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Reviews
Les visiteurs (1993)
Easily the best European comedy since La Cage Aux Folles...
I am not normally a fan of comedy films. Very few stick in my mind and those that do usually go back a number of years. Enter, "Les Visiteurs," easily the best European comedy I have seen since "La Cage Aux Folles" (both I and II). Again, we have an endearing and zany pair at work in a somewhat different, but no less hilarious, premise. Some of the lines with historical references are really quite funny (such as Jacquart's admiration for Robespierre and his lackey's dismay that the castle windows would leave them vulnerable to the Visigoths, etc.) Fine and striking visual effects (when required) and a charming cast. Must see again.
Shrieker (1998)
Good story, good effects, too long...
Thirty minutes could have been snipped out of this film without anyone noticing the difference. What is wrong with the idea of a short film? Does every good idea have to be stretched and contorted to achieve that apparently all-essential 90-minute minimum film-makers believe is necessary or cinema-viewers have come to expect? In condensed form, stories like "Shrieker" could be assembled for a good cable television series. It took talent to create 50-minute macabre masterpieces like "Thriller" and "Outer Limits." If you can stay awake beyond the lengthy setup for this movie, prepare to rock. However, what is intended to pass for suspense is simple boredom. Interestingly enough, the real suspense comes along when the action finally asserts itself. Some good, scary effects, both visual and aural.
Gatto nero (1981)
A wonderfully macabre film disintegrates
This film was a monumental disappointment. A wonderfully macabre film about a hateful, but symbiotic relationship between a medium and his diabolical cat disintegrates into another "monster of the id" rip-off.
The first thirty minutes or so really had a lot going for it: a man tape-records conversations with the dead in cemeteries while his familiar causes a string of frightening and bizarre "accidents." This is much better than Edgar Poe, from whom it is loosely adapted; it is more like a Stanislaw Lem novel (if someone would only adapt Lem's "The Investigation" for cinema). But, alas, it all falls apart when the medium, played by Patrick MacGee, regains his composure and is forced by the scriptwriter to follow the Poe story more closely than the screenplay. The last thirty minutes are predictable and not in the least horrific. Such a wasted opportunity. Director Dario Argento does a far more masterful and chilling adaptation of this story in "Two Evil Eyes." How sad that such a great talent as MacGee's was wasted on this half-hearted project (I highly recommend viewing "Marat/Sade" to appreciate his remarkable performance in the role of the Marquis de Sade).
Batman Returns (1992)
This is truly Catwoman's movie--Penguin should have been removed from the script...
The first and only ambitious sequel to "Batman" falls short of the original because it is overburdened with characters. This fatal flaw only becomes more pronounced in subsequent sequels. The Penguin (played by Danny DeVito) and all of his cohorts should have been eliminated from the script. This movie is really about Catwoman, a riveting role performed by the ever-lovely Michelle Pfieffer. Like Michael Keaton's character in the first film, Pfieffer's character, a traumatized secretary who survives a murderous shove from a twelfth-story window, finds that her experience has brought out an unnerving and lunatic dark side. The chemistry is excellent between Pfieffer and her psychotic, corporate executive boss (played by Christopher Walken) and, at first, seems quite engaging between her and Keaton. Indeed, she is Batman's feminine side: his missing half. Unfortunately, the Batman-Catwoman relationship is not developed to the degree it should have been due to the distractions created by DeVito's character. Nevertheless, flawed as it may be, this is the one Batman sequel that is definitely worth seeing.