Reviews

Key Words: Cute / Kid Flic / So-So

There are some belly laughs for the adults in this one, and a plethora of snowball attack and "fart joke" situations that the kids in the audience all loved. But the plot was not as deep as the snow, and I longed for some more good situations that could have been worked into the action. All in all it was a light diversion with some cute kids and one nasty, dirty, "snow-plow man" that was more comic strip than reality.

Key Words: Cute / Funny / Stumbles & Mumbles / Nice Ending

This often-told tale of accidently getting involved with the Mob ("Family") is well done here with lots of humor. Hugh stumbles and mumbles as he tries to walk the thin line of getting wed to his sweetheart without getting sucked in by the Mob that her father works for. There are some really well crafted humorous scenes, and the ending is more complex and surprising that I had expected. The Italian music that runs through the flic will have you humming along after the credits roll. I thoroughly enjoyed this light bit of fluff...........

Key Words: Clever / Stylish / Great Finish

I shall not do a comparison of the original to the remake. Taken on its own, I liked this flic more than I expected to, mostly because of the clever ways the art works disappeared and reappeared, and the clever by-play between our two stars. The shots were crisp, and the film editing was very good. The story went by fast, which meant I was involved and liked it. If you see this one, as in the old shell game, keep you eye on the pea (or the paintings, in this case).

Key Words: Rain / Mud / Gray / Depressing / Children

This gives a picture of bottom-of-the-barrel slum dwelling life. The book concentrated on the human characters and bonds and love that overcomes all. The movie concentrates on the family being overcome by their horrible environment, and, as far as we get to see, only one character rises above it all. What a shame! All the film energy went into trying to tell us how depressing it all was for the family, whereas the book let us know that the children were so well adjusted that not even this could get them down. The acting was good, especially as done by the children. See this one as a moody, depressing slice-of-life, but don't expect your heart to soar at the end as it did with the book.

Key Words: Clever / Good Dialogue / Good Characters / Big Teeth

I see this type of flic as an mindless "escape", and usually don't expect too much, but this "creature feature" rose above the pack because of the humorous and likeable characters involved and the snappy by-play between them. Unlike many of its type, this one was quite believable, with the exception of the near-final scene with our "star" being transported down the highway. The writers did a credible job of giving the creature-capture team intelligent and witty things to say while we waited to see who would be dismembered next. And the blood-and-gore was NOT excessive for a change (oh, sure, give or take a severed head here and a wormy toe there). See this one for some chuckles as well as for a scare or two.

Key Words: Long / Strained / Beautiful Italy / Bummer Ending

Matt makes a pretty good psychopath-in-training. Most of the others try hard to be believable as well. But the plot has a few too many unbelievable twists and forgettable dialogue for me to take this one very seriously. If you see this flic, do it for the Italian scenery - but BEWARE: If you go to Italy without the assistance of a film crew to clear the way for you, you will find it much more crowded, much more dirty, and much more "inconvenient" than did these folks in the film. And watch out for the many folks whose job in life is to rip off the tourists.

And that ending! Or did it end? I think somebody just called "time" on the writers and they turned in their "exams" with whatever they had completed up until then.

Overall, I will likely just remember the scenery......

I grew up in Johnstown, PA, and I return each year to visit relatives and friends. The old hometown never really recovered after the numerous floods through the years and then the shutdown of the coal mines and steel mills.

You have to see the layout of this town in a deep, deep valley to understand the making of the disaster. Now you can learn all about it at a National Monument (where the dam was that broke) - the only one I ever saw created around a disaster. Anyway, this film does a good job of teaching you what lead up to the 1888 tragedy (as usual, greed and inept, uncaring people) and its aftermath. However, the numerous smaller floods after that came from different causes, primarily the unfortunate location of the town and too much rain all at one time.

Watch this and learn what can (still) happen if you don't protect your community and its environment.

Key Words: Powerful / Poignant / Thought provoking / Plodding

Denzel gives us yet another believable and powerful performance throughout a story that is otherwise slow and plods along. He and the writers clean up the image of the real "Hurricane" who was not nearly so lovable. Not withstanding, this is a strong moral tale about how "justice" can be so easily be mis-used and made to serve the greed and hate of those sworn to uphold it.

Everyone missed one point that could have been made by this story - if Hurricane had been put to death rather than in prison for life, there never could or would have been the chance to release an innocent man years later. Think about it. How many others have been railroaded into prison for things they did not do? How many innocents have been put to death before another trial could have shown they were innocent? It is scary to think about....

See this one for the strong performance by Denzel. And rejoice when justice, though long delayed, is finally his- and ours (although there is no indication that the ones who framed him ever suffered for their deeds, except if they had to watch themselves portrayed in this film). And wonder why Hurricane (actually the writers) never worry about getting justice for the poor innocent boy who also went to jail just for being in the same car with Hurricane and never gave in to the pressure to say that Hurricane did the crime just to save himself. Hurricane says the boy is "my hero", but that is the last we hear about him. If there was such an interest in final justice, a few words could have been left in to show they cared about getting that poor guy out also.....

Key Words: Cute / Funny / Sweet / But....

Hollywood thinks we would not go to see "G" movies (too "goodie, goodie") so they have to throw in some profanity, a bit of skin, or something to "earn" a PG rating. Too bad - for many parents want a "G" movie for their children with none of those things. This movie has a few unnecessary curse words and thus was granted its "PG" rating. Does Hollywood realize that as a "PG" hardly any schools in the USA will be permitted to show the movie to their classes????

