[5] A young woman (Kathleen Robertson) starts dating two different men, a writer and a drummer (Johnathon Schaech and Matt Keeslar), and can’t give one up, so she invites them to be a threesome. And it works until she falls in love with a third man (Eric Mabius) who has more money and a more promising future. Splendor wants you to fall in love with the …
[6] Clint Eastwood tackles one of the most hackneyed of all movie subgenres, the race-the-clock death row rescue thriller, and breathes at least enough life into it to keep you engaged. Isaiah Washington puts in a good performance as the innocent man sentenced to die. His scenes with his wife (Lisa Gay Hamilton) and daughter are the movie’s best. The cast also features Denis Leary, …
[6] Breakthroughs in technology make the aural component of this sequel superior to the first, while advances in computer-generated imagery often leave Fantasia 2000 feeling cold and clunky. I like the abstract butterfly battle set to Beethoven’s 5th and the Al Hirschfeld inspired New York sequence set to “Rhapsody in Blue,” but the rest of the program is lackluster at best. Flying CGI whales set …
[5] Screenwriter Kevin Williamson (Scream, Dawson’s Creek) made his directorial debut with this surprisingly mediocre horror flick about three high school students who kidnap a teacher to try and force her to reconsider a failing grade. Helen Mirren musters some wicked charm as the title character, but the trio of teen characters played by Katie Holmes, Marisa Coughlan, and Barry Watson are surprisingly flat, especially …
[6] It’s shiny and exciting to look at, a gorgeous smorgasbord of fantastic sets, wardrobe, make-up, and visual effects. But it’s also grotesquely over-produced, almost turning these assets into something garish and distracting. It’s a shame the considerable talents of Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, and Natalie Portman couldn’t be put to better use. All three appear insufferably constrained in their roles. Jake Lloyd as young …
[7] Of all the edgy, non-linear pretenders to the throne that came in the wake of Pulp Fiction, Doug Liman’s Go may be among the best. The story weaves in and around a handful of disparate characters that interact at a grocery store before heading their separate ways. The movie keeps returning to the grocery store scene (Groundhog Day style) but follows a different character …
[8] I don’t usually like comedies or movies about making movies, so I was surprised to enjoy Bowfinger so much. Frank Oz (What About Bob?, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) directs and Steve Martin writes and co-stars with Eddie Murphy in this story about a down-and-out filmmaker who tricks his friends into making a movie starring one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Thing is, the big star doesn’t …
[7] Jeff Bridges stars in this taut thriller, playing a widower and single father who suspects his next door neighbors (Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack) may be terrorists. Director Mark Pellington works from Ehren Kruger’s tense, devious screenplay (winner of the Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting). Bridges is reliably great, taking paranoia and desperation to a whole new level — you are guaranteed to root for …
[7] In the final film from Stanley Kubrick, a socialite couple (Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman) get in over their heads when they decide to follow their adulterous impulses. This movie gets a bad rep, but I think it’s primarily because the casting of two superstars led to more commercial audience expectations. It’s a more intimate portrait than that, and beautifully made. I really love …
[8] A high school boy named Cameron (Joseph Gordon Levitt) wants the beautiful Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) to be his prom date, but the girl’s tyrannical father (Larry Miller) won’t allow it unless her vitriolic older sister, Katarina (Julia Stiles), tags along. So Cameron and his friends set out to buy Katarina a date. The mysterious bad boy of the school, Patrick (Heath Ledger), agrees to …
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