A running semicomplete look at the movies I’ve seen lately. I’m in the process of filling in some older material. Check out the Internet Movie Database if you’re a real film buff.
| Movie | Actors | Seen | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Men in Black | Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Linda Fiorentino | Jul97 | A fast action comedy about aliens on earth and the bureaucrats who keep tabs on them. On its face the special effects were slick, but the plot was weak at best. |
| Contact | Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, John Hurt | Jul97 | We are not alone. Aliens take television signals transmitted in 1936 and beam them back to earth, along with a data on how to construct a machine whose purpose is unclear. Foster plays Elli, the maverick astrophysicist whose dedication to the SETI project places her foremost in the intrigue surrounding the discovery. Technically very good, the story itself perhaps is too large to be presented as a movie, but Zemekis deserves kudos for his efforts. |
| Mars Attacks | Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox | Jul97 | Tim Burton nod to science fiction films of a bygone era. Exceedingly funny, but the ensemble cast sometimes distracts. |
| Batman and Robin | Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney, Chris O’Donnell, Alicia Silverstone, Uma Thurman | Jun97 | A long, overly campy fourth installment in the profitable franchise. Thurman as Poison Ivy stands out among the ensemble cast, but to be honest, none of the performances recommend themselves. |
| The Lost World: Jurassic Park | Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete Postlethwaite | Jun97 | The dinosaurs look just as real, and the film moves along well. However, the story differs from the first movie only in unessential details. Sigh. Can’t we get something novel once in a while. |
| Fargo | William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Frances McDormand | May97 | The Coen brothers recreate this true story about a series of murders in Minnesota and the Dakotas. “Yahh!, Yahh!” Quirky and conversational. |
| Eat, Drink, Man, Woman | Sihung Lung, Yu-Wen Wang, Shien-Lien Wu, Kuei-Mei Yang, Sylvia Chang | May97 | An import from the Far East. The story of the daughters of a famous chef, and the way their lives find new directions. |
| Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery | Mike Myers, Elizabeth Hurley | May97 | A send-up on every Bond film made. Hilarious at times, boring at times. The surprise is that Elizabeth Hurley can act at all, IMHO. |
| Rumble in the Bronx | Jackie Chan, Anita Mui, Francoise Yip | Apr97 | Action galore, some plot, and stunts that fail. Jackie Chan comes to America. |
| Liar, Liar | Jim Carrey, Maura Tierney | Apr97 | A comedy about a lawyer who due to the frustrations of his son, finds he can’t lie for one whole day. Typical Carrey physical antics, but carried off well. I liked it more than I expected. |
| Eraser | Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vanessa Williams | Mar97 | Arnold plays an Eraser, an agent within the Witness protection program whose job is to make Williams disappear. His job gets very complicated and her life is endangered by a fellow agent who sells them out to some powerful corporate interests. The action and special effects are well done. Overall very good. |
| Slingblade | Billy Bob Thornton | Mar97 | A very intense movie. I can’t explain it, but it’s worth seeing. |
| Virtuosity | Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe | Jan97 | Denzel Washington in an action film? Mediocre at best, but a worthwhile rental. |
| Far and Away | Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman | Dec96 | Visually impressive, but the story of a rich and a poor Irish twosome making their way to America seems somewhat improbable. |
| Remains of the Day | Anthony Hopkins, Christopher Reeves, Emma Thompson | Dec96 | Moving Merchant-Ivory film in which Hopkins, who plays an English butler, fails to react to the world around him. |
| Jerry MaGuire | Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Renee Zellweger | Dec96 | Cruise is more than competent in his role as a sports agent cut adrift. His reconstructed life is a curious thing to see constructed. |
| Star Trek: First Contact | Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis | Nov96 | Overblown. Great special effects, though. |
| Stealing Beauty | Liv Tyler | Nov96 | A young woman’s self-discovery. Langorous but delicate. Bertolluci’s film left me somewhat disappointed, but only slightly. Certainly better than most of the other films I’ve seen this year thus far. |
