Reviews

15 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
7/10
I can't say that I didn't enjoy it
2 April 2003
Warning: Spoilers
The story was their typical one: the girls go off to some foreign place for whatever reason (London, Paris, Rome, the Caribbean), in this case it was Australia, they meet some very cute boys-Pete and Avery (as usual Pete fell for one twin and Avery the other. Wouldn't it be great to see the twins fall for one guy? Or both guys fall for one of the girls?), and their main priorities in life are clothes, lip gloss, great hair, being popular, and having boyfriends, not necessarily in that order. But as far as most Mary-Kate and Ashley movies go this one was pretty good! (Some spoilers within, but nothing you couldn't figure out from knowing it's an Olsen twin film)

The reason the Parker family goes to Australia under the alias of Turtleby is simple- the girls witnessed a crime (actually they saw the man who stole the precious Neil Diamond running out of the museum, they did not actually see him steal it, but still) and they have such a hard time keeping their mouths shut that they've lived all over the United States and now they are all out of places in America so they have to go to the last place on earth-Australia!

Aussie life is seems great to them, hanging out on the beach, beach parties, cute surfer boys, great shopping, but unfortunately to have a good time they think that forever reason they need to get into the posse led by Victoria, they try a number of things to get in- speaking the Australian way, avoiding the 'geeks,' the 'surfies,' the 'nerds,' etc, surfing, eating Australian food, and more. All seems lost as the 'royal court' loved Abby and Maddie, but the 'queen' still needed some convincing--but only until the smashed a soda can on their head were they admitted in. Once in they have a terrific time hanging out on the beach, and Victoria's father's yacht, with the popular kids. But then they meet two extremely hot guys whom are not in the posse that they are in but rather the group called the surfies. The leader of the posse, Victoria, tells them "hang with them and you can forget about the party, and everything that goes with it." (They then literally run into them when they get freaked out, and they go to Lunar Park together, which is closed but that's okay because Avery's dad owns the place) They go to the yacht party only to find Avery and Pete (the hot guys, remember?) show up and agree with the leaders of the posse to have a surf-off whoever wins keeps the beach, and the loser moves down somewhere (but not after a little flirting with Abby and Maddie across the boat :)). The boys then leave and everyone else goes back to the party, a few minutes later Maddie shows Abby that Pete and Avery are down on the water with wave-runners, summoning to them to come with them of course. Abby says absolutely not. Her reasoning? "These are my new boots!" They end up just leaving the shoes on the yacht and sailing off with the guys (Abby with Avery, Maddie with Pete, in case you were wondering), after all "they were ugly anyway." The twins then get asked out and everything in Australian life is going just perfectly until two suspicious guests show up at The Salvation Shore Inn, that's their house. Who are working for Emil Hatchew, the guy who is trying to catch them. Will they make it out alive, and more importantly, with their boyfriends? Tune in for yourself! :D
0 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Blue Crush (2002)
1/10
Odd
11 February 2003
Warning: Spoilers
Nothing special to say the least.

*MILD SPOILERS WITHIN*

Blue Crush tries to take on a lot of themes but seems to drop them without any effort to carry them. For instance, we never find out what happens about Anne Marie and Penny's mother, Eden and Lena quit their jobs then are seen working them a few days later, Penny seems to have a growing interest in drugs and sex and we're just supposed to believe it's typical 'teenage experimentation,' Anne Marie and Matt's relationship happens at a ridiculously fast pace, the rival surf gang or whatever suddenly warms up because...why? Etc.

Plus the dialouge sounded way forced and awkward, and, at times, very unnatural. The surf footage was pretty impressive, if you ignore the fact that in most instances it was clear that stunt doubles were doing the surfing. But the rest of the footage looked like a home video.

A big disappointment. 3/10
7 out of 14 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
The movie equivalent of comfort food
14 January 2003
This heart-warming movie is predictable and it doesn't have any surprises in it (if you think it does you are one sad, strange, little man), and is considered a "chick-flick" but nonetheless I enjoyed it.

Jennifer Lopez plays Marissa Ventura, a single-parent/maid at a fancy New York hotel, who tries on a rich lady's clothes and meets Chris Marshall (Ralph Fiennes), a candidate for senator, while wearing them, so he thinks she's some big socialite or something and she doesn't bother to correct him assuming that he will no longer be interested in her if she does. The two feel connected with each other when they take Marissa's 10-year-old son, Ty, played by Tyler Posey, to the Zoo.

Natahsa Richardson is terrific as Caroline Lane, the woman who's clothes Marissa tried on. She herself is attracted to Christopher Marshall, and is constantly flirting with him.

The floor butler, Lionel, is excellently played by Bob Hoskins, is your typical mentor. He has several nice lines such as, "What we do does not define who we are." And his character adds common ground to the film.

