Reviews

Three Kings uses power descriptive imagery and strong characters to give a surprisingly moral story. Four Desert Storm soldiers; Archie Gates (George Clooney), Troy Barlow (Mark Wahlberg), Conrad Vig (Spike Jonze), and Chief Elgin (Ice Cube) set out with a plan to steal millions in gold bullion at the very time Sadaam had agreed to the cease-fire. Hoping that Sadaam would be too caught up in trying to quell rebels in his own territory, Archie Gates thinks this would mean easy access to the gold in Qarballah, one of Sadaam's bunker. He's right. They stroll into town as Sadaam's own men only tend to the hostages and only give fleeting glances at the four Americans strolling in the midst. They're only too glad to help the Americans leave quickly and they even help to load all the gold. Until that is one hostage had to be executed. The scene is now in slow motion as a mother is executed before their eyes and Archie has to choose between morality or money. The events afterward throw the four Americans into a world of turmoil and are wrapped up in the war that America refused to fight and our supposedly humanitarian intentions. It has a lot to say of president Bush's half-assed war, people in wartime, and they effects of it. Overall, it's a mix of surreal vividness and comedy. The camera at first follows guerilla style photography mixed with odd off-beat lighting. It's good.

Many actors have bridged into the industry, sometimes becoming producers, sometimes directors. While it's not unusual to see actors become directors, I underwent a huge frameshift in seeing Banderas making his huge directorial debut in Crazy in Alabama. As you might have not known, Antonio Banderas has been acting for quite some time (since 1983) in various movies that even surprised me. Secondly, Banderas was also a producer in four flicks. We can assume then, that Antonio has the bare-bones of what it takes to be a director. The biggest hurdle Banderas will have to bound is that of a recycled concept. Crazy in Alabama is an adaptation from a novel that will either refresh the 'operate-out-side-of-standard-society-and-reinvent-the-way-you- see-things' or beat the proverbial horse once more. This can either make him or break him. He has his work cut out for him. Like most things, all we have is expectations. I'm expecting Banderas to prove to everyone that he can do more than just act (we know he can dance, and wield a mean guitar). So he can either earn the respect of his peers and fans everywhere, or he can fall flat on his -ss. You can quote me on that.

Melanie Griffith, as it happens is also in the movie, starring as Lucille. Beyond that, I don't know much. But I can see why Antonio took the big step into becoming a director.

This is definitely the worse movie of the summer because one of several things. Spike Lee who wields his authority as a director like a gun is expected to meet a high standard with his films and maybe its our fault in expecting too much. Summer of Sam was by a landslide a failure even though it had a big name director like Spike Lee. Yet while Summer of Sam was largely stylistic, its a wasted effort in that it has no other redeemable quality. Its mixture of sex and violence is perhaps too much. Spike Lee is relentless is exploiting the limits of an R-rating. Meanwhile this movie seems to be trying to paint a picture of an atmosphere -a period flick of the paranoid, heat-struck underbelly of New York. From references to NWOBR and punk, to vigilante Italians, to sexual deviants, this movie does no one a favor in arguing their case. If he wasn't, then why the emphasis and focus? Maybe it was the over-extended focus on several characters that made the movie unable to communicate the intended message. Maybe it was the shoddy story-plotting that made this movie...tiring. As for the lead roles, it was a weak case for both Mira Sorvino and John Leguizamo. Their stories seem to loosely and barely stitched together with the Son of Sam story. Adrien Brody though, manages to make a startling performance. Spike Lee however, made first year mistakes in the approach of the movie. David Berkowitz, the 44-Caliber Killer, Son of Sam in fact confessed that his insanity was a ploy long instigated to escape punishment through the Mnaughten Rule. While in one scene, Spike Lee with special effects (not a subtle mix) portrays David Berkowitz as succumbing to his demons. In this instance, the demon being a talking demon-dog. This would be an admission by Spike Lee that is not altogether true and totally an interpretation contrary to fact. I saw this movie twice just to be sure that I didn't like it and in both instances, seventy-five percent of the crowd left. A teenager responded once, "this movie was a F--cking porno..." And even then, as I asked him if he had like the movie or not he responded, "no." But I admit I like the soundtrack.

Anthony Hopkins is a tremendous actor with many memorable roles, Hannibal Lecter being the most immortal of them all. This is one of the lesser, but equally great roles eclipsed by an unoriginal plot and dialogue. Instinct is a plagarized story taken from dozens of man/ape stories, and even reminiscent of Gorillas in the Mist and other movies about the "philosophy" of nature and its creatures. Instinct would have been groundbreaking if it had been released ten years earlier before any of its predecessors, but it didn't so I'm content to say it was an okay movie. The outline of the movie is also very common (unorthodox teacher/baffled but eager student). One scene in particular that I like is a scene in where Anthony Hopkin explains to Cuba Gooding Jr. (another tremendous actor) the nature of power, which sounds very much like the 6th century philosopher Boethius. Just think Gorillas In the Midst.

