Jim-396 Reviews

With Friends Like These (1998)

A Fun Little Film

[8/10 · 25 February 2005]

I just saw this film in its 2005 re-release. It's really a fun little film, with quite a few laughs and lots of great moments among a really amazing, well-chosen cast.

It's so much smarter than the average Hollywood film -- which may have been its problem when released?! Who knows why studios do what they do -- and apparently, they didn't do this film justice in 1998 (after all, it has an ensemble cast where -- gasp -- no one is under 30!)

As both a writer and an Italian-American, I got perhaps an extra kick out of the story, which is about survival in Hollywood for these four actor characters and their families -- but the film's humor and theme of friendship is truly universal.

Chicago (2002)

Thoroughly electrifying

[10/10 · 4 December 2002]

"Chicago" is thoroughly electrifying, and Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renee Zellweger are amazing (and I didn't necessarily expect them to be.) The staging and camera work is incredible -- so much so that I enjoyed the movie more than the stage version, which is saying a lot. The one less-than-perfect, although not too bad, note was Richard Gere, whose singing voice is a bit odd -- he's not up to the caliber of the two leading ladies.

The Banger Sisters (2002)

Goldie and Susan make a fun pair

[7/10 · 27 August 2002]

A cute film which, although thematically covering some familiar ground, capitalizes on the innate adorableness of Goldie Hawn and the likeability of Susan Sarandon, and plays them off each other nicely. The film also contains an unexpected number of laughs.

For fans of Goldie, the film is particularly enjoyable -- here you see her definitely looking older, but refreshingly, that's part of the character, so she doesn't have to fight it.

Another interesting note is that you could say that Goldie is playing her daughter Kate Hudson's part Penny Lane from "Almost Famous" -- but thirty years later.