Reviews

I know this sounds silly but after watching "Eloise at the Plaza" I really wished Disney could finish the making of ALL four Eloise movies in just ONE year, so that Sofia Vassilieva would stay the same all along -- I mean, this fun-loving six-year-old girl hopping around New York City for all kinds of adventures... Of course they can always have Julie Andrews come back as the "rawther" wonderful Nanny, and Jeffrey Tambor as the "definitely glass half-empty type" Mr. Salamone, even Weenie the dog and Skipperdee the turtle -- these characters would still look the same. But Sofia is growing up (she was nine when this one was filmed, and by the time the next sequel -- Eloise at Christmastime -- is released she would be eleven already.) Oh well.... why don't I just settle for the joy of the present and savour every delightful minute this movie has to offer. If "The Little Prince" is an all-time beloved story for children and grown-ups alike, I believe "Eloise at the Plaza" will become a classic family movie that never ceases to bring a lot of laughters (and tears) to people who cherish life and each other.

After a very loooong wait since the last episode of Season One, I spent almost a week to watch Season Two from beginning to end and realized I had made a good decision to wait for the DVD set instead of watching "24" week by week on TV. As most other viewers have pointed out, this show is definitely getting better and better, and given the way Season Two was concluded I can't wait to see how the David Palmer/Jack Bauer story continues in the next season. I know I'll miss Xander Berkeley whose character George Mason has been written off... I'll also miss Sarah Clarke (Berkeley's real life wife) because Fox wouldn't have Nina Myers come back in Season Three (?)... But it's fun to know that Kim Bauer (Elisha Cuthbert) will be getting directly involved with CTU's plot plans so she won't keep annoying people as Jack's airhead daughter who by making all the wrong choices has caused too much trouble to everyone else... And most of all, as Season Three begins, I can't wait to see Andrea Thompson (NYPD Blue's Detective Kirkendall). I really hope they'll write a great script for her character. I've been missing her a lot since her latest and brief appearance on CNN's Headline News.

Actually, apart from Catherine Deneuve who is famous worldwide, the other actresses of this French movie are not quite unfamiliar to the American audience either. I believe most moviegoers must have recognized Emmanuelle Beart (the sexy girl of "Mission Impossible"), Isabelle Huppert (the frustrating woman of "The Piano Teacher"), Virginie Ledoyen (Francoise of "The Beach"), Fanny Ardant (Mary de Guise of "Elizabeth"), and Ludivine Sagnier (the bombshell of the recently released "Swimming Pool"). As for Danielle Darrieux, strange as it may seem, she once starred as the mother of Catherine Deneuve (and of Catherine's real life sister Francoise Dorleac) in another French musical, "Les demoiselles de Rochefort" -- although that one was not as good as Catherine's debut "Les parapluies de Cherbourg".

While watching a movie with all the above mentioned actresses was quite a treat already, I particularly enjoyed them lipsync some beautiful French songs of the '60s: "Pape t'es plus dans le coup" (Daddy you're behind the times, performed by Ludivine Sagnier), "Message personnel" (Personal message, by Isabelle Huppert), "A quoi sert de vivre libre" (What's the use of living free, by Fanny Ardant), "Pour ne pas vivre seul" (To be not alone, by Firmine Richard), "Mon amour mon ami" (My lover my friend, by Virginie Ledoyen), "Pile ou face" (I toss a coin, by Emmanuelle Beart), "Toi jamais" (You never, by Catherine Deneuve), and as if the best was to saved for last, "Il n'y a pas d'amour heureux" (There is no happy love, from a poem by Louis Aragon and performed by Danielle Darrieux).

During the ten years that followed her successful debut as a hot teenager in "Blame It On Rio" opposite Michael Caine (1984), Michelle Johnson didn't seem to get lucky on any role she landed (including her double role in the not-so-cool thriller "Body Shot"). Then she got married to baseball star Matt Williams in early 1999 and was given another chance in "Fallen Angel" (aka "Revenge"). However, don't expect to find a sexy, curvy Michelle Johnson who once feasted your eyes and captured your heart in "Blame It On Rio". I first thought this was an erotic thriller myself. But Vicki Mayerson's bitter revenge is totally different from Jennifer Lyons' dangerous seduction, so to say. Nonetheless, director Marc Grenier deserves all the credit in making this B-thriller surprisingly entertaining. I enjoyed its good screenplay and cinematography, plus some nice acting by Michelle Johnson and (oh yes, believe it or not) Alexandra Paul (the Baywatch girl). Furthermore, since "Fallen Angel" aka "Revenge" has its plot based on the animosity of a young girl who survived a teenaged gang's careless prank, the flashbacks are well calculated to gradually unravel some dark secrets that lead to a dramatic and believable ending. Not a waste of time, compared to many senseless flicks that are labeled "thrillers" out there.

