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LAKE PLACID

If a movie has an underwater animal that enjoys shredding people to bits it’s inevitably called a Jaws rip off. This movie is the latest to get that criticism. And despite several hokey Jaws like shots and a sometimes weak story, it does a good job of entertaining.

Lake placid stars a decent looking thirty-foot crocodile that is causing problems at a tranquil lake in Maine. At first no one thinks it’s actually a crocodile because they’re usually not that big and because it’s so unlikely it would show up at a Lake in Maine. Read the rest of this entry »

THE IRON GIANT

Every summer parents complain that young children are left out during the summer movie race because there’s too much sex, violence or profanity in the movies. But whenever a great children’s movie comes along they readily ignore it and head straight to whatever stupid violent summer blockbuster is easiest to find at the local Cineplex. And then they wonder why Hollywood gives us the same crap every summer.

Here is your chance to let everyone know you mean it when you say you want better movies from Hollywood. The Iron Giant is based on a classic children’s book, The Iron Man by British poet Ted Hughes. It takes place in 1957 during the middle of Cold War paranoia. Read the rest of this entry »

INSPECTOR GADGET

Just what we needed, Hollywood digs up another memory from our childhood and turns it into a movie.
Mathew Broderick is John Brown, a security guard with dreams of becoming a police officer so he can be a hero. In a plot twist not worth explaining, he becomes a gadget filled bionic man [...]

HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL

Which one was worse? The Haunting or the House on Haunted Hill? I can’t say I cared much for either movie, even with the lowered expectations of a horror movie. But House on Haunted Hill is slightly more amusing. Both are similar in the basic premise, but this movie is based on [...]

THE HAUNTING

The haunting reminded me of the haunted house at Disneyland. It wasn’t scary but it was interesting to experience and I got a few good laughs. The Haunting is based on Shirley Jackson’s short novel The Haunting of Hill House and was made into a movie in 1963 for the first time.
The [...]

THE GENERAL’S DAUGHTER

John Travolta stars as Paul Brenner, a detective for the U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, who is investigating the murder of Captain Elisabeth Campbell (Leslie Stefanson), the daughter of a respected general. The movie begins with a pointless gunfight and soon after our hero is roughing up suspects and uncovering the [...]

GALAXY QUEST

Galaxy Quest sounded like a bad idea. A spoof of the almost-dead Star Trek franchise. Especially since the real Star Trek movies have become such a pathetic bore. It turned out to be a gem. A well made sci-fi movie that pays tribute to the Star Trek Universe without poking too much [...]

FIGHT CLUB

David Fincher has been repeatedly called a visualist in the media. Most stories regarding his movies love to talk about the unique visual style while ignoring the interesting premises, good scripts and smart endings. The implication is that his movies are very stylized but there’s not much else to them. I [...]

EYES WIDE SHUT

When writing about a new Stanley Kubrick movie, it’s hard not to mention his past masterpieces and compare them to this movie. They are masterpieces regardless of the fact that most of us may be alienated by stuffy movie critics who throw the word “masterpiece” around to herald a new boring [...]

END OF DAYS

I sat through End of Days hoping for some good action, explosions and maybe neat special effects. What I got was one of the worst looking and dullest movies Schwarzenegger has ever made.
Schwarzenegger plays Jericho Cane, an ex-cop who works for a private security firm, drinks too much and has the expected [...]