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Title
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Description
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American Beauty
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Kevin Spacey is a normal family guy who's life takes a turn on the wierd side when a new neighbor kid (the dark quiet type) moves in next door and begins taking pictures of his daughter through the window. Then everything turns upside down and sideways as families and friends work out their frustrations and affections for each other. Not for the kiddies due to language and sexual situations.
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Bait
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A black NYC homeboy (who likes prawns) becomes the live bait for the Treasury department to track down a cold computer-wise killer who tries to heist 42 million dollars in gold from a Federal vault. I think this is a pretty fast-paced and entertaining movie, but the movie critics think it was too far fetched (like these other movies aren't).
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Battlefield Earth
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Bearing only slight resemblance to the 1,066 page SciFi novel, John Travolta is Terl the Psychlo (an alien) whose greed for gold is his downfall, outsmarted by the primitive human Jonnie Goodboy Tyler who improbably locates a fleet of Harrier jets that are still working and fully fueled after 1,000 years in a nearby storage hangar. Although poorly translated into a movie, the reasonable special effects lift this movie to a "duck" rating.
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Bedazzled
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A nerdy guy agrees to sell his soul to the Devil (Elizabeth Hurley) for 7 wishes, but the wishes don't work out so well. The basic plot is totally predictable, but I really liked this movie because it was funny, silly and fast-paced and it keeps you guessing about how each wish is gonna get screwed up.
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Bicentennial Man
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Andrew Martin (aka NDR-114, aka Robin Williams) is a household android servant created by NorthAm Robotics in 2005 who struggles to develop his personality and humanity over a period of 200 years. Beware: the film is a bit long and more sentimental than you'd expect for Robin Williams. The special effects used for aging on the robot's extended family are incredibly realistic and well-done.
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Boiler Room
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Another movie with more loose ends than a worn-out mop. A kid tries to make his dad (a judge) happy by selling his illegal gambling joint and joining up with some hard-sell stock market scam artists. Dad wasn't too thrilled and everybody comes out losers. I enjoyed the snappy pace - the only reason it rated a "duck".
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Cast Away
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Chuck Noland's (Tom Hanks) high energy lifestyle undergoes a big shock when he's washed up alone on a tiny tropical island for 4 years. His efforts to survive physically and mentally and the emotional trauma of his return are the heart of this film. And at the end he realizes his former life is gone, but in exchange he's been completely freed to start life anew.
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Charlie's Angels
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Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu reprise the Charlie's Angels theme updated for the new millennium with cell phones and GPS satellites, but still playing 1970's tunes and using splashy 70's colors. This film has some slow spots, but has some terrific action scenes too. Overall it's very watchable and I'm thinking there's a sequel in our future.
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Chicken Run
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For the kids, this claymation adventure tells the story of Ginger the chicken and her coop-mates working out a way to escape from the chicken farm to avoid being made into one of Mrs. Tweedy's chicken pies. This dark comedy felt somwhat like the 101 Dalmations escaping from Cruela DeVille but not quite as good in keeping the kids glued to the movie.
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The Contender
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A woman Senator is selected as a candidate for Vice-President leading to a acrimonious Senate-hearing about her alleged involvement in a fraternity sex party (she says its a private matter). The backroom politics gets pretty intense and slimey. Jeff Bridges makes an excellent POTUS. This movie is R-rated for graphic language.
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Coyote Ugly
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The story of an average New Jersey girl who goes to the Big Apple to become a songwriter and somehow becomes a bartender/dancer/singer at NYC's most hip bar alongside 4 other girls that look like magazine supermodels. Now if you think you can just go to NYC and find supermodels dancing on bars, I've got a couple of nice bridges to sell you.
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The Crew
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Mild farce with Richard Dreyfus and Burt Reynolds about 4 "retired" mob guys who decide rid their South Florida apartment of beach-seeking youngsters by faking a murder in the lobby. Unfortunately this gets them entangled in the local Columbian drug mob. Mildly amusing at times, this is a pretty average movie.
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Dinosaur
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Great digital effects highlight this Disney animated film that's very reminiscent of a "Land Before Time" where the good dinosaurs have to find the "nesting area" but are hounded by the huge and dangerous "carnotaurs". There are a couple of scenes with meteors and dinosaur battles that are pretty loud and intense, but the kids seemed to absorb it okay.
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Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas
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Jim Carrey is definitely in his wildly expressive element in this updated version of the kids classic book. The story is very familiar, but it takes quite a while to tell it (stretching a small childrens book into an hour and 42 minute movie). Since it was meant for all ages, some of the dialogue was a bit over the heads of our kids, but they seemed pretty entertained throughout.
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The Emperor's New Groove
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Irreverant and improbable animated Disney tale about an Incan Emperor brat who gets turned into a llama. It's no Aladdin or Lion King but it doesn't pretend to be. This story was made for fun, not for logic or deeper meanings and the fast pace and snappy dialogue plays even better for adults than for kids. The story doesn't make very much sense, but I laughed a lot and would like to see it again.
