are over). This one is definitely a "wait for the video" type of movie. To be honest, I can't even slam ol' Howie Long too much.....sure, he might not be an oscar caliber actor, but I don't think even Sir Laurence Olivier could rise from the grave and save this script (he is dead isn't he?...and if he's not, this would have sent him to an early grave). Anyway, as you probably have seen in the previews, Howie is a forest service fire fighter who parachutes in to fires too big to handle by anyone else...they are called "smokejumpers". And then enters our bad guys...a group of convicts who are allowed to help fight fires (guess they get "good behavior" points). Of course, a REALLY bad guy infiltrates the group and teams up with four others to make a prison break by killing guards and taking the real firefighters uniforms. We all know what happens next.... "DIE HARD IN THE FOREST". I suppose that all but about 2% of action flicks will continue to follow the same routine......let's take what might be a fairly good shoot'em up flick (or, in this case, chainsaw'em up or maybe even ax'em up) and make parts of it so stupid that hardly ANYBODY likes it.

Tomorrow Never Dies
12/28/97 - Starring Pierce Brosnan as, who else, James Bond 007. This was an entertaining entry into the series. The bad guy portrayed by Jonathan Pryce was slightly too wimpy for my taste. This time, an evil "media mogul" has taken to "creating" the events for his own headlines. Basically, he is hightening tensions between the British Empire and Communist China by causing events that make them suspect each other, with the apparent outcome becoming outright war between the nations. Of course, that would be only if Her Majesty's Secret Service didn't employ one Bond....James Bond. One thing that I liked was that Bond somehow appeared a little edgier and ruthless in some respects this time out (it could also be that I haven't watched the other movies in long enough that I've forgotten). There were two or three scenes that I didn't care for at all (one being that the ending was pretty cheesy), but the one that really bothered me was a helicopter chase sequence. Now mind me, the sequence itself wasn't bad (Bond and female Chinese agent being chased while on motorcycle by chopper)....it was the flying that the helicopter itself did. I know that I can be thrilled by "real life" stunts that can be done with a helicopter in a movie, so why anyone would insert the STUPIDITY of the flying in this scene is beyond me. This one scene had as much believeability as one of those old 1940's serials like "Buck Rogers and the Rocket Man from Mars". Once again, I love outrageous special effects that make unimagineable things appear true....but COME ON. Oh well...enough whining. It was still fairly entertaining.

An American Werewolf in Paris
12/27/97 - Starring Tom Everett Scott and Julie Delpy. I was hoping that this one would give the original a run for it's money but, alas, it was not to be. I'm not going to slam this movie 'cause it wasn't bad, it just didn't live up to my expectations (of course, very few movies ever do, it seems). I think the storyline involving an "organized" gang of lycanthropes (I'm not giving anything away since this is clear very early in the movie) kind of rubbed me the wrong way. The CGI effects were very well done in some scenes and then in others they were poor. Many of the characters just didn't seem to be fully realized and developed. This in turn never let me allow myself to be absorbed into the storyline. As I said, I don't mean to sound like I'm slamming the movie, it was decent enough entertainment and it did have some pretty good scenes....just not as well made as I had hoped.

Titanic
12/21/97 - Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet. I have to admit that this movie is pretty impressive. It is definitely a "chick flick" with a sweeping love story unfolding on the Titanic's maiden (and only) voyage. What can I say, I like any movie that's well done whether it be action, tear-jerker, or whatever. Although I hate to admit it, I do get emotionally tore up over some of these types of movies (it's rough sitting in a theatre trying to retain that "yeah, I'm a tough guy" look when your nose starts running during a tear-jerker scene). Due to it's over three hour length, I don't know if it can make back it's money, or not.....but I would bet that it will do all right. The special effects are done extremely well (but I'm not gonna lie and say that "all" of the CGI effects were completely unnoticeable) and most of them were done to look completely like real life as opposed to making impossible things seem real. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail (we all know that it's about a big boat that sinks) but I will say that I was swept along for the ride. Director James Cameron has made a grand romantic melodrama. Even though I would like to see another huge budget sci-fi or horror picture (hopefully without the "comedy" of True Lies)...I certainly appreciated his treatment of this moment of history. Definitely recommended viewing.

