Change Your Image
matt caccamo
Reviews
The Road to El Dorado (2000)
2.5 out of 5 stars
Funny, but somewhat simple-minded and offensive, feature-length cartoon cut out of the Disney mold of the 1950s. Two Spanish con men (Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh) accidentally end up on the cross-Atlantic voyage of explorer Hernando Cortez and then wash up, treasure-map in hand, near the famed El Dorado. While the first half hour is a fun, carefree comedy about the con men and their gaff-filled voyage, the film quickly turns into a `white man's burden' replica as the natives treat the men as gods and worship them accordingly. Lacking in any memorable characters, the film depends largely on a few engaging scenes (including a unique game of primitive basketball), but is dumbed-down by its constant reminders of cultural superiority. Included several Elton John songs that define cheesy music for a cartoon. Communicates no large message, but does subliminally portray a few that the kids may be better off not learning.
Driven (2001)
2.5 out of 5 stars
In the first big-budget, Hollywood stab at car racing since `Days of Thunder,' we are given an ESPN-like montage more suitable for SportsCenter than your local multiplex. Joe Tanto (Sylvester Stallone), a veteran driver with several skeletons in his closet, is brought back to racing by a handicapped, but still shrewd, racing manager (Burt Reynolds) in order to coach a young star (Kip Pardue) to superstardom. His assignment: teach the kid how to handle the pressures of racing so he can overcome the erstwhile German champion, Beau Brandenburg (Til Schweiger). Director Renny Harlin gives us a film that is more Hollywood than Daytona: drivers with playboy looks, beautiful women switching sides like WWF sidekicks, and an endless web of soap opera love stories and past feuds. Shot in a Bruckheimer-like vision of constantly moving cameras and endless jump cuts, the film is a series of car crashes linked together by short, meaningless conversations and annoying broadcast overplays. Despite all this, for some reason I wanted to like this film, and, in the end, I did not hate it. Maybe because it allowed itself the break the rules (with a super-ridiculous higher-than-high speed car chase through downtown Chicago) and play with melodrama (with a sexless love-triangle straight out of the 5th grade). Like car racing itself, the entertainment value is higher than any other remotely redeeming quality.
Billy Elliot (2000)
3.5 out of 5 stars
England in the 1980s was the time of Margaret Thatcher, labor unrest, and the political shouting matches-not dancing. This does little to stop Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell), the son and brother of two striking coal miners in a working class town in northern England. Not cut out for the boxing his father has signed him up for, Elliot realizes he has a special talent for dance and joins a ballet group at the local gym. Being the only boy in the class and the only male ballet student in town does not bother Billy, but it does bother his macho father (Gary Lewis), who is dealing with the loss of his wife and the downtrodden existence of mining. While most around him equate dancing with homosexuality, Billy persists in his desire to dance, spurned along by the local dance teacher (Julie Waters) and a desire to make it out of his poor mining town into the Royal Ballet School. `Billy Elliot' overcomes a slow, formulaic start to provide an inspirational tale about determination and doing what you love. While some of the characters are given short shrift, Elliot is a wonderfully developed young boy with a talent no one gives him credit for. It brings some laughs but is more correctly described as an important fable on the pursuit of dreams.
Blow (2001)
3 out of 5 stars
This is the MTV version of `Traffic,' the most recent lucid film on America's drug problem. It follows the rise of Massachusetts-bred George Jung (Johnny Depp) from the working class suburbs of Boston to the live-free beaches of California. Jung gets started shipping marijuana between Mexico and California, but, after a quick stint in prison, moves on to the more lucrative business of cocaine shipments from Colombia. Directed Ted Demme (now deceased, probably from drugs) would have us believe that Jung initiated the entire drug trade between Latin America and the United States, starting in the early 1970s. Disregarding this unlikelihood for the moment still leaves us with a film too intent on being cool and hip to take a critical stance on a man that can be criticized (for his greed, cockiness, and irresponsibility) from here to kingdom come. Whereas `Traffic' took a very broad, sweeping stab at analyzing the war on drugs, `Blow' is too content focusing on one very uninspiring man and the ways he fell into a very lucrative, and damaging, business. Depp is good playing the sorry Jung, but Demme does not give any of his actors enough to develop here.
