Guarding Tess (1994)
A few funny moments, but a little slow. Cage should definitely stick to comedy.
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Pulp Fiction (1994)
Tarantino (the writer and director) seems to enjoy playing with time in his movies, and bringing it all together in the end, like he did in Reservoir Dogs. Tarantino once again manipulates time to construct a plot that offers interesting twists of fate and fortune. Yeah, Pulp Fiction was very…
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Congo (1995)
The ape was WAY too human, both in the way it moved, its expressions, its motions, and its dramatic pauses. They should have made it more like Benji and made it an animal at heart with human surface traits, rather than a human at heart with ape surface traits. The…
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Man of the House (1995)
A surprisingly weak/dumb plot for a Disney movie (or is it?), and I can’t see how kids or adults could enjoy it. Chevy just isn’t good with emotional roles. Maybe it’s just my typecast impression of him, but I think he should stick to unemotional comedy.
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Fargo (1996)
Interesting story, funny moments, great characters, great acting, great music, great flavor, and a cool, kinda touching message at the end along with the cool ending. The music and photography worked great together (the Coen brothers seem to be masters at this). The accents gave it a really touch, some…
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Ransom (1996)
Pretty good. Gibson turns in his regular good strainy-veiny necked performance, and so does everyone else. The story is pretty good and has some interesting plot twists. It almost seems like it’s from a book. But I prefer simpler, more visual plots. It’s incredible how many close-ups they use in…
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Amistad (1997)
Spielberg picked a great story to tell, and he did a great job telling it. Perhaps it deserves a higher rating, because I can’t think of any way I could have made it better, but I just don’t know. Another in a whole bunch of emotional and powerful Black historical…
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Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)
Another in a wave of black comedies that use wannabe-cool but gratuitous dialogue to develop wannabe-cool characters at the expense of the story. The half-witted dialogue is funny and cool at times, but overall the film lacks a more complex plot and character development which would have provided a more…
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American History X (1998)
An intriguing story that makes you think a bit harder about race relations in America, with some real tension. Norton’s performance is powerful, and he looks fantastic. Furlong is eerily good. Great acting all-around. Even all the supporting people were convincing, and you don’t see that very often these days.…
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Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Well-directed. The timing of the shots and pacing of the story was nice, and the art direction was fantastic. Nice cast. Paltrow was good, Rush was excellent, and it was nice seeing Jim Carter from Top Secret back on the screen. I loved the Queen’s quote that “theater can’t teach…
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Big Daddy (1999)
I’m not a big Sandler fan to begin with, but it just doesn’t seem like there’s much comedy here. More of a wannabe drama movie. The trailer gave away all the little comedy anyway. But maybe it’s good to see Sandler making a movie with more of a story and…
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The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999)
Joan was a cheerleader, not a fighter. This is one long pep rally. Not quite sure what the final statement on religion was. Milla’s got cool hair, but I don’t like to root for deranged, delusional bitches. So that pretty much blew the movie for me. Her horrible performance consisted…
Full ReviewHitters on Hitting – Finding the Sweet Spot (2001)
For baseball players and students, one of the best of its kind. But I can’t help think they they can still do better.
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Blonde Venus (1932)
I really felt for the sick husband. He acted a lot like I would have, and he got screwed. Dietrich was a real bitch. I just don’t get the ending. How in the Hell did he accept her back after she fucked him around? He should have stuck to his…
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The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (1939)
A really simple story, and a really long movie. The dramatic arc is just not big enough to support its length. Otuku’s death at the end was the only cool thing about it. Wordy dialogue.
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L’amore (The Miracle) (1948)
Another story from Rosselini about a manic-depressive woman who doesn’t know how to handle her emotions. Long monologue like L’Amore. I didn’t know guys got chicks drunk and knocked them up in the 40’s. It would have been funny if he fucked her and then admitted that he was a…
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Pather Panchali (1955)
I understand that the print of the film that I watched was old, decrepit, and had lost its luster due to the inconsistencies of older international cinema, but what else am I to judge the film on? Until I see a quality copy of this film, my rating stands. I…
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The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
A few cool scenes, but not too exciting to watch. A few very violent scenes for a movie this old. Kinda like Nikita, where the government keeps a person alive to serve them.
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The Great White Hope (1970)
Nothing special. The beginning is a copy of The Set-Up or Body and Soul, I don’t remember which. The “slimy, two-bit, no-dick mother-grabber” line takes the cake. Wife-beating scenes don’t come very often. That silent, failed hero ending was pretty common in the 60’s. Didn’t care much for any of…
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Love and Death (1975)
Smart social satire, which is definitely Adam Carolla’s thing. A lot of philosophy and a few intelligent social arguments, but unfortunately it always dissolves into crappy comedy before anything is truly resolved. Still pondering his stand-up comic routine and use of the film as a pulpit at the end of…
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Mad Max (1979)
Film interpretations of the future are always interesting when watching them in the future. It’s fun to see how people thought things would turn out. Miller definitely establishes a unique style. The over-the-top characters with dainty Australian accents and personalities gives the film a confusingly goofy tone, but it’s fun…
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Blade Runner (Director’s Cut) (1982)
Great visual style and effects, but the story runs a little slow. Why is it that all movies depicting the future present a super-fantastic world impossible to approach even at our most optimistic? No way we’ll advance as quickly as the writers predict. We have too many problems nowadays. I…
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The Terminator (1984)
An unmodernized version of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Same story, same scenes, same shots, same lines. But genius, for sure. Movies of the early 80’s were not all close-ups like they are in the 90’s. They used a lot more medium shots and long shots. It’s refreshing. His “feet stepping…
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Witness (1985)
For a Peter Weir film, I was very disappointed, and I’m tempted to give it a lower rating, but I’m staying with this one because it’s Peter Weir, an intelligent man who usually makes intelligent films, and I’m probably missing something. Like most Weir films, this one is about a…
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Cross My Heart (1987)
Martin and Chevy are both comedic geniuses with a tailor-made script which caters to their particular persona. This movie and many of Chevy’s hits are good examples. Those movies would not be as good if they had different comedians in their central roles.
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Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
Tragic and humbling. Displayed almost all of the classic tags of a good art film: time/history piece (WWII), temporal disjunction, picturesque settings, fantastic composition, interesting camera angles, metaphors, and a single metaphorical motif (fireflies). Compare to The English Patient or Like Water for Chocolate. Not sure if I liked the…
Full ReviewLetter to the Next Generation (1990)
The oversexuality of women and 80’s materialism and apathy, with a focus on the May 4th incident. I don’t see the connection, the point he is trying to make, or the message for the next generation. Kind of interesting and well-made, but it drags on at times. Good use of…
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Joe Versus the Volcano (1990)
Nice, simple story. Tom and Meg had great chemistry together. Meg, who was cuter back then, is the new Goldie Hawn.
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Black Robe (1991)
I think this film set the stage for the big-budget entourage of American Indian films, like Dances With Wolves and Last of the Mohicans. In the words of Larry Fascella, it successfully “transports you to another place and time.” A good representation of some Canadian history. There’s an awful lot…
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Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
One of the best movies I have ever seen. So much makes it great, I don’t know where to start. The plot is original, unpredictable, and fast-paced. The action sequences always keep me leaning off my seat. The special effects have brought movie technology to a new level. Every scene…
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The Player (1992)
A nice slice of Hollywood life, and lots of fun cameos, but there’s not much to it. A bit noir-ish, but not particularly smart or funny. There is a simplicity that plagues all of Altman’s work. That’s one long-ass tracking shot at the beginning (no aperture change when switching between…
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The Fugitive (1993)
I saw it first on video, then in a theater. On-screen, the action came just came alive. Really speaks to how immersive the cinema experience really is. This film started with some amazing opening scene action, would have been great to maintain that level of intensity. The only real knock…
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What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
An interesting portrayal of small-town life. Great story. Things are nice and simple, there and lots of great metaphors (loved the repairing and burning house metaphor), all the loose ends are tied up, and bookends. This is what I love. Good characters, and a great cast. Everybody just seemed to…
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Higher Learning (1995)
This was a very interesting movie. A real thinker. Although it would be way too controversial, colleges could show this movie to incoming freshman, especially at huge colleges in urban areas. I mean, this movie is more like a documentary about diversity than it is a narrative about relationships. Although…
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Quiz Show (1994)
Great characters, great acting, but a little weak on the story. The direction is OK. Like Sleepers, this film is cut too fast for a slower, more involved story. Another in a long line of films showing how pervasive television is in American society. What’s with the “Can I take…
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Copycat (1995)
An attempt at some trend-setting cinematic techniques for mental cases, like Psycho. One of the few recent thrillers which actually thrills, and one of Sigourney Weaver’s better performances. A larger role for Harry Connick Jr. would have been great.
