Reviews

As a huge fan of the original graphic novel by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber, I've been looking forward to this movie for a while.

I accept that changes invariably get made from source material to the big screen. However, I think they changed this a bit too much. The title may be the same but there is definitely a different feel to the plot.

Ultimately, it is a passable if uneven flick to kill a couple hours with. If you are a fan of the comic novel though, I think you'll find yourself a bit disappointed.

For me, I decided to judge the movie on its own merits instead of making the comparison between the two.

I found the movie hearkening back to the revenge thrillers of the '70s and '80s.

It moves from point A to point B with little to no surprises, but it's still an enjoyable film. The film actually lived up to the trailer, which made me want to see it.

Cole Hauser carried his role of Bo Laramie well.

Tom Sizemore oozed the right amount of SCUMBAG for the role, but that comes as no surprise to me.

My only real problem was the rather blatant lobotomy they gave Dennis Farina's character. Any detective worth his salt would've instantly made Laramie the prime suspect when the photographers who nearly killed his wife and son turn up dead.

Probably wouldn't buy it on DVD, but I'd definitely see it again.

The Cinematography was fantastic! The storyline was way pedestrian. The romance with the quarterback was laughable. The actor in no way resembled a professional athlete. I loved the surfing scenes, and wish there had been more of them. Certainly better than 1998's In God's Hands, but this isn't one you have to run out to the theater to see. The four females in the cast were exceptionally appealing but really could have used a better script.

Just got back from the sneak preview of this movie, and I loved it! Kevin Costner is Billy Chapel, pitcher for the Detroit Tigers. He finds out that he is moved up in the pitching rotation to pitch in the last game of the season, and then also learns that the team has been sold, he is going to be traded, and his girl friend is breaking up with him. All in all not a good day. As he takes the mound to pitch, he begins flashing back to one day five years previous when he meets Jane Aubrey, played by Kelly Preston. So begins his relationship with her. It's a tentative thing at first but it grows over the period of flashbacks as Billy continues to throw a masterpiece of a game. He meets Jane's daughter Heather played by the very good Jena Malone.(The only problem I really had with this movie is that she wasn't given a whole lot to do, and she has the ability.) Billy isn't put off by Heather as Jane expects he might, and the three begin to grow close as they spend more time together. John C. Reilly(from Boogie Nights) continues his winning streak of great character parts as Gus, the Tiger's catcher. The manager of the team played by JK Simmons wants another catcher to be behind the plate at the beginning of the movie, but Chapel refuses to throw to anyone but Gus. His career is ending and he has a decision to make about when exactly it will end, the way he lets the owner know is very appropriate. Meanwhile, the perfect game is going on and Jane is watching from the airport where she purposely misses the flight to London where she is to begin a new job(she's a writer) to see the end of the game, and Heather is in her dorm at USC also watching the game. I got the feeling that while she may have been just friends with Chapel, she would have liked it just as much as if he had been her father. The ending of the movie was satisfying and Costner is now 3-3 in his baseball movies. It isn't often that they do sequels to sports movies, but this is a movie I'd like to know what happens to the characters involved after the credits roll.

Denis Leary and Colm Meaney headline the cast of Monument Ave. but the deadly combination was boring storyline and not one single character that the viewer could care about. Leary is a gambling cokehead car thief and works for Meaney's Irish crime boss. He is surround by friends and relatives that are equally as stupid and ignorant as he is, and he is sleeping with Meaney's girlfriend. When Meaney has one cousin killed and later another the story is played that Leary is torn between the code of silence and family loyalty. I didn't see any conflict at all. He made a decision and did it, but there wasn't any conflicting emotions. This movie looks great when adverstised on the back of its box, but it was deathly awful having to watch it.

