Reviews for the week starting on August 14, 1995

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MOVIES ON VIDEO

Here are four movies on video and/or laserdisc.

Schindler's List (1993)

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People usually ask me "What is your favorite movie"? If you had asked me that a few years back, I wouldn't have been able to tell you. Now however, things have changed. Schindler's List is the most excellent film I've ever seen. It will be a while before another film will be able to top this one. Everything about it is fantastic. It tells the true tale of a rich German manufacturer (Liam Neeson), who risked his life and spent most of his fortune to save 1,100 Jews from execution. Schindler did most of it by way of bribing high German officers, including the gruesome commandant Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes, in a terrific performance).

This is more than a story about the Holocaust. It's about a man, who at first only used the Jews for financial gain, then helped them survive the final solution and gained their respect. The top three performances are fantastic. Neeson is towering as Oscar Schindler. Ben Kingsley is superb as Itzhak Stern, the Jewish accountant who really runs Schindler's factory. Fiennes is frightening as Goeth, who kills Jews for pleasure, yet has a fetish for his Jewish maid (Embeth Davitz). The stark black-and-white cinematography is perfect for the atmosphere, capturing the grim era that was the Holocaust. The art direction is well-done in recreating the concentration camps. And the most surprising thing about this is Steven Spielberg's direction. There has never been any better from him. At first you think, "How could Spielberg do a film like this"? Then, if you look a little closer, you'll find his beautiful magic touch in the picture.

My Rating =

Rent

Natural Born Killers (1994)

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I liked this film a lot, though it's not as good as some people have made it out to be. The film follows a murderous couple (Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis) through their rampage across the country and in prison. The two leads are good, with a surprising turn by Harrelson as a cold-blooded killer, who only loves one thing, and that is the equally cold-blooded Lewis. There is some excellent cinematography, ranging from bizarre multi-colored camera angles to documentary style black-and-white.

The film was meant to be a satire on the media portrayal of killers and the basic way they overblow things, but I didn't find much funny about it. It's meant to be more of a serious satire than a humorous one. Quentin Tarantino disowned his original story, after drastic changes in the script. All he wanted was story credit, and actually, I can see why. It's not really his story. It doesn't have the usual black humor you find in his films. It's got more of Oliver Stone's serious controversial stuff than it has humor. Yet, for some reason, it has a sort of bizarre persona about it, that I would like to see it over and over again.

There are basically two good reason to see this film. One is the excellent performances by the likes of Harrelson, Lewis, Robert Downey Jr. as a sleazy TV journalist, Tommy Lee Jones as the sadistic warden of a prison and Tom Sizemore as a corrupt detective, who will stop at nothing to catch Harrelson and Lewis. The second reason is the eye-catching visuals. You will find that Stone raises some interesting questions and is rather truthful about how the media turns horrible things like murder into a feeding frenzy for the public. To this, I'm rather grateful to Stone.

My Rating =

Rent

Maximum Overdrive (1986)

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The directing debut of author Stephen King, it's about an alien phenomenon that causes all the machines in the world to come alive and kill their human masters. It's mostly trucks that kill people. A group of humans make a stand against the machines at a gas station. Emilio Estevez stars as the leader of the group. The premise, based on King's short story Trucks, is a little bit interesting, but it doesn't come off quite well. King had said that he intended to make a junk food movie. Instead, it comes out as rotted garbage. Even King can't seem to make this film, yet another adaptation of his stories, any better. Full of dumb dialogue and even dumber people, Maximum Overdrive is a waste of time and money.

My Rating =

Rent

Tremors (1990)

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Here is a good choice for a sci-fi film. A great spoof of the old B-movie horror flicks of the 50's, it takes place in a dying desert town, where two handymen (Fred Ward and Kevin Bacon) find out that there are gigantic mutated worms living under the ground and killing people, and they have to stop them. Along with them are two gung-ho survivalists ("Family Ties" Michael Gross and country singer Reba McEntire) who, at one point, take on one of the worms with an huge arsenal of machine guns, shotguns and even an elephant gun.

It's not a great movie, but it's certainly worth watching. The actors are good, including McEntire and Gross playing characters that you'd never think they would (or could) play. The country music is fine for the setting and it has some excellent special effects. If you're a sci-fi fan and you like good comedy to go along with it, then this is the film for you.

My Rating =

Rent

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