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Reviews
Swordfish (2001)
Tosh, albeit bright lights, well shot tosh
Safe. Secure. Knowing.
From the opening shot of Travolta maligning Hollywood for always having a happy ending and always being the morality tale (to the unsurprising ending where one of these two doesn't actually occur), we are presented with Hollywood's third crime - safety.
There's nothing new here. Just a re-hash of everything that Hollywood knows it can do competently: car chases, slo-mo explosions, British bad guys, beautiful women, fast cars (the oh-so-wonderful TVR Tuscan - which means that they'll be harder than ever to get hold of now :( ...), ludicrous computer hacking sequences, "access denied" in 100pt red, dubious graphical compilers (since when did a PDP-10 have any sort of GUI?)
Two hours of nonsense. Entertaining without thrilling, entertaining without stimulating, entertaining without *thinking*.
I don't begrudge it the ticket price but in two weeks I'll be hard pressed to remember much about this movie - and neither of those facts particularly worry me.
Notting Hill (1999)
Fairy tales - do they come true? Well, rarely in real life.
It's the story that the whole world (well, the 99.99% of us who aren't famous) dream about. "Normal" people spend their lives reading about the lives of the famous, on posters, in magazines, knowing more about the lovelives of celebrities than their families.
Wanting to be famous, wanting to be with someone famous. The self-referential irony is delivered with a deft touch, Hugh Grant playing what he does so well, the diffident, slightly awkward, but immaculately enunciated and perfectly quiffed English upper-middle class gent. Stuttery, self-effacing, but don't Americans just love that.
And that's the key here. Four Weddings, part II. England for an American market, neatly packaged. It couldn't be anywhere, it had to be England. It couldn't be anyone, it had to be Hugh. (Again.)
That's not to say it's not a very well produced movie. It is. A great ensemble of British comic actors. Plenty of well known London landmarks for the locals to point at and empathise with. And a tight script that carries you through the two hours rather than dragging. Two hours is brave in this day an age, but why rush?
Julia Roberts continues to be a revelation. She isn't just a pretty face. She plays the part to its fullest - I did want to be William Thacker. I want to go buy a bookshop and have her visit.
Isn't that what movies are about? Showing you the world as it could be, not how it is. Sometimes that's dark and scary, sometimes it's light and happy.
I want to live in the movie W8 - you can keep the real world!
Memento (2000)
Are we Leonard>
You think you know movie flashbacks? Nah.
Interesting editing, interesting performances and an interesting story ... although I gave it a nine, I've no doubt that this was in part because of the editing, the backwards linearity of the storytelling. When the DVD is out and I can watch the chapters in the "correct" order I'm sure that gaping holes will appear and the story won't seem half as curious.
As we left the cinema and walked home we couldn't work the story out. Had we been given enough information after the apparently abrupt ending? Was Leonard's wife diabetic? Had he already avenged her death (having unwittingly killed her)? Had we really seen him, with tattoos, with her? Were the occasional flashes of memory (like remembering that the licence plate was fact six) down to his sometime failing or the scriptwriter's fallibility.
Or was that the point? That we spent time after the film trying to recreate the story proved the fallibility of our memories - a meta-level, interactive display of what we'd just seen.
Inventive, exhausting, provoking, gripping - a splendid film.
Cradle Will Rock (1999)
Truly strong ensemble acting - a rare thing
Being from the other side of the pond, the history of this time is not mine, so I was worried that I'd lose the plot - unfounded fears.
Tight direction, well explained background, humour ranging from slapstick to the darkest gallows humour and, foremost, a tremendous set of performances. (No real surprise, given the cast.)
Robbins has developed a very definite style, following a narrative tracing strong characters, developing, revealing themselves and letting actors stretch themselves. Fortunately he has a good head for selecting his cast.
It's a thoughtful film, not for the easily bored, nor the after-orders thrill seeker, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
American Beauty (1999)
Entertaining and provoking - but not *that* good.
When I entered my vote - 8/10 - American Beauty was listed as the third best movie of all time in the voting lists.
Yeah, right.
It's good - but not that good. It's funny - blisteringly so in parts. It's moving, it's provoking (it's embarrassing). There was some fine writing and brilliant acting, the direction was tight and inventive, the soundtrack was well selected and backed the vision well.
But the third best movie of all time?
We are quick to rise to the hype, these days, aren't we?
Entrapment (1999)
Watch the Thomas Crown Affair instead
Holes in the plot you could drive a very large lorry through, terrible performances from people who really should know better and loose, sloppy directing. Not to mention being about half an hour too long.
