Reviews
Message in a Bottle (1999)
Most Distracting Soundtrack of the 1990s...
Someone should have thrown the preachy "new age" soundtrack of Message in a Bottle out with the bilge water. This is a score that tries to tell you how you should be feeling before the scene has developed to the appropriate emotional level, sometimes just a distraction (the scoring is never subtle), but frequently destroying the momentum of a genuinely affecting moment. The actors are top-notch, the cinematography and art direction a treat, the songs used in the background are ok....but the "feely-touchy" yuck enveloping you in Dolby Digital impedes any honest emotional involvement.
Bad Manners (1997)
A dialogue driven movie that keeps your ears erect!
This is a very funny, very sad, verbally intoxicating challenge for four gifted screen actors who take you along through a domestic crisis caused by an untimely visit by a wife's college boyfriend and his current infatuation. It could have been called "The Fifty Dollar Misunderstanding". Only in the last few minutes of screen-time are the stage origins too obvious. I loved this movie.
Ronin (1998)
This film is 100% John Frankenheimer at his best....
Ignore the simple-minded James Bond comparisons, this film is classic Frankenheimer with many layers and mysteries being revealed to us as the story unfolds. Auto chases that seem to surpass both Bullitt and The French Connection and make the auto mayhem in The Rock look constructed in the editing room. This film has a stellar international cast, but there is no doubt that this is a director's movie that deserves to be called John Frankenheimer's Ronin.
One True Thing (1998)
Carl Franklin keeps the suds in check and emotions true
This is a perceptive white drama helmed by a sensitive black director who charts the familial territory with an enthusiasm reminiscent of an Australian director (Peter Weir) finding himself in 1980's Pennsylvania to give the US a fresh vision of the state of the states. The actors are well chosen and earn their paychecks! Can anyone tell me why MGM is thanked for the South Pacific (Magna, 20th Century Fox, & Samuel Goldwyn have distributed this film) clip?