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Title
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Description
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Analyze This
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Comedy about a psychologist (Billy Crystal) who tries to help a mobster (Robert De Niro) cure his emotional panic attacks but ends up getting drawn far deeper into the underworld than he ever wanted. It has some good moments.
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Any Given Sunday
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Director Oliver Stone has created a "North Dallas Forty" on speed. Al Pacino is the head coach of the Miami Sharks who are attempting to make the playoffs, but there's a lot happening off the field too. The 160 minutes of screamingly loud, pulsating 5-second film images and continual profanity was annoying after a while. The flood of images slows near the end and there is about 25 minutes of good stuff. Many cameos by real former football players.
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Black Mask
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Martial arts star Jet Li is a former Hong Kong assassin squad member who escapes his past by masquerading as a librarian, but disguises himself as the Black Mask to defend his new friends against his former squad. Lots of flying kicks, whacks in the face, lethal CDs in the neck and bullets all over the place.
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The Blair Witch Project
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Totally boring tale of 3 college students with a handheld video camera making a tape of themselves getting lost in the woods. Not scary at all and a silly waste of 1 hour and 15 minutes.
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Blue Streak
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Miles Logan (Martin Lawrence) has a big problem. The huge diamond he stole is now in the 3rd floor ductwork of an LA Police Station so he has to pretend he's an LAPD detective to get it out. Easier said than done once his crook buddies start spotting him and want to be part of the action.
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The Bone Collector
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Not for the faint of heart, Denzel Washington plays a disabled cop working with his novice partner (Angelina Jolie) to analyze bits and scraps of forensic evidence from a sequence of gruesome (and fairly bizzare) murders committed by a New York cabbie. Lots of plot and characters in this one, but bring a strong stomach and don't bring the kiddies.
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Chill Factor
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Imagine that Elvis is a blue crystalized super defoliant and skin remover that explodes if it gets warmer than 50 degrees and then there's this bunch of bad guys in SUVs trying to hijack it from your ice cream truck in the middle of Montana and sell it to the highest bidder. Things are getting hot, but then the US Army comes to your rescue with helicopters and everything's cool.
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Double Jeopardy
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An innocent woman (Ashley Judd) gets convicted for the faked murder of her husband who's covering up his bad business deals. After she's paroled she runs off and tracks him down, knowing she can kill him "in the middle of Mardi Gras" since she's served her time and can't be tried twice for the same crime. Tommy Lee Jones plays the parole officer trying to keep her under control.
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8mm
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Nicholas Cage is a grim PI trudging through an excessively dreary and disturbing trip through death, despair and depravity. Absolutely no reason to see this one.
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End Of Days
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Satan feels obligated to rape a girl on the hour before New Year's Eve 2000 and ex-cop Jericho Cane (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is gonna stop him. Predictable explosions, fire and brimstone rule the day, and Arnie gets killed for all his trouble. Lots of action, but not enough plot.
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Entrapment
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Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones are high tech thieves in a world traveling 8 billion dollar financial heist set in Kuala Lumpur. Good on-location action and Tai Chi moves by Catherine and the motives of the characters keep you guessing.
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The General's Daughter
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A murder mystery at a US Army base has CID warrant officer Paul Brenner (John Travolta) peeling back years of coverups and officer loyalty in a southern army base. Very good photography and a reasonable plot (everyone's a suspect, but you don't get the final clues until the very end). Four deaths: propeller blade, strangulation, bullet, land mine - but you really only see two of them.
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The Insider
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An intense dramatization of the real life story a tobacco industry scientist/executive's life being wrenched apart in an ethical and legal tug-of-war between corporate giants CBS News and Brown & Williamson Tobacco. Strong performances and the air of authenticity make this an excellent movie.
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Inspector Gadget
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Matthew Broderick plays the lead role in this "real life" Disney version of the cartoon series. There were some good spots for kids, but some of the humor was geared toward older kids or adults and was not really that memorable. An exception was the "minions" in the ending credits.
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The Iron Giant
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A nice cartoon fable about a 1950's boy named Hogarth Hughes and a huge iron robot that falls from the sky. A government agent wants to destroy the robot (naturally) and Hogarth tries to hide it and save it. Great for kids.
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The Matrix
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An intense sci-fi tale of machines taking over mankind in 2199 and plugging in everyone into the illusion of living in 1999. A small band of humans fights to regain reality against overwhelming force. Take the red pill to join the adventure or the blue pill to keep your "normal" life.
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The Mummy
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A super action-packed Indiana Jones type flick set in 1923 with loads of ghoulish special effects. There's so much action there's hardly any time for much dialogue between the characters except for "Watch out!" or "Run!". The scarab beetles can be nasty when they're hungry!
