Capsule Reviews of Movies

Notes on my 'star' ratings:

Clicking on the title will link you the Internet Movie Database's info page for that particular film.
Jump to a specific letter, or scroll through the entire listing.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Movie titles beginning with A
  • American History X: Without a doubt one of the most profoundly unsettling films I've ever seen. This is an upsetting, scalding look into the world of Nazi skinhead racism in America. It contains one of the most violent and brutal scenes I've ever witnessed- in a lifetime of watching brutal and violent scenes in films. This is not a 'date film'. This film is not for everybody. This film is fucked up. I cannot express how very important this film is. This film will change your life, and it will hurt you doing it. Four and a half stars.

Movie titles beginning with B
  • Blade Runner: This is the film that I have worshipped for nearly 17 years. But you know what? It's finally starting to look a little dated to me, which is a good thing, I guess. Now I can obsess about something else. Four stars. (Okay, so I'm still obsessed. But hey, how often does a near perfect Boy meets Girl (robot) film come along?)

  • Buffalo '66: This film has a definite low budgetish, 'indy' feel which some may find a bit distracting at times. The story begins harshly, and quickly escalates out of control as you are introduced to the vilest man in the world. If you can ride out the first 20 minutes, it will come together. As you begin to see what exactly conspired to make Billy Brown (Vincent Gallo) so vile, you begin to forgive him. Christina Ricci plays her part well as Layla, Billy's naive kidnapping victim. By the end of the film, I found myself becoming utterly sympathetic to him, and rooting for him, as a love connection was tenatively formed. This movie is not for everyone, but what movie is? Three stars.

Movie titles beginning with C

  • A Civil Action: John Travolta stars in this courtroom drama about a personal injury attorney who sacrifices his firm, his personal possessions, and a great deal of prestige by pursuing a lawsuit against 2 large companies whose subsidiaries have polluted the water in a small Massachussetts town. The town's children have suffered an overwhelming proportion of leukemia deaths as well as other serious health disorders. Travolta's entire firm is based on reaching a settlement, but as he become emotionally involved in the case he begins to fight for more than money. His firm disintegrates under the overwhelming financial pressure of the case, and finally when the suit is won, in court, it is a disappointing pyrrhic victory. I don't especially like John Travolta, but he was not overwhelmingly annoying in this film. Overall however, I have to say that the film lacked some type of genuine payoff. Perhaps that is because the film is based upon actual events, and naturally in real life, there are rarely any happy endings. Two stars.

Movie titles beginning with D

  • Deceiver: Tim Roth stars as the prime suspect in this twisted plot about an unsolved murder. As the two detectives investigating the murder (Chris Penn and Michael Rooker) go over Roth's statement, using a lie detector test, anomalies crop up. But for every suspicion the cops have, their suspect pulls another clever answer out of his hat, making the cops even more suspicious. At the Internet Movie Database, the citizen reviewers all complain about not understanding the ending. If you've seen the film and don't understand the ending you can read my interpretation of events. If you haven't seen it, then this would definitely be classified as a spoiler, so I'm being a nice guy and making it a separate link. Judging from the reviews of the peanut gallery, I'd say that the film was a little too clever for its own good, but I enjoyed it. An entertaining, modern film noir- shot in color even. Two and a half stars.

Movie titles beginning with E

  • The End of Violence: This is a Wim Wenders film. Though I am a big fan of Wings of Desire and Until the End of the World this film's paranoid plot about a secret government surveillance system that can assassinate people by remote control is so dull, nonsensical and unbeleivable that not even Oliver Stone would embrace it. Filled with plot holes, meandering dialogue, and just downright ridiculous scenes, one can only wonder what Wenders was thinking. As if that wasn't enough, the dialogue in this film tottered between stilted and choppy, sounding at best stiff and at worst downright amateurish. With big names like Bill Pullman*, Andie McDowell and Gabriel Byrne, one would assume that there would be at least some salvagable footage in this film. But there isn't. No stars. * By the way, it wasn't until this film, that I realized what a rotten actor Bill Pullman is without a good role to prop him up.

Movie titles beginning with F
  • Four Days In September: This Brazillian film recreates the true story of a group of radical pro-democracy students who abducted the US ambassador to Brazil in the 1970's, and held him captive for four days. This abduction achieves the release of 15 political prisoners, but not without cost. Tensions run high as they wait for their demands to be met, and at any moment they may have to kill the ambassador, a man whom several of the students are beginning to respect. In the mean time, the secret police are hot on their trail, but unable to rescue the ambassador for fear of getting him killed. Brazil did not gain a democratically elected government until 1989. That makes this an incredibly important film, for Brazil, and probably anyone who watches it. Politics aside, it is a riveting story, and a great serious film. Four stars.

