Reviews
Black Dragons (1942)
Not predictive, not interesting, just baffling
First - nick-623, Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941, not 1942. They didn't have to predict the bombing.
Second - did nobody notice these six industrialist/lawyers/whatever were missing for a rather long amount of time? They were killed *before* the surgery took place! Third - how the heck did Lugosi get out of cabs without being seen? Fourth - why did the Japanese not just kill him, instead of putting him in jail with a convenient look-alike companion and his surgical kit? Fifth - oh, what's the use? This movie has a few interesting moments in it, but by the time they explain what's going on, you'll probably have stopped watching. If not, you won't care.
La marche de l'empereur (2005)
Love, maybe - but I have to wonder
This was certainly a visually stunning movie, but I was left with questions that weren't answered. There seemed to be a lot of males wandering around without eggs, and females, later, without chicks. Do they actually stick around if they aren't raising their own, instead of returning to the ocean? Do they adopt orphans, those mothers who return to find their mate dead or their chick frozen because it hatched too early or those fathers who return to albatross-eaten chicks: do they adopt the chicks whose mother/father never came back from the seal-haunted ocean? Or do those just die? I also wonder why, if losing a chick is so "unbearable", the females just stand around watching as the albatross attacks the chicks. Their "love" for their chicks certainly seems narrow, if deep. But unanswered questions are okay... Oh, yes - I also wonder what kind of lens they were shooting that leopard seal with: generally they aren't but twice as long as emperor penguins (up to 10 feet, with the birds nearly 4), and that one looked immense. (And speaking of the seals - they have babies, too!) My real quibble was with the relentless personification of the environment. Winter isn't really trying to kill off the penguins, I mean, come on. It's just weather - it's not some malevolent spirit. Still, the movie is good - stunningly shot - and the penguins are pretty amazing creatures. Do yourself a favor and watch this.
Law & Order (1990)
not as good as it was, but still among the best
"Law & Order" is one of the best programs on television, though, to be frank, I enjoy the older reruns A&E shows than the newer ones. It's not as gritty as it was. It used to focus on the tough problems, class and power issues; now it's more white-collar, upper-middle class issues. And I have to say that I miss the hell out of Mike Logan (who was *brilliantly* portrayed by Chris Noth in what was and remains the best performance of the show), and can't stand his replacement -- I got used to Lennie easily, though I liked Phil a lot, but Curtis makes me miss Max Greevey. I haven't had the same problem with the changing DAs ... and I think the new one will balance Jack McCoy better than the rest did. True, the strength of the DAs (especially Sam Waterson's hungry McCoy) usually makes the second half of the show better than the first, which wasn't always the case. But, even in its new, "lite" version, and even with Curtis, "Law & Order" is head and shoulders above any other crime show out there, and nearly any other show, period. It's tightly written, intricate and involving, and I never miss it.
The Peacemaker (1997)
enjoyable "save mid-Manhattan" flick
This movie was pretty good. A lot of it's been done before, but not with such enjoyable actors in the main roles. The hunt for the missing nukes in a devasted Transcaucasus was well done, and the use to which the final missing nuclear trigger was to be put was pretty original. They weren't saving the world, just a few choice square miles of mid-Manhattan, which was refreshing. Also refreshing was George Clooney in a different role, one he handled well. I enjoyed it a lot.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
unnecessary and nearly unwatchable sequel
This movie commits a sin even if viewed as a stand-alone: It compels the characters to act stupidly in order to move the plot along. Case in point: a big-game hunter that doesn't realise that predators can follow the blood trail of their young. Another: a wildlife photographer who tries to pet the animals! Geeze. And Malcolm's daughter is a walking cliche. But what's worse, it violates the rules for sequels. It's not new, in any way (except to show us new dinosaurs, like the stegosauruses or the pterodactyls (pteranodons? either way, just how did Hammond intend to exhibit THEM? No roofs on Jurassic Park as I recall...), and it actually contradicts the original. For instance, Hammond flat out told us that EVERY dinosaur in the park was hatched in his lab under his personal supervision. So what's with this island? Again, the kids in JP did not act like children of the father JP:TLW showed us; they very definitely expected adult men to take care of them. "He left us! He left us!" cried Lexie in complete betrayal; that girl's father was around. So what happened? Another? How about the man who was "always on the lookout for another future ex-Mrs Malcolm" being presented to us a committed boyfriend? For that matter, Malcolm was the least likely person from JP to be the hero. And the whole "T Rex in California" bit ... doesn't work. There are a few nice scenes, but 2 minutes of dinosaur footage doesn't redeem this movie. Just watch the original again.