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The Omega Code
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Action drama about the uncovering of coded messages in the Bible foretelling world history and the second coming. Possibly OK for doomsday zealots, but I was left uninspired. It started out with some good action, but then drifted off into megalomania and an obscure ending.
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Payback
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A thief named Porter (Mel Gibson) is upset about losing 70 grand and being shot in the back. He goes gunning for his former buddy and gets (literally) hammered, but blows away just about everybody along the way. Pretty violent stuff, even for Mel. Watch out for the kinky asian chick.
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Pokémon: The First Movie (MewTwo Strikes Back)
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Really two shows in one. The first 25 minutes (Pikachu's Vacation) is pretty boring since there's no dialog. The real movie starts next and features a long and intense hand-to-hand battle between a fleet "good" Pokémons and an equal number of "evil" clones created by MewTwo who is himself a clone of a good Pokémon named "Mew".
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A Simple Plan
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Trying to cover their tracks after finding $4.4 million leads a trio of small town buddies into deeper and deeper trouble between themselves, their wives and the law. Suspenseful and entertaining with plenty of unexpected twists.
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The Sixth Sense
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Bruce Willis is a child psychologist who helps a young boy deal with his ability to sense past events and people who have died. The film gathers speed near the end and can tug at your emotions. The totally unexpected ending really gets you thinking about what you've just seen.
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Star Wars - The Phantom Menace
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The first of the three prequels is reminiscent of the original: a mostly lighthearted adventure, a Jedi Master (or two) helping a young Skywalker escape from bondage in Tatooine, a big battle, and a triumphal ending sequence. Plus R2D2, C3PO, Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi are all there. I was amazed by the incredible seemless interaction of the animated Jar Jar Binks with the real characters.
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Stigmata
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An unsuspecting girl is possessed by the soul of a Catholic priest who is excommunicated by his superiors for promoting a newly translated and controversial Gospel. Lotsa blood, noisy doves and dripping water.
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Stuart Little
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A cute one for the kids: Stuart is a very nice (and talkative) mouse who is adopted by two very nice human parents and has to avoid being eaten by a gang of (also talkative, but not so nice) housecats. The cats are real and exceptionally well-trained and they did a great job of having Stuart (who looks pretty good himself) interact with the cats and the humans. A few slow spots, but pretty pleasant overall.
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Tarzan
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Disney's animated version is high on action and the visual effects are great. This first tale takes him through childhood with his adopted ape parents up through adulthood and his first contact with other humans. Phil Collins provides the musical backgrounds.
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The Thin Red Line
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Gritty WWII Guadalcanal battle with Marines taking a heavily defended hill. Great photography. Cameos by John Travolta, George Clooney and Woody Harrelson. Folksy anti-war voiceover and 3-hour length were distractions.
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The 13th Warrior
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Antonio Banderas is an Arab "ambassador" in this wildly improbable tale of hairy Vikings versus an army of cave-dwelling bear worshippers who'd like to chop off your head. It's a paper-thin plot with mostly shallow characters, but the everpresent "Oh my God, here they come again" action kept me from drifting off.
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Three Kings
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Four guys in the middle of Desert Storm (led by George Clooney) decide to go after the gold Saddam stole from Kuwait. Lotsa bullets and most of them hit! This movie can't decide whether it's Action (explosions, torture, head shots) or Comedy (exploding cows, overturned milk trucks), but it's a fairly entertaining picture.
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True Crime
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Clint Eastwood plays a sleazy reporter for the Oakland Tribune with a "good nose" who finds that a murder of a grocery clerk wasn't committed by the man who's set to die by lethal injection at San Quentin later that day. Adult themes and language. Good repartee with the Editor played by James Woods. Don't ever try "speed zoo".
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Virus
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A space thingy lands on a Russian Research ship in the Pacific and transforms itself into mechanical terrors. Predictable plot and scare scenes. Reminiscent of 1998's "Deep Rising", but substituting mechanical critters in 1999.
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Wild Wild West
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Jim West (Will Smith) and Artemus Gordon (Kevin Cline) are teamed up against the evil Dr. Loveless bent on conquering the 1870's USA from his giant mechanical spider contraption. It's a pretty good show, but there are some slow spots.
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The World Is Not Enough
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James Bond takes on a complicated plot of stolen plutonium and exploding Caspian oil pipelines and ends up in a sinking submarine. The opening action sequence is one of the best in the 007 series. I also liked the tricked-out BMW and the helicopters carrying giant circular saws. The remainder of the movie is full of action, a bit too full of Bond's double-entendres and (curiously) could have used a little more humor and playfulness.
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