Superstar (1999)
[6] Molly Shannon is one of the funnier women to come out of Saturday Night Live the last few decades. If you agree, you'll probably find Superstar moderately entertaining. If not, this formulaic comedy could be a rough slog for…
Any Given Sunday (1999)
[4]
I really like Oliver Stone about half the time, but the show-offy style he used with Natural Born Killers and J.F.K. doesn’t service Any Given Sunday. Those other films, with their multiple perspectives and drug-induced visions, felt right to employ rapid editing and multiple media. But Any Given Sunday is (or should have been) a reality-based ensemble drama about the rigors and tribulations of everyone who works in football. Freeze-frames, stock photography of rolling thunder clouds, and ecclesiastic Moby music don’t work here — they only serve to portray football as something holy and sacred, and the players as celebrities or gods.
Career Opportunities (1991)
[4] Frank Whaley (Pulp Fiction, Field of Dreams) stars a high school grad who freeloads off his parents until a menial overnight job at Target introduces him to the love of his life, played by the stunning Jennifer Connelly (Labyrinth,…
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
[8] Tim Robbins (The Shawshank Redemption) stars as an unwitting mail room clerk thrust into the office of CEO at a mythical uber-corporation when the board members decide to send the company's stocks into a nose dive. But the board,…
Starship Troopers (1997)
[8]
Director Paul Verhoeven (RoboCop, Basic Instinct) continues his knack for combining violence, gore, dark humor and social commentary in this loose adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein’s serialized novel about humankind’s future war against a race of insect-like aliens. I can almost enjoy the movie for the action alone. It escalates beautifully, with plenty of exciting sequences and spectacular visual effects. But it’s the satirical edge that helps distinguish Starship Troopers. The whole movie is designed as a recruitment film for a fascist society. When our ‘heroes’ win in the end, the movie has its tongue firmly in cheek, dressing them as full-blown Nazis while Leni Riefenstahl-like propaganda leads us into the closing credits.
Permanent Midnight (1998)
[6] Ben Stiller gives a career-best performance in Permanent Midnight, based on Jerry Stahl's autobiographical book of the same name. As Jerry, Stiller plays a Hollywood writer whose heroin habit almost destroys him. Elizabeth Hurley and Maria Bello play romantic…
Tea with Mussolini (1999)
[8]
In pre-World War II Florence, a group of elitist British dames and a garish American art collector take in a small boy and raise him. When Britain and America enter the war several years later, the young man returns the favor by looking after the women when they’re interned by the Italian police — and helping to smuggle one of them out of the country when her nefarious husband plans to hand her over to the Gestapo. Tea with Mussolini is a semi-autobiographical tale from director Franco Zeffirelli (Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew). The script could have gained a stronger perspective by sticking more to the young man’s point of view, but the sentiment comes across beautifully and I find it impossible to resist the cast of characters.
Boxing Helena (1993)
[4] Julian Sands and Sherilyn Fenn star in this odd-ball drama about a surgeon who chops off the limbs of his feisty lady love so he can have her all to himself. I appreciate a lot of what writer/director Jennifer…
American Beauty (1999)
[5]
SPOILER REVIEW
I really liked American Beauty when it was first released. Maybe I was wooed by its quirky introspection and aesthetic achievments. Or maybe it was screenwriter Alan Ball’s fresh new way of blending the real with the surreal. Or even the meditative lilt of Thomas Newman’s trend-setting score. But whatever the reason(s), watching the film ten years later, I realize — American Beauty ain’t all that. It’s kinda whack.
The Frighteners (1996)
[6]
In this horror comedy from director Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings), Michael J. Fox stars as a charlatan ghostbuster who can communicate with the undead. After many of the local ghost community start disappearing, Fox gets roped into solving the mystery, which involves a 20-year old mass-murder at a nearby mental institution. If it sounds convoluted, it is. The narrative is over-complicated, involving too many characters and flashbacks, but there are enough elements here that you’re likely to find at least some of them interesting.