michael's movie reviews
2000
These are the movies I reviewed in 2000.
reviewed 2000.12.30
Ah, David Mamet, you've done it again...
reviewed 2000.12.22
Hmm! I find myself impressed by two Sandra Bullock movies in one year...
reviewed 2000.12.17
Amazing...
reviewed 2000.12.14
This is an overly realistic portrait of life in the wild and woolly corners of the world where hard-working imperialist corporate scum gets kidnapped by equally scummy drug lords and desperados...
reviewed 2000.12.02
It's hard to imagine a light-hearted thing like this being both porrly written and acted, but that's just what you get with the Bachelor The supporting cast are the only ones capable of a performance, it seems, with both of the leads delivering their lines as if reading from a teleprompter.It's really dreadful...
reviewed 2000.12.02
This flick is about an ordinary man (marriage in trouble, one kid, job as a security guard) who survives an extraordinary train crash. When he does (and he's the sole survivor), he's contacted by a wealthy comic book collector who believes that the survivor has special powers.Needless to say, the collector turns out to be right...
reviewed 2000.11.24
With a straight out of the original series, an excellent supporting cast, and many a fine layer of cheese, this is an amusing use of two hours. But I'll bet you already knew that.One odd thing was the incessant use of the Matrix style action...
reviewed 2000.11.20
This is a brutal telling of a true story about a lesbian who finds life livable in the guise of a man. She's only 21, but has wracked up enough trouble by the time she finds herself in a small Texan town, where she falls in love with a local girl.Things goes horribly, horribly wrong for the heroine in this brutal flick, and it's not for the faint of heart...
reviewed 2000.11.18
I liked this movie, but not as much as I wanted to...
reviewed 2000.11.16
I first saw this flick on a plane, and didn't think much of it. I reluctantly agreed to rent it with Sara, and was surprised that despite its definite (and purposeful) B feel, and some pretty patchy writing, this actually works as a comedy.Willis plays a former mob killer who moves to Montreal to (supposedly) get away from it all...
reviewed 2000.11.15
Three things stand out in this movie; it delivers a reasonably substantial plot, it is actually suspenseful (yes, Hollywood can still do that?!) and it's good to see Ford playing a different role for once.Other than that, I'd say that both Ford and Pfeiffer are sub-par actors, and that their paring here doesn't work (and please God tell Pfeiffer to eat something!)...
reviewed 2000.11.10
Funny, fast, violent...
reviewed 2000.11.04
This flick is about the Aussie and American team that ran the relay dish in rural Australia that had the good fortune to carry the tranmissions from Apollo 11 during the moon landing...
reviewed 2000.11.02
The original Shaft movies were cult faves, but were actually pretty lame...
reviewed 2000.10.16
This is an English comedy I'd wanted to see...
reviewed 2000.10.15
I have never before included a really good movie I saw on television, but this one has stuck with me for the past two months, so here it is.First of all, the style and tenor of this movie really hooked me (even though I only happened on it because we'd returned from the Olympics closing cemermonies fireworks down at the Harbour Bridge, and I wanted to see what was happening at the beginning of t..
reviewed 2000.10.02
Okay...
reviewed 2000.09.24
I was somehow expecting more from this film...
reviewed 2000.09.18
This movie is about a fellow (Cusack), who runs a music shop with two equally able and elitist staff. The movie is about his inability to function, whether as a partner to his girlfriend, as a business man, or just being honest with himself. It follows his disasterous relationship with his girlfriend, and digs into his past relationships as well.The movie is studded with funny scenes, and Blac..
reviewed 2000.09.12
This is a bizarre little flick about two brothers who take it upon themselves to annihilate the local mafia organisation. They - along with a laughable sidekick who defects from the mob - procede to destory an entire criminal world.It's beautifully - if somewhat confusingly - shot, and worth a watch...
reviewed 2000.09.02
Incredibly, no less an author than William Shakespeare is given writing credits for this - they think this was Taming of the Shrew!It's a teen flick, and a reasonably amusing one, but it's still a teen flick, for Christ's sake!..