The Watcher (2000)
1.5 out of 5 stars
Clichéd, repetitive serial killer `thriller' with no originality and little idea how to create suspense. A serial killer (Keanu Reeves) follows a FBI agent (James Spader) from Los Angeles to Chicago so they can continue their cat-and-mouse game while several more young women die strangled deaths. Reeves may be the most likable and polite serial killer ever portrayed in film; he has feelings, no sexual malice, and even an appreciation for candles and sentimentality. Spader, on the other hand, is tough to buy as a worn-down FBI agent trying to escape his unsuccessful past through a high dose of drugs and frequent visits to his psychologist (Marisa Tomei). This film follows in long line of films where the killer is more interested in engaging the cop on his trail than in killing his victims; Reeves spends a few minutes with every victim and days planning his next move against Spader. First-time director Joe Charbanic brings nothing new to a tired, overdone genre. The film struggles uphill for 90 minutes and then falls flat on its face with a grotesque, ridiculous finale
Dr. T & the Women (2000)
2.5 out of 5 stars
It is difficult to tell if this film, directed by the incredibly perceptive Robert Altman, is a sexist or extremely nuanced portrayal of upper-middle class women. Richard Gere stars as a top-rate Dallas gynecologist surrounded, at work and home, by women: his child-like wife (Farrah Fawcett), his two daughters (Tara Reid and Kate Hudson), his top nurse (Shelley Long), his flighty sister-in-law (Laura Dern), the new golf pro at his country club (Helen Hunt), and a slew of demanding, yet interesting and compelling, patients. Dr. T, while remaining faithful to his wife and dutifully fulfilling his obligations as doctor, father, and friend, struggles to find the right answer with women. All of his greatest pains and joys are caused by women, and as the film progresses, Altman raises the tempo and allows several plot lines to coexist and coalesce in a nice symphony of love, confusion, and despair. Altman, as always, displays a great awareness of the film's geography, giving us a Dallas of golf courses, shopping malls, cheerleaders, and hunting trips. A slow beginning and a zany, contrived ending, however, prevent Altman from achieving his usual level of poignancy and truth.
Boys and Girls (2000)
2.5 out of 5 stars
At times mature and thoughtful, at other times juvenile and ridiculous, `Boys and Girls' centers around a decade-long friendship (leading to romance) between a young, control-freak boy (Freddie Prinze Jr.) and a wild, carefree girl (Claire Forlani). The two meet in the first scene of the movie as 12-year olds on an airplane and continue to cross paths through high school and college. Their love-hate relationship steadily moves toward romance, culminating in some funny, charming, and stupid scenes. Director Iscove captures many of the discomforts of dating and friendship, but just as quickly turns around and makes a joke of it all. Biggs is funny as Prinze's love-hungry roommate, but nearly every character in the film is too likable to believe. There is little here to offend; there is also little here to make you think, although Iscove consistently flirts with success only to let it slip away several times. More mature and interesting than most teen romances, but, in the end, that is not saying much.
Memento (2000)
4 out of 5 stars
Inventive, unique, engaging film about a man with short-term memory loss trying to piece together and avenge his wife's rape and murder. Told backwards, this film makes us feel the confusion, delusion, and frustration of the main character (Guy Pearce) as he tries to determine who he can trust and where to go next. Pearce is on screen for every scene, and he delivers a strong performance, both chilling and inspirational at the same time. Director Nolan also hits us with a subliminal message about the ultimate futility of revenge and the human desire to make sense of the world around us. In the end, this film's creative style and backwards motion carry it high above an otherwise everyday noir plot. Never loses its focus and keeps you thinking well after the credits role-for better or worse.
Shaft (2000)
2 out of 5 stars
There are few movies that are as racially charged as the original `Shaft.' But this version, made 3 decades later, now takes the cake. John Shaft (Samuel L. Jackson) returns, this time as a detective in the New York City PD working inside a system he loathes as racist and conformist. After a rich (white) millionaire real estate developer's son (Christian Bale) murders a black man and is let out on bail (and escapes the country), Shaft quits the police department and takes on the establishment in his own vigilante way. Everything in this film is about race; there is not one glance between characters of different races that isn't charged with spite and fear. Every white man is corrupt, every black man has an ax to grind, every Hispanic man some drugs to sell. Plus, Shaft, who was a sexual god in the 1970s, barely touches a female, perhaps in a nod to a more gender-neutral era. The original is better in almost every way, especially in its depiction of race, crime, and sex.
