Movies I have seen in September 2001!
The Distinguished Gentleman
**A con man (Eddie Murphy) decides that the biggest con of all would be to enter the world of politics. A popular congressman, with a similar name has just died, so he runs and wins. Then, in office, the responsibilities of the job (and a pretty young woman) make an impression on him and he turns his ethics all around. WARNING-CRAP OUT ENDING! I don't know. I tire of movies where bad guys inexplicabbly turn good. I think I must have seen a million of them. I really can't recommend this one. Sorry Murphy fans.
See review by Roger Ebert
The Pornographer
**A man unable to establish a relationship with women immerses himself in a seedy world of pornography. Then, encouraged by a mean spirited pornographer, he starts making smut films himself. He meets a sweet midwestern type woman and drags her into the seamy underbelly of his life. This movie was ok. The story certainly is a cliche, and the production was bad, the acting subpar. Still, I kind of enjoyed it. You can do much better than this one, but hey, if you have an hour or two to waste, why not?
See Review by Greg Muskewitz
Devil in the Flesh
*A teen aged girl is somehow involved in a fire which causes the death of her parents. She is sent to live with an over-controlling grandmother and starts at a new high school. There, she develops a cruch on a creative writing teacher and her evil side starts to erge. Ho hum. This movie presented nothing novel and nothing that was particularly engrossing. I had the uneasy feeling that I had seen the same story many times in other guises. The only problem is that those other movies were a whole lot better. Miss this one!
See review by Chuck the Movie Guy
The Whole Nine Yards
**1/2Bruce Willis plays a contract killer who has been paroled from prison and relocated to Canada under a witness protection program. He moves in next door to a dentist. The dentist recognizes him and the fun starts. This movie has one of those plots that keeps getting more and more complex. By the time the movie is ending its just plain fun trying to unravel it all. I liked this movie. A crap out ending kept me from rating it higher. Still, its a lot of fun and there is some good tension in it. I recommend it!
See review by James Beardinelli
Road Trip
**1/2I had fun watching this movie. A college guy has an affair with a coed and video tapes the action. Then, by accident, the tape is mailed to his girlfriend. He, and three friends must travel to Austin Texas, 1,800 miles away and get there before the tape is delivered. This movie was wonderfully underplayed. It contained little of the hyper atmosphere of most movies of this genre. As a result it was a little more believable than most. There were some funny moments too. I laughed out loud several times. I would have rated it higher, butlets face it, this is a clche'd storyline. Still, I recommend this movie!
See review by Roger Ebert
Blood and Wine
***A pair of aging thieves plan a heist of a necklace worth a million dollars. After they take it one of them has a fight with his wife who takes the suitcase he has stashed it in. Pursuit ensues. The theive's stepson hates him. The plot deepens. This was a satisfying movie. Good tension, good plot turns and good acting. Jack Nicholson still has it. See it!
See review by Roger Ebert
Me, Myself and Irene
**1/2A gentle Rhode Island state trooper gets no respect and because of this, develops a separate personality which is mean and feisty. Jim Carrey is his usual multi-faceted self, and this plot serves his abilities quite well. While not a masterpiece at all, it does deliver a few laughs, and with the way comedy is going nowadays, thats a good accomplishment. See it!
See review by James Beradinelli
Space Cowboys
**1/2Fanciful plot about four aged pilots who con their way into a top secret mission in outer space. Big name cast-Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, Clint Eastwood and James Garner (boy, are these guys looking old). Nice cinematography. Interesting plot turns, but too many young gals falling for the older guys. (wish that was true!) See this movie! I had fun watching it. Just suspend geriatric reality for a couple hours and it works fine!
See review by Andrew O'Hehir
Finding Graceland
**A man, despondent from losing his wife in a car accident, picks up an elderly hitchhiker who claims to be Elvis Presley.The adventures start. Along the way they run into a Maralyn Monroe impersonator. I liked the plot of this movie, and for the most part the way it unfolded. However, pure schlock kept me from rating it higher. See it if you have a couple of hours to waste.