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Eye of the Beholder
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Did you ever see a movie that went everywhere, but then when you got done you couldn't figure out where you'd been or why? An English spy follows a young woman all over the USA as she kills her would-be playmates. This confusing movie has no direction and is only worth watching if you're an especially devoted Ashley Judd fan.
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The Family Man
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In a twist on "It's A Wonderful Life", hard-charging single financial-whiz Jack Campbell (Nicholas Cage) is given a vision of what it would've been like to have been an average family man if he had taken a different turn in life. He realizes that his old life can exist pretty well without him and he wants to keep the new one, flawed though it is, but he can't. This one touched a few nerves with me and I liked it a lot more than some critics befuddled by multiple temporal dimensions.
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Fantasia 2000
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Updated version of Disney's classic animation set to classical music. Still has the original Magician's Apprentice and brand new digital animations (I like the one with whales the best). This film is best appreciated by adults since there's very little dialogue to keep the kiddies entertained.
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Galaxy Quest
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Thermians (alien octopi dressed in human clothing) from the Klaatu Nebula mistake an earthly TV Sci-Fi series for "historical documents" and devise real spaceships based on the show to battle their evil enemies, pleading with the actors to help them. Tim Allen's absurd send-up of Star Trek is a hoot, especially if you're an ST fan.
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Gladiator
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In 180 A.D. a popular Roman Army general who just wants to go back home becomes dangerously involved in Imperial succession, his family is put to death and he becomes a slave gladiator and a crowd favorite at the Colliseum games. Lots of action and character development but a bit long (150 min).
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Highlander: Endgame
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Duncan and Conner McLeod combine their efforts and swordsmanship to defeat the powerful and evil immortal Jacob Kell. Lots of "immortals" lose their heads in this one. This film is probably great if you are a Highlander fan and know all the background, otherwise its just average.
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Hollow Man
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Government scientists invent an invisibility potion for the military, but the trick is developing an antipotion to become visible again without killing the patient. The special effects in this movie are great. The plot is pretty reasonable at the start, but then in typical fashion the invisible man (Kevin Bacon) runs amuck, starts killing everyone, eludes his fellow agents and seems to get superhuman strength somehow. But they get him in the end.
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Lucky Numbers
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John Travolta plays a down-and-out snowmobile salesman / TV weatherman who rigs the Pennsylvania Lottery to get 6.4 million dollars, but fate ensures that he doesn't get away with it. Pretty predictable plot.
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Mission: Impossible 2
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Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) goes down under to Sydney to twart baddies who are attempting to hijack a deadly virus (Chimera) and its antidote (Bellerophon) in this "James Bondish" movie. Extremely action-filled with impossible stunts and he never misses a shot - a good summertime movie.
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Mission To Mars
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A rescue mission to Mars in 2020 uncovers the real "face on Mars" and discovers the origins of solar system life. The film goes from high drama/action to mushy Sci-Fi syrup with clearly intended imitations of Apollo 13, 2001 and ET. I really liked the special effects and action scenes but the ending sequence with the alien was pretty corny.
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The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps
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In this sequel Sherman Klump gets so tired of his alternate Buddy Love persona that he separates it from his DNA leading to a disasterous loss of intelligence. Astonishingly Eddie Murphy plays 5 different parts for most of the movie (with the help of a ton of makeup).
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Pokémon 2000
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If the kids are into Pokémon they'll like this one. First, the minicartoon "Pickachu's Rescue Adventure" is a showcase for about 40 different kinds of Pokémon and is mildy entertaining. The main story has Ash and his friends saving the world by calming down the powerful Moltres (Fire), Articuno (Ice), Zapdos (Lightning) Pokémon who've been caged and enraged by the evil Lawrence III (a Pokémon collector).
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Red Planet
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In 2045 we've polluted the Earth and we're terraforming Mars, but all our transported algae disappears. Val Kilmer and crew go there to find out and they get stranded and die one-by-one. This movie is a real disappointment because all of the initial character buildup is wasted when they get killed off so quickly and meaninglessly. The best part was the cool, but dangerous robot Amee - don't ever put her in "Military Mode".
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Reindeer Games
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Violent movie about an Indian casino robbery by a crew of gun-running thugs at Christmas. Several twists near the end make it interesting. It's pretty intense and brutal (the "hero" is kicked senseless and skewered with darts) so don't expect any laughs.
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Remember The Titans
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Denzel Washington stars as Coach Boone in this true story about the merger of two segregated high school football teams and how they win the 1971 Virginia state championship. Pretty realistic except the kids hair was really longer back then (I was a sophomore in Fall '71). Lots of character development in this one and I liked it better than The Replacements or Any Given Sunday.