As this is a movie about a small town, three generations and two lovers, here's how I think the story should be told. Deroy is a California isolated town, the existence of which relies on a lumber mill run by Logan Reeser (seventy-six-year-old Oscar winner Jason Robards). Reeser is a mentor to twenty-six-year old Frank (Eddie Mills) who while being seen as a freak by his family and community, fully shares Reeser's deep-rooted devotion to the giant redwoods. Then summer comes, and Frank finds himself in bliss and trouble when a romance blooms between him and the mill manager's daughter, Sylvia (twenty-four-year-old Hilary Swank, one year before her Best Actress Oscar). The young lovers are temporarily separated, but as old Logan Reeser gets deeper in debt and might have to shut down the mill, Frank and Sylvia devise a clever plan, and together they prove that love and determination can save a town from disaster and be the answer to Reeser's prayers as well...

Although the DVD isn't very cool (only chapter selections, no special features) I really enjoy this movie. I love its message regarding environment (similar to what was voiced in such good films as "Silkwood", "A River Runs Through It", "Erin Brockovich"...) Credits should also go to the cinematography and the solid performance of the entire cast, especially Hilary Swank with her incomparable freshness and natural beauty. So if you're tired of movies that offer nothing but senseless violence and obsessive sex crave, get "Heartwood" and enjoy this heartwarming love story, as narrated by its main character: "It started 15 years ago in a forest in my sawmill town, Deroy, population 254, where the trees are more than a livelihood, they're a way of life..."

For the lovers of "beach movies", i.e. those who would settle for some enjoyable pastime without expecting any Oscar-racing stuff, there's at least a dozen flicks with the name Malibu to choose from. "Malibu Beach" gets a lot of attention in the 70s, then come "Malibu Express", "Malibu Bikini Shop", "Malibu Hot Summer" (otherwise known as "Sizzle Beach") in the 80s, to quote a few... Yet "Malibu Summer" still enjoys a warm welcome when it comes out in 1993. Apart from all the fun things associated with the beach (surfing, volleyball, beach parties, topless suntan lotion treatment...) this movie does have an amusing script and, oh yes, four beautiful babes.

Rhett Sinclair (uncredited here on IMDB) is Stacy, a college student who is so tired of her clerical summer job at a firm named "Fantasy Encounters" she decides to talk her friends into starting a similar business of their own. So Stacy, Jill (Brittany Noelle aka Nicole Grey), and Lisa (Carrie Bittner aka Alycin Sterling) team up with "Fantasy Encounters" former employee Marcia (Randi Randolph) to launch "Fantasy Girls", a company that offers every man a chance to make his fantasy come true -- on a "nothing illegal, nothing kinky" term (meaning no sex involved, mind you). Despite some funny twists and turns, the girls end up making 20,000 bucks before summer is over, and better yet, they all end up in the right lanes to happiness some way or another.

Bottom line? Certainly "Malibu Summer" doesn't go any farther than its tag line ("The beach just got hotter"), and maybe that's all what I expected. So I give it four stars, one for each girl. Wish they would team up again.

This psychological thriller is something like "Rear Window of the cyber age". Nastassja Kinski is the beautiful Sondra Brummel who got stuck in a wheel chair due to some ski accident while her boyfriend Ben (rock singer Roger Daltrey) goes out of town. Misty Brummel (Nicolette Sheridan of "Knots Landing") comes over to help Sondra recover, and the two sisters spend some time together on the web, using Ben's password to sneak in some private chatroom. The Internet chitchats seem to be enjoyable until Sondra and Misty accidentally watch some suspicious guy threaten to rape and kill a girl (Kim Valentine). Not only they fail to convince an FBI agent (pop star Huey Lewis) into thwarting a virtual crime, they even put themselves in serious danger, because the psychotic killer (Jeffrey Dean) happens to be a vicious hacker who wastes no time tracking them down to their own residence...

Obviously scriptwriter and director Nico Mastorakis has done everything to make this movie an entertaining high-tech thriller. The website stripping scenes with porn star Julie Strain and "body double" Shelley Michelle are just appetizers to a lot of exciting and mysterious features that we can expect from (and should be watchful about) the Internet, and the digital visual effects and sounds do help make them more believable. As always, Nastassja Kinski gives a solid performance, while Nicolette Sheridan and the rest of the cast do their best as well (even Melinda Clarke is pretty cool in her minor role as FBI agent Williams). Although the DVD doesn't have any special features or commentaries, etc..., its widescreen and Dolby sound suffice to make ".com for Murder" a not-so-perfect but worth seeing movie. If you think such high-tech thrillers as "Hackers" or "StrangeLand" are good, you may like this one because it's somehow better.