SMART GIRLS. PRETTY GIRLS. MISSING GIRLS. Brilliant forensic psychologist Alex Cross, the main character of James Patterson’s novels, was first introduced to movie audiences in this well-paced thriller. Ashley Judd holds her own against Morgan Freeman as Kate McTiernan, a fearless doctor who is taken by a serial kidnapper, manages to escape, and then helps … Continue reading Kiss the Girls
TO EVERYONE ELSE, THEIR SIMPLE GAME OF DECEPTION WASN’T OBVIOUS. TO HER, IT WAS AS CLEAR AS GLASS. 16-year-old Ruby Baker (Leelee Sobieski) and her kid brother move into the house of their suddenly deceased parents’ best friends, but they act strangely… A very ordinary thriller that gets a boost from charismatic acting; Sobieski is engaging … Continue reading The Glass House
WHERE WILL YOU BE? Director Roland Emmerich likes to destroy stuff, not least New York, and here he gets the chance to do it like never before, as a new ice age strikes Earth faster than anyone had anticipated. There’s a message about our climate here, but the formula is obvious, a few subplots are … Continue reading The Day After Tomorrow
Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) is trying to find the powerful Pandora’s box before it falls into the hands of an unscrupulous scientist. When it was time to put together a sequel to the 2001 movie, director Jan De Bont must have thought, “why not turn this into another Raiders of the Lost Ark”? Then he … Continue reading Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life
WINNER KILLS ALL. Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) manipulates Jason Vorhees (Ken Kerzinger) into slaughtering teens on Elm Street; that’s supposed to make Freddy strong enough to mount a comeback. This is a fun idea on paper that took years to materialize; one hoped for something creative to come out of it, but the results are uneven. Decent … Continue reading Freddy Vs. Jason
NO MORE MERCY. NO MORE SHAME. NO MORE SEQUELS – HONEST! WE LIED. This sequel is mainly a send-up of The Haunting (1963); the leading characters spend a weekend at a haunted house. But many other films are also desecrated, including The Exorcist (1973) in an uneven opening sequence where James Woods gets to do a Max von Sydow … Continue reading Scary Movie 2
NO MERCY. NO SHAME. NO SEQUEL. High school teens accidentally hit a stranger with their car; then a murderer starts terrorizing their school. This film looked to Airplane! (1980) for ideas, but came up empty. The humor is so lowbrow it’s unbelievable how adults could have come up with the jokes. Some things are worth a smile or … Continue reading Scary Movie
BEFORE YOU DIE, YOU SEE THE RING. This surprisingly effective remake of Ringu (1998), a Japanese chiller, became a box office smash and helped elevate Naomi Watts to stardom. She is engaging as the reporter who watches an ominous videotape and then tries to solve its mystery in order to stay alive. The movie is fairly close … Continue reading The Ring
GET READY FOR A SECOND RUSH! James Carter (Chris Tucker) goes to Hong Kong on vacation, but his buddy Lee (Jackie Chan) gets him involved in a counterfeit case that ultimately takes them back to the U.S. The first movie was a big hit, and we all know that Chan loves doing sequels, so he … Continue reading Rush Hour 2
THE FASTEST HANDS IN THE EAST VERSUS THE BIGGEST MOUTH IN THE WEST. L.A. cop James Carter (Chris Tucker) is assigned to babysit a colleague (Jackie Chan) from Hong Kong; he’s supposed to keep him off a kidnapping case, but that ain’t easy. Take a little bit of Lethal Weapon and some from Beverly Hills … Continue reading Rush Hour
YESTERDAY IS A MEMORY, TODAY IS HISTORY, TOMORROW IS IN THE HANDS OF ONE MAN: BOND… YOU KNOW THE REST! The story in this 18th James Bond flick, about a media tycoon’s (Jonathan Pryce) attempt to jump-start a war between Britain and China, shows how dangerous it could be if a media empire decides to … Continue reading Tomorrow Never Dies
DON’T STOP TILL YOU REACH THE TOP. Donna (Gwyneth Paltrow) grows up in a small town dreaming of a better life; she gets a chance to become a first-class international flight attendant, but there’s complications… Made in 2001 and not released until two years later, few seemed to care about this romantic comedy in spite … Continue reading View from the Top
FIGHT THE FUTURE. FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) try to find out why several fire fighters and a boy were placed inside a federal building that subsequently exploded. This movie materialized after the fifth season of the popular TV show about aliens and governmental conspiracies. Its creator, Chris Carter, delivers answers … Continue reading The X Files