Steve Martin Dan Ackroyd and Phil Hartman head the cast of the remake of the famous TV show. Martin is Sgt. Bilko, a man who has his hands in every nook and cranny of the Army base that he is stationed on. Ackroyd is his technical commander, who is little more than a bumbling buffoon. A good thing since it makes it easier for Bilko to work around him. The good times come to a halt when Hartman shows up. Seems he is Bilko's nemesis. Bilko got him sent to a remote station by making it look like Hartman had fixed an Army boxing match. Bilko actually had done it, and Hartman is back for revenge. He begins by auditing the motor pool, which is Bilko's base of operations. It's staffed by a motley assortments of goof ups and it's up to them to pass themselves as real army soldiers while the audit is going on. A subplot about Bilko, his long suffering girlfriend and Hartman's character is okay, but it could've been left out just the same. Steve Martin is hilarious as Bilko, and Hartman brings the right amount a smarmy sarcastic attitude to his role.

Emma Thompson,Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman headline a magnificent cast in this adaptation of Jane Austen's novel. Thompson and Winslet are the two oldest Dashwood sisters, who along with their mother and younger sister are forced to move to a small cottage from their large home when their mother's husband dies and the inheritance passes from the father to the dishrag of a son and his shrewish wife. Along the way Thompson falls in love with Grant, but soon learns that he is secretly engaged to another and fears she will never find a love. Winslet is the impetuous one who throws herself at a silver tongued Willoughby, a ne'er do well dependent on his aunt. She ignores Rickman's character who is at first smitten and then very much in love with her. The movie has a happy ending, but unlike a lot of movies, it is not a sappy one. Everything works out for a well thought out and executed reason. The script by Thompson and a co-writer was great and deserving of the Oscar win. The film was magic and the look was nailed to perfection. Can't ask for more than that.

Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman headline this movie based on a story by Stephen King. Robbins is Andy, a banker falsely accused and convicted of the murder of his wife and her lover. When he arrives at the prison he is expected to crack under the pressure of prison life, but he surprises Freeman's character by surely moving through as time passes no matter what the prison throws at him. He begins making inroads with both the prisoners and the guards and warden.

He sets up a tax service that all the guards from the prison and surrounding prisons use. When a lead surfaces on the possibility of Andy being innocent the warden who has used Andy to set up illegal accounts to hide money, has it snuffed out so he can keep Andy inside. This set Andy on the final course of action in the movie. The Shawshank Redemption is a fantastic movie with great performances from all of its actors. A definite movie to add to any collection. See it as soon as you can.

Radioland Murders stars Mary Stuart Masterson and Brian Benben as a husband and wife who work at a radio station. The movie is set on the night that the station is due to begin broadcasting nationally. Sure enough, everything that can, does go wrong and soon the bodies of murder victims start to pile up. Benben is the prime suspect because he is continuously in the wrong place at the wrong time. The movie is an okay way to pass the time, and there are some hilarious bits of comedy in the movie, but overall, watching it one time is more than enough.

Gary Cole, Lolita Davidovich, Sheila Kelley, and the rest of the cast of this movie about a former cult member trying to integrate back into mainstream society should drop this film from their filmographies. I was hoping for a good movie since it did have such a talented cast, but this movie stunk the whole way through and all the way around.

Thanks to the popularity of this film a rash of teen horror films followed into the theaters. I'm at a loss as to why. This film is okay to watch once, but I thought it stunk overall, and found it to be no different than any other horror flick. Yet Another Waste Of Time......

Brendan Fraser and Albert Brooks star in this fair movie about a pitching phenom. Albert Brooks is a washed up scout on a nowhere trip in Mexico when he comes across Fraser's Steve Nebraska pitching in a Mexican game. Steve's the real thing, and Brooks convinces him to come to America where his services are won in a bid by the Yankees. Before the contract becomes official Steve has to be examined by a shrink and this is where you learn that all is not completely right with the boy wonder. Everything is set up to the big game finale which is okay, but nothing spectacular in terms of baseball sequences.

