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Would you like to go to the movies but are not sure
if what you would like to see is the right film for you? Your sisters are going to try to help you by giving you
their own impressions about movies they have seen. We hope this will be useful somehow. Please remember that tastes vary from one person to another.
Feel free to submit your own reviews if you wish.
Gladiator
Review by Sister Bonnie
Starring: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed and
Richard Harris
5/5 smileys.... (: (: (: (: (:
I'm afraid couldn't help comparing this movie to Academy Award
winning "Braveheart" at every turn. Gladiator doesn't top Braveheart (for
starters, Russell Crowe is no Mel Gibson!), but it is still an amazing
movie. I really have no complaints. I was completely enthralled for the
whole 2 hours. Crowe plays an army general whose fate takes a turn for the
worse and ends up as a slave and a gladiator. I knew he wouldn't be killed
in his first battles (as I knew it was a 2+ hour movie), but I was still on
the edge of my seat. The special effects were also amazing. I'm glad I knew
a little bit about them before I went in. You would never guess what is
computer-generated and what is real. Joaquin Phoenix deserves a special
mention as a perfect bad guy. If I ever see him playing a good guy in
another movie, I think I'll have a hard time buying it.
In sum: incredible!
The website also has lots of goodies.. http://gladiator-thefilm.com/
For Love of the Game
Review by Sister Bonnie
Starring: Kevin Costner, Kelly Preston, John C. Reilly, Jena Malone, Brian Cox
2.5/5 smileys (: (: (
I think Kevin Costner must have a deal with the movie studios to make a
baseball movie every couple years. This movie had a good premise, but it
never really delivered. Costner plays a veteran pitcher reflecting back on
his life, in particular his career and his relationship with Preston's
character, while he's pitching a perfect game. My major complaints: the
movie just doesn't flow and it's predictable, it doesn't build up suspense.
I hardly cared if they ended up together at the end, and I knew how the game
would turn out and who would get the big hits. Also, I think they left out
some important things, like when Costner's team wins the World Series. All
we get is a flash of his parents cheering for him. I would have liked a
little more. Finally, the ending drags on for far far too long. It's nearly
a half-hour after the ending of the game before the movie ends. They
absolutely should have found a way to wrap it up immediatly after the game.
In sum, mediocre.
The Blair Witch Project
Review by Sister Bonnie
Starring: Heather Donahue, Michael A. Williams, Joshua Leonard, Bob
Griffith, Jim King
3/5 smileys (: (: (:
It's taken me this long to see this movie because everyone told me it was
the scariest movie ever and I'm a coward. I can assure you that I didn't
find it the scariest movie ever. It was actually kinda cheesy, but I enjoyed
it. I liked the unique premise and I liked the extremely amateur feel of the
movie. I don't have any particular complaints about the movie itself, but I
think all the media coverage this film recieved had my expectations waaaaaay
too high. I'm wishing I'd seen it with no preconcieved expectations.
In sum: not bad!
BLESS THE CHILD
Preview submitted by Sister Kisser
STARRING: Kim Basinger and Jimmy Smits
DIRECTED BY: Chuck Russell
When Jimmy Smits left NYPD Blue to expand his horizons, playing a FBI agent indistinguished from TV's Bobby Simone in a derivative religious spookfest probably wasn't what he had in mind. At least Bless the Child puts a norminal spin on the genre. The fatherless niece of nurse Maggie O'Connor [Kim Basinger] isn't the spawn of Satan but, rather, a potential Christ-like savior. Six years after Maggie's junkie sister, Jenna [Angela Bettis], abandoned her newborn at Maggie's apartment, the seemingly autistic mopper, Cody [Holiston Coleman], begins manifesting strange powers that draw self-help guru Eric Stark [Rufus Sewell]. Eric's "New Dawn" movement is a cover for a satanic sect, into which he's determined to tempt Cody. Maggie scrambles to save the girl, winding upin jams only seminarian-turned-fed John Travis [Smits] can pull her out of. Basinger delivers her leaden dialogue with an almost-touching sincerity, and Christina Ricci and Ian Holmes inject a touch of class into stock roles. But would have pained the filmmakers to do more than rehash Rosemary's Baby and The Omen? As they say, the devil's in the details.
AUTUMN IN NEW YORK
Preview submitted by Sister Kisser
STARRING: Richard Gere and Winona Ryder
DIRECTED BY: Joan Chen
In director Joan Chen's May-December romance, Winona Ryder gets every dramatic actress's dream, a slow, beautiful death. Unfortunitely, the film's eventual box-office death might be quicker and not as pretty. Richard Gere is a randy 48-year-old Manhattan restaurteur who says things like "I validate that emotion" but lacks any feelings of his own. Pale Ryder is a hat-maker whose creations resemble froufrou phone headsets; she woos the older man with off-putting lines like "I collect antiques". After delivering clunkers such as this with her trademark whine, Ryder winces as if she just realized how hackneyed Allison Burnett's script is. With a slightly easier task, Gere comes off a bit better. The womanizer he plays is by nature unbelieveable, and his stilted lines are clearly a seducer's con. But neither his romantic rogue nor her luminous virgin routine works the actors' sexual chemistry is more repulsion than attraction, their kisses tight-lipped and obligatory, their love making showy and disconnected. When they share a limo, their intimate tête-a-tête seems to have been filmed separately and then edited together. Although the leads blow as as a November wind, the movie does have its pleasures, including a no-nonsense turn by stage actress Elaine Stritch, who plays Ryder's society grandmother with an authenticity that's out of place on this otherwise
corny melodrama.
 
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