  • Four Weddings and a Funeral: Well, this is an utterly charming movie, a virtual who's who of the British acting stable, with just about everyone famous putting in at least a cameo. Hmm... But it lacked a little something. Backbone, substance. I guess what I am trying to say is that it was fluff. The plot has the nutritional value of cotton candy, and lasted just about as long. Sure the film had its laughs, and its heartfelt sighs. But all in all, it only seemed to stain my tongue bright pink and leave a sticky, cloyingly sweet residue at the edges of my mouth. Two and a half stars.

Movie titles beginning with G

  • Gridlock'd: I had no idea what this film was about when I rented it. I remembered a tiny bit of publicity about it when it was in the theatres because one of the stars, rap star Tupac Shakur had been killed shortly after the film wrapped. Other than that, shrug. Well, this is what I suppose would be classified as a buddy film about two junkies who decide to kick their heroin habit in NYC. "Oh no", I groaned, "not another heroin chic movie." Well, maybe so, but this leaves films like the disappointingly soulless Permanent Midnight and overly stylized Pulp Fiction far behind. This film has and delivers a definite message: "Drugs are bad. Addiction is a terrible way to spend your life. The system is fucked". But it does so without resorting to preachiness, being trite or losing a sense of humor. This movie made me laugh out loud several times, which doesn't happen often. I can recommend this film easily and heartily. Tim Roth and Tupac Shakur shine in this action/crime drama and its too bad Shakur had to die stupidly because this film proves he had a lot more in him than a few rap albums. Three stars.

  • Grosse Pointe Blank: A crime/comedy hybrid about a professional assassin (John Cusack) who goes to his ten year high school reunion. This is a funny movie, over-the-top at times, perhaps, but not in the "Naked Gun" parody sense. When the humor is subtle, it works, when it is mostly physical, well, its not especially my taste. The film does a nice job blending the ridiculous superficiality of high school with ridiculous superficiality of adulthood. This movie covered some new ground, I thought, and for that I appreciated it. Two and a half stars.

Movie titles beginning with H
  • The Horse Whisperer: The story of a selfish women whose daughter has a tragic horse riding accident which results in the amputation of one of the daughter's legs, and severely injuring and traumatizing the horse. This selfish women drives her daughter and the horse to Montana to a well known 'horse whisperer', a sort of folk horse psychologist, because she's too stubborn to put the poor horse out of it's misery. While the horse is in its 'therapy' she and the horse whisperer (Robert Redford) begin to fall in love. By the way, she is married, and the husband is very loving and understanding. He flies out to Montana, and she continues to flirt and attempt to seduce Redford, right in front of the husband, because dammit, it's all about what *she* wants. The husband flies back to New York, and seeing the writing on the wall, suggests that she get her priorities straightened out before returning home. In a burst of characteristic selfishness, she decides to stick around for Redford's return, who has made himself scarce in order to avoid any interspousal awkwardness. He comes back and they embrace, and decide to take horseback ride across the ranch, 'one last time', but as he goes to the barn to saddle up the horses, she drives away without saying goodbye in one final act of selfishness before the credits roll. One and a half stars.

Movie titles beginning with I
  • In the Name of the Father: Based on a true story, this film follows the life of a young Irish hippy Gerry Conlon (Daniel Day Lewis) in London who through circumstance and plain crooked detective work is framed for an IRA bombing in London in 1974 by the police. He and 3 'accomplices' were tortured both physically and psychologically until they signed written confessions that they hadn't even read. The prosecution even roped his family into the conspiracy, and they were found guilty of being an IRA 'network' that supplied the 'Guildford' four, as the accused bombers were known, with the bombs. This film shockingly illustrates how fragile democracy is, and how quickly innocent people can be found guilty all in the name of the 'greater good'. Conlon spent more than 15 years in prison. His father, incarcerated with his son due to the coerced confessions, died there. They were all completely innocent, and after 15 years were able prove so in court. Three stars.

