Reviews

Silver Man isn't a big screen box office smash. It's an independent film made in Canada, but it still boasts beautiful locations, a great story, and some excellent acting.

Firstly, let me just say that Eugene Levy (American Pie) absolutely steals the show with his performance as a Jewish gangster who is conflicted about killing people on the Sabbath or before his son's upcoming Bar Mitzvah.

The story centres around a guy who calls himself Silver Man (Paul Popowich). He works the promenade as a busking violinist, his skin covered from head to toe in an eery silver gleam. It's not makeup, however, and Silver Man has carried this abnormality his entire life, always being judged not for who he is, but what he looks like. Silver Man falls in love with the girl (literally) next door to his apartment, Tivoli (Audrey Lupke) who is miserable in her relationship with Jake (Derik Hamilton), her violent, abusive, but strangely charismatic (to her, anyway) boyfriend.

With an impressive cast that also includes Joe Pantiolano (The Fugitive, The Matrix), Daniel Baldwin, and Louise Fletcher (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), Silver Man is a charming little love story with a bit of action, and is definitely worth seeing.

I don't know what the previous reviewer was expecting from this low-budget thriller when he reviewed it; I think he overlooked many of the great qualities of this fine little film. David Warner and Louise Fletcher are such fine actors that it is just a joy to watch them.

As for the story, it is a clever, almost Hitchcock-like tale, always keeping us guessing right up until the end as to who the killer actually is. All eyes point to the main character, a young man named Johnny La Spada who has gone to a mansion in Santa Barbara, California, to find his birth-mother. He has been seduced by an unhappily married older woman (Barbara Carerra), who is both deceptive and beautiful.

The film has a number of fairly graphic nude love scenes, but I feel that their use here is not gratuitous; rather it is just one of many techniques that give this film a very European look and feel. There is an exploration into the oft-examined lives of the ridiculously rich and just how much some people will try to get away with.

If you're looking for a fun 90 minute ride that enables you to play a part in the investigation of the questions in the story then Peter Foldy's "Tryst" is definitely worth checking out.

This film seems to be the 80s version of American Pie: Four loser virgins who want to get laid make a pact to help each other and go about finding girls to screw. If you look at it closely, the characters are even similar and there's the one guy with the girlfriend who thinks that sex is the only thing important to him.

Anyway, the girls look great and there are heaps of funny scenes worth catching, especially at the end. So if you haven't seen it, check it out.

For me, Insurrection was not a good film. It seems the odd numbered Star Trek films continue to be a let down in comparison to the even numbered films.

Insurrection's plot is one of the oldest science-fiction plots in history. That is not a bad thing, but what is bad is the fact that with such a plot, there is an enormous amount of potential, of which Insurrection doesn't follow through on.

Even the name "Insurrection" doesn't fit the context of the film, because Picard and his crew's so-called "rebellion" isn't against Starfleet or the Federation, but it is against one Admiral, and what the Son'a plan to do to the helpless Ba'ku race.

Also, the fact that Picard's actions are so blatantly one-sided that NO ONE in the Federation would ever view his actions as wrong or even controversial, so the "Insurrection" itself does not exist.

The humour in the film was hammered in too hard, so instead of being funny, it was being annoying and forced.

The thing that annoyed me the most about this film, especially being a huge Star Trek fan, was the ending. I've read about the original ending, and would've found that more satisfying, even though it wasn't too great either.

In "First Contact", we had a really great ending, but in "Insurrection", we had a Hollywood Safe ending, where Captain Picard is beamed out at the Last Possible Moment. This not only lacked suspense (because there was no doubt that he was going to survive and Ru'afo was going to get blown up real good) but it lacked imagination and thought. It sounded like it was thought up in a few minutes (and seeing as though the original ending was changed, it probably was!)

In fact, what annoyed me the most was what the writers did with Data. Michael Piller said that he didn't like the fact that Data had an emotion chip, so he decided to regress his character. Aparently, Data just didn't bring the emotion chip, and spent the entire movie as a socially inept naivete, which is how he was around 5th or 6th season Next Generation. He took such a leap forward and grew so much in "First Contact", and in "Insurrection", he took about six or seven steps backwards.

The plot of finding the fountain of youth was not dealt with well. This discovery has to potential to have massive repercussions throughout the entire Federation, especially since the planet is in THEIR space. However, instead of showing us this, the film gives us ONE representative (Admiral Dougherty, who is in leage with the Son'a), who dies, is not enough. It was a waste of the plot if all it meant was that it would be logged as Another Day At The Office.

Furthermore, the Picard romance with Anij was not very good. Anij was a peaceful character and was very slow-paced and tame. Picard has always gone after fresh, vibant women, and now he finds himself in love with this woman who, because she is so "at peace with herself", becomes infuriatingly dull and annoying.

The scene where she ALMOST died was completely unnecessary, as it added nothing to the plot of the movie.

Overall, I was extremely disappointed with "Insurrection". I hope that with the Next Generation's next (and probably final) film, they do a better job. They tried to give us a light-hearted story and it came across as ill-conceived and dull. The humour was forced out of the characters, unlike in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, when it naturally grew out of the characters.

Here's hoping for a better STAR TREK X