(On TV, June 2000) I was prepared for the worst -what with Robin Williams in a remake of a Disney kid’s movie with cute special effects- but was finally entertained decently by this film. As long as you focus on the sight gags, the good special effects and never worry too much about the dumb plotting, saccharine moments and out-of-place adult elements in a kid’s film.
(On TV, June 2000) What armchair sports fan hasn’t said to himself “Hey, I could coach that team!”? Eddie plays heavily on this wish-fulfilment fantasy by throwing uberfan Whoppie Goldberg as the coach of the New York Knicks. Pretty much everything you could expect from this premise actually happens: The players gradually coming to accept the coach, the increasing tensions between coach and owner, the last climactic game, yada-yada-yada. Goldberg rescues the film from complete worthlessness. Terribly manipulative, not exceptionally funny, but hey, it’ll do one Sunday evening when there’s no real basketball on TV.
(In theaters, June 2000) Every self-respecting Wallace And Gromit fan only needed to know that Nick Park was doing Chicken Run in order to rush out and see the film. Great news: Chicken Run more than meet the expectations set by Park’s three most famous shorts films. Chicken Run is a constant delight, a comedy with considerable amounts of wit and intelligence, with the added attraction of some fun action sequences. Keep your eyes open for tons of delightful film references. One could easily dwell on the technical prowesses of the film, but the storytelling is so good that it preempts any attempt at a technical analysis. Run, chicken, run!
(Second viewing, On DVD, December 2000) This survives a second viewing admirably well, which is always an achievement for a comedy. The novelty of claymation fades somewhat, and the various character quirks emerge more strongly. I was annoyed at the gratuitous romantic angle, but the script shows how well written it otherwise is. The DVD is a lot of fun, with two making-of features, commentary tracks, various extra as well as three trailers (including the hilarious Gladiator and Mission: Impossible parodies.) Unquestionably one of the best films of 2000.
(On VHS, June 2000) Note to director Paul T. Anderson: You frickin’ show-off. Okay, so you can write and direct a pretty good film about the porn industry in the late seventies/early eighties. Sure, you can coax exceptional performances from your actors. Great, so you can move the camera like a god and make us say “Damn, we’ve found a new auteur!” But next time you do a film, why don’t you remember that brevity is… wit? Why don’t you take another pass at that script, and remove those little scenes that leads nowhere and do nothing? Why don’t you tell your actors to stop playing to the camera? Why don’t you hire a good editor, one who could tighten your self-indulgences to something approaching narrative unity? Do that, and we’ll love you. Otherwise, you’ll get worse and worse, and Magnolia isn’t a step in the right direction. Even geniuses directors need some good direction.
![San ying hung boon sik [Return To A Better Tomorrow] (1994)](https://www.christian-sauve.com/wp-content/uploads//return-to-a-better-tomorrow-1994-200x300.jpg)
(On TV, May 2000) This exemplifies the uncharacteristic weirdness of Hong Kong cinema, where the usual “rules” of Western movies are irrelevant, and where genres might turn on you in an instant. This one starts off as a conventional brothers-against-mafia story with a touch of dark comedy, veers in court drama, becomes full-blown tragedy, skips two years and end in heavy cop drama once again. You won’t be able to predict where it’s going. There are a few good action scenes, but make no mistake, it’s the twists and turns of the plot that will keep you going. Not bad. Not bad at all.
(In theaters, May 2000) As a French-Canadian, this film is more than a pleasant surprise, explicitly featuring a Montreal-area setting as a background to a big-budget dark comedy. Never mind Patricia Arquette’s amateurish French accent; the other details (the house styles, the cars, the Re-Max real estate signs) sell the film. Bruce Willis is in there, practically playing a parody of his hitman character in The Jackal. Amanda Peet bares her chest to the camera and provides most of the film’s charm with her role as a spunky… er… dental assistant. Matthew Perry’s befuddled dentist is the straight core of the film, though his various pratfalls underscore his ability to play the comic role. The script is not without a few problems (what’s about the undercover agent?) but the direction keeps things moving briskly. As with most comedies, this one isn’t a must-see, but fills a slow evening quite decently.
(In theaters, May 2000) This proves again why you can’t go wrong with a Jackie Chan film. Successfully blending action, comedy, buddy-movie and western elements in a fashion that Wild Wild West only dreamed about, Shanghai Noon provides laughs and thrills like the best crowd-pleasers. Chan purists will argue, reasonably, that the film lacks the “big stunts” or the awe-inspiring fights of his previous few films, but that shouldn’t distract the rest of the audience. (After all, Chan is getting older) There are quite a few flaws in the script, from the waste of the “Indian Wife” to the incoherent ending. Still, if it’s fun at the movie you want, Shanghai Noon is there for you.
(On VHS, May 2000) Not everyone likes Chris Tucker and his groovy-young-black routine, but it would take a real curmudgeon not to like Money Talks, as director Brett Ratner so easily capitalizes on the natural loopiness of Tucker for added comic effect beyond the limits of the script. Among the pluses: A pretty good car chase, evil Frenchmen, “That’s Beautiful” “That’s Barry Manilow!”, good chemistry between Tucker and Charlie Sheen, a fun finale and a marriage at the end. It’s a comedy; not a great one, but a good one.
