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Reviews
Fight Club (1999)
A must see for fans of "Black Comedies".
Due to the title, I figured this would be a run-of-the-mill "top of the heap" brutal piece of garbage designed to show off Brad Pitts' pecs. I never would have bothered with it if I hadn't found out that Helena Carter was in it and via a slight crush on her, I rented the thing. What a great move on my part since this is easily one of the best and blackest comedies I have had the honor of viewing in some time. The movie is filled with some of the oddest (other dimensional) characters I've run into since my junkie surge on P.K.Dick books. The "Fight Club" of the title is there and is brutal (W/ make-up by Rob Bottins - good to see his work again) but does not dominate the movie but rather is axiomatic to the Philosophy of the Brad Pitt character as well as the existential confusion/emptiness of the characters surrounding him.
There's no reason to go any further other than to say that this is a "Must see" for those of you that liked "Cemetary Man" and "Freds Dead Mom" and other works in the same vein.
Red Planet (2000)
Waste-of time all around.
I saw this in an excellent theater with swivel seats, a decent size screen, and a sound system that will blow your brains out. It's a good thing too since there seemed to be nothing else going for the movie at all. Loosely referring to it as the most "Unoriginal" and derivitive and predictable piece to come along in years, is just about "on the money". "Bowman" being in charge of the ship and AMee predictably loosing it (we always add a Military/destruct mode to our environmental robots) isn't reminiscent of any other well-known movie. I could go on like this but just suffice it to say that the characters tell it all...one and two dimensional, full of unfinished business (most of which wound up on the cutting room floor) and other than the specials for the robot, you're just wasting your time and money.
NFL Monday Night Football (1970)
Dennis Miller is a fresh addition
Those who feel or prefer that commentators of Football stick to statistics are more than likely not listening to any of them anyway, or at least not remembering any of them. I may note that there are 2 other commentators there to provide such or they can be gathered almost anywhere. Read the paper. I find Dennis Miller a fresh relief from some often boring material concerning # of 1st downs made by such and such on 3 & 7's during home games over the last 4 years only to find the stats irrelevant in this particular situation at this time against this new defense and with this new offense. Give him a chance. He isn't ignorant concerning the game either but just likes to give others their chance and expects the same from themand you.
X-Men (2000)
More Pathos than action
Being a comic-book fan, I have never been caught in the "trappings" of the X-Men fanaticism, but have been left to enjoy a story of theirs on occasion, putting me in a position of being a less critical judge of the movie and it's character rendition than many others. In a nut-shell, everyone did a fine job portraying their designated characters, the specials were very good (but when aren't they?), the action was quality stuff, etc. So what's my beef? Rogue dragged the movie down. Did Anna Paquin have a special deal with Fox or something? I enjoyed the synergy between Rogue and Logan in the beginning but it wore thin a little too quickly. W/O giving away the story, I just want to finish by saying that there must have been some other feasible way for Magneto to make his point or seek his revenge than beating an otherwise tired character to death.
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Unexpected Turn-Abouts'
Expected a movie on "evil" Sociopathic manipulation yet instead found one centering on an "Incomplete Personality" prepared, in some conditions, dangerous or otherwise, to "Complete" himself.
Many plot twists (some hard to buy) but keeps you intrigued as to why the main character (Ripley...get it..."Believe it or Not?") doesn't "bail" at any given moment. Check it out!
Scream 3 (2000)
"Shut-up" and you'll be "Okay".
No flesh so to speak of, even with Carrie Fisher, and violence is mostly endless leading to a careless attitued. A lot of "Knees Bent-Running Around" that the DVD "out-takes" adds a lot to.No one is dead until they fall through your screen. Sums it up.
Pitch Black (2000)
Left me numb and disappointed
True to the previews, "Pitch Black" had seconds of startling, "night filled with monsters", viewing as a crash-landed group of cast-aways struggle for survival on a heat soaked planet that is part of a solar system in a Trinary Star system (no...I never heard that Binarys and Trinarys couldn't support planets due to the gravitational tension). Forget the massive coincidences (that shall remain nameless) and forget the two-dimensional crew and just focus on creatures that seem to be the ONLY food chain, that fear sunlight, that know, during an eclipse, when to hoard enmass and when to give our heroes a break when the plot-line seems to need it. I won't take away from those of you that enjoyed this little "screacher", but for me, I was left numb and disappointed.
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
I went for the visuals.
About halfway through the movie, I realized that I needed to go to the bathroom and, so, simply waited for the appropriate "lull" in the action and visuals, hurried about my business, and returned to my seat to miss little, other than some of the deeper essences of the plot. This bothered neither my family or me since we went to see Tim Burtons' visuals, sets, photography, and Directing.
In the end we were quite pleased, finding the film as atmospheric as expected and caring little for a plot that was somehow expected to justify other artistic indulgences.
The Mummy (1999)
I was dragged to this movie and had a BLAST!
Expecting nothing more than tripe and the few specials shown in the adverts I brought a book with me in case I spent the last half of the movie in the lobby. I was shocked. Though it took a little time to get around to anything, the last half turned into a Raiders/Star wars/Harryhausen extravaganza. For those of you who compare it to "Raiders", think what would have happened if this came out 20 yrs ago. Now who would compare what with what?
Mighty Joe Young (1998)
Children discover a new "Fidget toy" for one and a half hours.
Having seen the original "Mighty Joe Young" many times on television while I was a young child, I couldn't resist talking my wife and 13 yr. old daughter (who brought a 4yr.old friend with her) into seeing it with me. The specials were excellent but somehow misplaced - as if the writer and Director simply "needed them" and continuously raked their minds in a "where should we use them now" fashion. The "dragging the jeep scene" left one laughing at it's lack of necessity and total predictability and disbelieving in the ineptitude and stupidity of the Tracker/Poacher deciding to try and capture "Joe" after its display of enormous strength. Most all of the kids in the theater could not sit still and ran around and sometimes rolled around endlessly in the aisles. Though Joes' "death" did get their attention indicated by some crying in the theater, it seemed like most of the film was wasted on everyone, especially the young. The trust between Bill Paxton and Joes beautiful friend never achieved a sense of reality after he said something along the lines that"I can only keep the Poachers and lookie-loos away for awhile 'cause sooner or later you'll be inundated by them." Then offering Joe a chance to relocate as if he is some sort of savior. In reality Joe had lived unmolested for 12 years and it was only the intervention of Bill Paxton that seemingly gave poachers a reason for renewed interest. Mighty Joe Young wasn't a total waste; it just would have been much better if it had had any common sense or logic in the characters or situations involved.