Benny and Joon stars Mary Stuart Masterson, Johnny Depp and Aidan Quinn, and it's an okay movie, but the subject matter could have been a TV movie of the week just as easily as a silver screen release. Joon is a mentally ill woman who is taken care of by her brother and an endless line of caretakers. She "wins" Sam(Depp) in a poker game, and soon discovers love with the goofy and offbeat character. Quinn is her brother Benny, and he is first reluctant to take Sam in, then angered when he is told of their relationship before finally seeing the need to allow Joon to grow up without his constant direction. Depp is marvelous as Sam, and does a wonderful job in the physical comedy parts of the film as Sam is a devotee of movies, and imitates the comedy stars of the thirties.

Brendan Fraser stars as a Jewish teen forced to hide his religion when he is admitted to a Catholic school during a time when Jewish people where looked upon with disdain and scorn by anyone. He gains quick acceptance by joining in the mocking of a uppity teacher, and by becoming the big football hero. He ends up with one of his buddies girlfriends as well. Soon it is learned that he is Jewish and Nazi signs start showing up in his dorm room and the verbal taunting begins. He is socially ostracized and the girl drops him. A cheating scandal is blamed on him, and the rest of the film focuses on whether or not the truth will come out and what the consequences are both as a result of the truth and for Fraser's character being open finally about his religious status.

Scent of a woman features Al Pacino in his Academy Award winning role as a blind former military man being watched over a weekend by a prep school student. Chris O'Donnell is the student and he has more than enough trouble on his hands before even beginning his weekend job. Seems he must identify the people behind a prank played on a teacher or he will face expulsion from the school. He must do it after the weekend. He starts the job by learning just what Pacino thinks of pretty much everything in life. Embittered by his blindness and having to rely on others, his caustic remarks and rapid fire delivery of them to anyone within hearing distance make the performance an intriguing one to watch. Soon it is off to New York where O'Donnell has learned that Pacino plans to enjoy a nice meal, and a few other items on a list he has made and then he is going to kill himself. The last 20 minutes of the movie are excellent as is the film.

With a memorable cast given a great script to work with, I am very happy that I sat down to watch this film.

The setting of New Year's Eve 1981 where everyone is going to the same party may seem blase, but it is a serviceable plot point to get some of the funniest bad dates/nights all grouped together. From Martha Plimpton's freaked out partygiver, to her world's worst lover ex boyfriend. Christina Ricci and Gaby Hoffman as two Long Island Girls, Dave Chappelle's impossibly(enabled by some grade a marijuana) mellow cabbie. A clutzy recently deflowered virgin and her committment phobic date. Everything here was hilarious, but I especially liked Paul Rudd and Courtney Love in this movie. It might have been just as interesting if the story was focused on this couple as it provided the most character growth over the course of the film as well as some of the funniest lines and situations.

After the disappointment I felt viewing the overhyped Howard's End, I wasn't sure what to expect when Remains of the Day came to be viewed.

I was drawn into this movie from the beginning. Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson play a butler and housemaid who in the flashback sequences struggle through life in the manor of an english nobleman, and to deal with their own growing affection towards each other. One that Hopkins is paralyzed over and will never admit to, and that Thompson would pour out to him if he would only give her an overt sign that it would be accepted and returned.

Watching this movie you can't help but be swept away by the powerful storytelling going on, and the subtle performance by Hopkins as a butler so repressed in tradition that his one true chance at love escapes him because he would not grasp it.

Ellen Foster is the story of a 10 year old girl desperately searching for a true family to call her own. When her mother dies she is left with her father until taken away when the school learns he hits her. She stays with a teacher who volunteers to take her in and who gives her a taste of what a happy family could be like. This ends when her harridan of a grandmother lies in court by telling the judge that she wants custody. Turns out she just wants cheap slave labor, and she goes so far as to tell Ellen that she intends on making her pay for the death of her mother, though Ellen had nothing to do with anything that the father did to her. Soon the grandmother has a stroke and then dies. She is taken in by one of her aunts who is nicer than the grandmother but only on the surface. Ellen's cousin despises her and this situation soon leads to a fight that has Ellen leaving the house on Christmas Day to go to The Foster house. She thinks that the home is a family named Foster, but it is a woman who takes in girls that are unwanted or orphaned. Jena Malone as in her previous film, Bastard Out of Carolina, stars as the abused child, but rather than seem like the pedestrian movie of the week, it is a standout performance. She may still be considered a child actress, but it is very hard not to notice that she's got some great acting chops.