  • Interview With the Vampire: Anne Rice's gothic potboiler brought to the silver screen, is not as bad as one might imagine. Even with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in lead roles, the film as itself is definitely viewable, and though it perhaps has its flaws, is definitely entertaining. Gore, existential angst, and fabulous period costumes make this a must see for the black clothing crowd. But come on, Tom Cruise as Lestat, what a mistake. At any moment you expect him to break character and play air guitar in his underwear. Two stars.

Movie titles beginning with J

Movie titles beginning with K

  • Killing Zoe: An American (Eric Stoltz) goes to Paris to meet up with his childhood friend and commit a robbery. He meets a beautiful French prostitute named Zoe (Julie Delpy) and they have a love connection. Well, the boys rob the bank and are doing great 'til the alarm trips. All hell breaks loose, and the loose knit loyalties of the robbers begin to unravel. Well, as they say, there is no honor among thieves. I won't spoil the plot any further, but it's a great shoot-'em-up crime movie. Three and and half stars. One whole star goes to Julie Delpy, just because.

Movie titles beginning with L
  • L.A. Confidential: Based on James Ellroy's novel, L.A. Confidential is 50's period crime film set in Los Angeles with nineties sensibilities. In any Philip Marlowe film, sure the folks got murdered, but this film rubs the gilt veneer right off of Hollywood and its environs, showing the darker, seedier side of life in the City of Angels. The film cleverly contrasts its 'realistic' portrayal of crime by juxtaposing itself against the set of "Badge of Honor" (a fictionalized version of the popular 50's crime show Dragnet). But not one of these men is a Sargeant Joe Friday. These cops come in all varieties- crooked, honest, murderous or saintly. Everyone has an angle, be it avarice, advancement, or simple payback for the unpunished crimes inflicted during childhood. The film keeps you guessing, and turns out fantastic performances for all involved- Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Kim Bassinger, Guy Pearce, Danny Devito. I could keep on naming actors, but what's the point. This is a great crime movie, and worthy of its four stars.

  • Legends of the Fall: This period film starring Brad Pitt, Aidan Quinn, Julia Ormond and Anthony Hopkins seems to have everything. Set at the turn of the century, the film folows the lives of three brothers as they grow into manhood, and apart from one another. One brother brings a fiancee (Ormond) back from the East coast to the family's Montana ranch, and immediately the other two fall in love. The engaged brother dies in WWI, leaving Aidan Quinn and Brad Pitt at odds trying to woo the lovely Julia Ormond. The problem is that the story is so huge, so grandiose, that it tends to meander. Several times it stalls, but picks up again, only because the character Tristan (Pitt) leads a very interesting life meandering about the globe, unfortunately, we are only treated to glimpses of this. The film is visually stimulating, yet overly dramatic most of the time, and one cannot help but feel sorry for the actors who seem to look at the screen with anguished eyes screaming for a role with substantance. Two stars.

Movie titles beginning with M
  • The Matrix: I have to say that until this film I had a cozy little spot in Hell reserved for Keanu Reeves. I don't think that he has particularly changed, but let's just say that this film is so good that even Keanu Reeves could not offset its forward momentum. The film is a feast of digital special effects, but in a completely fresh, exciting way. When Terminator 2 was released, it revolutionized the way the film industry used digital special effects. Well, a short 4 years later, another film has lit a beacon saying "This is the way to go." Now, for better or for worse, there will be a rash of imitators exploiting what The Matrix has unleashed. But that's okay. Just like T2 whose effects now seem comparitively crude, the industry will continue to evolve and expand the ever growing stable of digital capabilities. With films like The Matrix one can only ask, how far can we be from the creation of the first totally virtual 'live action' feature film? To quote the old computer industry adage: "Real Soon Now." I know I have been raving about the special effects, and very little about the plot. The story has many similarities to the recent Dark City, and definitely owes a nod to the grim future as portrayed by The Terminator. Without a doubt, the Hong Kong action film genre made this entire film possible, as 80% of what we see here, the martial arts guys have been doing for years in HK without any sort of digital assistance. But wow. That remaining 20% is everything. Easily the best shoot-em-up, blow-em-up, kung fu, scifi feature film I've ever seen. I'm can't remember the last time that I wanted to turn around and see the film again right after the credits rolled. I'm going to see this again. And again. Four stars.

  • Meet Joe Black: By the time this dull, slow-paced film approaches its third and blessedly final hour, you will wish that Death himself would come to you to let you know that your time was up. When I saw this film in the theatre, 2 people in the audience literally died of boredom by the time the credits rolled around, and frantic paramedics resorted to catastrophic measures to resuscitate a third. One star. Oh, yeah, Brad Pitt is in it, on top of everything else.

