Reviews
Spenser: Small Vices (1999)
Not a bad job of one of my favorites
My favorite novel hero, Spenser, brought to life as never before.
Casting for the role of Spenser is staggering difficult. Joe Montegna comes much closer the Rober Eurich, but is still a bit stiff and winds up coming up short. The ONLY Hollywood actor I think might stand a real chance as Spenser would be Bruce Willis, if his ACTING ability were up to snuff.
The direction of the first half is to fast with machine gun like edits that ruin the pacing that makes Parker's Spenser novels so enjoyable.
The second half slows down a bit and is MUCH better, although glosses over some of the more interesting bits in the book about Spenser's recovery. Probably hard to follow if you haven't read the book.
Still, Parker's novels would be a challenge for anyone to adapt to the screen since they depend greatly on his beautiful writing than on on his extremely simple storylines.
Not a bad job overall, but could have been better. 7/10.
Major League (1989)
One of my favorites
Major league is the story of the Cleveland Indians back when they couldn't win a ball game. The owner is justifiably sick of Cleveland (I've been there) and wants to move the team to Miami, but the only escape clause is if the attendance falls dramatically.
So the owner decides to assemble the worst bunch of misfits possible to lose as many games as possible to move the team.
The cast is full of future stars including Rene Russo and Wesley Snipes. They are all funny and entertaining.
The movie's well written with the typical feel-good ending you'd expect from a sports movie. You should enjoy this one.
Ladyhawke (1985)
My favorite..
By one of my favorite directors, Richard Donner, Ladyhawke is my unparalelled favorite movie.
An excellent score by the Alan Parsons Project, with a terrific cast and wonderful scenery. Extremely romantic with action/adventure and fantasy all rolled up. I don't understand why this movie wasn't a bigger hit.
You are guaranteed to like this one.
The Ranger, the Cook and a Hole in the Sky (1995)
A heartwarming coming of age movie
A heartwarming coming of age movie. There is no sex, very little violence and no profanity in this heartwarming film about a boy working in the Forestry service in 1919 .
Why can't they make more movies like this?
Analyze This (1999)
One of the funniest movies I've seen
This one will keep you in stitches.
Robert DeNiro plays the head of a New York crime family. He comes to psychiatrist Billy Crystal for help dealing with his job-related stress. Thus starts a non-stop laugh ride up to the funniest joke of all at the dance scene at the end.
Worth every penny. Don't miss this one!
The Protector (1997)
Mostly awful
I liked the design of the lead character for this film and the basic premise of the virologist bad guy. I also like the always adorable Annabel Schofield.
Aside from that the film is lousy. Bad performances from everyone including Ron Perlman, who is usually very convincing in aloof shadowy roles (particularly his TV role as Beauty and the Beast's Vincent), simply underscores the bad dialog, the silly story line, and the listless direction.
Annabel seems to have a gift for rescuing really bad films from the absolute dung heap (cf. Solar Crisis).
Solar Crisis (1990)
Not half bad, but nearly all bad.
Yet another movie with an interesting premise and some wondrous special effects falling right into the trash can.
Boring direction and performances (with the exception of the lovely Annabel Schofield who is much cuter as a brunette and probably deserves better material, and the ever earnest Charlton Heston) earn the rating of a real stinker.
It's amazing to watch Heston perform up to his usual par and display how really bad this movie is. He even plays in a sub-plot that kept me interested just to see how it tied back into the main line of the movie. The way they ended up resolving it was that they didn't. It simply falls off the end.
Really. Don't waste your time on this one.
Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
Almost as good as First Contact
Jonathon Frakes turns in another well-done film in the Star Trek line. Insurrection's major flaw is the slightly thin story.
While an interesting plot involving the choices between relocating a small group of citizens from a planet to learn the secrets of eternal youth, it would have been better suited to a 1 hour TV show than a 2 hour movie. There's simply not enough material.
That aside, the movie is full of gorgeous music and scenery, winning performances, and the combination of action, adventure, and warmth that built Star Trek and the Voyager and DS9 lack altogether.