Bring It On (2000)
1.5 out of 5 stars
It is doubtful that too many serious cheerleaders enjoyed this one. Revolving around a growing rivalry between an all-white cheerleading squad from a San Diego suburb and an all-black inner-city squad (apparently before desegregation and school busing programs were introduced?), this film makes cheerleaders, and their sport, look dumber than deserved. Dunst gives an energetic and hard-working performance as the head cheerleader for the all-white squad, and her battle with the ethics of cheerleading is about the only thing that rings true. The all-black squad (led by Gabrielle Union, who makes the most of a tough situation) is given a fraction of the screen time, reflecting the view in Hollywood that white people are simply more interesting and more deserving to be the focus of most major commercial films. Plays into every stereotype concerning gender, sexual preference, hair color, race, and athletics; this is not one to bring impressionable kids to.
Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000)
2 out of 5 stars
Picking up where he left off in the original, Eddie Murphy is superb playing 8 different roles as Professor Sherman Klump and his hilariously raucous family, the Klumps. But this one falls well short of the original because when the Klumps aren't on the screen there is little reason to watch. Director Segal forms a barebones script around Murphy's performances, and then decides to not give us as much of the Klumps as we desire (and deserve). Two definite low points: Janet Jackson as a molecular scientist (yeah, right) and a brand of disgusting, lowest denominator humor more familiar coming the Farrely brothers. After seeing a giant hamster shoot terds out of its rear-end and sexually assault Sherman's boss, I began to wonder about the PG-13 rating. The makeup is incredible, once again, but Murphy deserves a better supporting case and script next time around (which will surely come soon). Preceded by `The Nutty Professor.'
Mon oncle (1958)
2 out of 5 stars
Jacques Tati stars and directs the second in the `Monsieur Hulot' series, this one contrasting the simple life of Hulot with the technologically overwhelmingly existence of his sister's family. Tati brings some hilarious sight gags to life with beautiful simplicity and achieves his greatest success in his use of himself and his children. However, this film has lost its spark over the years mainly because of the insistence on using long shots and the burdensome acting of Hulot's sister's family and friends. Still sets a great example for films trying to adhere to the `less is more' theory, especially in its sparing use of dialogue. Preceded by `Les Vacances de M. Hulot' and followed by two other related Hulot films. Won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. Subtitled.
La ronde (1950)
2 out of 5 stars
A very French look at the merry-go-round quality of love, replete with multiple infidelities, breakups, and secret encounters. All-knowing and ever-present narrator adds a cute spark to this otherwise repetitive (maybe that's the point?), long-winded narrative about the difference between love and lust. At it's best it's a sharp-tongued commentary on the human ability to reduce love to lust and allow attraction's fleeting presence to become the compass for companionship. At it's worst it is a dull, French melodrama with long, mindless, deceptive conversations about our illusory devotions to each other. Funny at times, but not funny enough for the attention it received a half-century ago. Nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Art-Set Direction and Best Writing/Screenplay.
Get Over It (2001)
4 out of 5 stars
Finally, a teen comedy that works. Against the backdrop of preparing for the school play (`A Midsummer Nights Dream'), this play within a play about a play hits the right tone at nearly every turn. A young man (Foster) loses his girlfriend (Sagemiller) and spends the rest of the film yearning for love and falling into love at the same time. The cast brings energy and excitement, and director O'Haver refuses to take himself too seriously, allowing for some delightful dream sequences and over-the-top funny moments. When he's on screen, Martin Short steals the show as the high-strung play director, and Foster emerges as a solid, young comic actor. Sisqo shows up in the last fifteen minutes, and Tom Hank's son (Colin Hanks) is not bad at all. The film hits some rough spots when it tries to be gloomy, but it soon picks up the pace once again. Book ended by two wonderfully funny and carefree musical sequences to open and close the action. This one will leave a smile on your face.
15 Minutes (2001)
1 out of 5 stars
Ridiculous, unmoving film about the extent to which some will go to shine in the media spotlight. Two Eastern European criminals (Karl Roden and Oleg Taktarov, complete with evil foreign accents) just out of prison, arrive in New York and, without any explanation or good motivation, go on a videotaped killing spree. They are then chased by the most famous police detective in the city (Robert Deniro) and his conveniently (but illogically) placed fire marshal side-kick (Edward Burns). Chasing both the criminals and good-guys the entire time is the media, led by one voracious tabloid anchor (Kelsey Grammar), who is willing to put anything on the air as long as it has blood and guts. These characters have early promise but prove to be in too much of a hurry to get through the film to form meaningful relationships. In general, the film tries to make comments on fame and the American system of law but only ends up looking ignorant and overly simplistic. Contains too many unnecessary scenes, too few interesting characters, and too many contrived plot moves. Also makes a lame attempt to incorporate the title into the film.