ER (1994)
Thank You TNT - ER is wonderful!
I missed out on this show until TNT began re-running it from the beginning... another reason I love TNT. ER is probably the best serial drama on TV, rivalled only by Babylon 5. The characters are three dimensional, brilliantly written and acted; their growth is real and engrossing. Even the ones you hate are compelling.... wow. NBC finally got "must see" right.
Jurassic Park (1993)
good movie, not great, but good, with wonderful effects
This movie contains a pretty tense flight from the raptors, starting with the kitchen and moving on, an evocative and frightening scene. But I like it more for some of the little bits, starting with the characters. Of course, Hammond has to be a nice old man, not an SOB as in the book, and of course the paleos have to be romantically involved (this is a movie), but the actors carry these cliches pretty well. Sam Neill is always reliable, and he has three of my favorite scenes: the sheer mindnumbing wonder of the first look at the apatosaurus; his raptures over the "flight" of the ornithopods; and my favorite line in the whole movie -- when Lexie cries out, completely betrayed, "He left us! He left us!" he responds, so sincerely that you really believe it would convince her, "But that's NOT what I'M gonna do." Great special effects, the dinosaurs seem to be real, and good action. The film is marred by the ending, which is, in fact, just that: an end. Not a resolution, just a stop. Clearly the door was being left open for the sequel, which is too bad on two levels -- not only does it cause JP to suffer, but the thing itself (The Lost World) was unwatchable.
Exiled (1998)
excellent movie, well-acted and -written, and engrossing
I'm not sure how captivating this movie would be for those who didn't love Mike Logan from the first 5 years of "Law & Order". I *think* Chris Noth did a brilliant job conveying Mike's sense of loss, despair, and alienation, but then again, I've missed him sorely from the series. But, even without that background, "Exiled" is a tightly-written and well-acted police procedural, tracking between Staten Island (the scene of Mike's exile) and Manhattan (his lost and desired home), and through the stormy emotional terrain of Mike's mind. The case -- a murdered prostitute -- is far less important than the things it leads them to: a sociopathic mobster and a crooked cop in Mike's old precinct, and even those aren't quite as compelling as the battle Mike fights with his own obsessive desire to get back to his old way of life. In the end, that desire demands more than Mike could ever have dreamed... and the end of the film is painfully real. The Staten Island Ferry visually dominates the film, as is appropriate, as it symbolises Mike's in-between state. And the contrast between the suburban streets of Staten Island and the city (especially for those who remember the episode "God Bless the Child" and Mike's comments about small-town policing) were well done. In fact, the movie was filled with resonating triplets: Staten Island-the ferry-Manhattan; Cragen-Stopher-Van Buren (Mike's bosses); his three partners (past and present); the three women (the wife, the victim, the sister)... and these added to the depth. In short, this is far, far more than a long L&O episode.
Meet Joe Black (1998)
unacknowledged remake - see the original instead
"Meet Joe Black" is a remake of "Death Takes a Holiday". Brad Pitt is no Frederic March, and nothing else about this movie really measures up to the original. I guess if you haven't seen that one, you'll like this -- but I'd urge you to save your money and get or see the 1934 version instead. It's far more beautifully filmed, and better acted (though Anthony Hopkins gives a good performance in "Meet Joe Black"). Even the tag lines - "Joe's" No One Can Die -- While He Loves! and "Holiday's" No One Can Die -- While He Makes Love! -- are identical, given the shift in meaning for the phrase "make love" in the last 60 years. I don't necessarily hate remakes, but I do hate it when they pretend they aren't ... and this one isn't as good, not nearly as good, as the original.
