Change Your Image
Nihilon
Reviews
A Simple Plan (1998)
A Perfect Adaptation
When I read this book, I thought it would make a great film, and I was right. This film captures the book perfectly, and probably even improves on it a little, focusing the story a bit more. All the performances are great especially Billy Bob and Bill Paxton. The direction is extremely understated, which fits the mood of the story and sets the tone perfectly. It's hard to believe this is the same guy who directed the Evil Dead films. The reason the film works so successfully though is the screenplay. Scott Smith has to win the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. The dialogue scenes and the "action" scenes are well-balanced and complement each other throughout the film. Yes, the ending is a downer, but that's part of the power of the film... The movie has a moral to it, and a happy ending would completely undermine the point that the movie is making. In fact, the ending is in my opinion the best possible ending for the film. It doesn't succumb to a typical Hollywood happy ending, or a typical action movie shoot 'em up ending. Instead, it makes you feel how much Paxton's character has lost and how little he has to show for it. My only worry about the film, through no fault of its own, is the inevitability of the comparisons to Fargo. In fact, this movie is far better than Fargo, but will probably be in that movie's shadow because of it's snowy Midwest setting and superficial similarity of plot elements. Hopefully in time, people will be able to value this movie on its own merits, and see it as the classic that it is.
Dressed to Kill (1980)
Another Psycho rip-off
When Gus Van Sant did his Psycho remake, they said it was an original idea, had never been done before. Well it was done before and it was called Dressed to Kill. This movie takes so many elements of Psycho and shows just how bad a movie could be made of them. First you have the cross-dressing killer, but at least in Psycho the true sexual identity was kept secret til the end, but here it's no secret at all. There's the big-name actress who at first appears to be the main character of the film, and then is abruptly killed a third of the way into the film. There is even a long-winded psychological explanation of the killer's motives once he has been revealed, but here he is not just a transvestite, but a transsexual. Although he's really only a wanna-be transsexual, so really he's just a transvestite with a different motivation. The most pointless rip-off of Psycho here, though, are the two, count'em TWO, shower scenes that book-end the film. Neither comes close to Psycho's version, and even worse, they are both just dream sequences so they add nothing to the plot. The first one has nothing to do with the film whatsoever other than to show one of the film's stars nude. The second is even more pointless, coming after the killer's identity has been revealed. The only purpose I can think of is that they needed to make the film 10 or 15minutes longer to reach feature length, and tacked on this lame sequence as a result. This film is definitely not worth the time.
The Night Flier (1997)
One of King's best
Despite being a direct-to-video movie, which usually is a really bad sign, this movie is better than most King films that make it to the big screen. The story is good and suspenseful, and actually has some brains behind it as well, with regard to the tabloid newspaper sub-theme. Miguel Ferrer is great as the reporter; you tend to like him despite yourself, but at the same time you recognize what an asshole he is and what's in store for him. When he makes it to the airport, and he's surrounded by dead bodies, it's one of the creepiest scenes in any recent horror film. There are a few drawbacks. The look of the vampire at the end is cheesy. And the chick who plays the other reporter is annoying, and there's no point to her being in the film, except to give it its twist ending, which is pretty good nevertheless.
Antz (1998)
So what about the language?
I don't know where some of these people are from, but where I'm at kids know and use words like damn, hell, crap and bitching by the time they're seven or eight at least. That's how it was when I was growing up. If you don't want your kid hearing the language in this film, you better not let them go to school; I guarantee you they'll hear far worse language there. This film is not for little kids less than 5; it's PG for a reason, and not just the language. You should know that if it's rated PG, it's probably not meant for kids 5 years old or younger, so if you take kids that young to this film, you have only yourself to blame, not the studio or filmmakers. Otherwise, if your kids are older than 5, don't let a few uptight people keep you and them from seeing a really good, really fun movie. I for one am glad someone was willing to make an animated film that satisfies both adults and kids. I hope DreamWorks keeps it up and puts out more films like this, and doesn't let their movies be ruined by trying to please everyone.
