Mike-369 Reviews

Hope Floats (1998)

A snoozing "Chick Flick" - oozing with a boring plot, characters & chemistry.

[5/10 · 1 January 1999]

I heard Sandra Bullock in an interview say she was tired of picking stinkers like "Speed 2" but felt vindicated with her latest movie titled, "Hope Floats." On her own recommendation, I purchased the movie and shared it with my relatives at Christmas. Well, that had to be one of the seven deadly sins.

The story plots were horribly tied together. Many questions were left untied and most of the characters were hopelessly undeveloped. Why would a husband, who seemingly was happily married be so willing to embarrass his wife on national television? Why would a best friend be so willing an accomplice to such a hateful event? And, why would she sit there and take it? Mom's sudden death was not developed nor explained. It was as if it were placed there to give life to a hopelessly boring movie.

The daughter was the only redeeming character of the film. She deserves an Oscar for her performance. The mother could have been a redeeming character, if they had taken the time to develop her. Bullock played a dead-panned character - devoid of any endearing qualities. Connick's role wasn't much better. She really didn't care to have a relationship with him. She knew him from before and didn't show an interest in him. Suddenly, she changes her mind? I don't think so.

I prayed for a swift conclusion to the movie. I wasn't rooting for any of the characters from the beginning of the movie to the end of the movie. I only hoped that all of my relatives had passed out from a worthy Christmas cheer, but that to was to no avail. I will probably be ribbed over this movie for years to come.

I think that if I wanted to get even with my wife, rather than embarrassing her on national TV, I would force her to watch this movie.

As for Sandra Bullock, I preferred "Speed 2" to this stinker.

Dante's Peak (1997)

A+ for escapism: C- for writing.

[6/10 · 28 November 1998]

It you are looking for a movie that you don't want to think too hard about, this is the movie. It has lots of scenes and stunts that make this movie an action thriller. If you are looking for a movie that has good writing, continuity, commonsense, etc., you'd better look elsewhere.

Harry Dalton, who is proclaimed to be a renowned scientist and foremost authority on volcanoes, comes off looking more like a spoiled brat, than an expert. He attempts to try calling a townwide alert for a pending disaster that none of his colleagues agree with. They ask him to give them some scientific proof to justify his claim of pending doom. Instead, he pouts about it.

Harry is assisting with the deployment of a mechanical device to measure seismic readings and the device gets stuck on the side of the mountain. The device cost more than 450,000. Why didn't the helicopter set the device down on the valley of the dormit crater. Harry insists on alerting the town and not one of his collegues again agrees that disaster is about to occur. Harry starts to pout again and its off to a roll in the hay with the mayor, Rachel.

When disaster finally does strike, Harry appears to lose any ability of commonsense, needed for even the simplest of disasters. He starts off the movie, driving like it was a demolishion derby, then later in the movie, attempts to push a car off the bridge. Later, he trys to cross a stream that is at least three to four feet deep. He scoffs at other cars trying to do the same thing as really stupid. He gets stuck (dah)and only by the grace of the producers did he get away safely. Then, he drives away without any problem whatsoever. The law of physics says that a motor immersed in water will not run. Harry proceeds to drive over debris with superhuman results. When it seems that they were trapped, they stumble over an alluminium boat for their getaway. They notice all the dead fish and the boat being eaten by acid. As the water eats the propeller off the boat, Harry wraps his arm with his jacket and starts rowing the boat. When Ruth fears for everyone's safety, she jumps in the water and pulls the boat to safety. They show where the acid ate her legs off, but where the water had gotten on Harry, he appeared fine. Harry finds a truck and drives the crew off to safety. When he tries to drive over hot molten lava as wide as a river, I stopped and wondered if he was sane at all. With a gas tank made out of alluminium, how did he, a scientist, expect to drive a truck, loaded with Rachel and her two kids over fifty to 100 feet of molten rock and not melt or explode as the gastank melted. Toward the end he finally gets smart and gets the NASA device. Why he didn't try to find another vehicle without melted tires is beyond me but, I guess thats Hollywood. Well, he puts that device in the truck and rams the truck into a cave. The problem is he forgets to turn it on. Dah! Harry - wake up!

Two days later, Harry's crew sees the NASA light blinking and immediately realizes that Harry is ok. Why didn't it cross their minds that someone could have come back in town and simply turned it on.

Maybe Harry was really the owner's son and constantly got into scrapes like this because he was overtly stupid and it was their jobs to lookout for Harry.

In either case, watch it for fun, but don't analyze it for quality in script or content.

Strike It Rich (1990)

Don't bother. If this movie reflects Molly's Talent, oh boy!

[2/10 · 26 October 1998]

Thoroughly predictable plot. Poor acting and a real snoozer. Characters never fully developed and I kept thinking, yah right! There was nothing about Molly that made her redeeming. For all the money her husband won, one had to stop and think, is she really worth it - certainly not her acting.

Gunfighter's Moon (1995)

excellent film props.

[8/10 · 13 October 1998]

Excellent Western. No stellar stars but lead actor (Hendricksen) and lead actress (Kay Lenz)have a stellar performance. The supporting cast wasn't bad either. Believability waned a bit when Frank was shot and became bed ridden, yet was able to physically overcome both Jordan and Spud, then proceed to take out three "professional gunfighters." Frank's unbeknown daughter spent too much time dolting over him, without really explaining why. The development of Spud was also a bit confusing. But I considered it a western similar to Silverado, without the big budget and well worth watching.