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Reviews
Behind Enemy Lines (1997)
Below Tv-Movie quality.
I saw this on cable recently and got the feel that it was a tv-movie. The acting was low grade, and the story was shallow. The first scene sets a fast pace, and can pass for a cinema released movie, but after that, the entire film is a joke. It was full of plot holes, and does everything against common sense. The script even has scenes which attempt to make us feel for the characters, but fail miserably. I reason being that we dont even know the characters names, besides the hero.
The dialogue seemed as if it was written by a grade-school student, despite the numerous occasions which the characters swear their heads off. As if profanity is required for a f***ing film to be successful.
I know this comment may sound ironic, but why write these movies if theres nothing good to come out of it.
The Devil's Advocate (1997)
Contemporary horror film for the new millenium.
Its a drama about beautiful women, money, power and having no guilt. Al Pacino plays a devil in a world of seduction. The nudity in the film surprised me but it is essential for the power-packed film to take effect.
Extreme gut-wrenching violence also comes to mind when watching the film. The film is rated 18+ for a reason. The plot is simple. A young attorney with a perfect record of 64-0 gets hired at a large New York law firm. He is overcome by the astonishing wealth of the new environment, where everything seems perfect.
Until he meets Milton (Pacino), he leads Lomax (Reeves) into a world of temptation. Things start to fall apart for Lomax from then on. The final half-hour of the film is the most gripping piece of film ever released. Certainly not a movie for the weak of heart. But otherwise, its a new sort of Horror film leading us into the 21st century.
Striptease (1996)
Don't Believe the hype.
The movie is a bland comedy about a mother (Moore) fighting for custody rights of her daughter. It could even be called a satire on the corrupt ways of the United States politicians.
While watching the movie, I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be a comedy. There were a few bland jokes but that was it.
Demi Moore does a fair job at acting, she rarely chooses bad roles but this I'm afraid is one of them.
Broken Arrow (1996)
Frighteningly believable.
This action flick by directing mastermind John Woo is pure genius. Travolta is the best possible actor for the psychopathic Deakins.
The plot is fairly simple with Good Vs. Bad easily distinguished. Hale (Slater), with support of the a park ranger (Mathis) battle across the desert to recover two stolen nuclear weapons stolen from the US Army.
Despite the bit about the nuclear weapons, this is a kind of film where you want to see the baddies come up on top.
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992)
This movie rocked my world!
The Hand that rocks the cradle is a great thriller without all the guns. Its about a psychopathic nanny out for revenge on a family.
Great acting by Rebecca DeMornay as the crazed nanny, and Anabella Scicorra who does a great asthma attack scene. The plot is simple, but the ending is fair predictable.
Not an all time favourite, but still worth a few bucks to rent.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
A perfect- simple to understand enigma of a film
I think one of the problems many people have with this movie is that it defined and set into motion an extremely irritating trend in contemporary film. The god-awful clones of Tarantino pouring out of indie and mainstream studios alike should not, however, detract from the brilliance and subtlety of this movie. It works simply because those moments of brilliance (I have to admit I know the whole "Jules redemption-speech" by heart) that its imitators lack come in the midst of the camp and gore they all do so well. Tarantino alone uses an adolescent obsession with shallowness and morbidity to high satirical effect--like all great films (or even novels), this movie sets itself into a two-dimensional genre (absurd, pop-culture, comic-book situations) and then undermines its own genre by exposing the heart and soul underneath. There are too many points in the movie in which this happens to mention, but a few come to mind: the blown kiss from Vincent to Mia at the end of the first (or maybe second) story; the death of Vincent; the obvious emotional dedication of Butch to his wife at the end of his own story; Vincent's unwillingness to believe in his own supernatural salvation without realizing he's doomed; and, of course, the climactic speech. With the exception of Jules's final words, many of these moments seem at first to be horrifying or funny--but this is only because they fit so well into the flow of the script. A second glance shows them to be moments so poignant that the only reason they work is because they are so unique to the characters and their situations. The changes in each (or the lack of change) come, in a sense, as they individually choose to either drive for them or fall behind. Most die-hard fans of the movie, I'm sure, have heard the story of the briefcase and the band-aids on the back of Wallace's neck (the entire movie being a quest to bring back his stolen soul), and although Tarantino has denied it, he can't deny that the movie is full of such heroic themes: escape by trial, the reclamation of past, love as both physical salvation and personal security, a will to believe in something beyond one's own selfish world. I won't say that if you don't like this movie that you're mistaken or ignorant, but I think that Tarantino puts his audience into settings much like his characters are in: cheap, full of profanity and nastiness, fleeting. The best of them break through; I think he asks that anyone watching do the same.