Keep in mind this was a MADE FOR TV film, originally aired in 1984, and obviously intended for kids! The first of two EWOK ADVENTURES, known as "CARAVAN OF COURAGE," does not hold a candle to the original STAR WARS trilogy in terms of story-telling, effects, or production design, but it is an interesting little footnote for anybody who wants to explore the SW universe a little further. I have vague, fond memories of seeing this when it originally aired, and I was excited to relive it again, 20 years later. The first and third act are kind of exciting and cool, but the middle drags, and if you didn't like them in ROTJ, you're certainly going to find the Ewoks awfully annoying here. Some of us can look past the contrivances and cheesiness- after all, it's STAR WARS!
Reviews
11 Reviews
The Haunting
(1999)
Modern FX ruin the re-make of a horror classic.
2 June 2004
The 1963 version of this film managed considerable chills and thrills WITHOUT resorting to silly special effects. This awful re-make is an example of Hollywood at its laziest. They've taken the basic premise (a scientist enlists two young woman and a skeptical young man to participate in his overnight study of a haunted mansion) and stuffed it full of loud, obnoxious special effects. Director Jan De Bont doesn't know the first thing about suspense in film. With any good horror movie, the imagination of the audience is the most powerful tool in a filmmaker's arsenal- Hitchcock, Craven, Carpenter, and Shyamalan all know this. Unfortunately, the dreadful 1999 version of THE HAUNTING never even tries to engage our imagination; it's too busy piling on the CGI.
Last Action Hero
(1993)
A little confused, but very fun and totally under-rated.
2 June 2004
LAST ACTION HERO went down in the books as a notorious, hopeless bomb, putting it in the same company as films like HUDSON HAWK, BATTLEFIELD EARTH, and GIGLI. And although it was a huge financial dissapointment back in 1993, this film stands head and shoulders above those other stinkers, and has certainly found an appreciative audience over time. Perhaps it wouldn't have earned such awful word-of-mouth had it not been advertised and released as a straightforward action film. No doubt 1993 audiences were expecting a TERMINATOR- or TRUE LIES-style adventure. Instead, LAST ACTION HERO is fairly misleading, and it shifts tones pretty dramatically, from a free-wheeling action adventure, to something much more dramatic, set in the "real world", and back and forth again. This can be quite jarring upon a first viewing, and certainly unappealing for anybody who doesn't enjoy Hollywood satire. Eleven years later, the American public is a little more film-industry-savvy (its seems like every Mom and Pop follows the salary rumors and box office races these days), and may appreciate the insider jokes a little more. If you prepare yourself for a cheeky spoof- and DONT expect TOTAL RECALL!- you'll definitely find LAST ACTION HERO better than you remember.
Prelude to a Kiss
(1992)
Prelude to a nice nap.
2 June 2004
Not much to recommend about this mild, laughless romantic-comedy. Baldwin and Ryan are newly wed when an old man asks to kiss the bride. Somehow, Meg Ryan and the old man exchange souls, and we have another body-swapping mix-up in the vein of BIG, VICE VERSA, 13 GOING ON 30, LIKE FATHER LIKE SON, 18 AGAIN, etc, etc... only PRELUDE TO A KISS never aspires to anything madcap or screwball, like each of those other films. Furthermore, it's not especially insightful or well-written. So the body-swap twist never amounts to much, plot-wise. We never get BIG laughs, or even 18 AGAIN laughs, for that matter. By the end of the film, I would have settled for a few VICE VERSA size chuckles. Ho-hum...
The Faculty
(1998)
Highly entertaining teen-sci-fi B-Movie.
1 June 2004
Writer Kevin Williamson (Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer) and director Robert Rodriguez (Desperado, Spy Kids) make excellent collaborators with this highly entertaining high-school-set thriller. The plot concerns alien beings invading the staff, with a band of teenagers as the heroes. The teens are, of course, mismatched to represent all of the different social cliques, and we get all of the usual Breakfast-Club characters, but the cast is actually very watchable. Josh Hartnett first made waves in his role as the Burnout, Elijah Wood is excellent as the geek, and Jordanna Brewster is totally sexy as the Miss Popular. Both Williamson and Rodriguez were hot young properties in Hollywood when THE FACULTY was released (and both have since lost some steam); the result is great stuff for sci-fi fans.
Twister
(I) (1996)
Fairly entertaining, but definitely hasn't aged well...
