Reviews

It was a happy accident to stumble across this movie while channel surfing. The New York setting (a very effective use of locations not always used in the movies) got me, and the characters held on to me. It was a sort of formulaic plot, but that didn't matter so much, as it was a film with people that you could like and emphasize with.

Having been familiar with Natasha Henstridge only with her Science Fiction and TV roles, it was a major revelation to see her in a gentle, likable part. I hope that she gets other roles like this.

What an amazingly clever and witty film. It succeeds as a movie to thoroughly entertain children, but also one that adults will also find extremely funny. The animation and fairy tale story will get to the kids, and the humor, with references to "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon", Otis Redding, the Monkees, and the Errol Flynn version of "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and the sendup of a lot of Disney films (do you think that Jeffrey Katzenberg now feels as if he's gotten even with Michael Eisner?) will appeal to the adults.

My wife and I took our kids to see "Shrek" to entertain them. As much as they liked it (and they liked it a lot). We liked it more. It also sounded like the cast of the film had a lot of fun making it.

I would compare "The Golden Bowl" to a restaurant that has beautiful decor and a great server, but lousy food. It is wonderfully photographed. I would probably pay to watch Kate Beckinsale read from the Manhattan phone book. However, it was a struggle to stay awake after awhile. It's boring, slow moving, and filled with characters (except for the one played by Beckinsale), that you feel absolutely nothing for.

As I said, the photography was wonderful, but you'd get the same feeling from going to a library or bookstore, and picking up a fancy book filled with photographs of old English homes and estates.

It's your usual derivative live version of your usual derivative Hanna-Barbera cartoon (did those guys ever have an original idea?).

You know that you're in trouble when the funniest thing in the film is a dinosaur (shall we say) borrowing from the campfire scene in "Blazing Saddles". Hopefully, there aren't any more sequels coming. Can "The Jetsons -- The Movie" be far behind?

I started to watch the Rugrats' TV show because my kids wanted to watch it. I'll watch it on my own now, because it's one of the funniest shows around, and the movie is even funnier.

Fortunately, it's not a show or movie that talks down to kids, or does whatever it can do to stupefy the parents (as, say, a show about a certain purple dinosaur). "Rugrats in Paris" succeeds because it has humor on all levels -- certainly simple slapstick, but also higher satire as well (what three year old kid will understand the reference to "The Godfather"?). Even though you could probably see the ending coming from a mile off, it was still a very funny movie, and extremely well made. A lot of the animation effects were worth the price of admission itself.

Oh yeah, my kids loved it, too. This was the first time that my three year old daughter was in a movie theatre, and she loved every minute of it.

Even if they only showed one sketch, this would be one of the funniest films ever. Billy Crystal was right. Sid Caesar was the Chaplin of television, and this film gives you the opportunity to see him at his peak, as well as the work of a writing staff that was to comedy what the 1927 Yankees were to baseball. The takeoff of "This is Your Life" provided us with the funniest ten minutes in the history of the human race (it was even funnier than Richard Nixon's resignation speech!!!).

Put simply, this is the funniest movie of all time. I cannot believe that there is anyone in the world who can watch this film and not be in hysterics by the last scene. Laurel and Hardy provided the template for all (and I mean all) comedy films that followed, and this was their absolute best.

I can't remember the last time that I've enjoyed a movie this much. These were real people talking like people are supposed to talk in real life, and not acting like they were reciting dialogue concocted in someone's office in a studio someplace. Even better, the music on the soundtrack was fantastic.

I've never seen anything that Jenniphr Goodman has directed previous to this film, but you can bet that I'm going to be watching out for her next film or other work. What a great touch she has.

And this film absolutely has it right. Steve McQueen was, is, and always will be the coolest guy in the world (Dion DiMucci comes in a close second).

"Keeping The Faith" is one of the most enjoyable movies that I've seen in a very long time. It has the feel of a Woody Allen from the "Annie Hall" period (picture Woody in Ben Stiller's role and Tony Roberts or Michael Murphy in Edward Norton's role). The dialogue was very sharp, Edward Norton made an auspicious debut as a director, and the performances were great. Stiller, Norton, and Jenna Elfman (who is going to be a major star for a long time) work beautifully as a team, and how can you go wrong with Anne Bancroft or Eli Wallach in a movie?

In addition, I also enjoyed the fact that "Keeping The Faith" restored one bit of "Star Trek" lore, the Vulcan "Live Long and Prosper" hand sign to its religious context (in a very funny sequence in the film, Stiller shows Norton how to use it). As a member of the Jewish faith, I was always tickled by the thought that the Vulcans might have been one of the Lost Tribes of Israel.

On one hand, this movie was made about 10 years too early, before the computer age had really taken hold.

On the other hand, it should have been made at least 10 years earlier, to take advantage of the immense gifts for physical comedy that Sid Caesar and Dick Van Dyke had.

As it is, it's still wonderful to see two of the most influential comic performers of the last half century on the same screen at the same time. I imagine this is what it could have been seeing Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel performing together with the Fred Karno troupe, or what it was like seeing Chaplin and Buster Keaton in that one small part of "Limelight".

And, of course, seeing Rob Petrie and the inspiration for Alan Brady on screen....

There's no question as to how well this film is made, or how brilliant the performances are, particularly Kevin Spacey's. However,"American Beauty", like its predecessor, "The Ice Storm" is also amazingly depressing.

Are we supposed to feel sympathy for any of the characters? Are we supposed to think that this is where American society is going?

To me, the main purpose of a film like this is that the average movie goer is supposed to look at a film like "American Beauty" and think: "Hey. My life isn't as screwed up as I think. Look at these people."

As much as I like this film, this was the first time that I can say that sexual content was unnecessary to a film. The language was overdone, and we didn't need all of the scenes with the strippers to get the point across about what Joe Mantegna's character did for a living (some of them, definitely. But all of them?).