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Reviews
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Excellent, touching film with one flaw
Russell Crowe is amazing in this role as John Nash, a super geek. The sense of humanity and impending tragedy is gripping. You really feel for the mathematician as his problems worsen. That Nash is able to eke out so much triumph from his troubled life is a tremendous affirmation of the human spirit. It's based on a true story, but rather large liberties were taken with the story as it is told in the book. That's not really a bad thing, but somebody involved with the making of this movie did make a bad decision to use a rather common trick these days, used in movies as varied as "Sixth Sense" and "Sliding Doors." The trick involves presenting the audience with a point of view other than the standard movie narrative. The mistake made in this movie is that the view of Nash's hallucinations is presented so that the audience thinks there's a conspiracy for most of the movie. This probably made the movie more commercial, but it deflected the audience from the real drama in the story.
When the Dark Man Calls (1995)
Poor acting, a predictable plot and hackneyed dialogue make this a bad movie.
First, the plot. (No spoiler.) A radio call-in show host has repressed the memory of her parents' murder, and things get scary when the man, convicted of the murder by her testimony, gets out of prison 25 years later.
I think this is an awful movie. The "thriller" ending won't surprise you, and the plot twists are silly on top of being predictable. The acting is below average, except for Chris Sarandon, and his role is not very challenging. Joan Van Ark is on the screen for almost every shot, and I'm sorry to say that she just can not carry the movie. I watched it through to the end only because she's very attractive and has great legs. And the director uses every contrived chance to show off her legs.