1 June 2004
TWISTER was a whole let better when I first saw it back in May 1996... Most movies just naturally play better on the big screen, with an expensive sound system and an excited audience, and TWISTER just isn't the same experience as it was eight years ago. The first and most obvious problem is that an effects-driven movie just isn't made for the small screen, so those amazing twisters aren't nearly as scary without the theater experience. Another problem with the CGI (admittedly ground-breaking for its time) is that it's rather commonplace now. How did a movie like TWISTER, with paper-thin characters and almost zero plot, make over $240 million? You need to remember that 95/96 was the period when CGI first became readily available and abundant, to all of the major studios. This was the period when otherwise mediocre films like ID4 and ERASER made huge grosses on the stregth of special effecs that couldn't have been imagined before CGI... CGI was still fresh and exciting. Eight years later, however, CGI is everywhere, so over-stuffed and jam-packed into garbage like THE MUMMY and VAN HELSING that these so-called effects just aren't that special anymore. And since these effects were pretty much the whole show in TWISTER, 2004 audiences won't be all that impressed...
Kingpin
(1996)
Hysterical stuff...
1 June 2004
KINGPIN is an early highwater-mark for the current kings of filmed comedy, the Farrelly Brothers. While DUMB AND DUMBER is probably their best, (and possibly the funniest film of the 1990s), KINGPIN might be the Farrelly's silver medalist. The pitch alone is worth a laugh: a one-handed bowler (crippled by thugs after a fixed bowling game!) takes on an Amish protege and heads to Reno for the national tournament. And the cast elevates this ridiculous premise to comedy-heaven. Woody Harrelson gives a hilarious performance in the lead, and his character is surprisingly well-rounded. And Bill Murray has never been better than as the smarmy Ernie McCracken; he steals every scene he's in without breaking a sweat.
The 'Burbs
(1989)
An under-rated gem; funny, smart, even suspenseful.
1 June 2004
Tom Hanks is always wonderful when playing an average joe, and he's never been funnier than in THE BURBS, with a role as a quintessential Everyman. All we really know about Ray Peterson is that he's on a two-week summer vacation from work. We never even learn what Ray does for a living, or where he lives, exactly, but that's a nice touch- this character is designed to represent the typical family man of American suburbia. In THE BURBS, this ordinary man stumbles onto an extraordinary mystery when a strange new family moves in next door. The ordinary man/extraordinary situation device was perfected, of course, by Alfred Hitchcock, and Hitch seems to be the main inspiration for director Joe Dante, who masterfully weaves the darker, suspenseful scenes with hysterical comic touches. An under-rated gem from the early, lighter days of Tom Hanks.
Van Helsing
(2004)
At least Summer 2004 can only get better after this disaster.
26 May 2004
What a waste. A waste of timeless characters (Dracula, Wolfman, and Frankenstein's monster are ruined for an entire generation of film-goers.) A waste of talent (the suave Hugh Jackman and beautiful Kate Beckinsale have hit bottom.) And finally, a waste of time (nearly two and a half hours of total boredom.) There was a cool concept to be found somewhere in this mess, admittedly. Universal Pictures has a stock of classic monsters, and have brought them together for one adventure by re-inventing Dracula's nemesis Van Helsing as a sort of 19th century ghost buster. This project must have been doomed from script stage, though, because that's when Universal handed everything over to writer/director Stephen Sommers, the genius behind those two silly MUMMY re-makes. Sommers rapes and plunders great monster movies, making Dracula, Wolfman, and Frankenstein's monster unrecognizable CGI Hulks, with no regard to their actual "history" or "legend" as characters. He takes fantastic, undoubtedly expensive sets and locations, and fills them up with frantic, non-sensual stunts and action. It's a crime to think that this pile of garbage cost $160 million.
The high-water mark for Westerns...
26 May 2004
A fascinating saga of greed and revenge. Eastwood's Blondie isn't exactly heroic, or even redeemable, but he's the closest thing we get to a hero in a saga populated by wicked characters. I found it interesting how fortune and advantage keeps interchanging between the three title characters, until that legendary show-down at the film's climax. Also interesting is just how many great films came to be influenced by this so-called "spaghetti" western. Tarantino's KILL BILL films are one of the most recent and obvious examples. I also love how this film serves as a sort of prequel to Eastwood's haunted, retired gunslinger character in UNFORGIVEN.
Grace and the Storm
(2004)
You'll be addicted by the end!
5 April 2004
there are so many reasons i loved this movie, the first would definitely be a fascinating story that sucked me in from the first scene. this film is about one character's search for a drug called "grace", which is something of an urban legend. i don't know if "grace" is based on a true story or not, but i would sure love to find out, not that i have any experience in anything like that. ;) i also loved the performances of the actors and actresses, all of which gave dedicated performances, with lots of memorable lines. fianlly, i should mention the unforgettable soundtrack, a superb mix of modern rock and industrial-style dance tracks. every song used seems to fit the story perfectly. catch "grace and the storm" if you can- you'll be addicted by the end!
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