reviewed 2000.09.01
Aside from a dead theme involving the main character's dead brother (who appears as some kind of ghost in a few scenes), this is a pretty straightforward Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels in sunny Australia. It's got a slick plot and a handful of worthwhile characters, and the direction is spot on.It's a very Australian flick, and as unasuming as hell...
reviewed 2000.08.31
I'm not sure what happened with this movie - it was like the makers decided half way through that they wanted to switch from a reasonably creepy thriller to a really dumb action flick about a rapist...
reviewed 2000.08.20
We saw this only because we'd decided to wander into one cinema after having walked out of Shanghai Noon. We did it just for cheap thrills.The movie, though, turned out to be worth watching, so we stayed...
reviewed 2000.08.20
Ah, Jackie. He's back in top form after a string of duds that marked his first attempts at the North American film world. This is a very entertaining film, which retains Chan's wacky humour and expands his territory to lampoon both traditional Chinese and Western cultures.Though one or two gags were repeated (such as the rescue of the two leads by Chan's stalwart Indian wife) and one or two sc..
reviewed 2000.08.19
This is an Aussie film about their most famous real-life criminal, a 'stand-over man' name Mark 'Chopper' Read. Read is an irredeemably violent man, and a paranoid psychotic with a taste for the limelight. He thrashes about in a hopeless downward spiral, hurting everyone in his life.It is very very Australian, and worth watching from that standpoint alone...
reviewed 2000.08.12
Again with Tobey MacGuire. Lucky for us this fellow can act. This is a flick about a young orphan who leaves the orphanage to find his fortune, and winds up picking apples on a farm near the ocean. There he learns something of life.It's an easy-paced story about human things...
reviewed 2000.08.12
Man...
reviewed 2000.08.11
This movie was based on a book which, admittedly, I simply skimmed as my girlfriend was reading it...
reviewed 2000.08.05
Wonder Boys is a movie about an author who holds down a tenured position at the University of Pittsburgh, played by Michael Douglas in the first role in which I've enjoyed watching him since the first Romancing the Stone. He's got a couple of worrisome students, a worrisome editor, a departed wife, a pregnant girlfriend, and a stolen car. How could this plot miss.It's a very entertaining flick, ..
reviewed 2000.07.30
Amusing, but somewhat too awkward to really fly...
reviewed 2000.07.30
One of the best movies I've ever seen...
reviewed 2000.07.20
Long and dull, and full of shots of the original American flag waving...
reviewed 2000.07.19
Amongst the worst movies I've ever seen...
reviewed 2000.07.13
This is the movie based on the long-running comic book series by the same name. It is set in the near future, when human mutants have developed (supposedly as the next step in human evolution). The mutants tend to posess unusual abilities and even superhuman powers. They are therefore hated by the bulk of humanity, and that friction sets the backdrop for the action in this flick.Having grown ..
reviewed 2000.07.10
This is a flick about a kid growing up in Sweden...
reviewed 2000.07.07
This is a detective story, featuring a washed up drunk and a bunch of demented low-lifes. It's got a plot that unwinds with a gritty, unapologetic pace.It's set in L...
reviewed 2000.07.07
This is a silly B flick about three female friends and three male friends...
reviewed 2000.06.30
This one was pretty dull, I have to say...
reviewed 2000.06.20
An excellent tale about a recovering drunk...
reviewed 2000.06.12
Set in a poor English city, this grey tale depicts a Pakistani-English family trying to cope with the generation gap between immigrant parents (or in this case, the father) and first-generation children...
reviewed 2000.06.11
A flick about the first author to tackle the sleeze and debauchery of Hollywood as a setting for fiction...
reviewed 2000.06.05
Ho hum...
reviewed 2000.06.01
Terrible...
reviewed 2000.05.27
Well, it's a silly bit of a flick, and not too memorable...
reviewed 2000.05.20
Actually pretty terrifying at times, this is about a small cast of people invited to spend the night in a crazy old mansion, supposedly on a study about insomnia...
