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I like going to the movies, and
on this page I review films I have seen and link to information and reviews from
other sources. Plus links of general interest to film enthusiasts. You may notice
a tendency for the reviews I present here to give quite high ratings. There are two
reasons for this: I mostly only go to see films I think I will like: and if a film
does waste my time I don't want to waste any more by writing about it. But I will
occasionally mention films that particularly irritate me. Associated with this page is a Guestbook where you can comment on the reviews, or on the comments made by other readers. The content on this page will gradually build up as I get around to it, but to get the ball rolling I'll start with the best film I saw last year (or in several years for that matter) which gets a perfect score and sets the standard for others to beat. The Fifth Element10/10
I really loved this film, and went to see it several times. The last film that had such a big impact on me was Alien and before that 2001: A Space Odyssey. This has a lot to do with sheer spectacle: this film really requires a huge screen and a great sound system. If this sounds like I value form over content - well sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. Trying to put too much in the mix just makes a mess. I don't have a review of my own ready yet so here are two links to reviews that I found to be reasonably intelligent and interesting. I have read some more perceptive reviews in print media, but since I am strongly against copyright violation I won't be thieving them to this page. http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/reviews/fifth.html Both these sites are very good, so have a look around after reading the Fifth Element reviews. Since making The Fifth Element Luc Besson has executive produced his friend Gary Oldman's directorial debut Nil by Mouth (and one of the stars of that film is Charlie Creed-Miles who played David in Element) and married Milla Jovovich who played Leeloo in Element. Besson's next film will be Joan of Arc starring Milla Jovovich which begins filming in France this summer. You can buy the Fifth Element soundtrack album here. Milla Jovovich recorded a CD of her songs called The Divine Comedy in 1994. To find out more, or order the CD, follow this link.
Grosse Pointe Blank8/10
A wonderful black comedy which only loses points because it drags a little in the second half. John Cusack plays Martin Q Blank, a hitman who is beginning to have doubts about his work. When he gets a contract near his home town of Grosse Pointe he decides to attend the tenth anniversary high-school reunion, his first visit since Prom night ten years earlier when he stood up his date Debi (Minnie Driver). This film features the best convenience-store-totally-destroyed-by-gunfire scene I can remember.
Roseanna's Grave8/10
Another delightful black comedy. Jean (Leon, Mission: Impossible) Reno plays Marcello, a cafe owner in a little Italian village. His wife Roseanna (Ruehl) is dying and wishes to be buried beside their daughter in the village cemetary. Unfortunately there are only three spaces left, and they cannot be reserved. Reno rushes around saving lives, donating blood, snatching cigarettes from people's mouths...then people die and he really has to start working hard. Beautiful scenery and great acting from rising star Reno and Oscar winner (for The Fisher King) Ruehl. Loses points for some incoherent plotting, although the trick ending wouldn't work otherwise.
Swingers2/10
I wasn't too sure about seeing this film, and when I did it was nearly the third time I fell asleep in the cinema (the two times I did were during Kagemusha and Rambo II). The film is about a bunch of Hollywood wannabe guys partying around LA, trying to pick up women, being prats and doing guy stuff. There is an excursion to Las Vegas. I have watched paint dry with more interest.
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Sign My Guestbook View My Guestbook The Fifth Element Grosse Pointe Blank Roseanna's Grave Swingers Nil By Mouth Contact Shooting Fish Starship Troopers Titanic Wild Things There's Something about Mary |
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| Director | Gary Oldman | |
| Screenplay | Gary Oldman | |
| Cast | Kathy Burke | |
| Ray Winstone | ||
| Charlie Creed-Miles | ||
| Laila Morse | ||
| Edna Doré | ||
| Chrissie Cotteril | ||
| Jon Morrison | ||
| Jamie Forman | ||
| Steve Sweeney |
Everyday life among violent alcoholic tattooed petty criminal Londoners. With wife-beating and drugs. And quite a lot of rain.
There's not much in the way of a plot really - we watch the characters stumble through their lives for a while and get to know them. The acting is superb. My problems with this film are firstly that many of the scenes go on just a little too long - the film is 2hrs 8min and could usefully lose 20min or so. Secondly it is depressing: true to life but depressing. But worth seeing.
| Director | Robert Zemeckis | |
| Screenplay | James V Hart | |
| Michael Goldenberg | ||
| Based on the novel by Carl Sagan | ||
| Cast | Jodie Foster | |
| Matthew McConaughey | ||
| Tom Skerritt | ||
| Angela Bassett | ||
| John Hurt | ||
| David Morse | ||
| Rob Lowe | ||
| William Fichtner | ||
| James Woods | ||
| Geoffrey Blake | ||
| Jena Malone |
A film which should have been so much better. The first third of the film shows us how the young Ellie Arroway (played by Jena Malone) develops her interest in SETI and grows up to be a professional astronomer (now played by Jodie Foster) pursuing this goal. Finally a message is received and decoded as plans for some kind of transportation device which is to be built with international cooperation. Up to this point the film is pretty good - on track for a 7 or 8.
Unfortunately the film then meanders into a completely pointless middle section which appears to exist only to keep the beginning and end from being too close together.
The final sections of the film are better, but not up to the standard set by the start.
| Director | Stefan Schwartz | |
| Screenplay | Stefan Schwartz | |
| Richard Holmes | ||
| Cast | Dan Futterman | |
| Stuart Townsend | ||
| Kate Beckinsale | ||
| Nickolas Grace | ||
| Claire Cox | ||
| Ralph Ineson | ||
| Dominic Mafham | ||
| Peter Capaldi | ||
| Annette Crosbie | ||
| Jane Lapotaire | ||
| Phyllis Logan | ||
| Rowena Cooper |
A hilarious escapist comedy which is much better than it ought to be. Futterman plays Dylan, a smooth talking American con man and Townsend is Jez, his shy nerdy technical wizard partner in crime. This unlikely pair are orphans with the dream of owning a country mansion. Through various illegal and hilarious schemes they have saved up two million pounds which they keep as £50 notes in booby-trapped suitcases in their home in a converted gasometer.
