For obvious reasons, I can't include reviews of every movie I've seen. I'll limit the list to movies that I've rented recently or have bought in the past.
Well, you know the drill. These are my opinions, nothing more, so don't flame me if you think I'm "wrong". This is not a test, there are no right or wrong answers. If you have a *polite* message that has your own review, send it to the address at the bottom of the page and I may include it in a section of other people's views. And if you have any suggestions as to movies you want me to review and include here, please let me know.
as of July 25, 1999. I'm updating these reviews, finally, and I'm changing the rating system to a colored one, same as with the book reviews. The peasants rejoice (yes, I got that from you, Melissa).
| Excellent |
|---|---|
| Pretty Darn Good |
| O.K., I guess... |
| Pretty Bad |
| Don't Even Bother |
The Beast: Sure, it had its share of thrills and scariness...but other than that, this movie wasn't good. The giant squid was a nice touch, but... never mind.
Scream: Fairly scary and everything, but way too much gore. I mean, blood just isn't that great of a substitute for real mind twisting horror, and that's all I have to say. Although I do like Dewey.
Scream 2: See the above description, then take my disappointment times about 2.
Gattaca: I was expecting more mess-with-your-mind stuff, so I was pretty disappointed. But the futuristic angle was okay. Another thing I greatly disliked: seeing Ethan Hawke scrub off his dead skin.
The Bad Seed: If you like good old-fashioned thrills (think Psycho), you'll like this one. Some of the acting could be a little better, but I loved this movie. Very twisted. The book was good too...
The Pelican Brief: What can I say, John Grisham's books and movies are good. Suspenseful and all that...yup. Plus a car blew up - that's always a plus in movies, right?
Philadelphia: After I watched this movie (and while watching it...) I cried, and cried some more. This movie is amazing - while there are great characters and actors, it confronts the nation's fears at the same time.
Phenomenon: Yeah, I cried after this movie, too. John Travolta's character was really endearing, and you can't help but like him.
Face/Off: This is an excellent movie. The action scenes are all perfectly choreographed, there are witty lines, and really good casting choices. I like that Nicolas Cage and John Travolta (both great actors) each get a chance to play both the hero and the villain. Sure, it's a little hard to understand at points, but it's good. I liked the surgery scene. :-) Trivia fact: The movie people wanted Jakob Dylan of the Wallflowers to play Castor Troy's brother, Pollux, but he turned them down, saying that he wasn't an actor.
Primal Fear: I love this movie. Since seeing it for the first time a couple of months ago, I've sorta become obsessed with it. (I watched it 3 times in one weekend. Right, Amanda?) Edward Norton makes a really good stutterer. He had me fooled right up to the end! The plot twists are great. *And* it was better than the book, in my opinion. Aaron Stampler killed lots more people in the book... hmmm.
Batman and Robin: This movie I really could have passed on seeing it. Hey, George Clooney was good, but I can see him on "ER" whenever I want. He acts better on "ER", too. I hate how they keep dragging Batman on and on and on. They keep getting worse! The first one is the best, because the villain is actually bad, and everyone has this strong hate for him. Now we're introduced to the "human" sides of the bad guys. I really don't want to see Mr. Freeze's good side. But oh well. The only good point to this movie is the soundtrack: Smashing Pumpkins!
The Blues Brothers: If you like comedy, you'd like this movie. John Belushi has to be one of the greatest comedians, and Dan Aykroyd is funny as Elwood. One of my favorite scenes (well, they all are really...) is when they're talking to The Penguin. Now she's evil. This whole movie kept me laughing straight through. So go see it. Now.
Blues Brothers 2000: Look, they really shouldn't have made this into a kids movie. And the voodoo queen scene is just not good. Even though Dan Aykroyd is still great, I was disappointed in this. It's cool how the band gets back together, though. And the music is still good. So this movie isn't ENTIRELY bad...just parts.
Fallen: Cool. Another twisting plot (one of my favorite things), and classic Rolling Stones songs. Denzel Washington is pretty good in this movie, and who would ever think that John Goodman could be really scary? (Just watch it.) The ending completely threw me off, and I liked this because it kept me thinking. So...it's good.
Conspiracy Theory: X-Files and Lone Gunmen fans--this movie's for you. Mel Gibson is really good at playing the very obsessive conspiracy minded underground writer, and *GUESS WHAT?* more PLOT TWISTS! Jean-Luc Picard...er, Patrick Stewart...was good as the all-important Bad Guy. And we don't get to see *his* human side, do we?? Nope. Which is the way I like it.
Primary Colors: If I want to see a presidential scandal, I'll watch the impeachment hearings. I'd already seen all of this before - on the news. Maybe that's why I didn't like it. I'm so extremely sick of hearing about Bill and Monica... And I got bored somewhere in the middle and left. Although the scene where everyone was singing "You Are My Sunshine" was kind of funny.
The Shawshank Redemption: First I watched this when it was on TV, and I liked the censored version so much I rented it so I could see it in its full glory. Excellent movie, and the novella by Stephen King (in the book Different Seasons) is great, too. Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins are both great actors. I like Andy Dufresne's line in the uncut version: "Do you know how to read, you ignorant f*ck?"
Psycho (the old one): Ok, I have a long story to tell about this one. My best friend Raiyn and I had this movie figured out about 45 minutes into it. But the only reason for that is because we're twisted. Another sign that we're twisted is the next day, we decided to make our own remake of this movie - using Barbies and Kens. It was quite entertaining.
The Shining: This movie freaked me out. But remember, that's a good thing. Jack Nicholson is the perfect villain for just about anything. And Danny was such a cute little kid, and smart, too. So I'm glad he escaped his nutso father. One of the things in this movie that I thought was the scariest (as well as the final scene where Jack is frozen) were those two little girls that Danny kept seeing. They were just scary..."Come play with us, Danny..." Best part: "I'm gonna beat your brains in. I'm gonna beat them right the f*ck in."