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09.26.01 by Widge @ 5:51 am 
Written by: Mark Protosevich My Advice: Don't miss it. Catherine (Lopez) is a former social worker who's now finally able to get inside the mind of the child in her care. We're talking literally here. She is able to project her mind into the minds of others using cutting edge technology, and is trying to help a catatonic child (Colton James) with his trauma. Into her life comes FBI agent Novak (Vaughn), and boy does she wish he was carrying flowers. But instead, he's carrying Carl (D'Onofrio), a serial killer--and they need Catherine's help to find the whacko's latest victim. Let's get something out of the way first. This seems an awful lot like Dreamscape of the Lambs, with art direction by Joel-Peter Witkin. And yes, in the hands of less capable directors, that's probably all it might have turned out to be: eye candy that wasn't for the squeamish. However, Tarsem, he of the music videos, stepped up to the chair and brought with him much thoughts (and effective ones at that) about what the inner workings of a madman's mind might be. Categorized as: Movies and Reviews
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06.23.01 by Widge @ 9:59 pm 
Written by: David Ayer, Erik Bergquist & Gary Scott Thompson, based on a story by Gary Scott Thompson, which was in turn based on a magazine article by Ken Li My Advice: Wait for Cable. Brian Spindler (Walker) is a newcomer to an underground world of illegal street racing, a place where people put more torque and power into automobiles than would be required to shoot those selfsame autos somewhere into geosynchronous orbit. The king of street racing is one Dom Toretto (Diesel), who also happens to have a sister (Brewster) that catches Brian's eye. As Brian learns to be a player in this strange new existence, it appears that Dom might be leading a secret double life--because Brian sure as hell is. Categorized as: Movies and Reviews
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06.11.01 by Widge @ 5:25 am  Film: Written by: Patrick Massett, Simon West & John Zinman, based on a story by Michael Colleary & Mike Werb, based on the video game published by Eidos Interactive My Advice: Wait for MST3K Lara Croft (Jolie) is a badass. She whomps killer robots, she wields handguns from hell like nobody's business, and she has huge.......tracts of land. She's essentially Indiana Jones' lost sister. But her past comes back to haunt her, as clues her father (Jolie's real life father, Voight) left for her to find come to light. You see, there's a shadowy group of conspirators who have been waiting five thousand years for a conjunction of all nine planets as well as a solar eclipse. It's at this time that an ancient device can be found and used for good...or EVIL. Moohoohahaha. Categorized as: Movies and Reviews
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08.05.00 by Widge @ 1:17 pm 
Written by: Andrew W. Marlowe, story by Andrew W. Marlowe & Gary Scott Thompson My Advice: Rental. Sebastian Caine (Bacon) is an asshole. You can tell this because when characters are named Sebastian they undoubtedly are assholes. He works with his ex, Linda (Shue), and her clandestine new lover, Matt (Brolin). They've been experimenting with phase shifting animals out of the visible universe...kind of like a H.G. Wells' Doctor Dolittle kind of thing. Caine is so sure of himself that he's ready to try the process out on himself, just like any ethical mad scientist would do. But...is he ready to face the consequences of this decision? And more importantly...are the supporting characters? And even more importantly, should you subject yourself to such a film? Categorized as: Movies and Reviews
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06.28.00 by Widge @ 2:52 am  Directed by Roland Emmerich My Advice: Don't Miss It. Benjamin Martin (Gibson) is a man with a past, and it's one he does not wish to revisit. In his past, he was a warrior of great renown, but now he's a widower with seven children to care for. This might not be such a big deal, but he's in an American colony in 1776--and war is kicking up all around him. To make matters worse, his eldest son Gabriel (Ledger) is convinced his father is hiding behind his children--and desperately wants to enlist in the Continental Army. When Gabriel gets into more than a spot of trouble and starts to drag the family down with him, Benjamin has to step up and try to keep the entire thing from coming down around their ears. I would like to say to Devlin and Emmerich that they have hereby been forgiven for Godzilla. Yes, this movie is just that good. Gibson gives the caliber of performance he thought he did in Braveheart. And indeed, there will be many (and have been many) who compare this film to that earlier outing, which Nick over at CHUD brilliantly termed "Death Wish in a kilt." But Patriot succeeds where Braveheart stumbles. The first film was a revenge flick, like Nick says, pure and simple. Every cry of "FREEDOM!" stank of bullshit. This film goes with the premise that there are more important things than revenge, and you can actually see Benjamin making the choice periodically through the film. Other characters are constantly reminding him, "Revenge is one thing, but keep your mind on the cause." It works, and Gibson has been cleansed of the sin of that bad kilt flick. Categorized as: Movies and Reviews
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02.12.00 by Bailey @ 8:36 pm 