Movie titles beginning with N

Movie titles beginning with O

Movie titles beginning with P

  • Permanent Midnight: Based on the true story of a writer in LA who manages acquire a $4,000 a day heroin habit while writing scripts for television shows such as 'ALF'. Technically, there is nothing wrong with this film, it was well acted and the cinematography was first rate. But I never really got into it. I could not identify with the main character, Jerry Stahl (Ben Stiller) though I wanted to, I tried to. I felt very conscious of being a spectator watching a film the entire time, which is not a sign of success. It was hollow and soulless. It lacked grit. Or something. One and a half stars.

  • Pulp Fiction: Quentin Tarrantino's stylistic whirlwind crime film which perhaps could be judged as singlehandedly responsible for popularizing a whole subculture of glamorized heroin use. This is a fun movie, with more twists and turns and snappy dialogue than the cheap crime novels it takes its name from. The film reveals itself achronologically, and part of the fun is to fill in the gaps of the story as a scene that reveals actions from the past is shown after one that occurs in the character's future. But like a pulp crime novel, after you finish, there's not much to take away except for a few snappy quotes. Still, the film is high in entertainment value, though it won't stick to your ribs. Three stars. (That's 2 and a half for style, honeybunny, so don't get medieval on my ass....)

Movie titles beginning with Q

Movie titles beginning with R

Movie titles beginning with S
  • Seven: Hey look, a movie with Brad Pitt in it. Well, guess what. This is a pretty scary can-the-cops-catch-the-killer-before-it's-too-late movie, and it really makes the argument that serial killers are the contemporary replacement for last century's ghosts and vampires (sorry Anne Rice!). Two and a half stars, and it would have been three except for a few very minor flaws (especially casting Brad Pitt.) By the way, they couldn't catch him in time.

  • Seven Years In Tibet: Hey look, it's Brad Pitt climbing a mountain. Hey look, it's Brad Pitt making a daring escape from a prison camp. Hey look, it's Brad Pitt in Tibet. Okay, it wasn't terrible, but Brad Pitt is damn distracting. Good thing his character was more or less disagreeable in the film. But the very fact that his character was so teutonic made the film drag a bit. I was never really happy that he escaped the POW camp. I wasn't too upset that he didn't get the girl. When he made it back to Germany to visit his wife and a son he never met, only to be rejected by them, I felt like yelling 'serves you right, you cold-hearted bastard.' If the film had been titled A Man Abandons His Family To Climb a Mountain and Through a Series of Unfortunate Circumstances Has To Spend Seven Years In Tibet I guess no one would have bothered to go, because that's basically the entire film. Two stars.

  • Shakespeare In Love: What's not to like about this Elizabethan period film co-written by Tom Stoppard (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead)? Revolving around the life of William Shakespeare during the time of his writing Romeo and Juliet, the film is layered with numerous humorous moments and definitely goes out of its way to deflate the supposed 'nobility' of the age. Though the film is definitely fictional, it nonetheless goes far to breathe a bit of life into an age four hundred years past. Well acted, with wonderful costumes, and a love story within a love story, truly, what more could one ask for? Four stars.

  • Smilla's Sense of Snow: Smilla (Julia Ormond) is a scientist and one of the leading experts on snow in Denmark. When the child of a neighbor dies from a fall from the roof of the apartment building, the police determine it accidental. However, Smilla knowing the little boy, deems that his death was far from accidental. After a conversation with the police to convince them to investigate the death as a murder fails, Smilla obsessively pursues the case herself only to uncover a power hungry conspiracy of corporate greed. Julia Ormond is a great actress, and did a fine job in this film, however, I did not for a moment find her believeable as the daughter of an Inuit (eskimo) mother and a Danish father. Surely there are other actresses in the world who could have played the role and looked ethnically appropriate to the part. Two and a half stars.

  • Strange Days: Ralph Fiennes shines in this not-too-distant-future science fiction film. I hate to say this, but in many ways, I see this as the successor to Blade Runner. Blade Runner was many, many layers deeper than this film, admittedly, but still this film has a lot going for it. What do you expect from a film script by James Cameron? It's more or less a whodunnit, which always meshes well in a science fictional context. Three stars.

