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Reviews
Hollow Point (1996)
A post-modern masterpiece.
The director Sidney J. Furie has created in Hollow Point a post-modern absurdist masterpiece that challenges and constantly surprises the audience.
Sidney J. Furie dares to ask the question of what happens to the tired conventional traditionalist paradigms of 'plot' and 'characterisation' when you remove the crutches of 'motivation' and 'reason'.
The result leads me to say that my opinion of him could not possibly get any higher.
One and a half stars.
P.S. Nothing in this movie makes any sense, the law enforcement agents are flat out unlikeable and the organised criminals are full on insane.
Boa (2001)
Solid Ten ... for predictability
New Alcatraz would have gotten a 4/10 from me if it weren't for the fact that I nearly stopped watching it partway through due to predictability. The director and writer seem to have learned their trade by reading "Starter's guide: Make your own survival horror!".
Only three characters survive the movie. One of them survived because the plane needed a pilot. The other two survived because they were married to each other. The hero is killed off at the last moment in order to conform to the expectations of the genre. Altogether throughly unconvincing.
The only remotely realistic character in the entire movie is Yuri Brescov, played by Mark Sheppard (who actually plays the role quite well). The two paleontologists are not particularly sympathetic characters, in fact, the only thing they have going for them is the fact that they closely resemble Antonio Banderas and Katie Holmes respectively.
With the exception of Yuri, who was a beacon of courage, competence, common sense and honour, the other characters failed to put up even a reasonable level of effort into ensuring their own survival, despite being completely aware of the nature and deadliness of the threat they faced. Mind boggling incompetence seems to occur in every scene. One particularly strange event is when the soldier McCarthy is killed and the major seems to immediately forget about his existence, not even acknowledging his death, despite being in constant radio contact with him for several minutes leading up to his death.
Another failure is the inconsistency of the characters. Two examples come to mind, the first is Sergeant Quinn, who has been extremely worried about the snake and the survival of himself and his men and even refused to leave the command station until given a direct order by the warden is told by the scientists that the vibrations produced by the carts they are riding would attract the snake and they should proceed on foot. At this point he suddenly decides that he can't be bothered to walk and continues on in the cart. The other example would be Yuri, who is extremely calm, clearheaded and courageous throughout the rest of the movie suddenly freezes in the middle of a scene, which again is totally out of character.
One of the biggest oversights is the potential for psychological tension between the prisoners and the 'good guys' during the escape, which seems to have been completely ignored. The inmates of the highest security prison in the world are actually fairly decent people. I am incapable of giving any comment on this.
The real failing of the movie is that it is neither character driven nor plot driven. This removes all the believability in the story and prevents the audience from becoming involved in the film. With a good writer this could have been a great film. Three out of Ten.
Corky Romano (2001)
A tragic attempt at a Mafia comedy.
I did not watch the entire movie. I could not watch the entire movie. I stopped the DVD after watching for half an hour and I suggest anyone thinking of watching themselves it stop themselves before taking the disc out of the case.
I like Mafia movies both tragic and comic but Corky Romano can only be described as a tragic attempt at a mafia comedy.
The problem is Corky Romano simply tries too hard to get the audience to laugh, the plot seems to be an excuse for moving Chris Kattan (Corky) from one scene to another. Corky himself is completely overplayed and lacks subtlety or credulity - all his strange mannerisms come across as contrived - Chris Kattan is clearly 'acting' rather than taking a role - it bounces you right out of the story. Each scene is utterly predictable, the 'comedic event' that will occur on the set is obvious as soon as each scene is introduced. In comedies such as Mr. Bean the disasters caused by the title character are funny because you can empathise with the characters motivations and initial event and the situation the character ends up in is not telegraphed. Corky however gives the feeling that he is deliberately screwing up in a desperate attempt to draw a laugh from the audience.
If Chris had not played such an alien character (who never really connects with the other characters in the movie) and whose behaviour is entirely inexplicable (except for trying to draw laughs) and the comedy scenes weren't so predictable and stereotyped - all the jokes seemed far too familiar) this movie could have been watchable. But it isn't. Don't watch it.
Girl, Interrupted (1999)
A realistic drama
Girl Interrupted is not another drama about interpersonal issues. It is a drama about intrapersonal issues. The main character Susanna Kaysen (Winona Ryder) interacts with a perfectly portrayed cast while she experiences an inner journey that is catalysed through her interactions and observations of others. The naturalism of the film in terms of acting and cinematography allows the audience to be be drawn into Susanna's world. From looking at the deleted scenes on the DVD it is also clear that the director has worked hard to maintain the focus of the film and this is very clear when you watch the movie, there is hardly a moment where Winona is not on screen and this is very much deliberate.
The enormous strengths of the film do however serve to contrast some of it's weaknesses. The cinematography, while exceedingly natural and smooth, is also quite utilitarian, having been subordinated to the purpose of plot development. The greatest flaw however is the predictability of the scripting and supporting characters. While the main character Susanna tends to defy any label other than 'human person' the other supporting characters tend to fall under far more genre-specific stereotypes. The excellent acting on the part of everyone in this film helps to overcome this weakness however. In terms of scripting the predictable elements are not so obvious as to prevent the film's dialogue to be both funny and truthful.
For a film based on a true story (a book) Girl Interrupted manages to be gimmick-free much to its credit. The acting and directing is so smooth that even the frequent use of flashbacks seem entirely natural.
A brilliant execution 4 out of 5 stars.