Silverskin Reviews

October Sky (1999)

Jake Gyllenhaal continues to impress

[7/10 · 18 March 2002]

I advise you not to read this review until you've seen the movie. Thank you.

It's an all-american rags-to-riches feel-good movie. But hey, there's always room for a well-played and well-written one. On more than one occasion did I feel my throat clutter up and my eyes go all stingy-like.

We like seeing people overcoming personal and practical obstacles and succeeding at what they dream of. And it's also refreshing to see one which is n-o-t about the high school football/baseball-team that's at the bottom of the series inching their way up to the final - and guess what - winning it.

Having just seen Jake Gyllenhaal in "Donnie Darko" and being blown away by his performance there, I was even more so after seeing this flick. He is a very talented young actor. A word of caution though, Jake. Please embark on more projects like "Donnie Darko" or you might become your generations Tom Hanks. Hate to see yet another great talent loose itself within the boundaries of "happy-ending-land".

Chris Cooper does a very good job portraying Jakes father, but he is so typecast in that role that certain scenes almost becomes comical. Damn you Hollywood-people for not allowing actors to grow. Damn you.

All in all, a very enjoyable film. A bit too much in the end though when he proves himself to the mining-community, reconciles with his father, realizes which girl he wants (and getting her) AND getting a scholarship. Felt a bit like the ending to the first "Karate Kid"-movie, if y'know what I mean.

7/10

Jeepers Creepers (2001)

Refreshing and totally ok.

[6/10 · 12 March 2002]

Don't read this review until after you've seen the movie!

Just finished watching Jeepers Creepers. After, as I usually do, I checked in with IMDB to see what my fellow people thought. What the hell were you people that are putting this movie down expecting?

I hadn't heard or seen anything from this movie before I saw it, and the experience reminded me of when I saw "From Dusk till Dawn", also without previous information. That movie, like this one, started off at one pace and then changed. That doesn't necessarily make this a bad movie. If it had been inconsequent, then I'd agree with that it was bad. But it wasn't.

It changed a good deal during the development of the storyline, but it didn't offer any dumbass solutions or go against itself, something that is very common within this genre. The idea with the siblings was good. Makes for a nice change from the "four-to-six-youngsters-rent-a-cabin-in-the-woods"-routine. The scaryass truck with its scaryass horn was frightening. Another good thing was that the "car chase"-scenes took place during daylight, something that made it even more disturbing. That and the fact that the first time you see the "Creeper" he is very relaxed with dumping bodies down the pipe during afternoon sun.

The fact that the brother/sister-team react realistically (your guess is as good as mine) to what they see and that they share "screenpower", that is to say one of the leads aren't naturally the "hero" or ridiculously stupid, is also refreshing. The dialogue was above par, without the usual do's and don'ts of the genre.

Also, for the people who are putting this movie down - learn to watch for what's relevant and what's not. "Where did he get his custom-made license-plates?", "Where does he keep his car?", "How can he drive the car if he hasn't put gas in it for 23 years?" Who knows? We have no information to tell us what he did before we "met" him. If you accept the fact that the antagonist is a demon, what is it about the gas that bothers you?>

I for one am glad that this movie got to be made. With the reviving of the horror-genre there's been so much unbelievable tripe that this movie, which takes an ironical, intelligent and entertaining stance, is a pleasant surprise.

My rating: 6/10

Body Shots (1999)

Intense sex, intense feelings, intense Ron Livingstone

[7/10 · 21 January 2002]

Since it's so far apart between seeing good acting, you really get surprised when it just kinda' sneaks up upon you and shows you what difference it makes.

Hollywood has spent years of making movies with bad dialog and acting whilst trying to cover it up with special FX, one-liners and retouched images of whatever actor/actress is the flava of the month. In `Body Shots' you get an incredibly knit-together group of Americas finest, all young actors that has yet to become too big for their own good. That is to say, they can still take on riskier projects that perhaps a bigger actor would be forced to turn down by their management because it would not `go with the audience'.

My personal thanks here to Sean Patrick Flanery and Amanda Peet, whom on earlier occasions showed me that they dared (or did not get any other offers, who knows :) commit to smaller and often much more rewarding ventures.

Tara Reid hasn't really impressed up till now with movies like American Pie and Urban Legends, but here she really gets a chance to act out. Usually, dramatic scenes are edited into smithereens, but all over `Body Shots' you get long, really intense sequences, with all of the cast-members showing their thespian caliber. I was also pleasantly surprised to be taken in by Chris O'Donnell's portrayal of the horny party-jock, since the last time I saw him was in the abysmal movie `Dungeons & Dragons' which kinda' put him on my black-list.

Ron Livingstone is just plain weird, and therefore, marvelous. (That Alka-Seltzer-bit is going to haunt me for a while :)

The editing is first class. In basically all movies, when you see a club-scene, you're not convinced at all. YOU know what it feels like to be in a steamy, crowded club, surrounded by (and being) people in various stages of intoxication. It's seldom portrayed with as much realism as it was here, much thanks to the clever editing. The layout of the story as a whole is also refreshing - not saying that messing up the timeline hasn't been done before - but the cut-scenes between the girls gang and the boys gang, the constant meta-perspective of the actors relaying their personal views of the meat market, and the flashbacks helps to make this movie what it is.

But what struck me most of all was the sex. I can't think about when I last saw a movie with such convincing sex-scenes. It was all the small things YOU do, but they never seem to be able to put into a movie. The sucking of fingers, the difference of intensity in kissing, the touching, the grabbing of genitalia. Now, I'm not saying that showing more always is the best way to portray sex. But when it's called for by the script and the context, then hell yes! And if you're going to attempt to make an honest movie about eight hormonally hyped twenty-something's, then most definitively so.

All in all, I was very impressed. The story has been done before, but not with such pathos. Movies like these make me hopeful of the future. Perhaps we're going away from only producing predictable storylines, uninspiring actors that deliver lines like they have a nail through their kneecap and dialog that you'd never hear outside of the screenwriters head.

Dungeons & Dragons (2000)

This movie is great....as an alternative to Chinese water torture

[1/10 · 10 January 2002]

The pain. The horrible pain. Why didn't Jeremy Irons lawyers get him out of this contract? All they had to do was to argue "temporary insanity" or "he was very, very drunk when he signed this" since one of these two must be what got him into this picture in the first place. My heart goes out to this great actor as he suffers through this unintelligent portrayal of....yes, what? A definite homage to one of the world's most popular role-playing games? A magical action/comedy set in a fantasy backdrop? Trying to calm my boiling blood and regain objectivity I can't really see what the intention was here. This movie has absolutely nothing to do with the immensely vast and intricate system of rules, history, geography and beautifully told stories that is the universe of D&D. But, disregarding that, it is also one of the worst fantasy-movies, no wait....it's one of the worst movies made, ever. It actually shortens your lifespan after watching it. You know how a laugh is supposed to make your life longer....well, this is the total opposite. It is predictable beyond predictability. All the actors are snubbed in there attempts to make something out of the crap dialogue. The FX are appalling. And seeing Wayans (after finally getting to respect him after seeing "Requiem for a dream") as the "token-funny-black-guy" who gets killed off while Mr. cracker hero gets saved by elven magic...well, lets just say that it didn't add any points. Don't ever, ever see this. Don't ever, ever buy it, unless it is to give as a gift to your worst enemy.