reviewed 2000.05.16
This is an extremely Australian movie about a 'dole blodger' (that's "welfare bum" to Canadians) of Greek extraction (hence 'WOG': backronym'd to Western Oriental Gentleman) who makes trouble for the government by first crashing into the car transporting the minister responsible for employment, then suing her for damages, and striking back on TV when publicly humiliated.It's also a love story be..
reviewed 2000.05.14
Gladiator is a brilliantly filmed piece about a Roman General who's fighting in the 'Germania' campaigns in the second Century CE. He is named by his pal the Emperor to take on the mantel, as the older man foresees his imminent death. That's where the General's trouble begins: he's immediately the target of a thousand political enemies.Soon, his home is destroyed, his wife and boy are dead, and ..
reviewed 2000.04.26
Julie Roberts plays a plucky single mom with bills to pay who gets nailed in a car crash in an early frame. She loses the subsequent law suit, but decides that the lawyer owes her something, and demands a job with his firm. Then she takes up a research project, and away we go. Soon she's taking on an energy utility due to groundwater contamination.Entertaining and harmless, the outcome is forego..
reviewed 2000.04.22
This one was utterly misrepresented in the ads...
reviewed 2000.04.20
I've always wanted to see this film, which was created in the late 60s. It's about a cop who's tasked with protecting a mafia informer, and fails utterly. It's what comes next that's the focus of the film. This includes car chases, a stolen corpse, some moody, stylish clothing, a couple of shoot-outs and of course a political agenda.The pacing is uneven (this was made in 1970, so that might not ..
reviewed 2000.04.18
Having already seen Joe Vs...
reviewed 2000.04.15
Good dumb humor...
reviewed 2000.04.15
The only notable thing about this movie was that during our viewing, the fire alarm went off in the mall in which the cinema is located...
reviewed 2000.04.10
This is an excellent French film about a professional killer, his apprentice, his client, and his rivals...
reviewed 2000.03.15
This is a quiet flick about an American movie star and the Englishman she meets while shopping for books in a small district of London...
reviewed 2000.03.15
This is an Australian flick about a getaway driver who inadvertently winds up in teamed up with a runaway Japanese housewife...
reviewed 2000.02.15
Primary Colours is a supposedly fictional account of a American Presidential candidate who bears an uncanny resemblance to Bill Clinton, both physically, politically, and in his philandering & crookedness...
reviewed 2000.02.15
Another in the endless stream of who-will-survive-the-encounter-with-a-deadly-force-of-nature flicks, this one is about a buncha cops, game wardens, scientists and a crocophile who get together to fuck around with a giant crocodile that's living in a small New England lake...
reviewed 2000.02.15
This movie is yet another of the well built, plot rich HK cop stories starring Chow Yun Fat...
reviewed 2000.02.15
This is about a bumbling fellow going through a mid-life crisis, and the wife he leaves early in the movie to become a play-write...
reviewed 2000.02.15
Let me summarize this movie by relating a scene from its denouement: a child points out at the ash-covered crowd of firefighters, cops, citizens, and reporters, and says: 'Everyone's the same color'. This is set in L.A., and there was enough ham-fisted commentary on L.A.'s race relations that the meaning is clear: The Volcano showed us that we could just all get along.Don't get me started on the..
reviewed 2000.02.15
This is a bleak affair about a family of three sisters and the various people floating around them...
reviewed 2000.01.15
Sometimes Hollywood "gets the idea for a movie" by taking two or three of its stars and turning them loose in front of the camera. Sometimes they add a plot. This usually happens when said stars are looking for some easy cash and are possibly past the peak of their respective careers.The premise of this one is that a mobster (Robert DeNiro) wants out of the mob, and is having trouble figuring th..
reviewed 2000.01.15
This is a teen movie. It's about four guys who make a pact that they'll get laid by graduation, and perhaps unsurprisingly, three of them do. Along the way, a number of other problems get sorted out, and everyone has a mostly good time.I was actually entertained by this flick...