Yôjinbô (1961)
3.5 out of 5 stars
A crafty Kurosawa film featuring a samurai, jobless in mid-1800s Japan, who finds a town split between two competing warlords and decides to play each side off against each other in order to rid the town of violence. Wonderful acting, fine cinematography, beautiful costumes, and some nice humor as well. It moves at a wonderfully deliberate pace, which does not bore but instead makes you hungry for more intrigue and suspense. This film was the inspiration for `A Fistful of Dollars' and many others to follow (`Last Man Standing'), but it has never been done quite as well. Not Kurosawa's best film but fairly close to it. Followed by a sequel, `Sanjuro,' in 1962. Nominated for Academy Award for Best Costume Design Black and White
In the Bedroom (2001)
4 out of 5 stars
Much of life is about coping, yet most of the movies we are fed by Hollywood avoid the issue altogether. `In the Bedroom' is so powerful because it deals with coping head-on, no holds bar, with a perfect sensitivity to relationships and the tensions that pull us together and tear us apart. Filmed on location in a small Maine fishing village, this film, directed by Todd Fields (better known for his small-time acting roles), gives us a quick glimpse of the happy life we are all so drawn to. We see two parents (Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek), so proud of their son (Nick Stahl) with golden hair, a college degree, and a perfect demeanor to boot. We see a young man drawn to an older woman (Marisa Tomei) with three young kids. We feel warm, so warm that we initially overlook the potential problems lying below the surface. Suddenly things change. A freak incident brings simmering passions, resentments, and fragilities to the surface. The once-laminated life is now exposed to the elements. To go much deeper into the plot of this wonderfully detailed and attentive thriller/drama would potentially spoil it and weaken its certain impact. For now, it is safe to say that this low-key film makes all the right moves. The acting is beautiful; instead of wondering which one of these actors deserves the seasonal film awards, I am wondering which one does NOT. Spacek and Wilkinson bring us a marriage that leaves so much unsaid, it is almost unsettling to see how things really are when the talking begins. Tomei effortlessly serves up her career best as both a delicate lover and a troubled and tarnished mother and ex-wife. The success of the actors is almost certainly due in part to the wonderful feel director Fields seems to have for dialogue. Adapting the film from a short story by the now deceased Andre Dubus, Fields barely misses a beat in portraying delicate conversations between people who really do not want to face important and vital issues in their lives. They hurt and they will tell each other that much, but the real talking does not come easy. We are confronted with conversations that wiggle and dance around the pain, hoping it will go away, wishing it were swept into the past. Rarely does a film convey its emotions so beautifully through simple, honest dialogue. But the dialogue is not enough. Fields rejects the increasingly common theory in Hollywood that the audience must be told everything verbally. Instead, he allows the actors to act and lets their bodies do the talking. We see the lines darting from the mother's suspicious and angry eyes, the pain and weeping in the father's grieving mouth, the guilt and remorse in the wilting body of a pained lover. Field gives us long silences where all we can do is watch and feel what his characters are feeling. The dialogue does its job, gets out of the way, and lets actions speak louder than words: quite a refreshing concept. The film concludes in such a discomforting, alienating pose that the audience is left chilled and betrayed as they leave the theater. It is, in a word, remarkable. There are both sweet and bitter things that life presents to us, especially in the bedroom of husband and wife. We are left uncomfortable because life is uncomfortable. We are left afraid because the unforeseen challenges of life can be a terrifying thing to face.
Bless the Child (2000)
0 out of 5 stars
It's tough to decide which is worse: Kim Basinger's performance or the film itself. This is one of those films that make you wonder how many people at the production company had to be paid off to give it the go-ahead. Supposedly a supernatural thriller surrounding the Jesus-like qualities of a small girl (Coleman), it takes so much from other higher-quality films (`The Exorcist' and `Stigmata' to name only a couple) that it's wonder how it turned out so lifeless and laughable. At its best moments it plays out like a very bad after-school special, and at its worst looks more like a Saturday Night Live sendoff of the supernatural movies it is trying to be like. Absolutely no redeeming qualities. Bad, bad, bad.
Get Carter (2000)
2 stars out of 5
Brooding, slow, small-time crime drama about a Las Vegas mob enforcer (Stallone) who returns to his hometown to avenge the death of his brother. This remake of the 1971 original by the same name never gives its audience a reason to care. The plotline is so small and void of context that the motivation behind the characters and their actions is too vague to grasp. Caine (who starred in the original), Rourke, and Cumming are given embarrassingly slight roles that mock their true acting abilities. Possibly the most aimless and ineffective part of the film is director Kay's insistence on using cheap visual gimmickry to sell his version as modern and Stallone as "cool." Only bright spots are underrated Cook, Richardson, and McGinley is underused roles.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
** (2 out of 5 stars)
Overdone, strangely unhappy film version of the classic children's story by Dr. Seuss (Theodor S. Geisel). Jim Carrey stars as the infamous Grinch, who is so terribly sickened by neighboring Whoville and their Christmas spirit that he sets out to defraud the town and ruin their favorite holiday. This film, while allowing Carrey to roam free and create some undeniable laughs, is overdrawn (and possibly scary to kids), and prevents us from using our imaginations like the original story did. It does add some interesting background information about the Grinch (namely a rough childhood as a spurned outcast in Whoville), and provides some fun, festive moments. However, this is always diluted by the ugly appearance of the Whos in Whoville (were they pig-nosed and repulsive in the story-book?), and the Grinch's menacing demeanor. A little less style would have done director Howard well here.
Shrek (2001)
2.5 stars
Excellent, cutting edge computer animation is somewhat dulled by a been-there, done-that plot in this film about an ugly ogre (voiced by Mike Myers) and his adventures to save a beautiful princess (voiced by Cameron Diaz). Eddie Murphy, as the voice for the ogre's donkey sidekick, steals the movie and most of its laughs; Diaz terribly miscast as the voice of an appealing princess. Film most clever in its satire on past animated movies, most notably of the Disney brand name.
Operation Crossbow (1965)
2.5 stars
Above average spy film covering English attempts at foiling German plans for creation of "flying bomb" in midst of World War II. Tension and interest in first half hour die off as film becomes more predictable and formula-driven. Still offers splendid special effects and spy games for the right viewer. Look for real war footage used in last sequence.
The Ninth Gate (1999)
1.5 stars
Quasi-supernatural film starts with promise but soon finds itself lagging along with no real purpose. Depp tries his hardest to give his character some depth, but ultimately fails next to ridiculous and unecessary partners. Interesting style and settings are not enough to make this film worth while. Included laughable ending.
Marnie (1964)
2 stars
Very average Hithcock film focuses on troubled woman addicted to thievary who is taken in by a man she has stolen from. Connery and Hedren are wonderful to look at, but film lags more than it excites, and ending seems predictable and overly foreshadowed throughout. Some interesting stylistic elements make up for lackluster plot.
Chocolat (2000)
3 stars
`Chocolat' is a fairy-tale's fairy tale: sweet and wondrous with a message worth the price of admission. The film is set in a 1950s French countryside town. This is one of those towns from the `old days' where everyone knows everyone else and they all seem to like it like that. It's also a town founded on its `traditions,' and God forbid anyone try to upset those traditions. While most of the townspeople play out their lives according to a prescribed morality and religious adherence, it's the towns mayor, Reynaud (Alfred Molina), who keeps the town in line. The rest go through the motions, waiting for something to knock them off the traditional route. That something comes along in the arrival of Vianne (Juliette Binoche) and her daughter Anouk. They are wanderers and, by family tradition, roam from town to town healing people with their many chocolate treats. This French town they've stumbled upon is both the best and worst place for them: it's a town in nead of some healing, but, at the same time, a town resilient to change and strangers. The relationship between these newcomers and the traditional French town is as sweet as the chocolate Vianne sells. Everyone is nice is this film, even the supposed `bad guy' mayor. But that's alright; it's a fairy tale after all. It picks up more steam with the arrival of Irish `river rat' Roux (Johnny Depp), who forms a friendship and love interest with Vienne. Director Lasse Hallstrom, who has a wonderful ability to portray small-town life, brings us a film that encourages opening up to life's passions without condemning those who haven't yet. That is the beauty and simplicity of `Chocolat.' Just like its digestible title, it's delicious.