Scream 2
12/20/97 - Starring "some" of the same people from the original Scream (those that lived). This movie was okay. I liked it about as well as the first one. Neither are earth-shattering entries into the horror genre, but at least they made a lot of money so that maybe, just maybe, someone will make more and better horror themed flicks (but hopefully not of the mad slasher only brand). Anyway, if you do like these types of movies, this one is good enough to waste a few bucks on.

Alien Resurrection
11/29/97 - Starring Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman and other alien buffet entrees. This is another movie that I had high hopes for and awaited with anticipation. I was definitely hoping that the mistakes of Alien3 would be made up for. I will start out by saying that, yes, it is better than that sequel, but it comes nowhere close to being as enjoyable as Aliens. This one begins on a Military Vessel where the scientists have been attempting to clone Sigourney's character, Ripley, from blood brought from 200 years in the past when she was killed (in Alien3). They are attempting this not out of love for Ripley, of course, but to also clone the Alien that Ripley was carrying inside of her when she perished. Not surprisingly, they succeed, but not only do they get the alien queen that they wanted, they also get a suped-up Ripley (seems that all that DNA gets a little mixed up in cloning process). We all know what the rest of the movie is don't we boys and girls.....the alien starts breeding, the offspring escape and start wreaking havoc aboard the ship. I will not go into specific details about all of the characters, but it follows the formula pretty closely. I liked the Ripley character due to the fact that she was battling her humanity and her alien influence....at some times she couldn't give a damn about the humans around her. Once again, though, I've got to say that it had no where near the intensity that was in Aliens. Without giving away too much of the plot, I must say that one alien encounter near the end of the movie really didn't raise my appreciation of the movie much; the look of the alien involved didn't appear very well done in the special effects department and it's entire concept didn't go over very well. Final word: if you loved Alien3 and didn't care for Aliens, you will probably really enjoy this one. If you loved Aliens and hated Alien3...well...you can probably enjoy this one somewhat....just don't go in with expectations of the first sequel.

Starship Troopers
11/09/97 - Starring a lot of young actors and actresses including Casper Van Diem and Denise Richards, Neil Patrick Harris, Jake Busey and also Michael Ironside. Let me first say that my expectations were very high for this film since I realized that Paul Verhoeven did not "toddler" down the violence to get a PG-13 rating (can anyone say Jurassic Park and Sequel....just think how lame the movie JAWS would have been if Spielberg had made sure to get a PG-13 rating). One thing that I can say is that the character development and cast were very hokey. It is obviously intentionally done, however, and pokes a satiric finger at todays convergence of over the top news coverage and instant access internet coverage ( a GUI interface is even shown in many moments of the film with the cursor arrow hovering over the "would you like to know MORE" statement). Regardless of whether or not you like the characters, the movie is worth the price of admission for the battle scenes alone. As you have probably heard, the blood and gore content is way up in some of the scenes; but to me, since it was in all out attacks and vicious fighting...it didn't strike me like the gratuitous gore in B-grade slasher movies does. This seemed more in context with what was going on (at least for the most part). All that I can say is that the battles were cool. It's too bad that this movie couldn't have been made with an all-out serious approach as that would have impressed me even more and might have ranked up there with Aliens for intensity....but, alas, it was not to be. It does get high recommendations though for the special effects battles, and I could enjoy watching it again.