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The Replacements
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The regular NFL players are on strike again and the substitutes need get the team to the playoffs. They cross the picket lines and go through the usual painful learning curve, but all comes out well in the end. Pretty typical for the genre - nothing very special here.
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The Road To El Dorado
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Lush Disney animation and Elton John songs are the highlights of this very watchable fable about the ragtag duo of Miguel and Julio being kicked out of Cortez's ship and finding themselves the temporary lords of the fabulous city of gold. Some of it was a bit over the heads of our 6/7 year kids, but the adults thought it was pretty good.
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Rules of Engagement
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Tommy Lee Jones (Colonel Hodges) and Samuel L. Jackson (Colonel Childers) are long-time Vietnam Marine buddies who are enbroiled in a high-tension military courtroom drama about the murder of women and children (along with terrorists) in Yemen and the US governments attempt to frame Childers. This movie keeps your attention, although they cut to the ending too abruptly and it could easily have been spiced up with a just few more plot twists.
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Scary Movie
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This high-school murder mystery is really a sendup of more-or-less recent scary movies (it does what Airplane did for airline disaster movies), but it also strays far afield into gross-out potty humor and language. The key actors keep getting killed off one-by-one and you wonder which one of them is pulling it off. Murder By Death (1976) did a much better job of skewering murder mystery novels (it had more plot anyway).
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Shaft
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This remake of the 1971 film with Samuel L. Jackson in the title role has a nice 1970's retro feel (probably the theme song) but is filled with themes and characters of today. Shaft is full of action and bullets that rarely miss, but he doesn't seem to have much time for the ladies. This movie was very watchable and felt more like a TV episode than a movie.
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Shanghai Noon
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Jackie Chan is a member of the Chinese Imperial Guard who has enlisted to rescue a Chinese princess who has been taken hostage in 1870's American Old West. His encounters with the local cowboys and indians are inventive and funny at times, but the movie is uneven with periods that are action-filled but not particularly suspenseful or humorous.
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The Sixth Day
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Arnold Schwarzenegger is Adam Gibson, just your average chopper/jet pilot future guy who accidentally gets cloned and then has to thwart the baddies who want erase all evidence by killing Adam, the clone and the whole family. Sort of a blend of "Total Recall" (the clone gets all your memories) and "Bladerunner" (the clones have a limited lifespan) with lots of action. Check out the inside of your lower right eyelid to see if you're the clone. I also liked the RePet and the Frig that can order milk when you run low.
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The Skulls
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If you join a college-based secret society called "The Skulls" you gotta figure its gonna be bizzare. And it is, especially if one of your friends is murdered along the way and it looks like your "soulmate" in The Skulls did it and then everybody's busy covering it up. Don't lose your rulebook or your key.
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Space Cowboys
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A Russian communications satellite turns out to be loaded with 6 nuclear missiles and have a guidance system stolen from Skylab - and it's coming down to earth. Only Frank Corvin (Clint Eastwood) and his geriatric pre-Mercury test pilot buddies can stop it (I guess nobody in 2000 can figure out how 1960's transistors work).
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U-571
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The crew of a WWII US Navy submarine steals an Enigma cypher machine and the U-boat that carries it and then tries to escape the German Destroyer that pursues them after their own sub is sunk. This movie is unidimensional with lots of underwater suspense, but without the sheer terror, exhilaration and character found in its predecessor "Das Boot".
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Vertical Limit
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A rescue of climbers on K2 makes you glad you're not a mountain climber freezing to death and chocking your lungs out with pulmonary edema at 24,000 feet. This movie is so action packed you can't take a breath (so to speak). The scenery, mostly filmed in New Zealand, is breathtaking too.
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The Watcher
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Keanu Reeves plays a psycho woman-strangler who sends photos of his next victim to the cops one day ahead of time until he finally gets caught. I was interested most of the time and there are a couple of good scenes, but it just slowly winds down to a very predictable and not-too-exciting ending.
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What Women Want
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Nick Marshall (Mel Gibson) is a tough macho kind of guy going mano-a-mano against his new boss (Helen Hunt) until he gets zapped in the bathtub and begins to hear what women are thinking. Then he turns into a sweetheart of a guy and the movie which started out as a comedy turns into a majorly emotional chick flick.
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The Whole Nine Yards
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When your wife wants you dead and then an ex-mob hit man (Bruce Willis) conveniently moves in next door, it can sure make you nervous - very nervous. And there's just enough slapstick comedy here to help you forget about all those guys that get knocked off along the way.
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X-Men
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Unbeknowst to the rest of us, the world is full of genetic mutants who have superpowers. These mutants are arrayed into two camps: the good guys led by Xavier (aka Jean Luc Picard, aka Patrick Stewart) and the bad guys led by Magneto. They go after each other with predictable results. Bad girl "Mystique" is wearing nothing except blue body paint.
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