jon144k Reviews

Higher Learning (1995)

exaggerated... or is it?

[7/10 · 13 December 2005]

*** SPOILERS ***

this movie always seems very exaggerated, until i remember that my college campus had a former-student-turned-Nazi-racist-killer-who-then-committed-suicide, too: his name was Benjamin Nathaniel Smith.

look him up in the wikipedia- i added a few photos to their article about him.

it's hard to believe, but this stuff really does happen.

i'm not a big fan of Omar Epps or Ice Cube, but Larry Fishburne, Kristy Swanson, Jennifer Connelly & Mike Rappaport were good.

About a Boy (2002)

surprising

[4 September 2002]

i had never seen a Hugh Grant movie before this one. i had heard awful things about him and his films, though. i saw About a Boy on an airplane yesterday, and was happily shocked. the movie is hilarious and very relevant to modern times.

it's always nice when you have preconceived notions about an actor/film, watch it with a "this has to really work hard to impress me" negative attitude, and then the film wins you over ;-)

Breaking the Waves (1996)

so good but it hurts!

[20 August 2002]

i finished this movie a little bit earlier tonight. it was so good! however it was very hard to watch, probably more so

than any movie i've ever seen.

it's like the whole emotional spectrum is here... some scenes were

hilarious and others were unbelievably sad. there was lots of romance

too. i'm still kind of shocked that someone can cram this much feeling

into a movie. some scenes made me cringe and i literally had to look

away from the screen for a few seconds.

not all of these "look away" scenes were necessarily violent (although

some were)... some were just so emotionally cruel that you couldn't

believe it.

i'm impressed! this guy (Lars von Trier) seems like an interesting,

talented director. this movie made him a legend and i can see why.

one cannot watch this movie everyday though. you definitely have to be

in the mood. plus it's 3 hrs long, i think? ;-)

New Fist of Fury (1976)

I highly recommend this flick.

[8/10 · 10 June 2002]

(this text is from an email i wrote immediately after watching the movie)

Wow Nate, I just watched a Jacky Chan movie called New Fist of Fury. This movie is the sequel to Bruce Lee's Chinese Connection (known in Asia as Fists of Fury, I think?)!

This is another one of those Jacky Chan movies that is not so funny at all. Actually the movie was downright depressing and infuriating. It's a great movie; it takes the Bruce Lee classic one step further. Just watching the Japanese disrespect and even kill the Chinese made me so upset during the whole time that I just started to lift weights and work out as an outlet for the hurt I felt.

It's hard watching racial discrimination on this scale... the setting here was Taiwan and the Japanese were in total control of the island. It's hard to believe but the prejudice in this movie was even worse than in the Chinese Connection. The treatment of Chinese in this movie was brutal, to say the least. Jacky Chan turned in another passionate, violent, un-humorous performance; the kind of which he is not known for nowadays.

I highly recommend this flick.

On another note, at the end of the DVD they had a bio of Chan and it said he moved to Australia at a very young age, and he studied martial arts there! I had no idea; I find that amazing.

All About the Benjamins (2002)

GREAT movie

[8/10 · 10 March 2002]

This movie was very, very funny. Mike Epps was believably upset when he loses his ticket or gets arrested by Ice Cube. I am not a huge fan of Ice Cube anymore but I have to say that his acting in this movie was better than his performance in say, Anaconda. He is getting better.

I hate to mention race in this review because I don't like using race as an excuse for things. However I think there are a lot of white people who just would not understand this movie. It's black humor, and you have to be a fan of black humor to enjoy this.

Julien Donkey-Boy (1999)

i felt good watching this

[9/10 · 9 January 2002]

One reason I like Harmony Korine's films is that he gives 'invisible' members of society the spotlight for a moment.

Even though the parts have little to do with the central plot, some of the most memorable and enjoyable moments come from fringe characters, like the rapping albino or the cigarette smoking man in Julien Donkey-Boy. They each get their time to shine and display their cool talents.

I rented this today, and watched the movie full of fear that I would see something that would make me lose my lunch. I had seen Korine's other two movies and expected to see in this a cat getting sliced in half or a man's eye put out.

Refreshingly, there was nothing like this. I do like Kids and Gummo but was not in the mood today for anything too harsh. This movie is nothing but a comment on the ideal of family that often does not work, and an example of how we all need companionship and affection from others. Chloe Sevigny was amazingly soothing and motherly in her role. It had quite an effect on me.

9 out of 10.

The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)

terrible

[1/10 · 30 January 2000]

this was one of the worst movies that i have ever seen. the dialogue was lengthy and boring and i did not know what the hell was going on, some of the time. this movie was so unbearably saturated in useless dialogue that i wonder if it was edited at all?

the movie was a fantasy without limits- Crown having seemingly ENDLESS amounts of money at his disposal, and Russo always having some witty, annoying thing to say. it doesn't get any more unrealistic than this.

i have not seen the original, and based on this new version, i'm not sure if i want to.

i gave it a "1" for a rating.

-Jon

Jude (1996)

beautiful and sad

[27 September 1999]

i am watching the movie right now. this movie is very beautiful, but very sad. it's nice to see a movie about true love. it really makes me feel bad when anything happens to sue and jude; amazing, for something that is not real and only on a screen.

kate winslet and the man who plays jude are both excellent.