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cjreddun@mhtc.net
Reviews
Stalled (2000)
Great premise, very bad film
The story idea is very interesting and could have been a good movie. But this is so bad it is scary. Cliches, stereotypes, and a disjointed plot make for a painful viewing experience. Zero character development, bad acting, and weird editing are the defining characteristics of this film. Those people from the South in the US should sue the film company for slander. This movie will make you question what drugs were involved in greenlighting this film. Avoid this movie -- it is so bad the it makes Plan 9 look like the Godfather.
Pay It Forward (2000)
Kevin Spacey is the movie
Spoilers below--
Warning: Excessive sugar in this movie.
Pay It Forward has real emotional scenes but blows it by overloading. The idea of the movie is compelling but what happens is pure schmaltz. If Ms. Leder and company had dialed back the effort to make the audience tear up then this would have been a really good movie.
Some examples would help explain what is wrong.
Do we really need to make the grandmother an alcoholic street person to show that she was a bad mother? This is Vegas--so why not make her a compulsive gambler? Or maybe an original idea like just a bad mom?
Does the teacher need to have the exact same home life as the kid? Would it not be more interesting to make him care about the mom and kid? Did the producers, director and writer think that the kid and mom were unworthy of love or just plain uninteresting to the teacher without some gimmick?
Well anyone who sees this movie will get the idea. The problem with movies like this is that they have no substance, it is all sizzle without the steak.
The only reason to see this movie is to be in awe of what Kevin Spacey can do with a bad script. This guy is the movie and you keep your attention on the movie just to see him. Helen Hunt is okay but really cannot hold up to Mr. Spacey's charisma. On the other hand, Mr. Osment is yet again so flat that the viewer almost wants a mirror held under his nose to look for signs of life. Having his character die was the best part of the movie because then his screen time could go to Mr. Spacey.
One more very major bone to pick with this film. Ms. Leder should be ashamed to have ripped off Phil Alden Robinson and his masterpiece Field of Dreams. The last scene of Pay It Forward is a complete repeat of the last scene in Mr. Robinson's masterpiece. In Field of Dreams, it was just the right touch but in Pay It Forward, it is one last insult towards the intelligence of the viewer.
Shame, Shame on Ms. Leder for being such a hack.
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Low rent but high cost version of the "Twilight Zone" or "The Outer Limits"
Caution -- contains spoilers
Suspense? What suspense? The twists are so predictable and the plot so thin that it almost seemed that the script was nothing but an outline for a bad episode of the Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits. In the last part of the film I half expected the ghost of Rod Serling to appear and say 'Been there, Done that'. The so-called twist at the end is easy to predict and is something that would happen in a script written by fifth graders to scare each other in summer camp. The characters are trite to the point that Mr. Shyamalan should pay royalties to other filmmakers.
A new hyped ?Genius? has been anointed. This movie puzzled me because of the hype around it. The question is how such a sub-standard movie can become such a hit with audiences and critics. Is the quality of the product from the studios so bad that this predictable, hackneyed film can be considered art? Apparently so because most the votes here on IMDB are way above 7.
The acting is a mixed bag of okay to really bad. Mr. Willis can act and has in such films as The Kid, The Fifth Element, and The Story of Us, not to mention Moonlighting but in this film and the other waste of film stock Unbreakable his talent was not needed. I kept wondering during this film if Mr. Willis?s performance was so stiff because he thought he should play dead through the whole film or if perhaps acting with such a bad kid actor as Mr. Osment caused massive boredom. Ms. Williams is pretty but underutilized in this film. Ms. Collette can also act but again she had to act in scenes with Mr. Osment. This kid was really bad in this film with zero charm or screen charisma and even worse in AI. I kept waiting for his charactor to be killed in a really gruesome manner to add some sort of emotional spark to the movie. If Mr. Osment wants to stay in the business perhaps some acting lessons would help but it?s doubtfull.
Rated 1 out of 10. Don't lose 2 hours of your life to this movie.
For real suspense and great acting from everyone try Blood Simple from the Coen brothers. It will really surprise even the most jaded movie fan.
The Ice Storm (1997)
One step above 'A complete waste of time'
This film has a great cast, a very skilled director and crew but it was all for nothing. Ang Lee has directed at least two very good films (Sense and Sensibility & Ride with the Devil) and two over-rated films (this waste of film stock and Crouching Tiger).
The story takes place in suburbia but not any suburbia that ever existed except in someone?s bad acid trip. Not one of the characters is at all interesting to watch but it's not because at least one is somewhat sympathetic. Ms. Ricci's Wendy is a lost girl that you feel for but the rest of these characters are cardboard cutouts or wild exaggerations. At first, I thought that the movie was satire because it is so false but the film is not supposed to be a satire or some skewed version of Ms. Ricci's 'Adams Family' movies. The 'Adams Family' movies are more true to life than this movie. One note about actors--Ms. Holmes in a quick performance steals scenes from Mr. Maguire and the rest of the cast has done much better work elsewhere (see below). The cinematography of this film by Frederick Elmes is fantastic as is the production design of Mark Friedberg it is just a shame that it was thrown away on such a bad script. Rating 2 stars out of 10.
If you must see, a movie by Mr. Lee rent ?Ride with the Devil? where Mr. Maguire shows that he can act. If you want a movie with Mr. Kline rent, ?Life As A House?, Ms. Allen and Mr. Maguire are Oscar material in ?Pleasantville?, Mr. Wood was good in ?Lord of the Rings? and Ms. Holmes shines in ?Wonder Boys?.