Strange Justice (review)

To this day, the names epitomize the he-said/she-said nature of sexual harassment. But as Strange Justice shows, the truth of the matter was not so up in the air. The truth, in fact, was an ignored casualty in an all-out, inside-the-Beltway, public relations war.

Mickey Blue Eyes and Mafia! (review)

Martin Scorsese may have moved on (his next film, Bringing Out the Dead, sounds like ER meets that spooky kid who sees dead people in The Sixth Sense), but great Mob drama is still alive on TV — see HBO’s excellent The Sopranos — and most of the comedies are duds. The Mafia’s movie image is ripe for parody, as Analyze This demonstrated so ably, but as Mickey Blue Eyes and Mafia! show, Mob comedies are usually more hit than miss.

Shiloh and Shiloh 2: Shiloh Season (review)

Shiloh — based on Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s Newbery Medal-winning book and directed by Dale Rosenbloom — is the kind of children’s movie you will not find many examples of today. It does not pander to kids’ baser instincts — a predilection for toilet humor, for instance — in order to keep kids glued to the screen with cheap, juvenile jokes. Instead, kids will be enthralled by Shiloh because it dares to explore issues that parents often fail to talk about with their children.

Celebrity (review)

I get a kick out of Kenneth Branagh’s American accent. I don’t know why — probably the fact that it’s just so darn good is part of the reason. So I amused myself by listening to it for a few minutes as Celebrity opened… until I realized that Branagh was doing Woody Allen.

Bowfinger (review)

Chubby Rain may be a disaster in the making, but Bowfinger itself, written by Martin, has one of the best scripts to hit the screen this year: slyly and outrageously funny, by turns edgy and sweet. I suspect that Bobby Bowfinger is more Steve Martin than appearances might suggest.

Mystery Men (review)

I’m happy to report, having now seen the movie that goes with the trailer, that my final disillusionment has been postponed, at least for a little while. Mystery Men is a dream of a summer flick: outrageously funny, unabashedly hip, totally cool, with just a hint of heart beating under a cynicism that’s well beyond skin deep — and I mean that in the best possible way.

Blade (review)

Well, no. Wesley Snipes isn’t quite the actor Orson Welles was. And Stephen Norrington isn’t quite the director Welles was. Blade is ludicrous plotted and full of silly, self-important characters spouting inane dialogue. Still, I found it strangely, if only momentarily, diverting.

The Blair Witch Project (review)

For the glut of Summer 2000 bombs, we can blame Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez for being creative and inventive enough to knock Hollywood on its ass this summer with The Blair Witch Project, any deficiencies in which are more than amply made up for by its daring.

8MM (review)

If Schumacher wants to make some porn, fine — First Amendment and all that. He can do whatever the hell he likes. But don’t pretend to make a statement against porn with a piece of voyeuristic and pornographic crap like 8MM. He’s not fooling anybody.

Twin Falls Idaho (review)

Though Twin Falls Idaho falters just a tad near the end into a bit of melodrama, for the most part it is free of emotional manipulation, asking us merely to accept Blake and Francis as they are and recognize how they are mostly just like everyone else. Beautifully shot, beautifully scripted, beautifully performed, this is the debut of triple-whammy film talent — writing, directing, and acting — in Michael and Mark Polish.