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Reviews
Coyote Ugly (2000)
Coyote Ugly - charming and sexy
Just thoroughly loved this movie. It gave me a big smile throughout the film. Not just because of sexy girls dancing on a bar and dousing themselves and their customers with water. Just high energy and engaging characters, and lots and lots of charm, which reminded me a lot of Outside Providence. Didn't even think Flashdance or Dirty Dancing until afterwards.
Mission to Mars (2000)
Armageddon meets 2010? not!
How could such an exciting premise be devoid of so much excitement ? Everything that should have been climactic, the rocket launch, the landing on Mars ... it's not there.
Nice acting and camaraderie, the great effect, one beautiful shot of the solar system, but the huge buildup leads to such a Contact letdown.
Have a great ride!
Pitch Black (2000)
Alien on acid
Pitch Black is definitely not a beach resort for those people don't like beach resorts. Substitute sand for space, and you have Alien reincarnation, which in my books IS a good thing.
The cinematography, camera angles, colours and effects used in Pitch Black are stunning. Some wacked Australian perspective. Radha Mitchell who was so amazing in High Art is the curvaceous crewmate thrust into the reluctant role of Captain which she continually denies to be. I will not go into plot details here, but as a photographer I loved the various lighting.
Tail Lights Fade (1999)
Go on the cheap
As much as I adore Tanya Allen who is the pillar of this film, she cannot save this film which suffers from low budget, bad camera work, low quality film stock. I have no idea how Brecken Meyer in comparison to his work in Go! could even be persuaded to join this ensemble. And Tail Lights Fade shows Denise Richards for the unBond girl she is.
Fucking Åmål (1998)
truly great and real
Show Me Love - the title used for the movie in this part of the world - so disarmingly honest and true and so real - it is to Swedish youth as American Pie was to American - only this is the type of movie that could never be made by Hollywood. Show Me Love (Robyn soundtrack song and all) is a winner. Depicting the boredom and angst and the ordinariness of the youth of a Swedish town - the teen girls in this movie could be the popular crowd in situ anywhere - there may be minor variances due to local laws such as the early drinking age - but this is teen youth with no certainties about their future - it is also about the differences between teen guys and teen girls anywhere ...
The Bone Collector (1999)
Chemistry between Denzel Washington and Angela Jolie does not transcend the ending
Not having read the book, the advertising for the Bone Collector lead me to expect something along the lines of Seven Monkeys with its macabre details. The Bone Collector is long on attempted shock and gore what with various mutilations, corpses, sadistic scaldings, and you may as a watcher find yourself trying to keep apace of Denzel Washington's sherlock holmesian deductions as he filters through the clues provided by the killer and retrieved by his new forensic partner who is his set of legs and eyes. Denzel Washington does a good turn in leading us to believe he is a bedridden quadraplegic who can only move his head and two fingers on his left hand which are seemingly permanently attached to a computer mouse. Of course I won't give anything that would constitute a spoiler -- except the stretches of imagination and serendipity that keep the story moving along do not lead to a natural satisfactory conclusion.