Switchback
11/02/97 - Starring Dennis Quaid and Danny Glover. Dennis Quaid plays an FBI investigator on the trail of a serial killer. Danny Glover is a traveler who picks up an unusual hitchhiker in Texas. The movie evolves and explains that Dennis Quaid's character has become personally involved with the serial killer when Quaid's young son is kidnapped. He becomes sort of a "rogue" agent on the hunt as he is always one step behind the killer. Switchback attempts to keep the audience guessing through somewhat convoluted character development. I thought the movie was pretty good up until the last 25 minutes or so as the climax was building. The suspension of disbelief was put to a definite test. Eventually, the movie just kind of ended abruptly without really explaining what happened to all of the characters. It's not that it lost me or that I didn't understand it; it's just that when the credits started rolling, it felt like there should have been about five more minutes of movie tying up all the details of the characters' involved. This movie almost would have been recommended, but the latter part of it makes it a no-go to me.

Gattaca
10/25/97 - Gattaca stars Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman. This movie is what I call a kind of "surreal" venture into science fiction. It is set in a future where our potential is predetermined and chosen genetically prior to our birth. Ethan Hawke portrays Vincent, whose parents conceived him the "old-fashioned" way without genetic manipulation. In this society every flake of skin, single hair, and any body fluid can determine whether or not you are a "valid" (in other words, a valid member of society) or an "invalid" (people relegated to menial labor and similar duties). Vincent is an "invalid" who dreams of becoming an astronaut. In order to do this, he must conspire to falisfy his identity with the help of an illegal organization who connects him with a "valid" who has been through an accident and who is willing, for a price, to provide samples (blood, hair, urine, etc.) to allow Vincent to assume the "valid's" identity. The movie follows Vincent as he attempts to stay one step ahead of being detected in the various random urine testings, physicals, etc. It is more of a "cerebral" thought-provoking movie with no whiz-bang special effects. I thought it was a decent flick, although it took a little getting used to the kind of "art-deco" depictions of the future (architecture, automobiles were kind of retro-styled for example).

Kiss the Girls
10/23/97 - Saw Kiss the Girls starring Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd. This is another hunt for the "psycho who kidnaps and/or kills people" thrillers. Morgan Freeman plays a Washington, DC. police detective/doctor of psychology/bestselling author who finds out that his niece is the latest in a string of missing girls near Durham, North Carolina (I think it was North) of which three have been found dead. Of course, he goes down to be a part of the case personally. Ashley Judd portrays a young intern who becomes a victim that eventually escapes after discovering that a number of the girls are still alive and being kept at an undisclosed location. She was heavily drugged while in captivity and cannot lead the police to where she was being held. She is a strong willed character and desires to take an active participation in the hunt for her abductor. The movie basically is the continued search for clues and attempts to find the killer's location to save the girls that are still alive. There were the typical "red herring" shots of various characters in the film designed to make you wonder if "this person" could be the killer. Over all, there were no completely earth-shattering plot twists that surprised the heck out of me. I did like Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd in their roles. Although the movie did not deviate from the typical thriller "formula" it was entertaining and I would recommend it.

The Devil's Advocate
10/18/97 - Went and saw The Devil's Advocate starring Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves. This was a pretty good flick in my opinion. A warning though, there are some fairly disturbing scenes that might easily offend people from a religious viewpoint (and also a couple of potentially sexually offensive scenes also). Of course, were talking about the devil and evil anyway, so don't be shocked and say that you weren't expecting it if you choose to see it. Al Pacino appeared like he was having fun going over the top in another one of his trademarked outspoken sleaze roles. Keanu Reeves performed adequately well as a Florida defense lawyer that could and would do whatever it took to win regardless of his conscience. Pacino plays the lead partner in a huge international conglomerate law firm based in New York. Most of the movie takes place after Keanu is brought to New York with his wife and convinced to go to work for the firm. The movie follows Keanu's character as his marriage disintigrates and other forces seem to be at work in manipulating him. It becomes obvious early in the movie that there are supernatural forces involved rather than just simple human evil. There are some attempts at plot surprises, but none were that unexpected to me. But, all in all, I did enjoy it.