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lilbuffguy
Reviews
The Core (2003)
Cast outshines effects in idiotic disaster flick
Engaging performances by talented actors save this film from being nothing but a moronic excuse for some cool CGI. (Although in our age of war and disaster, making films where people suffer ad nauseum like this seems in poor taste.) You know you're in trouble when the first sequence involves ten or so people dropping dead because they have pace makers. Why would that many people with pace makers coincidentally be within the same 300 yard radius? Was there a pace maker convention? No...just the first of many preposterous plot elements.
Amidst the mess, Eckhart, Swank, and their fellow actors manage gracefully to eke some humanity from their one-note, rather wooden roles--especially Eckhart who believably plays a sensitive college professor. And the always wonderful Afre Woodard is delightful if utterly wasted. But the dialogue and plot elements just get dumber and dumber. My favorite is when our heroes--trapped in a ship with limited oxygen and time running out to save the world--allow one guy to take a cigarette break. Hello? Did everyone's brain just fall out? Oh...right...we were supposed to check them in at the door.
The movie, to its credit, does have a few of exciting action sequences. (Although some of them are silly and direct rip-offs of earlier films and one with dive-bombing birds is far too long and too sadistic--not unlike the movie in general.) And, again, what surrounds these bursts of frenetic energy is so poorly written it's not only amusing when it least intends to be but repeatedly sinks into boring clichés: whaddya know...on the journey, one by one the heroes die...just like every other Poseidon Adventure rip-off...but without Shelley Winters doing water ballet.
Let's hope for better next time.
Chicago (2002)
Fosse's fluff gets fleshed out fabulously
"Chicago" is one of those rare examples of a musical where the film actually surpasses the play. The original bare bones story of Fosse, Kander & Ebb's stage version gets developed a bit more and the surreal use of real life versus "vaudeville fantasyland" provides more guts to the dark cynicism of the piece. Even some of the musical numbers are taken further: in `They Both Reached For The Gun', for example, not only Roxie is a puppet in the hands of slick lawyer Billy Flynn, but the entire press conference crowd is a chorus of marionettes manipulated by the master of legal flim-flam. And when his tap number comes (added just for the film), it's a knock-out and gets the biggest applause.
The film tends to the claustrophobic at times and lacks the punch that all musical films do in comparison to the energy of a live performance, but everyone involved seemed to be reveling in the splashy smarm and so was the audience. Zeta-Jones, Zellweger and Gere are all surprisingly good, as are all the dancers. As was the case for `Moulin Rouge', kudos must also go to the editors and cinematographers for putting that frequently wild, dancing frenzy into something comprehensible.
Purists may or may not miss the two numbers that didn't make it from stage to screen, but the story doesn't suffer in the least. (Although, purists will most certainly miss the surprise flim-film twist of Mary Sunshine which was also dropped.) But when a musical is realized on film as well as this, it's hard to find fault in a few questionable choices when the majority have produced a film is filled with delights.or.as Billy Flynn would put it.`razzle dazzle'.
Solaris (2002)
boring, undeveloped remake is a total waste; save your money
The first five minutes of this film are so torpid and dull, you just know you're in for something. You're hoping it's a set-up to pull the rug out from under you when you least expect it. Sadly, there is no rug; the rest of the movie remains at this underwater pace all the way to its unsatisfying and hokey ending.
The premise is intriguing enough, but little is done with it. Instead of focusing on the thriller (unraveling the mystery of Solaris), the back story of Clooney and his lost love takes over. This is dull beyond belief--partly because we know it's history and partly because Clooney's lover is a character that is so moody, aloof and unsympathetic that we really don't care about her at all. What should have been one flashback--or at most a montage--becomes almost half the film. And the wrap-up of the main story ensues without answering any of the mysteries of Solaris. We never know why it does what it does. There's nothing to spoil, here, folks. Because there are no surprises.
Then, as if the content weren't dull enough, they add insult to injury by filming the thing like a student film on a shoestring budget with unending tight shots and close-ups...as though they couldn't afford any sets. With the amount of money amassed by the talent involved, this is not just annoying--it's unacceptable. If it was an attempt at an effective use of claustrophobia, it failed miserably. As does the film. We were sold a sci-fi thriller with big names at the helm. What we got is a cheap, poorly conceived, dismally executed, plodding shaggy dog story that should be used to calm ulcer patients and nothing more.