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Movies I have seen in May 2001

The Cup

***Based on true events, a Tibetan monastery in India finds one of its young monks enamored with world cup soccer. So much so that he schemes to get a sattelite dish so that the final game can be seen within the monastery. This movie may not be for everyone. But I was fascinated by it. A wonderful look at another culture. Though many might find the storyline devoid of depth, I enjoyed its simplicity. In fact, the plot mirrored the Buddhist religion in a very interesting way. Definately see it if you have an interest in Tibetan culture. In Tibetan with English subtitles.

A Call to Remember

***A young man facing the war in Vietnam is pressured by overprotective parents not to go. The parents are holocoust survivors. The boy rebels in typical teen fashion, but discovers reasons for the parents behavior which made for a very interesting tension. This movie portrayed a family dynamic that I found quite interesting. Well acted and well written. See it.

Castaway

***1987 film, not the current hit. A man sets out to spend a year on a deserted island and advertises for a "wife" to live with him. The two come to the island and tension develops. This movie has an interesting storyline and I found it to be realistic and believable. Nudity. Recommended.

The House of Yes

**This movie was billed as a comedy????? Man, I saw nothing to smile at let alone laugh at. A man brings his fiance to his family's home for Thanksgiving. His twin sister is psychotic and his other brother less than normal. On top of all of that there are incestuous feelings between the siter and the man. The brother falls awkwardly in love with the fiance.

Terrible plot. Yet the movie had a decent amount of atmosphere and mystery. See it if you don't have anything better to do, but don't expect too much.

U-571

**1/2 Submarine movie. World War II, a team is assigned to board a German submarine and steal an encrypting device. While on the German sub, their own submarine gets torpedoed. Thus, they are forced to go on in the enmy vessel.

Decent tension. But there is the obligatory 'going too deep scene' and other Hollywood cliche. Still, this isn't too bad of a movie. See it! review by Ted Fry

Waking the Dead

**1/2In the early 1970's a young coastguardsman meets a pretty political activist. They fall in love and she dies in an act of political terrorism. 13 years later he is running for congress but can't get the woman out of his mind. Soon he is seeing her on the streets.

Interesting story. This movie was pretty well done and maintained a decent suspense. It was told in a multiple flashback style which made it just a little convoluted. Still, see it. see review by Eric Snyder

Jerome

***A factory welder, sick of his job, walks out one morning. His car won't start so he takes another one. Someone has given him a postcard picturing a little town called Jerome Arizona. He heads for it.

On the way he encounters a woman. He is attracted to her, yet he sees a dark side to her personality. Things go terribly wrong.

This was a good movie. Good tension, believable, it kept me quite interested and involved. Realistic. Definately see it! see review by Kevin Thomas

The Mummy

*1/2Wow, times have changed since Boris Karloff walked out of his sarcaphagous! This movie was FULL of special effects. Unfortunately it was devoid of atmosphere. A mummy returns to life after its grave is disturbed by greedy anglos. The world is in peril. Vast evil is unleashed. Ho hum. Seen it before. I was expecting a bit more. Don't bother. review by Robert Horton

There's Something About Mary

**1/2There were some really funny scenes in this movie. A high school kid falls for a girl and she agrees to go to the prom with him but an accident keeps the date from happening. She moves away and he never stops thinking about her. So, 13 years later he decides to look her up.

When this movie was funny, it was really funny. I laughed at the prom night scene harder than I have laughed at a movie in years. But all in all, it got a little long and a little too involved. Still, see it. Recommended. Negative review by Peter Brunette

Keeping the Faith

**This movie was ok. Kind of funny, but kind of not. Three childhood friends grow up, one becomes a priest, one a riabbi and one a business woman. The woman returns to town and the two religious men fall in love with her. Funny? Well...., I thought this movie was fair with its religion. Its kind of nice seeing a movie that treats Catholic priests fairly. They have not been portrayed well by Hollywood recently. See it if you got a couple hours to waste.

The Woman Chaser

**1/2Film noir parody. A 40's style look. A man buys a used car dealership, then decides he wants to write and direct a movie about a truck driver who runs over a little girl. The plot unfolds in a typical noir manner. I liked this movie. The humor was mostly subtle and interesting. A good parody is hard to come by and this one worked real well. See it.

The Souler Opposite

1/2 I really can't figure why anyone would want to watch this movie. I really can't. A commedian, down on his luck cracks a lot of unfunny jokes in a relationship with a poilitically minded woman. Its boring. Its stupid. Its not funny. Its maudlin, and on top of it all they threw in a crap out ending for good measure. UGGGH!

The Farmhouse

*** An isolated farm somewhere in the midwest. A family. The mother, in a psychotic fog, accidentally kills the daughter. The father and son cover it up. Then, a young woman, the daughters age, shows up at the door.

This movie had five characters and a phantasmagoria of personalities. Each character very subtly changed personae throughout the movie, making it quite interesting. Good tension. Good acting. Good movie. See it.

The Skulls

**1/2 First, this story was not realistic. Dozens of little things that were fake as Hell. If realism is what you want in a movie, don't see this one. A somewhat regular guy, trying to make his way through an ivy league college is invited to join a secret society called the Skulls. His best friend is murdered and the society is implicated. He faces an ethical dilema.

I kind of liked this movie. There was a decent suspense in it and the story moved quickly and adroitly. It worked for me as entertainment. Though not realistic, there was just enough "could be" in it to give it a contemporary feel. I recommend it. see review by James Beardinelli

Being John Malkovitch

***1/2 This was a good movie. I had a lot of fun seeing it. A little bit of Kafka and a little science fiction made the storyline original and interesting. John Malkovitch did a great job of portraying himself. A pupeteer discovers a tunnel in his office which leads to a portal that allows anyone going through it into the head of Malkovitch. Sound odd? It is. And its compelling. Its fresh, well written and well acted. I liked this movie a lot. See it!

The Salesman

1/2 Can't quite figure why I sat all the way through this movie. Maybe the fact that I had a stomach ache had something to do with it. A documentary, filmed in 1969 followed a team of door to door Bible salesmen. Man, those guys had a rough way to go. Boring. Don't see, though it was kind of interesting seeing everything through the eyes of 1969 again.

Funny Games

***1/2 I don't quite know what to make of this movie. It was different, yet familiar. Extremely disturbing, relentless, tense and believable, it engaged me like few films do. This is not light fare. A family makes a trip to their vacation home and are tortured, psychologically and physically by a pair of sadists. For the most part, this movie had a sickening feel of reality about it. Wonderfully acted. Perhaps TOO suspenseful at times. Its not pretty. But its a great movie. See it, but make sure the kids are in bed. German with English subtitles. see review by Lisa Alspector

Puddle Cruiser

** College story. A little group of supposedly wild and wacky guys go through the usual campus hijinks. One of them falls for a straight girl and gets himself in a rugby game to prove his machismo against her other boyfriend. Ho hum. A few laughs. Look at it if you have a couple hours to spare. I laughed a couple times.

Around the Fire

*1/2 Reefer Madness, 1990's style. This is an old story by now. A good college kid with a few problems meets a well intentioned but misdirected bunch of kids and gets hooked on drugs. It seems that in the 90's, the druggies are treated with a little more sympathy than in the past, but the basic plot hasn't changed much over the years. A yawner. Don't waste your time on it. see review by Brian Gross

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