Maid in Manhattan is not overly comedic, but does have several humorous sequences such as when Marissa doesn't realize she has a magazine stuck to her butt. It does not have the most extensive dialouge, but it is very charming and is the movie equivalent of comfort food. 7 stars out of 10
1 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
My favorite thriller
8 January 2003
Now, I'm not a horror movie fan or anything, but I see several thrillers a year and this one is by far the best I've seen!

The acting is just terrific. Leelee Sobieski and Stellan Skarsgard's best performances to date. It is a some-what normal story (it's not like aliens are invading Earth or there's a haunted mental ward or something).

I guess I do have a couple of complaints, though. I couldn't figure out why they wouldn't run away from school or call somebody from a safe phone. But if they did that there wouldn't be much of film.

But in several scenes, even though I know what's going to happen I jump every time! The perfect thriller! 9/10
1 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
Perfectly casted!
3 January 2003
As been said before, 'The Emperor's Club' (isn't that a great title?) is similar to such movies as 'The Dead Poets Society,' but it has a fresh angle on it.

Kevin Kline is superb as Mr. Hundert, a teacher at St. Benedict's, a boarding school for boys, who has that kind of 'serious-humor' that only a rare few can ever achieve, who referees two academic contests taking place aproximately 25 years apart. Emile Hirsch plays Sedgewick Bell who manages to be both knowladgeable and a trouble-maker at the same time. Mr. Hundert sees something in Sedgewick that no one else, including Sedgewick himself, and his father, appears to see. Mr. Hundert is getting very frustrated with him, and eventually takes things to drastic measures, as he tries desperately to help him and it seems all is lost.

Paul Franklin Dano, Rishi Mehta, and Gabe Millman are perfectly casted as fellow students, who are also in Mr. Hundert's history class.

'The Emperor's Club' is smart, fresh, funny, and deserves 10 stars out of 10.
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
9/10
They blew it on the ending!
3 January 2003
It's not an Academy Award winner but it is a nice little, thought provoking story. I mean everyone knows that if you're going to track someone down in the woods you don't wear a yellow suit, but remember, it is a Disney film, so that makes it okay. Anyways, it has basically the same plot line as in the book, if you are a fan of that, but with different concepts. For example Winnie is 15 instead of 10. It was a really sweet love story, the chemistry between Alexis Bledel and Jonathan Jackson is amazing, but the ending is slightly disappointing, in my opinion. But still it's a good movie.
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
1/10
Atrocious
1 January 2003
Ohhhkkaaaaayy. This is a comedy?! I admit I chuckled about twice, but other than that it wasn't even remotely funny! I saw several attempts at humor, but saw none circumstantially evident.

This story is similar to "It's a Wonderful Life" except there George Bailey gets to see what the world would be like if he was never born. In The Family Man Jack Campbell (Nicolas Cage) gets to see what his life would be like if he had decided to stay in the US and marry his long time girlfriend Kate, apposed to going to England for some internship that later lands him a big job at a huge corporation on Wall Street.

The dialogue in this is stupid, the only line I appreciated was Annie saying, "I knew you'd come back," the only some-what funny was when Cash (Don Cheadle) convinced Jack to get out of the car, and it's predictable. The character of Kate is single-handedly the most obnoxious one I have ever seen in a movie (she blew Jar-Jar Binks from Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace out of the water!), or in real life for that matter. And on top of that the "acting" job by Tea Leoni is horrendous, by far the worst I have ever seen. And maybe I'm just not old enough but I did NOT find the story line heart-warming at all.
11 out of 34 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
By far the best film of 2002!
20 December 2002
Going into the theater I was concerned that The Two Towers wouldn't live up to The Fellowship of the Ring, but it did, in a HUGE way! You have to see this film to get the full affect, and it is definetley worth it!

The only word suitable for The Two Towers is, perfect! It is so adventurous, exciting, and enchanting. The story is excellent, and it is impressive how closely it follows the book. This is the second movie ever that I didn't want to end (the first being The Fellowship of the Ring), and that really says something because it has a run time of nearly three hours!

It's true that The Two Towers is darker than The Fellowship of the Ring, but it also has a bigger sense of importance. And the creepiness is balanced out very nicely by the humor of Gimli, Merry, and Pippin! They are simply adorable! :-D

Gollum is BY FAR the best CGI character EVER! And the actors did a excellent job working with this. Seriously, if you don't know he's a CGI ahead of time, then you won't know it when you see him. And Treebeard and the Ents are exsquisite as well. I must say, I found the Ents very quite and amusing.

Peter Jackson and his crew could not have picked a better cast! Elijah Wood, Billy Boyd, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett, Sean Astin, Viggo Morensen, Liv Tyler, John Rhys-Davies, Christopher Lee, Dominic Monaghan, Miranda Otto, Brad Dourif, Bernard Hill and everyone else are PERFECT at their respected parts.