Full ReviewManifestoon (1995)
Interesting. Painstakingly made. It really opens your eyes to the social density cartoons can have. The sound of the cartoons was distracting, though. I didn’t know whether I should enjoy the cartoons or listen to that monotonous speech.
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Female Perversions (1996)
That girl was pretty fucked up. If you were to put all the movies about sexual dysfunction (like The Cement Garden) together and analyzed them, you’d probably come up with some pretty interesting shit. Mean fathers can really fuck you up. A few neat metaphors (ropes during sex and a…
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The Rock (1996)
Your typical Hollywood action movie BS. Jarring camera movements, fast cuts, some corny lines, a semi-cheesy story. Nothing great. Cage has a couple of decent lines and a few corny lines. I think everyone was overtaken with the novelty of having Connery back in a major Hollywood movie. Contrary to…
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Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
A few funny moments, but lots of bad comedy. Revels in the campy past, like Tarantino’s work (only this is the 60’s, not the 70’s). Myers is just not very funny. Hurley, of course, is hot.
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I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
I don’t usually like movies like this, but this one was pretty good. A little of the cheesy shock shit that you’d expect (window tapping, etc.), and the obvious gimmicks and clicheed storyline, but overall a great stalker movie for junior high school students. Gellar is hot. She’s got a…
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Apt Pupil (1998)
Interesting look at the psychology of a Nazi and his admirer. Well-directed, well-shot, interesting photography. Pacing was a tad slow. A good, involving story. Good enough that it didn’t need star actors to be compelling. McKellen was great. Oscar-worthy, perhaps? When McKellen starts going apeshit with his march, why would…
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Small Soldiers (1998)
Fun to count how many other movies they copy, most blatantly Terminator. If the copying doesn’t bother you, the cookie-cutter storyline will. Fabulous guest voices, though. Neat getting the Dirty Dozen cast back together.
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The Blair Witch Project (1999)
A very scary movie. A sadistic mix of the mood and atmosphere of Deliverance with the style and monster stories of Night of the Living Dead. A campfire classic. Let me get it straight. The Blair Witch got Josh, and the man who makes people stand in the corner got…
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The Mod Squad (1999)
The music and costumes were stylish, but I didn’t give a crap about the characters. We are never given a reason to. This movie needed someone good-looking to prevent it from seeming like a cable movie. The story was garbage and full of admitted cliches. Of all of them, Ribisi,…
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Kiss of the Dragon (2001)
The dialogue and acting is shitty. Jet Li cannot do drama. To his credit, no one could do drama with writing like this. Fonda is merely OK but very cute. But, perhaps more importantly, the bad, distracting camerawork and editing ruined the martial arts. Dizzying cuts hide the real action.…
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Gertie the Dinosaur (1914)
Entertaining. Cool animation. Wouldn’t now be a good time for Hollywood to bring back Gertie?
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Emak-Bakia (1927)
Pretty much a montage of random, unfocused images. Some of them are kinda cool, though.
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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)
Kinda cheesy techniques. That smiling monkey with the afro was hilarious. It was kinda like a cross between Eddie Munster and The Man Who Laughs.
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The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Classic story, with classic characters and good acting. More than meets the eye in this one. Using the same actors in both sequences was a neat trick. Make-up, costuming, and dance sequences are excellent, and the transition to color was really nice.
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The Set-Up (1949)
A really simple story. Stoker was not much to look at, but he was probably casted well for this movie. Lots of dollying from character to new character. An obvious mix of film stocks. Wise uses more comedy that most old directors. Cool ending. A man come so close to…
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Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
Marlene Deitrech was the 1950’s version of Rosie Perez, complete with the tight lips, r-to-w pronunciation, and eerie beauty. And I could have sworn I have seen the film’s dorky protagonist as a game show host somewhere. And somebody else was Gilda Radner or some other SNL character. It was…
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8½ (1963)
There’s some guilt when I don’t appreciate the movies that film school says I should. Not too sure what the this one was about. A writer goes on to direct films with a few biographical flashbacks? Kubrickian at times. Freaky beginning. The hanging was funny. That “asa nisi masa” thing…
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There’s a Girl in My Soup (1970)
An older, simpler comedy. Sellers is great with expressions and has a fantastic voice. Hawn is pretty good. We get to see her young bum.
