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Reviews
Flawless (1999)
Schumacher adds yet another film to the "worst of all time" list.
Joel Schumacher is the worst filmmaker in modern Hollywood history, except for maybe Garry Marshall. Anyone who found this film to resemble anything close to reality needs a mental health check-up. Terrible, terrible performances, especially DeNiro who has already (badly) played this role before in that Robin Williams movie. The offensive, outdated cliches fly so fast and furious that I almost wanted to watch the film again just to count them. If you should choose to subject yourself to this piece of rot, stay alert to keep your brain from melting out of your ears. Schumacher is a hack! Down with Schumacher!
Crooklyn (1994)
Spike's Best Film
Call me crazy, but I believe this is Spike Lee's greatest film, or will eventually be seen as such. All the rest are either dated political missives, or they attempt something like this film but fail miserably (Summer of Sam). This is an utterly perfect film, carved from life knowledge but shaped into a highly entertaining, objective and pragmatically truthful docu-drama. Like "Fellini Roma", this film is nearly experimental in plot, structure, style and technique. Yet it's the kind of story that comes right out of the bones of poetry and personal experience, and can be appreciated universally for that reason. Hard to believe that the same person made Bamboozled; a sloppy, culturally-late attempt at satire that wrong-headedly breaks every rule of the genre. It's one of the most self-important, didactic films I've ever seen. Guess Spike had his one moment of clarity.
Showgirls (1995)
Love It!
I guess some people have a hard time understanding how much work goes into making a film, and how little could possibly be left up to chance, especially when you are talking about a budget of 40 million. This film is brilliant, but obviously not for all tastes. If you've ever studied Sirk, seen "Imitation of Life" or "Written On The Wind", you know where this film is coming from and why it is so darn great. It's a melodrama folks, and melodrama is a very strange genre that people either love or hate. To run around screaming that this movie is so bad that it's like a soap opera is pretty stupid, because it's supposed to be like a soap opera. That's what melodrama is. It's the framework of a dramatic text, but it is very overwrought, hence the term "melodramatic". It makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it makes you scream in shock, and in this case, it makes you think. Verhoeven is a director who, throughout his career of 40 years, has used melodrama as a device. It allows him to create distance and express bigger ideas by adding more layers of meaning to whatever insipid text he is working with. His first Dutch film to be released in the US, "Turkish Delight," was a blatant rip-off of the popular US film "Love Story" that went on to win a foreign language Oscar. Through its use of melodrama it provided a distanced, critical view of hippies, free-love and the role of religion in a changing society. (Amsterdam had become a Hippie mecca by the 70's.) This was something that the American "Love Story" could never have conceived of doing. "Showgirls" is no different. This movie has humor but it is inappropriate to call it a "satire". A more appropriate description would be to call it a fatalistic, socially critical melodrama with a twisted sense of humor.
Bash "Showgirls" all you want. History will vindicate Verhoeven. (Though I don't think it will vindicate "Hollow Man", the first film by Verhoeven that I would openly call hackwork--far worse than "Showgirls"-- yet even "Hollow Man" has a few tricks up its sleeve with its sly Dan White references.)
Showgirls (1995)
Love It!
I guess some people have a hard time understanding how much work goes into making a film, and how little could possibly be left up to chance, especially when you are talking about a budget of 40 million. This film is brilliant, but obviously not for all tastes. If you've ever studied Sirk, seen "Imitation of Life" or "Written On The Wind", you know where this film is coming from and why it is so darn great. It's a melodrama folks, and melodrama is a very strange genre that people either love or hate. To run around screaming that this movie is so bad that it's like a soap opera is pretty stupid, because it's supposed to be like a soap opera. That's what melodrama is. It's the framework of a dramatic text, but it is very overwrought, hence the term "melodramatic". It makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it makes you scream in shock, and in this case, it makes you think. Verhoeven is a director who, throughout his career of 40 years, has used melodrama as a device. It allows him to create distance and express bigger ideas by adding more layers of meaning to whatever insipid text he is working with. His first Dutch film to be released in the US, "Turkish Delight," was a blatant rip-off of the popular US film "Love Story" that went on to win a foreign language Oscar. Through its use of melodrama it provided a distanced, critical view of hippies, free-love and the role of religion in a changing society. (Amsterdam had become a Hippie mecca by the 70's.) This was something that the American "Love Story" could never have conceived of doing. "Showgirls" is no different. This movie has humor but it is inappropriate to call it a "satire". A more appropriate description would be to call it a fatalistic, socially critical melodrama with a twisted sense of humor.
Bash "Showgirls" all you want. History will vindicate Verhoeven. (Though I don't think it will vindicate "Hollow Man", the first film by Verhoeven that I would openly call hackwork--far worse than "Showgirls"-- yet even "Hollow Man" has a few tricks up its sleeve with its sly Dan White references.)