Mad City (1997)
This is bad
I don't know if this was meant to be a comedy, but it sure had me laughing a lot. First there's Travolta's performance. He played his character way too dumb. I bet he wishes he could take this one back. There are the idiotic lines of dialogue sprinkled throughout the film. For example, when Travolta's wife is watching the reporters outside her own house right after finding out about her husband holding hostages, she says, "Look, now they're standing in my flower bed! That's it!" She's more upset about her flowers than about her husband holding hostages. And when Travolta is giving his first TV interview and says something about going to church, one of the kids he's holding hostages say, "I go to church too, with my family." What's the point of that, except to hit us over the heads with how Travolta is an 'ordinary guy' and is getting people's sympathy through the interview. The worst thing of all however is how utterly stupid the story is. First, the kids who are being held hostage over several days act more like their at summer camp then being kidnapped by a gun-wielding nut. They laugh and play with Travolta, they listen to him tell stories, and when he once in a while goes nuts and starts firing his gun out the window, they forget all about it when he opens up the candy machine for them. Real kids in a situation like this would be terrified. Then there are the people outside who start calling him a hero and printing up T-shirts with his face on it after his interview. Sympathy is one thing, that's understandable, but is anyone actually going to call a guy holding kids hostage a hero? And then there's the media. Everytime someone walks out the front door of the museum, whether its Hoffman or one of the kids, they get rushed by this media mob. The police would've barricaded the place, and the reporter's wouldn't be able to get within a hundred yards of that door. This movie is bad, some of it laughably bad, but mostly just plain bad.
The Spanish Prisoner (1997)
Good plot, goofy dialogue
If the story in this movie had been presented in a straightforward manner, it would have been much better. It's a good plot with a lot of twists that'll keep you trying to figure it all out after the movie is over. However, the combination of too much phony-sounding dialogue and uninspiring characterization is off-putting. The dialogue is sometimes just plain strange, and once in a while it's goofy enough to make you chuckle (like one of Ross's last comments to his "secretary" at the end). The way these people talk and act, they never seem like real people, so you can only care so much about what happens to them. If the story had been given more real -seeming characters with more realistic dialogue, it would have been much better.
Blade (1998)
Not that great
This movie opened up really strong. The bloodbath scene in the opening was great, and the sequence in the hospital featuring the burnt vampire was cool too. After that though, the movie falls off. The later action scenes are too chaotic and poorly edited... can't they leave the camera in one place for more than a millisecond? The CG effects looked like just that... CG effects. And can someone explain why these immortal vampires with superhuman strength keep going down at a mere kick to the face? Beyond this stuff, the film was moderately enjoyable but nothing special.
Event Horizon (1997)
Good Horror if you get past the silly parts
This is one of the best horror movies i've seen in a while, it's genuinely suspenseful and creepy, and isn't afraid of being gory when it needs to be. There aren't enough gore-fests anymore. It reminded me a lot of a spaceship version of Hellraiser, though not quite as good as that one. There's a lot of plot holes and silly stuff here, but none of that bothered me cause the movie was done well enough to suspend my disbelief. The only part that I couldn't buy into was the way the ship decompressed at the end: The air and everything else would've been sucked out a lot faster and more violently than it was. I really liked the style of the film, very gothic and reminded me a bit of Alien. Basically this is a good horror movie, not very intelligent for a sci-fi movie tho. It definitely works best and is most enjoyable as a horror film.
Contact (1997)
Overrated
I made the mistake of reading the book first, even though I should know that movie adaptations are never as good. And this movie is no exception. The book is deeper, more intelligent and much more imaginative. The movie is more contemporary and seems a bit dumbed-down. The climax when Ellie meets the alien intelligence is too short, and nowhere near as profound as it is in the book. The best part of this meeting (the revelation of evidence of God found in the number Pi) is completely missing in the movie. As a result, it ends up looking like these aliens brought Ellie all the way across the universe, but didn't have anything to say to her once they got her there. I still thought it was an okay movie, good PR for the SETI program, and more intelligent and thoughtful than your typical sci-fi or hollywood movie. Nevertheless, nothing new or profound is said about the themes that are explored in the movie; any first-year philosophy or divinity student would be ashamed of the discussions these issues are given here. At least the movie had the guts to address these themes of spirituality, faith and meaning in the first place, which is more than can be said for most movies. I would have enjoyed it a little better if i hadn't read the book first, but not by that much.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
What more is there to say
All the other reviews have pretty much summed up how great a movie this is. An instant classic. So I'll just add a few of my own thoughts. This is a must-see movie for a GOOD THEATRE with GOOD SOUND if you want to appreciate the battle sequences. The surround sound puts you right in the middle of the battle with explosions all over the place and bullets whizzing by to the right and left. See it in the theatre with the best sound system possible. The D-Day sequence is one of the most brilliant movie sequences ever filmed. This is Spielberg's second greatest film: Schindler's List is still his most powerful. And this is probably one of the best, if not the best, war films. The only other one that comes close is Full Metal Jacket, which is more disturbing but not as comprehensive or as emotionally involving.
As far as the gore and violence, it's intense and brutal but is not nearly as bad as most gory horror films; it doesn't even come close to the Day of the Dead/Dawn of the Dead movies, but it's a completely different kind of violence. It's very real, not fantasy or comic-book violence. I think most 12-year old kids can handle this, and I think most boys 12 and up should see this film, since it will show them a glimpse of what real violence looks like, and maybe counteract the kind of stuff they see in Armageddon and video games.