Starship Troopers is an adaptation from Robert Heinlein's novel, Starship Troopers, but you wouldn't have noticed by the direction the movie had taken. I had heard that they enlisted the aid of a military specialist to authenticate the technical aspects of the movie. They probably didn't pay him enough. Starship Troopers is an incredibly stupid, horrid, and worthless movie. It doesn't even belong on cellulose, so great is its suckyness (I had to go into the Sick Boy dictionary to explain the horridness of this movie). While it was a satire of glamourized war films and such, it wasn't smart; a category in which most satires attempt to achieve. This movie was mostly visual eye-candy (Denise Williams, Dina Meyers and the bugs)

Yes I've heard the arguments, and yes I've seen the movie. But how can anyone notice that this movie was a smart satire if all its attention was on the special effects? There was too much gore than necessary to relay the point or poke fun at war movies; there was unnecessary nudity (I like Dina Meyers although) which seemed to do nothing but excite the hormones of young teenage boys in the audience; and well, it seemed to weak to prove anything except that this movie needs work. And well I wonder if ole Robert wanted his story to be seen this way. I'll give it a few points though for trying to be a satire -but you couldn't pay me enough to think that it was a good movie (I may say it, but I won't believe it).

As far as T.V. movies go, the Cyberstalking is as formulaic as they come. Its clean-cut, television quality mixed with standard special effects is mildly pleasing, but eye candy can only get you so far. If you've seen one of those Sci-Fi T.V. movie you've seen this one. If you've seen the Outerlimits with Mark Hamil, then you've definitely seen The Cyberstalking. The only interesting twist is a song sung by Holly Moon (that's the character's name -really)played by Jean Louisa Kelly. "Only in Hollywood," will definitely stick in your head and you'll find yourself humming a line or two. However, they do overuse this song and it'll get old faster than it takes to summarize the plot. Too bad they didn't add a couple of other songs. Holly Moon plays a struggling singer who desires to make it big. Working effortlessly to promote herself and perfect her craft she gets the opportunity of a lifetime when a producer hears her demo tape. Meanwhile his current artist reaches critical mass and ends up blowing a lobe after an intense session in the virtual reality simulator. Her brother knows something killed her in the program. Through the use of cybernetics, the producer links Holly Moon to a sort of

virtual reality mainframe whereupon she constructs a world by the power of thought in which to present her music; like a music video minus the annoying VJ's. However, things go wrong as a malignant phantom glitch appears in the simulation apparently out to kill again as it did the first time. It's up to the crusading brother to save Holly Moon... Brian Grant, the director should stick to what he does best -t.v. shows.

I met Mark Altman and Robert Burnett, screenwriter and director of Free Enterprise and was amazed to find that the production of this movie (semi-autobiographical) was just as humorous as the actual movie itself. Free Enterprise delves into the world of Trekkies, surprisingly laced with sexual undertones. From green-alien women fetishes, to comics, to "Brady-Killer," to threesomes this movie is a laugh riot. The real comedy begins as Robert and Mark bump into William Shatner at a bookstore, who is oggling at an adult magazine. Like most star-struck fans, they rather clumsily bump into him. They find out that the hot-shot cowboy of the NC-1701 is not in fact James T. Kirk. Bill (who's in between jobs and working on a musical for Shakespeare's Julius Caesar), is racked with just as many insecurities and odd little mannerisms as Robert and Mark are. They quickly become friends and struggle through the melee of life, relationships, and women. At the end everything works out (Shatner raps to Caesar's monologue). Oh, yeah, to all you Trekkies out there pay close attention to the credits at the very end. You'll get a kick out of it.

Chasing Amy has Kevin Smith's hallmark humor, but the movie is approached in a serious way. Chasing Amy is Kevin Smith's masterpiece showing maturity and sophistication (while still have his trademark profane humor). Holden, played by Ben is a comic book artist who falls for a fellow comic book artist, Alyssa. The only problem is that Alyssa is a switch-hitter for the other team. Alyssa's a lesbian. Banky, Holden's inker, played by Jason Lee (who's always a delight as his performances are astounding) constantly discourages Holden with his brand of mock-male bravado that borders on chauvinism. In one scene, Banky explains the necessity of "Stroke-Magazines" en-masse. Holden advances anyway undeterred and succeeds in becoming Alyssa's friend. After that, a whirlwind romance ensues but Holden still can't come to grips about Alyssa's promiscuous past and things begin to fall apart. It's a personal movie that's apologetic and explores "love-sex, and relationships in the 90's." Worth seeing.

Trainspotting is one of the truly inspirational movies out there about life; especially life in Edinburgh Scotland. Danny Boyle and John Hodge utilize a lot of visual humor and tricks to condense Irvine Welsh's story. Yet despite its obvious and successful attempts at humor, Trainspotting is a serious movie about friends and the types of friends you hang on to, growing up Scottish as a Heroin junkie, and the life of the lower middleclass. In Mark Renton's case, Sickboy (a Sean Connery wannabe), Spud (a quiet but baffled man), Begbie (over-aggressive warmonger)are the problem. The issue of drugs is the counterpoint to that problem brought to light by his friends. With friends like his, he could never be more than what they were -drug addicts and remorseless street trash. Ultimately his attempts to quit Heroin, stay clean, get a job, and lead a normal life are dashed by his mates until he comes up with a plan: The Last Hit, so to speak. This movie is extremely quotable and inspirational.