At least distributors in the United States and England seem to have realized that just because it has an Oscar winning actor in it (William Hurt) doesn't indicate that it deserves to darken a movie theater's door. He's the father of the ten year old mute/deaf girl who witnesses a murder, unaware that the killer is after her now. Jennifer Tilly is struggling hard to be non-quirky as her mother, and fails miserably. The film has so many flaws that starts with the insinuation of the native Amsterdam residents that everybody in town speaks English, with absolutely no trace of anything that indicates an accent. Poor Denis Leary gives an embarrassing performance as the girl's rescuer, talking nonstop and being absolutely annoying and completely unfunny.
Then there's the mixture of action with very inappropriate cartoonish comedy, so out of place that I sat there close mouthed with only eye rolls and head shakes moving on my face. This asks, "What were they thinking?", and "Can movies get any worse than this?" Pronably, but it would be awfully difficult. This will manage to stay off my worst films released in the United States that year, only because it didn't get a release other than possibly late night cable TV and home video where the store buyers most likely shrugged and avoided the purchase. The viewer nowadays has the resources they didn't have in 1999, so avoiding this becomes a much easier choice. Definitely the stinker of everybody involved's career and far worse than the 1/10 rating indicates.
Then there's the mixture of action with very inappropriate cartoonish comedy, so out of place that I sat there close mouthed with only eye rolls and head shakes moving on my face. This asks, "What were they thinking?", and "Can movies get any worse than this?" Pronably, but it would be awfully difficult. This will manage to stay off my worst films released in the United States that year, only because it didn't get a release other than possibly late night cable TV and home video where the store buyers most likely shrugged and avoided the purchase. The viewer nowadays has the resources they didn't have in 1999, so avoiding this becomes a much easier choice. Definitely the stinker of everybody involved's career and far worse than the 1/10 rating indicates.