Change Your Image
JWalker-2
Reviews
Under Pressure (2000)
Mildly entertaining after a few beers.
This movie attempts to be a high-tech thriller, like a mix between 'Die Hard' and 'The Poseidon Adventure'. Despite a few familiar faces among the acting staff, production values are way low. Special effects don't look too special, and the acting is sub-standard.
The first half of the film actually looks promising. Not feature film quality by any standard, but mildly entertaining nonetheless. Then things go downhill fast. The bad guy never really seems threatening, and the plot is downright silly.
If watched under normal conditions, you probably will groan to yourself 'oh what godawful trash', but after a few beers, it will make you laugh enough to make the rental price worth it. Whether an action movie should produce such a reaction is debatable.
8MM (1999)
Above average thriller.
A very competent thriller, with enough originality to stand out from the average offering of the genre. The plunge of the straight-laced detective into the world of sexual perversion is well depicted, if at times a bit naively. A few plot twists seem a bit contrived, however, and the film is occasionally slightly slow in its pace.
Good acting overall. Cage is decent, while Joaquin Phoenix is excellent as a symbolic Virgil to Cage's Dante. Despite being written by Andrew Kevin Walker, it falls well short of being a new 'Se7en'.