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Reviews
The Simpsons (1989)
What Once Was Great
Every once and a while, a brilliant and trancendant show comes along, something that puts all of the prosaic and painfully ordinary claptrap in its place, and more often than not, shows like that are cancelled. I know what I'm talking about here, I had to sit by and watch 'Action,' one of the best new shows of the past 5 years, get cancelled while the over-rated and preachy 'Will & Grace' was allowed to survive. 'The Critic' died fast, and I had to watch my beloved 'Sliders' deteriorate into second rate abysmal junk after 3 seasons. This brings us to 'The Simpsons,' a smart and insightful show that was somehow allowed to live, to grow, and, after a rocky first season, to become the greatest show on television. Creator Matt Groening cranked out biting social commentary and domestic satire on a weekly basis, and all was well with the world. Seasons two through nine were perfect in every way.
The show was always a cut above the rest, and then season ten came along, and the show dropped a few notches, still great, but faltering (the focusyn episode rates as one of the worst television episodes ever broadcast). Every once and a while, it would achieve the same level of quality that it had once delivered on a regular basis (the perfect game episode, the guest star episodes with Parker Posey and Mel Gibson, and of course, Behind the Laughter). However, I still had to face the facts, after eight years of delivering top notch entertainment, my beloved 'Simpsons' was becoming mediocre. By the end of season ten, and with Matt Groening's rookie series, 'Futurama,' doing better episodes than it on an almost regular basis, it had almost dropped to the level of 'The Drew Carey Show,' which, although it is another favourite of mine, is no 'Simpsons.' Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, enter season eleven, which started off promisingly with a good Halloween special and the Who episode, but has quickly faded into even greater mediocrity than season ten.
Don't get me wrong, I still like the show, it isn't bad, all you have to do is compare it to 'Dharma & Greg' to see that, but its becoming painfully average. Watching it now, I get the feeling of watching a beloved family member die. I grew up with 'The Simpsons' and now its falling apart, the scathing satire, the beautifully crafted wit, its all melting away now, and I'm sad to say, I hope for cancellation to come soon, for the shows sake and my own.
Sphere (1998)
Sphere ****
Sphere represents a new standard in science fiction. With a solid plot and good acting, it proves itself to be better than the stereotypical childish effects films. Director Barry Levinson provides great visuals that make the spooky underwater environment come alive. The film is a psycological mystery thriller that keeps you guessing to the very end. It has good dialogue and is more concerned with characters and their development than with cool looking ways of killing them off. Based on Michael Crichton's book, Sphere is a breath of fresh air in a genre that really needs it.
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
Halloween: H20 **** (Better Than The Original)
Returning to the classic style of John Carpenter's 1978 classic, "Halloween: 20 Years Later" (abbreviated H20 in advertisements) does what few films ever have, it IMPROVES ON the original! This is hard enough to do with a 1st sequel to a decent film. But "H20" does it 5 sequels after one of American cinema's greats! How does it do this? The first thing to recognize in a success like this is director Steve Miner (who took his first stab at directing with "Friday the 13th Part Two") who understands that the point (no pun intended) of any good horror film is to scare the audience, not gross them out. His brilliant usage of false scares and red herrings make it so that when Meyers first appears on screen you jump ten feet out of your seat! And he doesn't attack then, he just walks into the freakin' room! To be able to set up suspense like that requires talent, Carpenter had it, and Miner has it, and because of that, this is the most suspenseful horror film since the first "Halloween" 20 years ago. Other factors not to be ignored are the tour de force performance of Jamie Lee Curtis as she returns to the roll that she was born to play, and John Ottman's moody, terror inspiring treatment of the "Halloween" theme. The most important thing about this film is that it is brought closer to it's roots, back to the eerie style of "Halloweens" 1 and 2, leaving the shock treatment goriness of sequels 4, 5 and 6 alone, in fact, never acknowledging there existence. "H20" is a landmark film in it's genre, a genre, which, if it can keep producing films like this one and the "Scream" series, will be around for a long time. If the quality remains high, the only thing I can say is more power to em'!