A sci-fi action flick where most of the action takes place offscreen, and what is on the screen is fairly pedestrian. Two warring factions, one invents a fairly inventive mechanical weapon which ends up attacking everything with a heartbeat. Strong silent commander, rookie gung ho soldier, three people from the enemy side, truce talks, betrayals, almost everyone dies, and then a final closing shot that says, "Guess what, it's not over, get ready for a sequel if we do good box office." Waste of time is what I thought of this movie

What a screen gem! The true story of four boys, centered around Homer Hickam, who bond together to build a rocket as they try to win a science fair that will give them college scholarships and get them out of the coal mine town they live in. Using a cast of unknowns for the roles of the four boys, and Chris Cooper as the unyielding and demanding father of Hickham, as well as Laura Dern as the teacher who both inspires and encourages the boys, the makers of this film made something more than a congratulatory film about someone who made something of his life coming from less than ideal circumstances. To watch this movie is to see what moviemaking is supposed to be about. Telling a good story.

I'm not the biggest fan of costumed period pieces but when I do come across a very good one, I am hooked. Such is the case with Mrs. Brown. Starring Dame Judi Dench and a fine dramatic turn by Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, the story is about the tremendous grief of Queen Victoria, whose husband's death has left her so devastated that she has retreated from public life, leaving the monarchy in a frozen state of affairs. Connolly's Brown is sent for and immediately infuriates the household by his stubborn ways that begin with addressing the Queen without her permission. His forthright way soon leads the Queen to begin to sample some semblance of a life again, and as their relationship begins to grow, the sharks come out ridiculing the Queen as Mrs. Brown. Connolly begins to take over the entire operation of protecting the Queen with a paranoid streak a mile wide. Always the queen is his paramount concern and this leaves him at the mercy of all sorts of enemies. This is a finely played film with great performances by the two leads, and it is a definite must for fans of costumed drama, and a must see for those looking for a film that is more than explosions and shootings.

Okay it's not exactly the biggest stretch of casting to have Robin Williams playing a ten year old in the body of an adult. However, Jack is a pretty decent and funny movie. Jack Powell is born and he ages at four times the normal rate. For the first ten years of his life he is tutored at home and sheltered by his parents. Bill Cosby plays his tutor Mr. Woodruff. Diane Lane and Brian Kerwin play his parents who are reluctant to send Jack to public school because they fear the other children's reactions to him. When he does go to school, his teacher, played by Jennifer Lopez, welcomes him with open arms while, predictably the kids are both awed and afraid, and teasing soon follows. Jack gains acceptance when the boys realize that he is a natural for basketball, and he soon is running with a whole group of new friends.

The rest of the movie is basically about Jack and how his body is just naturally slowing down, leading to his withdrawal from school, his eventual return, and the epilogue at his high school graduation.

Jack was a pretty charming film and I liked the way that Robin Williams acted in his scenes with Diane Lane as the 10 year old with a strong bond with his mother, and her feelings of longing when he shows that he is pulling away when he gains friends his own physical age.

I didn't think this was such a great film. I know that it wasn't intended as a straight up biography of Wild Bill, but the scenes that are recalled that show how Hickock went through life, and the terrible casting job of David Arquette as his killer just did this film in for me.

Robin Williams in Drag. Separated from his kids by a court order, Williams has himself done up as an elderly British woman and becomes the housekeeper at his former house. Of course between hiding from his wife and the social worker sent to check up on him(that is, him out of the dress) things are just bound to go wrong and this sets off a hilarious set of scenes where his costume is run over and set on fire, among other things. Soon he is applying for a job on a show at the PBS station that he is now working for and ends up at the restaurant with both his kids and his wife and her new beau, plus the manager of the station, setting off an outrageous dash in between the two tables with costume changes each time. All in All a very good movie with a ton of laugh out loud funny moments.