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Giggi
Reviews
Secretary (2002)
A Breath of Fresh Air and a Stellar Performance by James Spader
This is an original, fresh, darkly comic, provocative, sometimes outrageous, and compelling film. Gyllenhaal seems to have received much acclaim (several nominations earlier in the year), but Spader, to me, is the standout. After viewing Secretary twice in a weekend several months ago, Spader's delicious performance is the one that still sticks with me. This is one of the best performances of his career, as well as a simply stellar acting job and deserved award nominations. Bravo!
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Did I miss something or does the emperor have no clothes??
I decided to see the movie after reading JimB-4's comments, but the only thing I agree with was the strong performance of the young boy. Scary?? Hardly. Intelligent? Where? Twist Ending? What twist ending? I figured it out halfway through. Very disappointing. I really looked forward to a compelling movie, but it was painfully slow, boring and not exciting at all. And why so many lingering close-ups of Bruce Willis? I even began getting tired of the close-ups of the boy, too. I am amazed that it has received such a high vote on the imdb. A real waste of time.
Montana (1998)
Tucci in his finest form!!
I thought it refreshing to see Kyra Sedgwick in a grittier role. If you can get past the near-incessant violence, it's not an altogether bad movie, with an interesting supporting cast, especially Stanley Tucci in a truly standout performance, the best I've seen of his acting to date, and really makes the film better than it probably deserves. The movie is worth seeing just for his bit. He and Sedgwick have good chemistry as criminal colleagues who love each other. It's also good to see a movie where two women from different corners of the criminal world (the boss's girlfriend and the boss's hitwoman) band together, albeit reluctantly. It's also nice to see the girlfriend, despite the cliche name, with some brain. (Do these last 2 points have anything to do with the movie's female director? I'll bet!) Without Tucci, however, I wouldn't recommend the movie so wholeheartedly.