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Reviews
The World Is Not Enough (1999)
A no brainer, and not terribly original, but fun.
If I had to pick one word to describe Bond film #19, The World is not Enough, it would be "reliable". Its not that its a bad movie, it was fun in a popcorn movie kind of way. It has all the Bond requirements, lots of cool gadgets, gunfire, explosions and babes, it just didn't really offer anything new. All this for me equals a good movie, but not a great movie. The performances were all good except for Denise Richards, who wasn't really bad, per se, just not believable as a nuclear physicist. I mean come on, I'd buy Woody Allen as a heavy weight boxing champ before I've believe Richards as a scientist. Its a small quibble really though because Bond films have never exactly been known for believability. Speaking of believability, the only other major problem I have with this movie is that the method that the baddies plan on blowing up Instanbul with is not only unbelievable, its downright impossible. But again, who am I to expect a Bond film to conform to pesky things like physics. Overall though its a "check your brain at the door" good time. I give The World is not Enough a 7 / 10.
Pushing Tin (1999)
Not a great movie, but still a pretty good one.
*Warning, this review contains one minor spoiler, don't read on if you haven't seen the film.
The only overtly bad thing I can say about Pushing Tin is that I seriously doubt someone could get blown around like leaves in the wind by a 747's jet wash and not at least sustain some sort of major injury. But other than that and a few minor pacing problems, I really liked it. John Cusack is, as always, funny, sympathetic and utterly believable. Billy Bob Thornton is cool and enigmatic. And the constant competition between their two characters is a joy to watch. Cate Blanchet was incredible and her accent was flawless, and Angelina Jolie, though not given a lot to do, was still more than adequate. While it could perhaps have played the humor card more often, it was nonetheless quite interesting. I was never bored throughout its two hour running time. Its not going to win any awards, but it definitely deserves a look.
Mission: Impossible II (2000)
A perfect example of what's wrong with action movies today.
SPOILER WARNING What's wrong with this movie? Where do I begin? Let's start with the fact that the storyline is a direct rip-off of Hitchcock's "Notorious". You have a beautiful woman being recruited to gain the confidence of a past love, a quick romance between our hero and heroine, a search for a deadly secret, and her life hanging in the balance. Hitchcock did it first and did it best.
Then there's the fact that John Woo has outlived his usefulness as a "cutting edge" director. He's overused his trademarks to the point where they've have become old and cliche. The slow motion shots have lost their effectiveness and the doves are just downright annoying.
And lastly, he has taken the concept of suspension of disbelief to new lows. Moviegoers today are educated enough to know that when they see an action movie, they're going to see unbelievable action sequences and unrealistic plot twists. John Woo treated the audiences of this movie as brain-dead 13 year old boys. Only adolescent males could have enjoyed the overdone slow motion, the guns that never run out of ammunition, the overwrought face masks, and the impossible reverse wheelies with the motorcycles.
In other words, if you're an prepubescent pyromaniac who believes everything you see, you'll love it. For the rest of us, I would recommend a road trip with your in-laws over this complete waste of time.
Nightbreed (1990)
A flawed but otherwise fun movie.
Nightbreed is probably one of the best film adaptations of Clive Barker's work. Having said that, Nightbreed is not a great movie. Overall I like it, but lets face it, so far Clive Barker's written works have not translated well to film. The makeup and creature effects are excellent. The sets for the most part were very effective as well, especially Midian, both above and below ground. The story is pretty good too, although without the deeper philosophical concepts found in the book it has a sort of "been there, done that" feel, but for the most part it works. I also like the core idea behind the story and how it makes you question what really makes a monster.
The movie's not without flaws though, and they're big ones too. First of all the movie's pacing is very uneven, sometimes moving a good clip, and at others dragging a bit. Another big problem is the performances, a couple are pretty good. David Cronenberg for example is suitably creepy, in an understated sort of way, but most of the rest of the cast is somewhat disappointing. They're not horrible, just a little too flat and wooden. I supposed the biggest flaw for me though was the editing. Many scene transitions were very abrupt giving Nightbreed a choppy almost unfinished feel.
I must say again though that I do overall like Nightbreed, it was not as good as the book, though its pretty rare that a film is as good as the book on which it is based. I've found this to be especially true of the horror genre. Its just really difficult to duplicate the images a good horror writer can generate in your mind on film, I suppose. If your a fan of Barker, or of horror in general you'd probably like this one. However if horror is not your cup of tea, or you have a weak stomach Nightbreed is probably not for you.
All the Rage (1999)
A complete waste of an otherwise talented cast. Avoid this one.
Even if I agreed with All the Rage's blatant anti-gun agenda (I don't) I would still have to say that it sucks. Its kind of sad too, because I really like most everyone in this movie, but as we all know the best actors in the world cannot save a lame script and ham handed direction. It baffles me how they talked such a talented group of actors into working on this piece of rubbish. Must have been a heck of a sales pitch. Allegedly a comedy, I didn't laugh once while watching All the Rage. The attempts at humour were not only severely unfunny, they were downright embarrassing. To add insult to injury the characters in this film were completely unrealistic and not at all sympathetic. I didn't care about these people at all.
I'm a huge fan of black comedies and given the cast I had high hopes for All the Rage. Unfortunately I was very disappointed. I shouldn't have been surprised, being a direct to video release. It wasn't that I was expecting another Pulp Fiction or Trainspotting, I was just hoping for something entertaining, this film was a complete waste of time.
Getting back to the film's "agenda", I've found that most anti-gun people really know very little about guns and gun owners. All they really know is the heavily distorted misinformation spoon fed them by anti-gun lobbies. What they don't tell you is that 99.99% of gun owners are sane, responsible, safety conscious, good and perfectly normal people. They also don't tell you that in every single state that has passed laws allowing concealed carry (there are 27 at last count), violent crime has dropped by as much as 50%. Whether you, the reader, agree with me or not, just think about it logically. If guns are so evil and the cause of crime and chaos, how is it that over the last 30 years gun ownership has steadily increased, and gun related crime has steadily decreased? If you don't believe look it up yourself at the Department of Justice (DOJ), which is neither pro or anti-gun and therefore impartial.
Again my feelings about the "anti-gun" agenda aside, agenda or no, this is still a very bad movie. Don't waste your time.