Beckinsale plays Georgie, who gets involved after being hired as a temp to assist in a computer scam.
After one of their schemes goes wrong Dylan and Jez are sentenced to three months in prison. Then they discover that their £50 notes will cease to be legal tender the day before they are released.
Around about this point in the film the plot goes totally off the rails and the rest of the story seems to have been cobbled together in some mad brainstorming session - but it doesn't matter. By this time the film has built up so much goodwill with the audience, and the protagonists are so likable, that we want to see them get their happy-ever-after ending.
| Director | Paul Verhoeven | |
| Screenplay | Ed Neumeier | |
| Based on the book by Robert A Heinlein | ||
| Cast | Casper Van Dien | |
| Dina Meyer | ||
| Denise Richards | ||
| Jake Busey | ||
| Neil Patrick Harris | ||
| Clancy Brown |
A hyperactive violent special effects extravaganza cut through with a thread of black humour that attempts to suck the audience into complicity with its fascist heroes.
The future. The human race is united under the rule of the militaristic Federation which has provoked a war of genocidal extermination with the xenophobically labeled "bugs".
We follow some young volunteers through training and into the war. Awesome FX and extreme violence crossed with Springtime for Hitler.
I was rooting for the bugs.
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| Director | James Cameron | |
| Screenplay | James Cameron | |
| Cast | Leonardo DiCaprio | |
| Kate Winslet | ||
| Billy Zane | ||
| Kathy Bates | ||
| Frances Fisher | ||
| Bernard Hill | ||
| Jonathon Hyde | ||
| Danny Nucci | ||
| David Warner | ||
| Bill Paxton | ||
| Gloria Stuart | ||
| Victor Garber | ||
| Running Time | 194 minutes 36 seconds |
Cameron uses anachronism and the SciFi approach of his previous blockbuster successes to tell a story nominally grounded in the real-life sinking of the ocean liner Titanic. He grants human interest to the inauspicious subject by featuring a ship-board romance between Rose DeWitt Bukater (Winslet) and Jack Dawson (DiCaprio) which gives an excuse to explore the ship and the society that built it.
The historical action is framed by and intercut with present-day scenes in which treasure-hunter Bill Paxton visits the wreck (with real footage of the Titanic shot by Cameron from Russian submarines) and talks with the elderly Rose (Stuart). This device allows Cameron to fit in some necessary exposition and to contrast the technological and social development of the two eras.
A near-perfect piece of popular film-making lacking only a little in tension (after all, we know the ship sinks).
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Wild Things8/10
Sam Lombardo, a handsome student
counsellor at Blue Bay High School is lusted after by Kelly Van Ryan (Denise Richards
from Starship Troopers), cheerleader and poor-little-rich-girl.
She visits his home on a pretext and leaves in tears. Later she tells her mega-rich
widowed mother that Sam raped her. Sandra Van Ryan uses her power and influence in
Blue Bay to ostracize Sam. His high-class girlfriend ditches him and one of Sandra's
lovers runs him off the road and beats him up. The only lawyer willing to take his
case is downmarket Ken Bowden. Then another student, dope-smoking swamptrash Suzie
Toller, comes forward to accuse him of raping her too. |
Sign My Guestbook View My Guestbook The Fifth Element Grosse Pointe Blank Roseanna's Grave Swingers Nil By Mouth Contact Shooting Fish Starship Troopers Titanic Wild Things There's Something about Mary |
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| Directors | Peter Farrelly Bobby Farrelly |
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| Screenplay | Ed Decter John J. Strauss Peter Farrelly Bobby Farrelly |
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| Cast | ||
| Mary Jenson | Cameron Diaz | |
| Pat Healy | Matt Dillon | |
| Ted Stroehmann | Ben Stiller | |
| Tucker | Lee Evans | |
| Dom | Chris Elliot | |
| Magda | Lin Shaye | |
| Sully | Jeffrey Tambor | |
| Mary's mom | Markie Post | |
| Mary's Stepfather | Keith David | |
| Warren | W. Earl Brown | |
| Running Time | 118 minutes 56 seconds |
Rhode Island, 1985. High School senior Ted Stroehmann intervenes when bullies start picking on a young mentally handicapped man. He turns out to be the brother of the beautiful Mary who asks Ted to be her date for the Prom. He has an unfortunate and hilarious accident with his zipper in her parents' bathroom and is rushed to hospital. Mary's family moves soon after and Ted doesn't see her again.
Thirteen years later Ted is still fixated on Mary, and on the advice of his friend Dom he hires sleazeball private Detective Pat Healy to find her. Healy locates Mary and Warren in Miami but falls for her himself. He tells Ted she is an obese mother of four living on welfare and returns to Miami. Undeterred Ted also sets off for Miami...
A coherent romantic plot underpins this outrageous comedy and makes it much more than a collection of (often hilarious) gags. Although the humour uses subjects like disability, masturbation, gays and breasts it doesn't do so in an ugly or mean-spirited way.
Rude, crude and laugh-out-loud funny.
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Sign My Guestbook View My Guestbook The Fifth Element Grosse Pointe Blank Roseanna's Grave Swingers Nil By Mouth Contact Shooting Fish Starship Troopers Titanic Wild Things There's Something about Mary |
