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HOME ALONE(**1/2)- remember how crazy everyone was about this movie when it first came out? By the way, whatever happened to Macaully Caulkin? Didn't he get married or something?
HOOK (**1/2)- I just recently watched this movie, and it was a lot lamer than I remembered it being. Robin Williams plays Peter Pan, who has grown up and turned into a terrible father. Julia Roberts is Tinkerbell, and Dustin Hoffman does a good job as Captain Hook. If you decide to watch this movie, look at the guy who plays Smee. Look familiar? No, he dosen't at all, but that is the same guy who was the detective in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Crazy, huh?
HOLLYWOOD ENDING (**1/2)- are the days of "Manhattan" and "Annie Hall" gone forever? "Hollywood Ending", which is Woody Allen's billionth feature film(approximatley), is certianly as "Woody Allen" as it gets, but it lacks the charm, joy, and romanticism of those earlier films. Gone are the sweeping visions of New York as a towering, magical city of chaos and love which we enjoyed so much so long ago. Gone are the zany plots and the consistently witty writing. Gone, essentially, is the FUN, and all that is left, like it or not, is an aging Woody Allen. Yes, though his movies may have deteriorated around him, Allen is still as verbose and neurotic as ever. Like Jackie Chan, he can't seem to escape the roll he always plays, the roll we always want to see him in... the roll of himself. In "Hollywood Ending" Woody Allen is an on-the-rocks film director (sound familiar?) who needs to make just one great movie or his career will be destoryed. As luck would have it, he ends up being put at the helm of a big budget flick which, as luck would also have it, happens to have his ex-wife and her new boyfriend as producers. As if this were not bad enough, he also goes blind on the first day of shooting. Needless to say, wackyness ensues, and the rest of the movie pretty much writes itself. The highlights of the movie include a Chineese translator, and Tea Leoni, who plays Woody Allen's ex, and is so beautiful that she seems to constantly have this golden glow about her. Of course, as with all Woody Allen movies, in "Hollywood Ending" he dates women who were in kindergarten about the time he was being nominated for his first Oscar. For all the things that remain the same throughout his movies, though, there seems to be a basic, funamental sense of... I don't know... this intangible sort of good-vibe which has pretty much vanished over the years. For an example of what I mean, watch "Sleeper" and then this movie. Actually, don't do that. Just watch "Sleeper".
HIGH FEDELITY (****)- Have you noticed how John Cussack always seems to be in films with great soundtracks? It's an interesting phenomenon. High Fedelity is a romantic comedy about a record shop owner who is "unlucky in love". Actually, most of it is kind of anti-romantic as John Cussack goes through his Top Five List of Worst Breakups. It's a very funny, "breaking the fourth wall" kind of movie, like Ferris Beuler's Day Off. Based on a book which I have yet to read.
home is where your mom is