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Carrie (1976)
Your typical story about a ugly, telekinesian girl with the personality of a corn flake. Pretty good horror, but a tad boring at times. That “Eat shit!” at the beginning is hilarious. It was pretty gross when the Mom’s ? was caught on the wall. But the house descending into…
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Thriller (1979)
Yucky. Hardly a film. A collection of stills (some really interesting and others of an opera performance), dancing, laughing, and expressive voice-overs. Like a kids storybook tale on “Reading Rainbow” at times. Interesting use of music and the heartbeat (which creates suspense somehow). A bit long. The struggle to understand…
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E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
A really well-made film. It really had a nice feeling to it. Not flawless, but pretty close. It’s actually one of the scariest movies I have ever seen. A lot of Star Wars references, including the musical score (by the same guy who did Star Wars), Eliot playing with Star…
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Top Secret! (1984)
Another funny one. Just plain stupid, and just plain hilarious. Fits right into the Airplane series, and I think this was the lower-budget (and funnier) predecessor to Naked Gun. I think Naked Gun tried too hard to be funny, while this one was just a naturally funny story. Movies like…
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Aliens (1986)
A perfect film for both Ridley Scott and James Cameron. Great effects, and a few really funny lines (harsh language), especially by Paxton. Reminded me a lot of Terminator 2. Same kinds of characters, same music, same lighting, same gun-in-the-face-of-the-monster shot with the elevator door closing, same monster-breaking-through-the-windshield-reaching-for-the-victim shot, same…
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The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)
Probably Craven’s best. Reminds me a lot of Jacob’s Ladder in that it blurs the boundary between physical and mental. Pullman is good.
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Loverboy (1989)
Perhaps the last of the great 80’s comedies. Dempsey was perfect. What the hell happened to his career? Great supporting cast.
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Kindergarten Cop (1990)
Cute and touching, one of Reitman’s best. Arnold looks cool with a beard. I think this is the only time we get to see him with one, and the only time we get to hear him speak German. Reitman finds a way to get most of Arnold’s classic lines in…
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Boyz n the Hood (1991)
Started the craze of black gangster films. A lot like Singleton’s own Higher Learning, only I thought this one felt a bit more mature. Fishburne plays virtually the same character: a stable black crutch for a screwed black world.
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Thelma & Louise (1991)
Interesting premise. Maybe a tad slow. Interesting, sad ending. I got choked up, feeling for the characters and their transformation. At the end, it might have been better with a fade to black instead of white, and slower and longer car-flying. What was with throwing their arms up in the…
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The Wrong Trousers (1993)
Good, intelligent comedy. Not the in-your-face stuff you’d expect from animation. Good timing. Beautifully detailed animation. Great characters, and fantastic use of expression. Part of what makes the comedy so funny is that the expression is so realistic, not exaggerated like in most animation. This should be required viewing for…
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Hoop Dreams (1994)
Interesting in-depth look over the period of a few years, but it drags a bit. The most amazing thing about the film is how natural and uninhibited everyone is with a camera in their face. The camera just never seemed to intrude. Great camerawork. I guess they probably shot with…
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Reality Bites (1994)
Pretty good. Contributor to the Generation X craze. I thought Hawke’s character was fantastic.
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Crimson Tide (1995)
Tony once again demonstrates his outstanding use of color (blues, greens, reds, whites, and blacks) and his “eye candy” visual imagery. A lot of neat shots (in the rain and underwater), some cool effects, great sound, and of course a blazing sunset. Good, powerful use of music (a Tony trademark).…
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Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995)
Wonderful. So touching that I almost cried at the end. A cross between Children of a Lesser God and Forrest Gump. Don’t think the Gump-ish historical tie-ins (Vietnam, etc.) were necessary. Dreyfuss is so damn likeable. He gets better and better throughout the movie as Mr. Holland. By the end…
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First Strike (1996)
A lot of fun to watch. The choreography is simply amazing, and the music and fantastic photography of the action makes it even better. And Jackie is hilarious. His fantastic sense of humor is what makes the movie. His comedy has it all: the goofy physicality, his goofy expressions, his…
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Scream (1996)
Neat cuz it was a pretty good horror which made fun of the horror genre at the same time. A lot of typical shock cheese you find in 90’s horror movies. A few truly scary parts. The two guys stabbing each other as part of the set-up was probably the…
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Batman & Robin (1997)
Lip condoms save the day. Clooney could have been great, but his dialogue was bad, so bad that you could see that he had trouble acting to it. He could have been great in the role with more daring writing, as he was in From Dusk Till Dawn. Ivy’s reference…
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Jackie Brown (1997)
In terms of style, typical Tarantino. His films revel in the campy filmic style, actors, costumes, and music of the 70’s. In this film, he doesn’t jump around too much like he did in Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. He does it a bit, but only for one scene, and…
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Armageddon (1998)
Typical Bay fare. Cheesy dialogue from over-the-top characters and lots of explosions, delivered with fancy photography and overdramatic music. Bay and Roland Emmerich should have a contest to see who can use more money to make a worse film, and then they both should be shot. Tons of factual and…
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Kissing a Fool (1998)
Way too many decorative tags (a sign of crappy writing) and not enough character for the characters. That “What up!” thing was old even before Schwimmer decided to overdo it.
