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Sedona31
Reviews
Maid in Manhattan (2002)
Boring!
Let me first say that I love chick flicks. I'm a sucker for predictable, feel-good movies. So, when I went to go see Maid in Manhattan, that's exactly what I expected - not a whole lot of substance, but a movie that would let me leave the theatre with a smile on my face. Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed.
Maid in Manhattan in a horribly contrived yawn-fest filled with minimal charm, little on-screen chemistry, and a whole lot of corny dialogue that doesn't ever seem to flow. The plot, which at times was too ridiculous to believe (really, who actually falls in love with someone without even knowing their real name?), dragged on endlessly, too often resorting to dull cliches and meaningless yet supposedly moving monologues. It appears to me that the script writers of this film decided something to the affect of: "to hell with good writing, this film will succeed soley on Jennifer Lopez's fame!" Unfortunately, it does not... True, I did walk out of the theatre with a smile on my face, but I attribute that entirely to the fact that my sarcastically witty friends spent the entire movie mocking it...
Great Performances: Andrew Lloyd Webber: The Royal Albert Hall Celebration (1998)
Very enjoyable
Being a diehard musical fan, I instantly fell in love with this video. It has its good an its bad, but overall, the good far outweighs the bad.
My favourite part is Michael Ball's striking rendition of "Gethsemane". I don't think anyone else can compare when it comes to the pure vocal talent and emotion he shows while singing that song. He has a tremendous voice and, in my opinion, is the most talented individual to appear in this concert.
Another part I greatly enjoyed was Glenn Close's "With One Look". Very whimsically insane, very memorable. Also enjoyable was Antonio Banderas' Che, singing "Oh What a Circus". I didn't enjoy his version of "The Phantom of the Opera" as much, but I'll definitely take him over Michael Crawford any day!
Not being a fan of Sarah Brightman's, the only part which I have any serious complains about is the amount of time she was on stage. I think she has a decent voice, and average acting talent - but definitely not enough to warrant how many song she sang during the concert.
Overall, I'd highly recommend this to anyone who is a fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber's music; or to musical theatre fans in general. 8.5/10
Enemy at the Gates (2001)
predictable!
Not a bad movie, but definitely not a great one either. It was enjoyable enough, but that was partially because my friends and I spent the entire second half making fun of it. It was just too predictable! Every cliche ever used in all previous war movies could be easily found in this one. I know that there have been so many movies made in this genre that it's almost impossible to be completely original, but I'm sure that the writers of this could have come up with something slightly different.
I give this movie 6/10. It would have been higher, but the little love (or perhaps lust) story they worked through it really dropped it down.
Les Misérables (1998)
Disappointing...
Being a huge fan of the musical Les Misérables, I must admit that any movie version has a pretty high standard to attain if I'd consider it anywhere near to being as good as the musical. Although I don't think any movie could be quite as good as the musical, this version doesn't come close.
What bothered me the most about this movie was the lack of depth to the story. Les Misérables, the novel, is about 1100 pages long. It seems that the writers were more interested in keeping the movie at a decent length than keeping integral parts of the story intact. Many important scenes were cut or shortened to the point of them having little or no effect. Many important characters were also written out entirely or reduced to a few scenes. The characters Eponine and Enjolras were sadly missed. Not including Enjolras and having Marius taking over his role at the barricades was one of the worst mistakes the writers made. I honestly don't think that the students at the barricades would have followed Marius into battle, especially considering that Marius often seemed much more concerned with Cosette than his friends. Another horrible mistake was the ending. The ending of Les Misérables (especially in the musical) is one of its strongest parts, yet it was reduced to nothing in the movie.
On the up side, the majority of the acting in the movie was very well done, as was the setting.
I'd give this movie about 6.5/10. Not bad, but not particularly good either. If you want a truly good Les Misérables video to watch, rent the Les Misérables Tenth Anniversary Concert video. Now that's Les Mis at its best!
Les Misérables (1998)
Disappointing...
Being a huge fan of the musical Les Misérables, I must admit that any movie version has a pretty high standard to attain if I'd consider it anywhere near to being as good as the musical. Although I don't think any movie could be quite as good as the musical, this version doesn't come close.
What bothered me the most about this movie was the lack of depth to the story. Les Misérables, the novel, is about 1100 pages long. It seems that the writers were more interested in keeping the movie at a decent length than keeping integral parts of the story intact. Many important scenes were cut or shortened to the point of them having little or no effect. Many important characters were also written out entirely or reduced to a few scenes. The characters Eponine and Enjolras were sadly missed. Not including Enjolras and having Marius taking over his role at the barricades was one of the worst mistakes the writers made. I honestly don't think that the students at the barricades would have followed Marius into battle, especially considering that Marius often seemed much more concerned with Cosette than his friends. Another horrible mistake was the ending. The ending of Les Misérables (especially in the musical) is one of its strongest parts, yet it was reduced to nothing in the movie.
On the up side, the majority of the acting in the movie was very well done, as was the setting.
I'd give this movie about 6.5/10. Not bad, but not particularly good either. If you want a truly good Les Misérables video to watch, rent the Les Misérables Tenth Anniversary Concert video. Now that's Les Mis at its best!
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
One of the worst movies I've ever seen!
To summarize it in a word is easy: horrible! It's one of the only movies I've seriously considered walking out of, and in hindsight, I should have walked out.
I found the plot unthinkably slow, and the characters nearly impossible to like. I don't think I was alone in my opinion, considering at the end of the movie, I heard many "thank goodness it's finally over" comments...not to mention that the theatre, which was full at the beginning, was only about half full by the end.
Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000)
yet another cheap "horror" movie
Surprise, surprise, again Hollywood has produced another boring slasher film. It seems to me that the concept of creativity in horror movies has long since disappeared. This movie was boring, predictable, and fake. I found myself laughing at many of the death scenes, they were so poorly done. The best part of it was the end credits...