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mworkhoven
Reviews
Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
This film sucks!
Big Trouble in Little China definitely has it's moments, most of which come courtesy of Kurt Russell and his entertainingly goofy performance. However, the film is neither funny enough to score as a comedy, nor exciting enough to make any impact as a good action movie. Sure, John Carpenter may have meant the silly monsters and incomprehensible plot to be part of the joke. But as any good comedian would tell you, if you have to explain the joke, then it's time to get off the stage. And in this film, not only does Carpenter explain the joke, but wrote endless pages and pages and PAGES of dialogue full of mystical hooey. Every time someone opens their mouth to explain something, the film makes less sense than before. This "joke" gets old fast. As for the action, it's well-staged, but you never feel that any of the characters are ever in danger. It's certainly nothing to write home about, especially compared to superior films like the Indian Jones films, or the many Hong Kong films that Carpenter rips off here. The film has a cult following of people who seem convinced that this was all part and parcel of Carpenter's plan, but personally I think he just made a bad action comedy, and is now trying to rationalize it by saying it was SUPPOSED to be bad all along. Still, at least it wasn't boring, so all is not lost.
Mark
Law & Order: Criminal Intent: Weeping Willow (2006)
What a stupid episode!
Normally, I'm a fan of L&O CSI. It follows a pretty standard formula, just like all the Law and Order shows. Usually, this renders reliably solid episodes. But "Weeping Willow" has easily the worst ending the entire franchise has done since Serena was fired and then revealed to be a lesbian on her last ten seconds on the show. You just look at the screen and wonder what the heck the screenwriters were thinking. In this episode, "Willow" stages her own kidnapping and broadcasts it on the internet, begging viewers to spend more money on her web site, or she'll be killed by her abductors. When she's revealed to be a fake, she becomes a celebrity with a movie deal and lands an interview with Larry King. (King does yet another of his self-indulgent cameos playing himself.) I know that Law and Order does stories that are "ripped from the headlines." Of course, that completely nullifies all of their disclaimers at the end of every show that "Any similarities to any persons....is entirely coincidental," but oh well. That's all well and good, because the show usually takes pains to be at least halfway realistic. In the real world, people who fake their own kidnappings are publicly despised, then charged and arrested. They're not feted with movie deals and fawning interviews. In fact, it would be impossible because of laws that don't allow people to profit from their crimes. You'd think that would be especially true in a case where real people got extorted, mutilated and killed in the course of the hoax, as is the case in this episode. In it's own cynical way, this episode was about as realistic as an episode of Gilligan's Island. Terrible.