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There’s Something About Mary (1998)
A mixture of “laugh at the 70’s” comedy, bad oddball humor, and gross humor. The gross humor seemed just gross and not humorous. Frankly, there were a few things I really didn’t need to see. The staged outtakes were horrible. Dillon was miscast, I think. His character just didn’t work.…
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Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
Not sure what to make of it. The end leaves me wondering if anything significant was really accomplished. Mildly amusing at times. A few nice shots. Cage is always fun to watch. Interesting face, enjoyable personality. Date: Beth.
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The Mummy (1999)
Could have been real scary, but it wasn’t. Horrible writing plus bad characters equals unavoidably bad acting. Fraser is annoying, almost as bad as Keanu. He’s just an idiot. How can we root for a dumb hero? He should stick to oddball characters like Encino Man. Everyone else played stereotypical…
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Thumbs Across America (1989)
Kinda neat, but it gets boring. He only wanted to take the trip just to see if he could, and it would have been nice if there was more meaning to it so we would care. Nice ending.
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Kurutta ippêji (1926)
A pretty boring prison montage. Kinda different, but not too exciting. The ringing soundtrack makes me mad. In fact, the whole soundtrack sucks and is used ineffectively. Cool masks at the end.
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Land Without Bread (1933)
How depressing can you get? I thought my life was bad, but this is much worse. So bad, it’s funny. You have dwarves, morons, donkeys tied down so they can be stung to death by bees, goats being shot off mountaintops (which was an interesting shot, nonetheless). The horrors of…
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Rebecca (1940)
Decent story, but bit cheesy at times, a bit slow. Not good enough to support its length. I’ve seen the basic story somewhere else before, in another movie, I think. Just another one of the old movies where most of the screentime sets up for a long monologue near the…
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She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949)
It’s a good thing it wasn’t a blue ribbon. Hell, it didn’t deserve any ribbon. It was hard to find anything good about the film. I feel bad giving a classic western like this one such a bad rating, but it was just plain bad. Sleep is more exciting than…
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Vertigo (1958)
I like Jimmy Stewart. It is interesting how he makes the transition from cool-headed dork in black and white films (Jefferson Smith Goes to Washington) to hot-headed stud in the color Vertigo. It was interesting seeing him in color. It seemed like it was a black and white movie, only…
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Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
A lot of interesting points are made. Like a lot of James Cameron’s films, a wonderful and fearful look at the technological future. Peter Sellers looked cool and was great.
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A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Definitely interesting. It’s the sterility of Kubrick’s films which make them so scary. He sure does love sex, and he sure does love classical music.
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Rocky (1976)
Not a great story. He didn’t make it on his own (he got lucky), and he hardly won the fight. Conquering his goal of staying up was hardly the victory we wanted to see. If the ultimate goal was getting Adrian, he already had her before the fight, making the…
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Caddyshack (1980)
Not too funny. Chevy provides the best humor, while the rest is just goofy early 80’s comedy. Chevy has some really awkward moments where his humor really doesn’t work. The drunk golfer idea is oddly familiar (Tin Cup). I don’t think the pregnancy and gopher subplots work for this movie.…
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Back to the Future (1985)
A great movie for all ages. Your basic funny, interesting, romantic, adventurous, sci-fi, original, feel-good movie.
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Back to School (1986)
Rodney’s not that good of an actor, but who cares. It’s a funny movie with a lot of great lines, thanks to the good writing.
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Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Wonderful movie about war. The best war movie I have seen. The drama is intense, and some of the comedy is flat-out hilarious. A great story, and a well-made movie.
Full ReviewAbout Me
I'm a photographer, web developer, travel enthusiast, and movie buff living in Alexandria, Virginia, USA.In the summer of 1993, I started writing reviews for every movie I saw and haven't looked back. I'm up to 2,362 reviews now. This makes me cool or a complete dork, depending on your perspective.
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