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karoshi
Reviews
Lush Life (1996)
Tank Girl takes on the city
This was Lori Petty's first role after Tank Girl, and it really shows. The show was too sharp, too shocking, and way to unconventional for the viewing public. Pity. This one had real potential to break some new ground. Even the pilot was hilarious. Sadly, the pilot made up a sizeable percentage of the entire run of episodes.
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
A great idea isn't always a great film
Wow-what a great idea for a movie.
Even if the ad campaign's suggestion that this was a true story was terribly transparent, it was still an exciting concept. It could have been a great film, too.
Instead of making the most of the idea, there's far too much time spent on the extremely un-sympathetic characters arguing with each other. I suppose this is meant to show their dawning fear and justify the incredibly stupid things they wind up doing (like not walking out of the woods...duh). Instead of being scary, the movie is merely annoying for too many long spells.
Event Horizon (1997)
In an empty theater, no one can hear you scream...
I actually yelled at the screen in this film. Really. When the big "secret" of the Event Horizon was revealed, it was so insultingly stupid that I couldn't believe the filmaker had the nerve to toss it up there on the screen.
The film looks pretty cool-the interiors of the spaceship were based on a cathedral, but other than that, there's really nothing to suggest it.
Tank Girl (1995)
Why did they saddle this thing with a plot????
If you're familiar with the Tank Girl comics, you're going to have some issues with this film.
For some reason, the filmakers decided to give Tank Girl a backstory, a name, a motivation, and all the other things she really doesn't need. Tank's a snog first, ask questions who couldn't care less if she uses her tankly powers for good or evil, so long as there's a beer and a laugh at the end of it all.
Lori Petty really does capture the spirit of Tank Girl pretty well, but the movie really is a mess. She stumbles through it gamely, but except for her, they couldn't have missed the spirit of Tank Girl further if they'd tried.
Robot Jox (1989)
Two men, two machines, too wild!
Hrm-I think that line was from the old movie posters.
This is a dumb movie that seems to have been translated from some language that was totally unfamiliar to the translator. Here's a tip: Any movie that starts with a black screen and text reading "In the future..." is going to be fun. This means that the premise is so implausible that they have to explain it to you.
In this case, "In the future..." means that, instead of fighting wars, nations have guys climb into giant robots and duke it out to determine, well, that's never terribly clear, but it's probably something really important. There are good guys (obviously capitalists, i.e. "us") and bad guys (Commies!) and there are big stop-motion robots.
Sadly, the effects budget was pretty slim, so we don't get to see a lot of the big robots. There are plenty of cheap looking interior scenes, and then a big space fight near the end. The space fight is especially nice, as it serves precisely no purpose other than the blow the remainder of the effects budget.
With said money now spent, the climactic fight degenerates into (and I'm not making this up) two guys hitting each other with sticks. I can always get a laugh in a bar by re-enacting the final scene, complete with a last line guaranteed to leave any audience scratching their heads.
Like I said-it's dumb. That's why I bought the tape.
Brazil (1985)
Dreams vs. Reality. Guess who wins?
A cautionary tale if there ever was one. For everyone who's buoyed above the absurdity of our lives by the wisps of fantastic dreams, this movie has a message for you: Be very, very careful trying to bring your dreams out of your head and into your life. Real life is a lot bigger and meaner than it looks...
American Beauty (1999)
A fine film, but don't look to closely
This is an intelligent film that is immaculately acted and brilliantly shot. I concur with the other reviewers who loved it, but I was also put off by the heavy-handed Message with a capital "M" that was being hammered into the viewer. Every scene has a pretty obvious Purpose to set up something that will obviously occur later. Finally, to pick nits, it wasn't nearly as mean as it could, and probably should, have been. Better than 95% of what is out there, but not as good as it wanted to be.