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Reviews
25 B.C.: The Best of 25 Years of Billy Connolly (1992)
Billy at his best...
If you've never heard or seen Billy Connolly's comedy routine, THIS is just the thing to start you off on the right track. Here in all their glory are some very memorable sketches and stand-up scenes and monologues spanning his first 25 years in show biz. In the early skits, you have to get used to the man's broad Scot accent but you'll notice that he eventually irons this out and he tries hard to 'modify' the way he talks, especially in the later scenes which are taken from 'live' US TV appearances. The skit which hits the mark on this particular point is taken from the popular Brit comedy show 'Not The 9 o'clock News' where his future wife Pamela Stephenson asks him, in a quite ridiculously incoherent accent, "...Billy, I understand that when you first came to England, people had trouble understanding your accent... is that true?" to which Billy, trying hard not to laugh, says "Sorry?" The jokes and skits come thick and fast and there's never a dull moment. Get and see!
The Watcher (2000)
An 'unknown' director AND Keanu Reeves... I should have known better!
Well I should have known better... seeing the previews of this movie I thought "FINALLY... a Keanu Reeves movie I might actually LIKE!" (in the preview, he doesn't talk much, does he?... THAT helps!) Alas, it was not to be! Poor James Spader's efforts (he's VERY good in his role) are overshadowed by Reeves and his by-now trademark deadpan, lifeless, in a total monotone delivery and character-free performance. The film descends in total stupidity in a scene where the 'killer' (just 2 murders in a whole movie!) meets the detective on the latter's lover's grave and... offers him a beer!!! What a bad actor... IF you could call him that! Why didn't they get Jack Nicholson, Nicolas Cage, James Woods or even Michael Keaton to play the killer? Why would anyone THINK that Reeves is convincing in ANY role? As for Marisa Tomei, she is hopelessly and criminally under-used and anyone could have played her character. My advice? Don't waste time and money on this. It starts promising enough and the first murder is pretty well-worked out, but then the movie runs out of steam and ideas in a disappointing final scenario. Don't say you weren't warned!
American Psycho (2000)
A must see?????
The credits start rolling up at the end of this movie... me and my wife Misty looked at each other and just said "What the #&%@ was THAT???" I don't know about any of you others, but whoever gave it a 10 must either a) have seen another movie and got on THIS page by mistake or b) is a Christian Bale fan! Whatever the reason, the whole movie was NOT worth my time!
Jack Frost (1998)
'Rocker' Keaton...
What I thought was essentially a kids' movie turned out to be a much more pleasurable experience. I know, I may be biased a bit towards anything MK-related, however even my best friend (who was with me at the time when we saw it) liked it a lot, even if we saw it closer to Summer rather than Christmas (it came out in Malta, Europe - where I was still living at the time - like some 6 months after it came out in the US!). Anyway, Michael Keaton yet again gives a great performance as a 'snow'man trying quite desperately to make up for lost time. Kelly Preston is good too as his wife and the kid is ok-ish (we've seen much better kid actors, in my opinion). It's only Mark Addy who seems like a fish out of water and looks like he's only in it either because he's a friend of the director or something! He just doesn't seem to gel! All in all, a very cute and neat movie, with good work from Keaton and a rocking good soundtrack, with tracks from the boys Hanson, among others, and Keaton himself raunchily singing a couple of tracks penned by someone from Yes. Great for a night in with the family.
Without a Clue (1988)
Caine is King...
Michael Caine is, and always has been, an excellent comedian. He has done his fair share of action (the original 'Get Carter') and adventure ('The Man Who Would Be King') movies, so his obvious comedic inclinations seem to be lost in the shuffle... unfortunately! THIS (and NOT 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' - good as that Frank Oz movie is, Caine is NOT cast in the comedy role, even though he plays Steve Martin's frantic Freddie off the screen!) is the movie which brings it all back to us Caine admirers... the fact that when it comes to comic timing and delivery of hilarious one-liners, Michael Caine is the King par excellence. It also helps that he has a straight man such as the proud and majestic Ben Kingsley to bounce jokes off as well as a hilariously bumbling Lestrade (brilliantly played by American Jeffrey Jones - the scene where Kingsley directs Caine to 'go through the routine' with Lestrade in tow while he (Kingsley) does some proper investigating is near pain-inducing funny) in the background all add up to a marvellously hilarious comedy. The funny scenes come thick and fast... the dead body near the lake which Caine kicks and prods with a branch in turn, slow crescendo of music in the background stopping dead for him to say "It is MY opinion... that this man is dead!" and the crowd mutter in awe "He's a genius!"; playing the violin to a record; his 'love-hate' relationship with Kingsley's landlady; final scene on the stage fencing with an umbrella ("Buffoon, is it?") ...these and many, many more too numerous to mention make this possibly Michael Caine's best movie yet... but that's just MY opinion!