The Straight Story (1999)
Best film of '99
Yes, this movie is beautiful, emotional and dreamlike, qualities a child can notice. But there is a heck of a lot more to it. What makes this film such a powerful statement about aging is its attention to detail and its sly self-depreciating satire. The idea that as you grow older, everything has a hint of foolishness to it, from driving your tractor across two states, to not speaking to your brother for 30 years. (I wasn't the only person in the theatre laughing hysterically at the end of the film.) Like most Lynch movies, this one has lots of levels to it. What is so unique about this one is that my grandmother can enjoy it as much as I do.
Jade (1995)
Wow, It's not THAT bad.
I'm shocked by the huge number of negative comments. This film is great, obviously written before Showgirls was released (when the screenwriter's ego was still intact.) Between Joe's deliriously entertaining B-movie dialogue and Friedkin's rock-solid direction, I find this movie fascinating and fun, the only downpoint being the lackluster ending. Jade has the greatest car chase I've seen in any film since the last time this director tackled one, and it's full of cute little references to the rest of his career. There is even a blatant homage to "Cruising" (Al Pacino) for those of you who were really paying attention. When David Caruso takes those cufflinks out of the drawer and looks in the mirror as we fade to the beach skyline...shot for shot and beat for beat it's the last two shots of Cruising, and it even conveys a similar meaning. This movie is clever, raunchy, sexy and fun. It's not the greatest film ever made, but it certainly deserves a lot more credit than it is receiving here. When did film lovers become such humorless prudes? (And why did Friedkin insist that the DVD be released only in a fullscreen version? Why, why, why???)
Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby (1999)
Different but just as good as Freeway
Out from under the watchful eye of Freeway producer Oliver Stone, Matthew Bright lets his id run wild and the results are fascinating. Less polished but far darker than the original, this film is hilarious, touching and deeply disturbing all at once. Natasha Lyonne gives her best performance ever and Vincent Gallo is wonderfully insane as the wicked witch. Bright weaves his fetishes into the plot more skillfully and enjoyably than John Waters ever did. I can't wait for his next one, reported to be a re-telling of "Three Little Pigs"!
Showgirls (1995)
Love It!
I guess some people have a hard time understanding how much work goes into making a film, and how little could possibly be left up to chance, especially when you are talking about a budget of 40 million. This film is brilliant, but obviously not for all tastes. If you've ever studied Sirk, seen "Imitation of Life" or "Written On The Wind", you know where this film is coming from and why it is so darn great. It's a melodrama folks, and melodrama is a very strange genre that people either love or hate. To run around screaming that this movie is so bad that it's like a soap opera is pretty stupid, because it's supposed to be like a soap opera. That's what melodrama is. It's the framework of a dramatic text, but it is very overwrought, hence the term "melodramatic". It makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it makes you scream in shock, and in this case, it makes you think. Verhoeven is a director who, throughout his career of 40 years, has used melodrama as a device. It allows him to create distance and express bigger ideas by adding more layers of meaning to whatever insipid text he is working with. His first Dutch film to be released in the US, "Turkish Delight," was a blatant rip-off of the popular US film "Love Story" that went on to win a foreign language Oscar. Through its use of melodrama it provided a distanced, critical view of hippies, free-love and the role of religion in a changing society. (Amsterdam had become a Hippie mecca by the 70's.) This was something that the American "Love Story" could never have conceived of doing. "Showgirls" is no different. This movie has humor but it is inappropriate to call it a "satire". A more appropriate description would be to call it a fatalistic, socially critical melodrama with a twisted sense of humor.
Bash "Showgirls" all you want. History will vindicate Verhoeven. (Though I don't think it will vindicate "Hollow Man", the first film by Verhoeven that I would openly call hackwork--far worse than "Showgirls"-- yet even "Hollow Man" has a few tricks up its sleeve with its sly Dan White references.)
Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back (1995)
Hysterical
Any 'message' this film might impart is totally lost in the goofiness of setting a martial arts film in the middle of a Mississippi race war. The writing and performances are so terrible that I found them weirdly entertaining. The cliches come so fast and furious that you may find yourself laughing out loud at things you would never ordinarily laugh at. Gina Gershon is hilarious as the choir conductor. The biggest joke about this movie is that it dislikes racism enough to support the plot about really stupid white supremacists, but not enough to allow Gina Gershon to fall in love with the Asian lead. They had to bring in a totally pointless white character for that... Dee Wallace-Stone is one of the greatest actresses who has ever lived and she is so sadly underrated and underused. She's the only thing in this film that isn't a really funny joke.