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todddles
Reviews
Henry Fool (1997)
Not a bad 2hr plus Beer Commercial, if that's what you like.
Okay, I am not the biggest art house film lover. I have enjoyed many of the artier tales that have made their way to the screen, but this one lost me. Maybe it was the extreme length of the movie. Maybe it was the incredibly Long pauses that went so far beyond existing for effect. But most of all, it was the so very obvious endorsements for Budweiser. I don't think the movie went for more than fifteen minutes without flashing a bottle, or a billboard, or something else. It became a joke. I was waiting for Henry to turn on the TV and see one of the Frog commercials. I couldn't wait for this movie to end. I sat with a couple of friends, who enjoy all types of independent films, and all we could do was try to spot the Bud ad, like looking for Waldo. If you missed this in the theater, skip it on video.
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
A Masterpiece that has been too harshly judged.
I have read and heard a number of reasons that this movie did not live up to it's predecessors. Personally, I loved it. I went into it with the only expectation I felt was reasonable. The beginning of the story. That's all. Nothing more was necessary. We knew the future of the story, but we needed the starting point. That is what George Lucas gave us. Now I know a lot of you out there have some gripes, so let's examine a few.
Let's start with the biggest: Jar Jar! Most everyone who had a gripe, had the biggest one with this character. Let's face it, every movie has to have a catch for every generation. While he was definitely my least favorite part of the movie, I realized his importance. If you accept Jar Jar for what he is, you can successfully look beyond him and not let him drag the movie down. 90% of the big movies that come out now a days appeal to all audiences. If you get all ages, you make more money. Jar Jar was there for the kids and comic relief. Not all that necessary, but he was there and that's that. Deal with it.
The other big gripe I have heard is how quickly the movie moved along and the lack of character development due to it. Did anybody out there see the movie "Star Wars"?!? This movie was no different. This movie, like episode IV, is meant to set us up for more character developement. Introduce the main players and then get into more detail in the next installment. The main point was to give the story of how everything came about. People p***ed and moaned about the movie being about a trade war. If those people had paid more attention in the first trilogy, they would have realized that Senator Palpatine is the Emperor and this is how he got to power. This "Trade War" is the begining of the Empire. I'd say that's a pretty important detail.
And finally, not enough Darth Maul. Well, I wanted more of the dueling as well, but what we did get was pretty awesome. You forget that we didn't get super long lightsaber duels in the other movies. There was always more to the story, so why would they change that now. Personally, if they kept a duel going to long, it would start to resemble a car chase that went on too long. Short and sweet. Worked for me.
I thought this movie was a triumph and a great beginning to the saga. I think that most of you out there need to ignore the hype as much as possible, and stop being so critical.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
A Great Director, a poor adaptation.
In my mind, Steven Spielberg can do no wrong. However, the people behind the scenes forking over the money for movies can do a lot of wrong. If anyone had read the book this movie is loosely based off of(I'm being very kind), they would know that this movie hardly resembled what Michael Crichton wrote. I also have to question how much input he had into this movie. Let's face it, the first two thirds of this movie were okay, but when they took it to San Diego and turned it into a Godzilla movie, it ran itself directly into the ground. If they had given it another name it would have been a fun movie. Other that all that I would like to say the cast did a wonderful job. Jeff Goldblum has always been one of my favorites and he is the true Ian Malcolm. Michael Crichton must have used Jeff as his model when he wrote the character. All and all I gave this movie a decent rating, disregarding any connection between the book and the movie.
Batman & Robin (1997)
George Clooney. Yes! Arnold- No! Movie as a whole - So So.
This movie had great potential for it's leading actor. The problem was that they've slowly but surely moved from what Tim Burton created in the first two movies to the old campy TV series. I think George deserves a script the likes of the ones Michael Keaton was given. On another note. I love Arnold, but Freeze became very annoying. If they go for another Batman, I truly hope they get back to a more serious storyline and get rid of the pathetically bad lines. To quote Batman Forever, "Holy Rusted Metal Batman" and "The Bat Signal is not a beeper". Can we please try to give us a good story?!?