CAUTION: The subject of adoption is mishandled! Your small adopted child will likely worry about two things after the movie:

(1) Your adopted parents only keep you until your "real" parents come along and want to take you away - and you must go even if you do not want to leave your adopted parents.

(2) Adoptions of children who are "different" (race, size, specie, etc.) causes problems and may not work out (as told by the adoption lady to the family) - although there is a happy ending.

The fantastic book by E.B.White does not deal with adoption - Stuart is just a regular member of his human family, regardless of the fact that he looks like (is ?) a mouse, which makes for a better fairy tale.

The CATS: The cats make for the best part of this movie. We cat lovers know how each cat is an individual with some sort of attitude or other. The best lines and the biggest laughs were reserved for the cats - as it should be!

SO: Take the kids. Enjoy the tale. And talk about what it all means with them after the movie.

What a moody movie! In many ways (rain, mud, camera angles, overpowering music, etc.) it reminded me of "The Piano". The "voice on top of voice" scenes were very distracting rather than adding to the picture. The "flashbacks within flashbacks" also were distracting, we thought. You ended up taking note of all the filming techniques, rather than enjoying the storyline and the cinematography. Most of the acting was rather "stiff". This is definitely one I will not remember much past next Thursday......

If only our children could have Saturday morning "cartoons" the quality of this movie! Rather than "kill and be killed" they could be learning wonderful lessons in life as was done so well in "Toy Story II". If more people would support films like this we wouldn't have to wonder why our kids grow up thinking that violence is the answer to every problem in life. And it was a fun film for adults that can be kids at heart, too. Please, keep these films coming.........

American Pie starts out slowly, and at first we thought this one was going to be a waste of our time and money, but as the characters were developed on the screen we got to know and like them. We especially liked how they "grew up" somewhat during their quest for the "pie". Overall, the story hung together and our time was well spent.

Please see this one for the cinematography, if for no other reason. Then see it for the love story, the eternal triangle of loving two persons, each for different reasons. Then listen to the music which flows over the scenes like a warm, moist blanket. Finally, see it for the haunting memories of visual images it will leave with you - like the ice crystals on the windows in the middle of a Russian winter. Enjoy......

The many talents of Robin Williams are greatly restricted (shall we say wasted?) by this film, partly because of the "costume" and partly because of the script. The story starts out with a simple premise but gets too complicated and drags on for too long before a not-very-satisfactory conclusion finally arrives. Many of the actors don't put much feeling into their performances, again partly because the script is rather bland. In all, not very memorable.........

Finally! A Stephen King film that tells the same story as the book! And what a story !!!! And what fantastic characters!!!! If you have the cash for only two movies this year, spend it on "The Green Mile" and "American Beauty", please. Michael Duncan as John Coffey will tear your heart out as someone just too good for this cruel world. Stephen King knows all the tricks to get you to love (or hate) his characters, and all film directors would do well to tell his stories exactly as written, thank you! The audience was so stunned that they filed out in silence after the credits. Go see this one with someone you love, and hold on tight.....

A cute little ditty, but silly, silly, silly! This picture misses so many opportunities to rise above its silly self. There should have been much more interaction between the little contest girls and our stars, but alas, another missed opportunity. If anything makes this worth watching, it is William Macy as the sheriff in need of some love and meaning in his life. His performance is very touching. And one other good point - the screen writers didn't revert to a string of profanity each time they couldn't figure out what the characters should say, as do many movies today. Enjoy this one as a little light-hearted fluff.... For real comedy involving a tiny Texas town, catch a performance of "Tuna, Texas" and/or "Tuna Christmas" the next time your little theatre group puts it on...

If you listen to about 3% of the dialogue in this one you will hear some very profound observations about the state of organized "religion" today in the USA. The remaining 97% of dialogue is there just to try to make some kind of story line that holds together these assorted clips of good guy (angel, muse, etc.?) vs. bad guy stuff along the way. I kept wishing Satan himself (herself?) would have shown up to help make some sense out of all of this confusion. Just remember, "DOGma" is "ma'GOD!" spelled, well, backwards (sort of)..... But, please, do read the text at the beginning of the film and all of the credits and other misc. stuff at the end - it makes you feel better about the price you paid to play.....

It has been years since I heard a movie audience clap and cheer like they did throughout this movie! And it is a true story! So much the better. This movie will lift your spirits from here to Sunday and then some. All of the characters are so real, so lovable (or despicable in one case), and you just wish you were there to know them all. Do yourself a favor and feel good about the world again - go enjoy this one, please.

My movie-going group agrees on this one: one of the WORST of all times! What a waste of film stock. The "F" word was used hundreds of times to cover up for a lack of having anything to say. Those who think this one is any good at all have missed a whole lifetime of good scary tales done by the masters over the many years (before blood and gore started to substitute for a good plot and implied horror). Go see "BATS" if you enjoy being scared by a plot and a movie worth seeing.

Unlike most movies, the SIXTH SENSE will leave you talking about it for an hour after you see it! My wife and/or I can usually figure out a movie's ending before it ends, but NOT THIS ONE! We were so impressed with the way everything that happened throughout all made sense by the end, and that all the little bits (the "clues") throughout hung together to support the ending, unlike the "flaws" in the plots of most so-called "intelligent" movies these days. And all of the characters were so well established. We loved it. Please go see this one if you like to use your brain.