A woeful movie. From around the same time the Brosnan/Russo re-make of The Thomas Crown Affair treads a similar path of high-class thief, tracked and entangled with an investigator. Ok, so Entrapment had a couple of twists, but they weren't enough to maintain interest, and it wasn't a patch on its competitor.
Apparently Brosnan turned this down to play Thomas Crown. Wise move Mr B. (Or was it the other way around - that Connery declined to play in this one? Not so wise move Sir Sean.)
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
What's all the fuss about?
It's all so much hype. Just where was this magical cinematic event of the year that I was led to expect?
The story was predictable, the plot contrived, the various developments so obvious you could see them a mile off. The film was saved only by its cast - a tremendous ensemble, with some surprisingly good performances from unexpected quarters, some good British comedians showing well on the big screen and Paltrow and Affleck putting on some half decent British accents. (And if she and Dame Judi can get Oscar nominations, then why not one for Joseph Fiennes?)
With, at points, every other line being a quote from one Shakespeare play or another, why couldn't the material have been better?
Overall, the hype made this a very disappointing film, which is a shame as it wasn't all that bad.
Enemy of the State (1998)
Ridiculous, entertaining nonsense, flashy but not completely insubstantial.
There's a long tradition of conspiracy movies and it borrows from many. Faceless bad guys with their own agendas, massively powerful secret government organisations. We love these movies because we would love to be able to be a part of these organisations. We want to be the techie guy manipulating the satellite as it tracks the quarry. We want to be the guy co-ordinating the microphones and the cameras following the couple talking. We want to be the computer operator looking through bank accounts and personal histories. Information is power and we crave it.
Jerry Bruckheimer doesn't seem to have lost too much of an edge in losing his long time production partner Don Simpson and the movies fairly rocks along at a breakneck pace. The plot is involved but not too complex, but what makes the movie is the references. This isn't a blatant remake of any movie in particular, but from The Conversation to All The President's Men, its heritage is clear.
Gene Hackman (star of The Conversation - indeed, his case photo in this film is a still from The Conversation - and a previous Bruckheimer film, Crimson Tide) is superb, Jon Voight (another link to the 70s spy movies and Mission Impossible bad guy) is joyously bad, Jason Robards' cameo (linking to All The President's Men) is welcome. Then you've the ultra-90s face of chic, Will Smith, toning down his wisecracks, but proving that he can act and forming another partnership with a well decorated partner. First with Oscar-winner Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black and now with Oscar-winner Gene Hackman.
The gadgetry is wonderful, if a little flawed sometimes (it seemed pretty cloudy to me with some of the satellite tracking :) but it doesn't overshadow the base premise. We are worried, in these days of mobile communications and huge databases, about the potential. It gives us hope that one man can beat the whole of the government's secret service. While the 70s film might not have had the good guy winning, the 90s are different.
It's a slickly produced, well considered film, something for the film buff, the action seeker and the conspiracy theorist. We want to be Will Smith, but we, probably, want to be the NSA spooks more, because all those toys would be fun :)
True Blue (1996)
Not as bad as it could be - but lacking a certain something all the same.
Based on the true story of an American at Oxford swearing to overcome defeat in the 1986 Boat Race (Oxford's first defeat to Cambridge in 11 years) by returning the following year with some international colleagues and the resultant "mutiny" when they refuse to follow the coach's training schedules.
The film is a fictionalised account and comes down firmly (as did the book on which it is based) on the side of chief coach Dan Topolski and OUBC President Donald MacDonald. It's not a half bad attempt at telling a story with a good bash at both trying to underline the importance in the old universities of the boat race and the physical demands the race makes.
The rowing is reasonably portrayed too, using real oarsmen as their opposition and with the actors having been taught to row by Topolski, but sometimes the continuity is lost and there are mistakes aplenty if you really try to go looking for them!
It's not a film that challenges, but it does entertain - although how much it entertains a dry-bob is the big question!
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Four friends lose at cards and have less than a week to find half a million pounds
Just when you thought that movies were all about the American dream and watching beautiful people do obviously scripted things along comes a film that restores the faith. You don't need big names, a big budget, breath-taking set pieces or a vast array of special effects. Memorable movies can get away with the basics, like a good story, good characters, an unbelievable plot, great one-liners, an excellent soundtrack and an unrelenting soundtrack. It's loud, it's violent, it's funny, it's thoughtful, it's a glimpse into an unreal world. In the best tradition of "The Full Monty", "Secrets and Lies" and "Four Weddings" it's taken on the mantle of "best British film for years" and means it.
"It's Kosher. As Christmas."