| Long Kiss Goodnight | Samuel L. Jackson, Geena Davis | Oct96. | Contrived but convivial. Action, not high drama. |
| 12 Monkeys | Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis | Oct96. | Interesting product from Terry Gilliam. |
| Mission Impossible | Tom Cruise | Sep96. | The impossible mission is to follow the plot. |
| Emma | Gwenyth Paltrow | Aug96. | A delightfully light comedy by Jane Austen is beautifully portrayed on screen with some memorable performances by Gwenyth Paltrow. Much enjoyed. |
| Chain Reaction | Keanu Reeves, Morgan Freeman | Aug96. | Scientifically dubious, but enjoyable as an example of its type of film. A better rental probably. |
| Four Rooms | Tim Roth | Dec95. | A waste. Four vignettes, none are quite right. Roth provides poor glue to combine the sketches. |
| Trois Couleurs: Bialy (White) | Zbigniew Zamachowski, Julie Delpy | Nov95. | The second of the three colors trilogy. Not as good as the other two. |
| Trois Couleurs: Rouge (Red) | Irene Jacob, Jean-Louis Trintignant | Nov95. | The last of the three colors trilogy. A model becomes involved with a retired judge. Each character reveals themselves only in glimpses, but it is enough to reveal depth and color. Greatly enjoyed. |
| Trois Couleurs: Bleu (Blue) | Juliette Binoche | Nov95. | The first of the three colors trilogy. Very strange. |
| Apollo 13 | Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Ed Harris | Aug95. | A different kind of drama. Works quite well. |
| Waterworld | Kevin Costner | Aug95. | Greenhouse effect gone wild. Way over budget, and lightly attended, I still enjoyed this movie and was not bothered by some of its faults. |
| Batman Forever | Val Kilmer, Jim Carrey, Tommy Lee Jones, Nicole Kidman | Jul95. | Formulaic, but enjoyable. I’m disturbed by the way Warner Brothers has decided to just milk this property for all it’s worth. |
| The Professional | Jun95. | Unusual film about a hit man and a young girl, with a crazed DEA agent as the bad guy. | |
| King Kong (1976) | Jessica Lange, Jeff Bridges | Jun95. | Jessica Lange’s first film. Pretty bad, all things considered. |
| Bram Stoker’s Dracula | Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder | Jun95. | Excellent cinematography and use of imagery by Coppola. Anthony Hopkins does a memorable job portraying Von Helsing. |
| Forget Paris | Billy Crystal, Debra Winger | May95. | Excellent comedy/drama with Billy Crystal and Debra Winger. Interesting story within a story effect used for framing. |
| Milk Money | Ed Harris, Melanie Griffith | Apr95. | Cute, but unsurprising. |
| Time Cop | Jean-Claude van Damme | Mar95. | About as expected. Hard Target is probably his best action film so far, and this movie did not quite live up to my expectations. |
| Pulp Fiction | John Travolta, Samuel Jackson, Uma Thurman | Jan95. | Low lifes as intellectuals after a fashion. Overrated. |
| Star Trek: Generations | Patrick Stewart, etc. | Nov94. | Poorly plotted, but it was interesting to see TNG with a budget. |
| True Lies | Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold | Aug94. | Very good action film. |
| Speed | Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock | Jun94. | Excellent high tension adventure. Unbelievable aspects forgotten throughout. |
| Wayne’s World 2 | Mike Meyers, Dana Carvey | Dec93. | Sigh. |
| The Nightmare before Christmas | Tim Burton (director) | Oct93. | So different and so well done I’m ashamed at some of the garbage put out by others. |
| Demolition Man | Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes | Oct93. | Poor. |
| Ruby in Paradise | Ashley Judd | Oct93. | Worth watching. Unconventional. |
| The Fugitive | Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones | Sep93. | A nineties update to a sixties story. Harrison Ford captures the character well. |
| Cliffhanger | Sylvester Stallone, John Lithgow | Jun93. | Typical Stallone action-adventure mix. Don’t forget your popcorn. |
| Last Action Hero | Arnold Schwarzenegger | Jun93. | Quite good. Don’t really understand why it bombed. |
| Jurassic Park | Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum | Jun93. | A dinosaur packed adventure. Sure sold tickets. |
| The Beekeeper (1986) | Marcello Mastroianni | May93. | Foreign with subtitles. Je ne comprend pas. |
| Manufacturing Consent | Noam Chomsky | Mar93. | A documentary about Noam Chomsky. Tedious in parts, and overall rather slanted in its presentation, but nevertheless quite entertaining. |
| Strictly Ballroom | Paul Mercurio | Mar93. | Strictly entertaining. |
| The Crying Game | Mar93. | He’s a she, but does it matter. | |
| Like Water for Chocolate | Feb93. | A love story. Excellent. |
Last modified: Saturday, June 19th, 1997
Kevin Chase