|
|
|
Romeo + Juliet (1996)
: :Baz Luhrmann (Strictly Ballroom) takes a shot at reinventing Shakespeare's story of star-crossed lovers as a visual pastiche inspired by MTV imagery, Hong Kong action-picture clichés, and Luhrmann's own taste for deliberate, gaudy excess. The result is explosive chaos, both in terms of bullets and visual sensibility, which some may find impossible to stick with for more than a few minutes. Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes play the leads, though not with much distinction, while Pete Postlethwaite makes a huge impression as this movie's version of Friar Laurence. The film is successful in ...
|
|
|
King of the Hill
: :Baz Luhrmann (Strictly Ballroom) takes a shot at reinventing Shakespeare's story of star-crossed lovers as a visual pastiche inspired by MTV imagery, Hong Kong action-picture clichés, and Luhrmann's own taste for deliberate, gaudy excess. The result is explosive chaos, both in terms of bullets and visual sensibility, which some may find impossible to stick with for more than a few minutes. Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes play the leads, though not with much distinction, while Pete Postlethwaite makes a huge impression as this movie's version of Friar Laurence. The film is successful in ...
|
|
|
Falling in Love
: :Baz Luhrmann (Strictly Ballroom) takes a shot at reinventing Shakespeare's story of star-crossed lovers as a visual pastiche inspired by MTV imagery, Hong Kong action-picture clichés, and Luhrmann's own taste for deliberate, gaudy excess. The result is explosive chaos, both in terms of bullets and visual sensibility, which some may find impossible to stick with for more than a few minutes. Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes play the leads, though not with much distinction, while Pete Postlethwaite makes a huge impression as this movie's version of Friar Laurence. The film is successful in ...
|
|
|
Hackers
: :As a depiction of the computer-hacker underground, this movie is bogus to the bone. As a thriller, it's cartoonish and conventional. The premise (computer-happy kids hack into the wrong system, and the Forces of Repression come after them) is recycled from John Badham's 1983 WarGames. And the corporate-creep bad guy, played by Fisher Stevens, steeples his fingers and growls mossy villainous clichés. ('By the time they realize the truth, we'll be long gone with all the money.') For all its postmodern trappings the movie is working with sub-prehistoric storytelling tools. But it does ...
|
|
|
My Blue Heaven
: :The idea is clever but the movie can't seem to pull its comic weight: Steve Martin plays a mob informer who is placed in the witness-protection program and doesn't fit into the suburban California life the Feds have picked out for him. Rick Moranis is the FBI agent assigned to protect him. Martin mugs his way through the role of an Italian wise guy from the New York streets, but his performance is never more than an impersonation. The script leaves a lot to be desired, as well. Director Herbert Ross (The Turning ...
|
|
|
Soldier's Daughter Never Cries
: :The idea is clever but the movie can't seem to pull its comic weight: Steve Martin plays a mob informer who is placed in the witness-protection program and doesn't fit into the suburban California life the Feds have picked out for him. Rick Moranis is the FBI agent assigned to protect him. Martin mugs his way through the role of an Italian wise guy from the New York streets, but his performance is never more than an impersonation. The script leaves a lot to be desired, as well. Director Herbert Ross (The Turning ...
|
|
|
My Blue Heaven
: :The idea is clever but the movie can't seem to pull its comic weight: Steve Martin plays a mob informer who is placed in the witness-protection program and doesn't fit into the suburban California life the Feds have picked out for him. Rick Moranis is the FBI agent assigned to protect him. Martin mugs his way through the role of an Italian wise guy from the New York streets, but his performance is never more than an impersonation. The script leaves a lot to be desired, as well. Director Herbert Ross (The Turning ...
|
|
|
Bring It On (Special Edition)
: :Sunny, happy Torrance (Kirsten Dunst) is the new leader of the Toros, the cheerleading squad of Rancho Carne, an affluent San Diego high school that has lousy football players but one hell of a cheerleading team. National champions, they're the ones who bring in the bodies to the football games with their award-winning moves and sassy grace, and they're poised to take their sixth national cheer title. Torrance's new reign as cheer queen, though, is cut short when she discovers that her snotty, duplicitous forerunner was regularly stealing routines from the East Compton ...
|
|
|
King of the Hill
: :Sunny, happy Torrance (Kirsten Dunst) is the new leader of the Toros, the cheerleading squad of Rancho Carne, an affluent San Diego high school that has lousy football players but one hell of a cheerleading team. National champions, they're the ones who bring in the bodies to the football games with their award-winning moves and sassy grace, and they're poised to take their sixth national cheer title. Torrance's new reign as cheer queen, though, is cut short when she discovers that her snotty, duplicitous forerunner was regularly stealing routines from the East Compton ...
|
|
|
Far From Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog
: :A boy (Jesse Bradford) and his yellow Labrador are marooned on a wilderness island in British Columbia and must find their way home through uncharted forests. This is a story about friendship and personal strength, focusing on the relationship between a boy and his dog as they battle the elements, the terrain and, of course, wild animals in their effort to find their way home and survive their harsh surroundings. Director Philip Borsos has a nice eye for those Ansel Adams-like moments--but scenery only carries a movie so far and this movie asks ...
|
|