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Finally, a good romantic comedy that isn't recycled corniness and sweetness from some of Hollywood's romantic classics. Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney play two workaholic single parents, who spend a hectic day trying to juggle their work schedule and parenthood duties. The two bickering parents make a compromise. Clooney will take care of the kids while Pfeiffer gets through an important business meeting. Pfeiffer will do the same for Clooney, while he (a newspaper columnist) is out chasing an important story. But with two restless kids, it's not going to be a very fine day (despite the ironic title).This film's story rises above the typical romance cliches, thanks to a relentlessly fast pace that will make you feel like you're out of breath. Pfeiffer and Clooney's great acting and good chemistry with each other and the kids (a well-known acting nightmare) help the story even more. This also has a lot to say about the ups and downs of single parenthood. This film is full of ups and hardly any downs.
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This charming film is the story of the rise, fall and rise again of a sports agent (Tom Cruise). Cruise has been a successful agent for years. Then, one day he starts to wonder whether he's becoming just another shark swimming in corporate America's waters. He completely changes his way of thinking and his outlook on life. However, it doesn't go over so well with his bosses and he ends up fired, with all his clients being taken away from him. All except for one (Cuba Gooding Jr.), a testosteroned-out football player, who feels that even though Cruise seems to be going downhill, he should stick with him to the end. Cruise is also trying to juggle his fading career and his relationship with his girlfriend-assistant (Renee Zellwigger), a single mother with an adorable six-year old who Cruise seems to adore.After a slow beginning that almost drags this down to the depths of boredom, it picks up after Cruise leaves his job and takes up the not-so-easy task of promoting Gooding. The performances and the script are good, especially Gooding who has some of the best scenes in the film. Cruise is surprisingly effective as a loser, a character he's rarely ever tried to play. As a bonus, what seems like a film for sports fans turns into a touching love story, which does not suffer from a bad case of the cutes. This is a worthy effort from Cruise, if not a perfect effort.
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The charming sequel to Terms of Endearment, we follow the continuing adventures of possessive Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine) and her family. Her three grandchildren are all grown up, and are quite dysfunctional. The youngest (Juliette Lewis) chooses the wrong men, the oldest is in jail and the middle child is now a father with a spoiled brat. MacLaine must cope with these family problems as well as dealing with her long-running rivalry with her deceased daughter's best friend Patsy (Miranda Richardson).MacLaine is in top form, as she returns to her Academy-award winning role. The supporting cast is a huge help. Marion Ross (of Happy Days fame) is a marvel to watch as MacLaine's housekeeper and best friend, Rosy. The story is not better than the original (which is expected), but it has plenty of laughs and a brilliant three-hanky scene at the end. In a year where the box office was full of empty-headed action fare, this was a real treat.
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An excellent debut from young independent director Carl Franklin, this crime drama follows the exploits of three criminals on the run and the cops attempting to catch them. The movie opens with a brutal murder in LA, committed by white trash low-life Ray (Billy Bob Thornton), his black girlfriend Fantasia (Cynda Williams of Mo' Better Blues) and cool, calculating black man Pluto (Michael Beach). When they take off for Star City, Arkansas, LAPD detectives Dud and McFeeley (Jim Metzler and Earl Billings) head for the town before them in order to head them off at the pass. The detectives figure it out through the help of a video tape taken at the scene of the crime. In Star City, they acquire the help of Sheriff "Hurricane" Dale Dixon (Bill Paxton), a cop who has never had to face anybody as dangerous as Thornton, Beach and Williams.The film builds at a relentless pace, that holds up to the very end. It has some interesting plot twists as well, including one ingenious one that involves a connection between Paxton's character and the killers. Besides Paxton, most of the cast are newcomers, who now have some impressive performances to put on their resume. Paxton is extremely good, because he takes a cliched character and turns him inside out into a more unique and complex person. It's another perfect entry in the crime-road pictures genre, which includes Bonnie and Clyde and Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.
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One of 1995's more underrated entries into crime fiction, this one adds a futuristic element to an old-fashioned pulp story. It takes place around New Year's Eve, 1999. Ex-cop Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes) is a dealer in mind discs, CD's which allow you to experience someone else's memory. He acquires a disc that shows a friend of his being murdered. It was taken from the murderer's point of view. With the help of his bodyguard-friend (Angela Bassett) and his old police partner (Tom Sizemore), Fiennes finds a connection between this murder and the murder of a popular rap star-political activist. But someone is trying to stop him from finding out the truths of both murders.Gritty, hip and full of action, it's a shame that this didn't do well with the public. Perhaps it's the fact that the story is just a Humphrey Bogart mystery updated to the 1990's, but the performers and the direction keep you interested throughout. Fiennes is improving on his American accent and Bassett is great as his tough, able-bodied protector. It has enough twists and turns for three movies and that's the main thing that will hold your attention.
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Forget the recent forgettable made-for-TV production, and direct your attention to this starkly realistic adaptation of Truman Capote's classic true crime novel. Robert Blake and Scott Wilson portray two young killers, who kill a Kansas farm family for no apparent reason. We follow their attempt to escape from the law, and the eventual arrest that lead to a conviction and then to execution.Blake and Wilson offer two extremely outstanding roles as the young losers-drifters-killers. But that's just one of the many reasons you should see this. They include the expert direction by Richard Brooks, the jarring black-and-white cinematography by Conrad Hall (which add a documentary like feel to the proceedings) and the tense score by Quincy Jones. You don't need to worry about excessive violence or attempts at sensationalism, because this builds its terror and horror on sheer suspense. No bloody shocks! No killers jumping out of the closet. Just plain old "boring" suspense, as one of my much younger (and more impatient) readers once said. Of course, he never saw this film.
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After his masterpiece Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock spanned out into unfamiliar territory. For 12 years after that classic horror film, he took a look at the cold war (Topaz), the spy genre (Torn Curtain) and fantasy (The Birds). But in 1972, he returned to his familiar genre in style. The plot devices he uses are not much different than the ones he used in any of his other films, save for nudity and mind-jarringly graphic violence. The plot itself involves the typical Hitchcock "Wrong Man" (Jon Finch), an average Joe who is mistaken by the London police to be the infamous neck-tie strangler. The real strangler (Barry Foster) is not just a deranged murderer, but is also a dirty rat who would sell out his best friend Finch in order to get away with the murders.With some great suspenseful sequences, including one involving Foster, a potato truck and a corpse, and some great uses of the camera for terror, Hitch made a remarkable return to making great thrillers. Besides the two great lead performances by Finch and Foster, we get a touch of some hideously delightful black humor (it wouldn't be a Hitchcock movie without some). Some of the best scenes involve the dinner sequences with Scotland Yard detective Oxford (Alec McCowen) and his wife (Vivien Merchant). Wait till you've seen the dishes she prepares for her husband, and tell me if you don't lose YOUR appetite. If I had a chance to tell what I thought of the film to Hitch himself...
Well, to use the old cliche, "Good Show old boy! Good Show indeed!" Bye for now.
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