Reviews

Once, movie director Fischer gave us precious little gems like 'Brandnacht'. So where's the problem nowadays?

The basic idea behind this crime comedy is ingenious, even on an international level. It's basically about the turmoils in a very corrupt Zurich high society which is caused by the dying of a well-known banker whose untimely death leads to a series of almost incredible events. The whole crime story even includes your average tough 'mafiosi' and is interwoven with a nice little love story between a taxi driver (played by Martin Schenkel) and the daughter of a corrupt politician (Mona Fueter - she's cute). There are many well-known Swiss actors and comedians involved in this movie: Mathias Gnädinger, Walter Andreas Müller, Patrick Frey...

The problem of the movie is its execution - that's why it fails in the end. The action is too hectic, basically because there is too much plot for 90 minutes of screen time. Thus, the actors are degraded to cardboard characters. (Schenkel is the only exception, but I'm being nice here). The love story never rings true and the fast transition of the action from a petty crime-level to mayhem is too outlandish to be believed. This could have been a great mini-series in three parts or so, but as a movie, it stinks.

At least, it's not boring.

Unfortunately, this is not one of those movies which are so bad that they're actually good. This one is REALLY bad, its main fault being that it is very boring.

Even the voyeuristic 'sex' scenes, which I guess this movie was about in the first place, are boring! In fact, it's not a horror movie, it's just a very bad skin flick with a few supernatural elements thrown in. At least, other movies in the same vein (like 'Dinosaur Island') contain some good humor, which you can't say about this piece of trash.

Three reedeming features, on the other hand: Jacqueline Lovell looks good, and the homosexuality and divorce issue are quite special in this kind of film.

Adapted from Larry Beinhart's novel 'American Hero' this seemed to be intended as an airy semi-political comedy. To me it just seemed like a lazily assembled collage of soft, extended skits on engineering a media war. You may notice several badly handled leaps in the story. This is a muddled mess and it could have been such a great movie because its premise is exceptional.

Unfortunately, De Niro, Heche and Hoffman (three actors I really appreciate and the main reason why I watched this movie) couldn't help it. But then -- what to do with such a script?

I really liked the first part of this horror movie and found it quite interesting. There's a sense of hidden evil slowly building up over the two main actors, Sam Neill and Julie Carmen. It culminates in the introduction to a few strange characters of Hobb's End that made me yearn for more of that madness which has the little town in its firm grip.

And then, they have to ruin everything by going to that church. Special effects take over (and they're certainly not the best of their kind) and we're treated with the usual mishmash of symbolic scenes. The whole story becomes simply too offbeat to be 'believed' and raises too many questions without providing the answers.

There always seems to be the same problem with those TV movies that stick so close to Stephen King's books, and 'Shining' is no exception. The Stanley Kubrick film from 1980 was highly entertaining, perhaps because it didn't follow the novel too close. This 1997 version is bland and unexciting.

Just another proof that Stephen King's fiction works much better on paper than as a movie. It seems his work is too difficult to be properly banned on celluloid.

This show displays the right mix between big laughs and simple little chuckles. Also, you don't get a plethora of gags like in 'Married two children' and there are no boring, unfunny jokes like in 'Full House'. The episodes are not always great, but they're always watchable. They're also quite realistic.

Plus, Kevin James and Leah Remini play the most likely characters I've ever seen in a sitcom. They are good at heart, they make a romantic couple, and still they get into the most hilarious situations you can imagine.

Oh, and Leah Remini is cute!

This must be the most boring, embarrassing and pretentious show in the world. They're still showing it over here in Europe, the same episodes over and over again... It seems we're contaminated with it! 'Full House' sticks like sirup on our TV channels!