See review by Mark Leeper
Picking up the Pieces
*Man, I was excited to see a new Woody Allen movie on the Tivo! A big fan of his since the 70's, I have grown to love his movies. What a bummer this one was. I wanted to like it, but frankly, it stunk. A man dismembers his wife and loses her hand. It is picked up by a blind woman who is miraculously cured. The hand (with middle finger extended) heals many and becomes the source of controversy. A gung ho sherrif who had an affair with the woman pursues Allen. This movie was a mess. Allen's one liners were forced and pathetic. The story sucked. The acting was terrible. It really insulted its viewers with banality. And that is all that I can say good about it. Miss it!!!!! I INSIST!
See review by Scott Weinberg
American Beauty
***A dysfunctional family, driven to emptiness and bitterness by their materialistic lifestyle, independently find release through sexual exploit. The father pursues an infatuation with a friend of his teenaged daughter, the mother with a sucessful real estate agent, and the daughter with the neighbor boy who seems to have mental problems. This release is intially exhilerating, but things unravel badly. I liked this movie a lot. I wish there had been just a little more background on each of the characters, though, it seems a bit shallow that mere materialism would leave people so sad. The plot involoved me. The acting was quite good. Definately see this movie!
See review by Roger Ebert
House on Haunted Hill(1999)
**1/2When I was five years old I saw the previews for the original House on Haunted Hill in a Chetek movie theater. They scare the pants off of me. Man, how cinema has changed. While the original was a drab, hackneyed pice of work, the 1999 version is pluck full of horrific special effects. And they were pretty effective at times. But, like so many movies today, there were simply too many of them. They got tiring. Several people are summoned to an old, deserted insane asylum. Terrible things happened here in the past and the ghosts want revenge. There are decent sub-plots in this movie, and at least an attempt at varied characterization. I don't think young kids should look at this movie. There are some intense moments. It could have been, it should have been better than it was. Still, if you are in for some decent horror and if you have a strong stomach-I recommend this movie!
See review by James Beradanelli
Dogfight
***A group of Marines, about to ship overseas set up a "dogfight," a contest in which they try to bring the ugliest girl possible to a dance. The winner is the one with the most unnattractive date. One of the Marines develops feelings toward his 'date,' and a conflict develops. Should he be cool and stick with his buddies or should he pursue what he is feeling. This was a decent movie. I liked the mood it created. Set in the early 1960's it was a fine time piece. It did, however, get a little too ambitious at the end. Nonetheless, I found the plot to be convincing and the story compelling. It had a feel of reality about it. See it!
See Review by Roger Ebert
Any Given Sunday
**Oliver Stone's exploration of professional football came up a little short for me. Though it did catch much of the crap that is present in the modern day game, and though it did do a fine job of contrasting the present with the past, in the end it was just another 'last minute win the playoff game.' Yeppers, just another underdog quarterback becomes a star. Just another aging coach trying to hang on while the youth misunderstands him. Seen it all before Oliver.
A brash young QB comes into a game and becomes a star. An aging coach is conflicted as to how to deal with him, while all around big business and unethical trainers do their vile stuff. This movie did have some interesting cinematography and a fine soundtrack. Still, why spend three hours watching what has been filmed so many times before. Someone HAS to come up with an ORIGINAL sports movie SOMEWHERE!!!! See it if you don't mind watching a long movie that you know the ending from the beginning.
See Review by Roger Ebert
Girl Interupted
**1/2This movie seemed to have a hard time making up it's mind. It started out looking an awful lot like One Flew Over the Cuckooo's Nest (complete with Nurse Ratchett and pill-line) but switched gears somewhere midway and looked like a Lifetime Movie Network movie. Then toward the end it looked like something Wes Craven might have filmed. The psychotic patients seemed to change symptomology to fit the plot when deemed necessary. Still, it wasn't a bad movie. While it was too preachy, it entertained and it made a point, though I am still confused as to exactly what that point was.
A Young woman, through parental pressure, signs herself into a mental hospital and goes through a series of transformations. She befriends a serious sociopath named Lisa and begins to be sucked into a nightmarish world. I will not give away the ending here. This was not a bad movie. But it is far from the political statement that I believe its makers wanted it to be. Still, it is recommended. See it!
See Review by Scott Renshaw