Frodo has the most amazing eyes, Sam is so warm, Legolas has some seriously cool kick-ass moves, Gimli is hilarious, Arwen is perfect, Aragorn is terrific, Theoden is exactly as I pictured him in the book, and so is Wormtongue, Saruman has the perfect voice, Eowyn is quite charming, and I just love Pippin and Merry.

This is by far the best movie since The Fellowship of the Ring (I'm not sure which is better), and I encourage everyone, especially Lord of the Rings fans, to go see it. You will not be disappointed!!

10 very enthusiastic stars out of 10!
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
Amazingly better than the Phantom Menace!
18 December 2002
I can't say enough about this film! The cast is perfect! The chemistry between Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman is awesome. Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi is terrific, and Samuel L. Jackson is super cool as Maize. Hayden Christensen is the perfect Anakin.

Yoda is better than ever, plus he has his own fight scene! The special effects were terrific and fresh. I especially liked the speeder chase in the beginning.

There isn't enough of Jar-Jar Binks to annoy most people.

The story line was, although not the particularly new, was very sweet.

A nice date movie since it's romantic enough for the females, yet there is enough action for guys to enjoy the movie as well.

R2D2, and C3PO are reunited again, and are adorable! C3PO has several good one-liners.

The on location shots are beautiful! It's hard to believe that some of the places actually exist, they're so charming.

Padme has nice costumes. They were toned down from Episode I since she is now a senator and is no longer Queen. But they still have that Star Wars magic in them.

All in all the $10 is definetly worth it in this case, even if you're not a Star Wars fan. A truly superior film! 10/10
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
7/10
They're back in black!
15 December 2002
Once again, Agent J (Will Smith) needs Agent K's (Tommy Lee Jones) help on his latest case, but the problem is Agent K is retired and henceforth neurolized. This means he doesn't remember anything about working for the Men In Black. So after recovering most of his memory by the deneurolizer, they set out to stop the evil Serleena (Lara Flynn Boyle) from taking over Earth, or ruling over all aliens or something, it's not like plot really matters here. Although it's not the most intellectual movie of the Summer, I have to admit I found the whole thing very amusing, and quite hilarious.

I give it orange.
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Pleasantville (1998)
7/10
Makes an excellent point
7 December 2002
Well thought out, with a strong cast, Pleasantville, is a classic story about how life is not as simple or as complicated as we think. It shows us that having the "right" car, or living in the "right" neighborhood, or having the "right" job is not what makes life great. You're life doesn't get made by being perfect, it gets made by being lived.
0 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Reign of Fire (2002)
5/10
Incomplete
29 November 2002
It is the year 2020, and dragons have taken over the world. There are very few humans left, and the ones that are are struggling to survive. In what is a great story it is not followed through throughly enough. Everything is just to easy to believe. But even so it's not that bad. A good story, but, unfortunetley, with poor action, in my opinion.
2 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8 Simple Rules (2002–2005)
It works
30 October 2002
It's not the deepest end of the ocean but it works surprisingly well! In '8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter' John Ritter plays a middle-age dad going through comedic everyday experiences caused by his wife (Katey Sagal), his two teenage daughters (Kaley Cuoco and Amy Davidson) and his only son (the youngest) Rory (Martin Spanjers). Whether it's his daughter wearing a thong, his son going egging, his wife getting a new job, dating troubles for the girls, or typical sibling rivalry John Ritter does a great job with it and brings out the best, with some great humor.

2 cups out of the pint
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Panic Room (2002)
8/10
Impressive acting + great plot= Thumps Up!
21 September 2002
Panic Room is a story about a newly divorced woman (Jodie Foster), and her daughter (Kristen Stewart) who have just moved into a very nice home in what is presumably New York City. Upon purchasing the house the realator shows them what he calls the 'panic room' or the safe room. It has a seperate phone line, security monitors, blankets, first aid, etc. in it, and is completely surronded by three inches of steel. The room has one purpose: to keep people out. There is no possible way to get in, but unfortunetley what the three robbers want is in that room and they aren't leaving until they get it. Panic Room is a great movie, which is superbly shot, with great acting by Foster, Stewart, Forest Whitaker, Jared Leto, and Dwight Yoakam.
0 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
JTT trying to hitch hike cross country? HILARIOUS!
10 July 2002
A quality holiday comedy right on time! Jonathon Taylor Thomas plays Jake a student attending college in California, who is going home to New York for the holidays, with his girlfriend, Allie, also from New York. Well Jake helps some jocks cheat and they get caught, so for payback they dress him up in a Santa Claus outfit and leave him in the middle of nowhere. In the meantime Allie is forced to catch a ride across the country with, Eddie, Jake's archrival. Jake is motivated to get home in time for Christmas by the fact that if he does his dad will give him the Porsch, also he doesn't want Allie to be mad at him, which she very much is for making her ride with Eddie. So Jake spends time on the road looking for a way home, pulling many miraculous stunts on the way, just looking to get the Porsch, until he learns the real lesson.
3 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed