Reviews
Citizen Ruth (1996)
Good movie; great acting; disappointing ending
Laura Dern was terrific. She was completely unrecognizable in the first few scenes; this wasn't due to makeup, but because she was so into her character that her face completely changed.
The movie itself was quite good; always interesting and fun to watch. But it seemed to peter out rather than end; it felt like they filmed the first two acts but forgot to film the third. It's been a long time since the rolling of the closing credits surpised me so much. It's true that the ending was upbeat, and that it's seems impossible that any continuation of the story would have been happy, but that's no excuse. The ending felt lazy.
Still, worth seeing for Laura Dern.
Never Been Kissed (1999)
Nothing in this movie rings true
This film looks like it was written by people who never went to high school, who instead formed their impression of human experience by watching TV shows. Watching this film, you'll learn:
* If a nerd tries to buy a ticket to the high school prom, she'll be turned away.
* The prom queen can instantly lose all her friends at the prom by putting a stop to a prank.
* If you are a reporter writing a story and you get scooped, you'll be fired immediately.
* If a male high school teacher rides on a ferris wheel with a female student, and tells her that men will chase after her when she's older, he'll be the subject of an expose in the local newspaper.
* If you're a nerd, and a cute guy asks you to the prom, say no: if you say yes, he'll pass you by in the limo and throw eggs at you.
* If you're a newspaper reporter working on an undercover story, you'll wear a little camera in a pin on your shirt, and your exploits will be beamed back to the paper where you work, where all your co-workers will watch everything that happens to you.
* A 25-year-old woman who's never been kissed, and who dreams of falling in love with the right guy, will, once she meets the right guy, advertise in the paper that she'll be waiting for him to kiss her in front of an audience of a few thousand people.
I don't think I can think of one authentic human moment in the whole movie. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.
EDtv (1999)
A Sitcom Movie
This film started out fine, but deteriorated into a sitcom. Ed's solution to his problem was entirely artificial; it was motivated more by a need to end the movie then any real characterization. Rent "Truman Show" instead.
A Civil Action (1998)
Travolta phoned this one in
The movie was ponderous, Travolta was wooden, it suddenly became a mystery movie at the end when there was no mystery before that, even though it was a true story bits and pieces made no sense, I could go on and on but I won't.
Robert Duvall's performance was the one thing that made the movie at all worthwhile. He was goofy but spooky.
The Big One (1997)
Moore is a bully
Moore's on the right side and he's funny, but to make his point, he bullies anyone who disagrees with him. He's said in interviews that the people he bullies deserve it, that they're working for corrupt businesses and know that what they're doing is wrong when they take the job. This doesn't explain a series of scenes in the movie that do nothing more then make fun of one of his handlers who crossed him -- apparently she told him certain things that weren't true; he spends at least ten minutes showing how she'd lied to him. What's the point of this, other then getting even with her?
Michael Moore is mean-spirited. In a position of power, he'd turn into Stalin. I can't look at photographs of him anymore without becoming physically nauseous.