Reviews
Happy Christmas, Miss King (1998)
Not Worth the Wait!
About 20 characters from RTA vanished without even the slightest attempt to explain their whereabouts (including half the siblings in one family),and plot twists totally contrary to what RTA had explained. While it had a few good moments (and good perfomances by Jackie Burroughs as Hetty King and a shining cameo by Zachary Bennett as Felix King) to help it towards the end, they were not enough to offset the dreary tone throughout (with a disappointingly lackluster performance by Gema Zamprogna as Felicity Pike- who had done far better on the series) and overall, it wasn't worth the anticipation! Strictly for RTA fans willing to check their memory cells and logical reasoning at the door!
The Prince of Egypt (1998)
Pharaohs Seem More Simpatico
While I did like the animation, songs, and, overall the story, there were some things I found a bit disturbing! One was that (even though it was spelled out that the Old Pharaoh HAD massacred all these helpless Hebrew baby slaves) he is presented as an overall sympathetic character. He, his wife (rather than his daughter- as written in Exodus) and their biological son Ramseses consider Moses to be a full member of their family and, rather than try to kill him after he killed the sadistic Egyptian torturing the Hebrew slave (as written in Exodus), they ALL plead with him to forget his Hebrew birth and remain in the palace as though NOTHING had changed (even to the degree that Ramseses and the Pharaoh both try to decree that Moses's killing the Egyptian had NOT happened). One feels sorry for them after Moses chooses to leave their family. Zipporah is well-depicted and (ironicly) is the LAST member of her Midian family to befriend Moses . Her force-of-nature father Jethro likes him from the start. Moses does return to Egypt and pleads with his former brother Ramseses to let his people go but, even at THAT point, Ramseses is merely happy to see him again and gives him a bear hug! What's most agonizing here is that Ramseses is depicted as a VERY attentive and CARING father to his firstborn (and, so far only) son (no queen is evident so, it must be inferred that Ramseses's wife had died early- as well as his parents) so when his son DIES from the Plague of the Firstborn, he mourns him FAR more intensely than the mere fact of his being the heir to the throne! (Ironicly, in Exodus, it would seem that Moses was raised by the Pharaoh's Daughter but nursed by his OWN mother and it seemed well-known that he was a Hebrew BEFORE he killed the sadistic Egyptian so it was most likely he was a ward of the Pharonic court rather than a full-fledged prince and, thus, he had no previous bond of friendship with the unnamed Pharaoh in Exodus) . I heard at least one child in the cinema say that it was a 'sad movie' and it does seem ironic that I actually felt more sorry for Ramseses than I did for Moses at the end!
The Lost Boys (1987)
Great Potential Oozes Out!
How many of us when we were teens felt alienated from the rest of the world? I'll bet all of us and this film gives the perfect set-up for Michael's vulnerability- the breakup of his parents' marriage forcing his mother,brother and himself to move in with his grandfather! Understandably depressed and down he soon ditches his younger brother to be enticed by this mysterious girl called Star. Before he knows it,he's suddenly part of the 'in'crowd and is so thrilled that he never thinks to question their nocturnal habits! Well, before too long, he's sleeping in all day and partying all night (and not remembering too well what happened)and his distraught mother is having no luck getting him to tell her what's bothering him and his grandfather is too wrapped up in his own world of taxidermy to be of any help ( it seems)! It's up to his younger brother(and his friends the Frog Brothers ( a great sequel could have been made with them as the focus) to see if he can save him from this mess he's gotten himself into thanks to his own lack of 'bat-sense'! Still, its indecisive tone (about whether to be a straight horror movie/comedy/social commentary) is a stumbling block. Apart from Michael, Star and an 'Eddie Munster' wanna-be we are given no insight as to what led the vamp pack to join up with the head vamp(whose ID isn't as surprising as the movie would want us to believe). Worst of all, an unnecessarily gruesome (and gross) conclusion REALLY weighs it down at the end!