Rough Riders (1997)
an excellent, tense, accurate movie
"Rough Riders", despite the constraints forced by trying to put six months into three hours, is the best Spanish-American War movie, possibly the best war movie, I've seen in years. Tom Berengar's Teddy Roosevelt and Gary Busey's 'Fighting Joe' Wheeler are splendid evocations of two rather well-known men, replete with little details that bring them to life. The focus of the film, however, is on two ordinary troopers: Brad Davis's Henry Nash, a composite of the trooper from the Territories with a real Rough Rider's name, and Chris Noth's Craig Wadsworth -- one of the Park Avenue contingent, who enlisted as a trooper and mustered out as a sergeant. A few liberties have been taken, mostly by merging several men into one (eg, Richard Harding Davis is merged with Edward Marshall) or slightly misordering or misascribing actions to keep the characters down to a manageable and recognisable few (Marshall was shot at Las Guasimas, Tiffany actually died of fever), and the regiment's return to Montauk is left out, but overall tone of the movie is of scrupulous accuracy. It's a wonderful film; the Charge of the San Juan Heights will make you feel what war was like a century ago. Highly recommended.
One Fine Day (1996)
surprisingly enjoyable, pleasant romantic comedy
George Clooney (playing someone rather like though not identical to his ER character) and Michelle Pfeiffer play a pair of lonely single parents, both afraid to get close to someone and be hurt again. No big surprise, when they end up having to split child-watching duties on one hectic day, they go from attraction-disguised-as-hostility to falling in love. But hey, it's a romantic comedy. Just because you know where you're going doesn't mean the journey's not a lot of fun. All four of the main characters (parents and kids) are attractive and multi-faceted, and the misadventures are funny and touching, both. The kids are real people, the lines are funny, the chemistry works... this isn't a *great* movie, but you could spend two hours a lot worse. Check it out.
The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)
A tense, intense, and spooky hunt
"The Ghost and the Darkness" is a marvellous movie, in the literal sense: the lions come out of the long grass in the daylight or the groundfog in the darkness like the devils they are thought to be. No true motives are ascribed to them, as how could they be?, and that actually serves to make them more demonically terrifying. But whether they are the devils come to prevent Val Kilmer's Patterson from building his bridge, or merely (!) animals hunting for the pleasure of it, they provide more suspense, more terror, and more death than most high-tech cgi aliens. Michael Douglas's Remington, dispossessed of home and family in the American civil war, is an interesting character, but it's Kilmer's British bridge-builder in a time where engineers had to know how to shoot tigers and manage Hindu-Muslim conflicts fully as much as how to put up their structures, who is the focus of the film, and rightly so. Kilmer's performance is quiet, almost understated, but one of the best I've seen him give; he's fully convincing, especially as he fights the belief that the lions are, in fact, out to get him personally. "They are just lions," he says halfway through the movie, and you can hear how much he wants to believe it. John Kani also gives a good performance, contained mostly in small moments that are so true they almost hurt. The cinematography is beautiful, especially the of the lion attacks and their passages through the grass. Again, no cgi effects could convey so much beauty and lurking menace. This movie is beautiful, intense, and dramatic; I highly recommend it.
Rough Riders (1997)
an excellent, tense, accurate movie
"Rough Riders", despite the constraints forced by trying to put six months into three hours, is the best Spanish-American War movie, possibly the best war movie, I've seen in years. Tom Berengar's Teddy Roosevelt and Gary Busey's 'Fighting Joe' Wheeler are splendid evocations of two rather well-known men, replete with little details that bring them to life. The focus of the film, however, is on two ordinary troopers: Brad Davis's Henry Nash, a composite of the trooper from the Territories with a real Rough Rider's name, and Chris Noth's Craig Wadsworth -- one of the Park Avenue contingent, who enlisted as a trooper and mustered out as a sergeant. A few liberties have been taken, mostly by merging several men into one (eg, Richard Harding Davis is merged with Edward Marshall) or slightly misordering or misascribing actions to keep the characters down to a manageable and recognisable few (Marshall was shot at Las Guasimas, Tiffany actually died of fever), and the regiment's return to Montauk is left out, but overall tone of the movie is of scrupulous accuracy. It's a wonderful film; the Charge of the San Juan Heights will make you feel what war was like a century ago. Highly recommended.