(In theaters, May 2000) Frustrating because it is, at the same time, so bad and so good. The script is one of the sorriest excuse for an “action” film I’ve seen in a blockbuster for a long, long time. Say what you want about Armageddon, at least it had pacing on its side. Not so with Mission: Impossible 2: If the first fifteen minutes are pretty enjoyable, the following hour drags on like molasses, with a complete lack of any action. That dreadful hour is further drawn-out by nauseatingly trite dialogue, obvious “surprises” and bland scripting. But, forty-five minutes before the end, Ethan Hunt finally gets to act like the James-Bond clone he has so obviously become, and only then does Mission: Impossible 2 become a thrill ride. That’s when characters stop speaking and start shooting, all sumptuously directed by John Woo. Slow-Motion bullet ballet, a wonderful motorcycle chase worth the price of admission in itself and a superb hand-combat sequence complete the film. A shame you have to slog through so much… emptiness in order to get to it. Tom Cruise is irreproachable -as is Anthony Hopkins’ cameo- but the rest of the actors get short thrift and Thandie Newton’s character is atrociously written. So much good stuff, so much bad stuff… and Hollywood suddenly asks itself why we think its summer blockbusters suck.
![Jing wu ying xiong [Fist Of Legend] (1994)](https://www.christian-sauve.com/wp-content/uploads//fist-of-legend-1994-200x300.jpg)
(On VHS, May 2000) Given Jet Li’s newfound popularity in America (after Lethal Weapon 4 and Romeo Must Die), it was inevitable that some of his better efforts would find their way here. Fist Of Legend, released On VHS, is the second of them after the theatrically-released Black Mask. If marketers truly knew their stuff, they would have sent Fist Of Legend to the movie-houses and kept Black Mask for the Blockbusters. It’s that good. Martial-arts fans will have their money’s worth with Fist Of Legend, a historical film with plenty of balletic bone-crushing action. It takes a while to get going, the pacing is sufficient to keep us interested throughout, and builds to a pair of awesome fights (including one where both opponents are blindfolded) Fantastically directed, and wonderfully choreographed. A real treat for martial arts enthusiasts.
(On VHS, May 2000) Another of these dark films which throws disturbing images at you while promising a payoff at the end. (See Stir Of Echoes) Unfortunately, it barely delivers on these payoffs, even negating a part of what made it so creepy. Proof? Well, if the ending is to be believed, then at least one whole subplot/timeline (most of the film, actually) does not mean anything and shouldn’t even be there. That’s the point where Jacob’s Ladder stops making sense and becomes a series of images designed to creep you out. Too bad it couldn’t be more coherent, because a slight rewrite could have made it so much more efficient.
(In theaters, May 2000) A nice surprise with a few problems. While the title, packaging and previews would seem to sell a straight historical action film with plenty of fancy fighting set-pieces, Gladiator is really more of an old-fashioned historical epic, with political machinations, romantic interludes and tragic sacrifices. Moreover, the action scenes fail to attain true greatness by an annoying over-reliance on gimmicky special effects. (CGI extensions, sure, but most egregiously the step-printing and the exasperating quick cuts) Director Ridley Scott never provides a shot-to-shot continuity of action, and the film suffers from, basically, a cruel lack of long-shot look at the action. (The opening Roma-versus-Germania battle, fortunately, does so and is much more impressive because of it. But look at the gladiator-versus-chariot fight to see how much more impressive it would have been with a few continuous long shots.) Still, the film thrives on Russell Crowe’s impressive charisma and on a strong heroic arc. A good movie, just short of being great.
(On VHS, May 2000) A film doesn’t have to be original if it does the familiar incredibly well. This is the case with Deep Rising, a wholly average monster-aboard-ship film that goes through exactly the expected motions while being just enough fun that we don’t care. The script is punchy in a trash way, the actors know they’re not doing Shakespeare and the pacing is snappy. Furthermore, the whole thing is so much fun that it’s hard to be disappointed. Not a great film, but one that can be readily re-watched.
(In theaters, May 2000) Mostly innocuous satire about a Scottish hairdresser who somehow tries to hit it big in Hollywood. The pseudo-documentary format doesn’t add a great deal and takes a lot away. Craig Ferguson is charming as the protagonist. There simply isn’t enough hair stuff for a comedy about hair. The finale is curiously underwhelming. There are a few cute bits when the film takes subtle jabs at the acting profession (so the protagonist must have a day’s work in order to join SAG… er… HAG?) Diverting, but not exceptional.
(In theaters, May 2000) I have seldom liked Martin Lawrence’s brand of “comedy” and he miserably fails once again in Big Momma’s House, a totally middle-of-the-road film that seems to exist simply because a vast industry has to turn out films, no matter what. The script is on autopilot, summoning a romance out of no further common affinities but “she’s hot” and “he’s nice”, comedy sequences made “funnier” by the sight of a fat protagonist and saccharine moments so blatantly manipulative that they end up alienating intelligent viewers rather than bringing them closer to the film. Nothing special here, folks. I didn’t pay for my ticket, and I really hope you won’t either.