Movie titles beginning with T
  • Trainspotting: This is perhaps best of the lot in the recent torrent of "heroin chic" films. Stylish, violent, yet it rings true in a way that Pulp Fiction never could. Ewan Macgregor stars in the lead as our dearly beloved Scottish narrator Mark Renton. This film is all about junkies on the run, pulling scams, getting sick, getting the shit kicked out of them, getting dead. This is a fun movie, if you can follow the brogue. The film is filled with unforgettable scenes, my favorite being when Macgregor drops his 2 heroin suppositories into the filthiest toilet in Scotland. He needs the fix, else he get sick, so in he dives. The scene switches into a dream sequence in which Macgregor plunges into a crystal clear sea and swims down to retrieve the goods. Well acted, wonderfully shot, sometimes shocking, but I'll be damned if subtitles wouldn't be helpful sometimes. This film is charming in a way that Four Weddings and a Funeral could never, ever hope to be, and at least one thousand times hipper. Four stars. By the way this film in no way makes heroin (or any drug for that matter) seem glamourous.

Movie titles beginning with U

Movie titles beginning with V

Movie titles beginning with W
  • Welcome To Sarajevo: This film, based on a true story follows a British television correspondent (Stephen Dillane) in Sarajevo covering the outbreak of the war, battling the war time bureacracy in the city and editorial bureaucracy in the UK. Throughout the film, actual war footage is intercut with scenes with the actors, and the war footage speaks for itself. Frustrated by such decisions as pre-empting his piece in favor of coverage of the Royal divorce, the journalist begins to get a taste the war not as a spectator, but as yet another one of its victims. When an orphanage falls into harm's way as the front lines between opposing sides shift, he concentrates all his efforts to generate public support to move these children to a safe area, in the process, unofficially adopting a war orphan himself. He brings with her to England, after a harrowing bus ride across the former Yugoslavia which includes numerous checkpoints by murderous KLA soldiers. Several of the children, none over 12, are removed from the bus for having Muslim names but the majority make it into Italy where they will be sent on to relatives living outside of the war torn country. The sad, tough little Bosnian girl that he brings into his family rapidly blossoms under the peaceful conditions of British homelife. It's not over, however, because the girl's mother turns up in Sarajevo, and wants her daughter back. In one of the most upsetting scenes I've ever witnessed, this little girl tells her mother that she is happy, and that she is no longer her mother's daughter and to leave her alone. This film made my heart ache for all the lost children, and the uncounted casualties yet to come. This war will not ever be over for these children, not for a very long time. Yet another important movie you must see. Four stars.

  • What Dreams May Come: Possibly one of the most depressing movies I've ever seen- first the main character's (Robin Williams) only 2 children die in a car accident. Then Robin Williams, portraying a doctor, is killed while trying to assist some accident victims a couple of years later. He goes to heaven, only to find that the only thing he truly wants in the afterlife is to spend time with his still living wife. But never fear, she commits suicide (and we learn, by the way, this was not her first attempt) and goes to the great beyond. But wait, suicides don't go to heaven, they go to hell. So then the intrepid Robin Williams travels to the depths of hell to rescue his wife, almost loses himself in the 'slough of despair', but luckily, in the last 8 minutes of the film, is able to return to heaven, to be reunited with his wife and his 2 children, and they live happily ever after. Oh, wait, EXCEPT THEY'RE ALL DEAD. No stars.

  • Wing Commander: Mediocre television quality SFX, and an overall low budget seediness make this a must-not-see for all science fiction fans. The best thing about this film was the Star Wars trailer that preceded it. And what was with all the tight shots of the heroine, Angel Deveraux (the actress Saffron Burrows) with her really bad hair and a gigantic pimple on her cheek (no, I am not kidding). It must have been important to the plot, since the director chose to feature it about 25 times. Maybe it was his ex-girlfriend, and this was some sort of passive-aggressive revenge deal. Special note to the SFX guys- If you are going to superimpose words across a screen in order to simulate some sort of cyber/digital read out, at least make sure that the words are spelled correctly. No stars.

Movie titles beginning with X

Movie titles beginning with Y

Movie titles beginning with Z
  • Zero Effect: A comedy about an eccentric private detective (Bill Pullman) and his assistant (Ben Stiller). Covering in some part, similar terrain as Grosse Pointe Blank this film zigs and zags between action comedy spoof, and genuine intellectual comedy. When the physical comedy come into play, the film is simply mediocre, and the bits are almost distracting. However, when the story is allowed to flow and the humor is subtle, the film shines and is delightful. Two and a half stars.

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