9/14/2003
El Mariachi returns to avenge the murder of his wife and daugher in the final piece in Robert Rodriguez's trilogy. Starring Antonio Banderas, Johnny Depp, and Salma Hayek.
Often flashy and dreamlike, but never disappointing for those going in without expectations, Once Upon A Time in Mexico delivers on every level. Action, romance, comedy, revenge, suspense, and irony--Robert Rodriguez leaves nothing to the imagination, letting his own run wild. El Mariachi (Antonio...
9/14/2003
Charming story of a con artist who teaches his daugher the tricks of the trade, only to get conned himself. Starring Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, and Alison Lohman.
There are few actors alive who are more likable than Nicolas Cage, even cast in the role of an obsessive-compulsive con artist who teaches his long lost fourteen-year-old daugher (Lohman) how to lie, con and steal. It's a gift.
9/14/2003
Silly horror flick that brings the classic villians together in probably the most ridiculous finale in the genre's history.
More comedy than horror, Freddy Vs. Jason is the horror genre's gag-gift. It's more of a guilty pleasure than anything remotely "watchable" in conventional terms. Freddy Krueger returns, but is able to scare the children of Elm Street thanks to a drug forcing everyone to forget him. This causes him...
9/14/2003
The Order serves up Heath Ledger in a psychological thriller with a mixture of bad dialogue and interesting ideas.
Neither scary nor thrilling, this small-time horror film brings little that is new to the table. Still, its psychological stigmata mish-mash is interesting enough raise an eyebrow or two--then lull you back to sleep with its boring monotone dialogue. The last thing we needed was another Catholic-...
8/13/2003
American Wedding offers up another piece of the 'Pie.' If you've seen the previous two movies--you might as well skip this helping of the same old crap. Starring Jason Biggs and Alyson Hannigan as the happy couple.
Something old. Nothing new. Lots that's borrowed. Eating poo?What's old is about half the returning cast and the same tired plot, and there's nothing new that we haven't either seen before in the previous two films in the American Pie franchise, or the countless others like them, from which they...
8/13/2003
YES! Another cheesy 70s television show makes it to the big screen. This one stars Colin Ferrell and Samuel L. Jackson playing LAPD cops who take down, what else? A bad guy.
S.W.A.T. stands for Special Weapons and Tactics. It's okay if you didn't already know...the movie reminds you every 15-30 minutes. The first time someone recites the definition as if he's reading it verbatim out of a dictionary, followed by umpteen camera shots of vans and cars plastered with the...
8/13/2003
Freaky, but in a good way. Another Disney remake starring Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis as a mother and daughter who switch bodies for one day in order to better understand each other.
If I rated movies on a letter scale, this decade's spin on the old Disney classic, Freaky Friday, would get an "F". In this case however, instead of meaning failure... it would stand for Fabulous. Three time's a charm for this updated retelling of the story of a mother and daughter who don't quite...
7/25/2003
Spy Another Day: Mr. Bean's Rowan Atkinson stars as Johnny English, another clueless spy, with only slightly more mojo than Austin Powers.
Rowan Atkinson, the British actor best known for starring as Mr. Bean, must have never received the memo informing him that the spy spoof genre has already been filled. In fact, it's overflowing. Regardless, we get Johnny English-- a recycled, over-done formula that offers nothing we haven't...
7/23/2003
A 'bad' sequel to the 1995 surprise hit, starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as a pair of narcotics cops out to catch the bad-guy while being pretty bad themselves.
Bad Boys II is certainly a fitting title. Returning to their 1995 roles as Miami narcotics detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are noticeably more bad than they were in the original, and act a lot more like immature boys rather than grown men.
7/23/2003
Creepy apocalyptic tale starring unknown Brits who find themselves running from more than just the zombies.
Quite a bore and needless gore, was initially my impression of 28 DaysLater, but less than 28 minutes later, Director Danny Boyle's intenselyintellectual and creepy apocalyptic film had my full attention until itsvery ambiguous end.It begins when animal rights activists in Britain release some...