Written & Directed by: Jun Falkenstein My Advice: Matinee Okay, I'm eight years old again. I'm going to see Disney's latest installment of Winnie the Pooh films, The Tigger Movie. Pretty cool right? Well, in a word, yeah: it was pretty cool indeed. Or as I would have said at the age of eight, "that's pretty trippy." So there I sit with my best friend in the whole world, who at the age of twenty-eight is actually my fiancee and best friend in the whole world, all eager for the movie to start. Here is what I saw. The movie starts with a nice little intro of live action, in obviously what is Christopher Robin's (Tom Attenborough) room, and goes into the beginning of a classic Pooh movie. Its right here that things start to change, and it stops being a Pooh movie and becomes, ahem... (pause for dramatic effect) The Tigger Movie. See that's one of the things that you have to understand, this movie comes with more action than the typical Pooh movie. It has some excitement. I actually saw where a reviewer in a local paper complained that it wasn't like the other Pooh movies. Gee, maybe that's why they called it The Tigger Movie. Categorized as: Movies and Reviews
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11.25.99 by Widge @ 9:22 pm 
Written by: Andrew W. Marlowe My Advice: Wait for cable. Jericho Cane (Schwarzenegger) is a man with a problem. Not only is he depressed and suicidal, but he really wishes he could pull off the scene where he wants to kill himself as good as Mel Gibson did in Lethal Weapon, but he can't--which makes him even more depressed. He only thought he was having a bad day, because his buddy and partner is Kevin Pollak, who immediately upstages him and continues to do so in pretty much every scene. To make matters worse, Satan comes to New York City looking for not only a good lay (Tunney) but also an actor worthy of playing him (Byrne), whom he promptly possesses. Then, for no particular reason, Cane and partner go to work protecting Byrne-Satan, and then leave their client and job to chase after a would-be assassin, again for no particular reason. And of course, this leads them into a world that they never knew existed—action movie hell. Categorized as: Movies and Reviews
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11.06.99 by Widge @ 6:08 am 
Written by: Michael Mann & Eric Roth, based on the Vanity Fair article "The Man Who Knew Too Much" My Advice: Don't miss it. Dr. Jeffrey Wigand (Crowe) has information that the tobacco companies don't want shared. Lowell Bergman (Pacino) is a 60 Minutes producer who runs across Wigand almost by accident when trying to get some scientific cigarette jargon translated into English. But Wigand is itching to tell somebody what he knows. And Bergman wants it on 60 Minutes. And the tobacco companies want Wigand to shut the hell up. Conflict ensues? You betcha. It's refreshing to see a film that shows as heroes people who don't have noserings, don't have children with seventeen women, and don't blow things up. Those things have their place in the cinematic spectrum, but they're workaday now. It's just nice to see a movie about real people. And "heroes" is perhaps too strong a word, when you consider that it carries with it connotations of being better than others. The two protagonists of this film aren't necessarily better than anyone else; they just try to do what they think is the right thing. Even the character of Mike Wallace (a fantastic Christopher Plummer), who some thought would be portrayed in a bad light, is simply portrayed in a realistic light. The flaws are all there, for everyone involved, and to see all of their motivations running rampant over one another makes for an extremely engaging film. Categorized as: Movies and Reviews
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09.10.99 by Widge @ 4:58 pm 
Written and Directed by: David Koepp, based on the novel by Richard Matheson My Advice: Matinee Tom (Bacon) is, as a song once said, an ordinary average guy. He's got a caring wife (Erbe), a decent neighborhood with good neighbors, and a son (Cope) who talks to dead people. Huh? Too involved to discuss here. Anyway, one night at a neighborly get together, his sister-in-law Lisa (Douglas) convinces him to submit to hypnosis. It works great guns on him, so much so that he starts to see things, specifically glimpses of something bad which happened in the neighborhood's past. Now he's got to figure out what some ghost is trying to tell him before it drives him completely around the bend and tears his family apart. Categorized as: Movies and Reviews
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06.19.99 by Widge @ 1:27 am 
Written & Directed by: Tom Tykwer My Advice: Don't miss it. Lola (Potente) has just gotten a phone call. It's from her boyfriend, Manni (Bleibtreu), who as a result of a couple of screwups has lost the 100,000 German marks he was supposed to give to his boss. Because he thinks he's going to be killed when his boss finds out, it's pretty evident that this is not a typical nine-to-five job he's just pulled. It's twenty minutes until the boss is going to show, and unless Lola can do something, Manni is effectively screwed. The film begins with a kind of slow acceleration, letting you know exactly what you're in for. After Hans Paetsch, a German orator of fairy tales, sets up the unworldly feel of the film with his narration (which for some reason eerily reminded me of Wim Wenders), the watchman Schuster (Armin Rohde) states essentially "90 minutes. One ball. Everything else is theory." Then he launches a soccerball into the sky as the milling people form the title of the film. Wild stuff, people. And it's a perfect setup for the mania that is to come. The film goes for 81 minutes and almost never lets up, while Lola runs about the city trying to save her boyfriend, maneuvering through an almost Joycean 20 minutes, fates and lives being altered in her wake. Categorized as: Movies and Reviews
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