A thriller, of a sort, submerged unthrillingly in a swamp of history, Faustian mythology, religion, zoology. An undercover Hungarian cop, assigned to shadow an imperilled Russian chess master, is armed with seven magic bullets from the Devil, each of them pre-programmed to hit its mark, excepting the seventh, whose target …
Well, something in the water. It glows. It eats the creme filling from Oreo cookies. It bonds with a vacationing little girl whose father neglects her. It awakens the inner child in her workaholic father. It's Orky! -- the Canadian cousin of the Loch Ness Monster, or of Willy the …
Kevin Smith, while keeping the one-day duration of Clerks, has expanded his scope from convenience store to shopping mall, and has expanded his target audience from select art houses to major-chain multiplexes. Some of the details remain "esoteric" (i.e., some of the language and allusions remain encrypted), but the thing …
Stephen King fairy tale about a demon-possessed speed ironer at an industrial laundry in (where else?) Maine. And visualized by Tobe Hooper with Terry Gilliam-esque fulsomeness. Quite accomplished, if you care for that sort of thing. Ted Levine, Robert Englund, Daniel Matmor.
Gamy commercial comedy from Germany, revolving around a pretty-boy photographer who is catnip equally to the opposite sex and the same sex. His girlfriend, for very good cause, banishes him from their apartment before she knows she is pregnant; by then he's roommates with a gay guy. Insufficient laughs to …
The relationship thing. Old marrieds, new marrieds, engaged-to-be-marrieds. Kicked around in dialogue that seems to have an ear cocked for a laugh track ("He's still the most charming man I've ever met. I just can't stand to be with him right now" and "Fifty percent of all marriages end in …
Trashy fun abounds in this above-average big screen telenovela that introduced the world to Salma Hayek. (Her breakout performance is as assured a calling card as any left on film.) The multi-character narrative comes split into four consecutive chapters, with the individual threads all commencing at one location, at the …
Light diversion from Woody Allen. The topic of adoption might momentarily quicken the pulses of critics of a biographical-psychological bent. (Mia Farrow reference. ) But the movie doesn't really hit its stride till it ventures outside the family nucleus, as the distinctly unathletic New York sportswriter (Allen), fretting about the …
Gerber's Strained Sci-Fi. Six superhuman teenage martial artists interrupt a day of sky diving and roller blading to save the world from a "morphological being" by the name of Ivan Ooze. If you can stay in your seat for forty-five minutes, you may have the pleasure of meeting Dulcea (Gabrielle …
Though Claude Lelouch may appear at first blush to be riding on Victor Hugo's coattails, that's precisely what he's not doing. This is no straight adaptation of the novel (much less an adaptation of the stage musical) nor even a simple update of it. For sure, there are correspondences between …
Wesley and Woody (Snipes and Harrelson), together again, as cop partners, foster brothers, comedy team, romantic rivals, and eventually robber partners (aboard an armored subway car). And most of all, and at all times, fellow ego-trippers. With Robert Blake, Jennifer Lopez, and Chris Cooper; directed by Joseph Ruben.
Exactly what one would have wanted from the director of Women from the Lake of Scented Souls, Xie Fei. An honest tearjerker; wise to the cumulative burdens of life; nothing overstated; acres and acres of discretion; an almost pantheistic reverence for the natural world, and in particular a trusty black …
Roberto Benigni, the silent-style clown of Johnny Stecchino, has had his identity mistaken again, this time as a serial sex killer, occasion for a brutal spree of visual blue jokes. He still, of course, looks funny, and moves funny, but he writes and directs unfunny. With Nicoletta Braschi, Michel Blanc, …
The month of May, 1937, to be precise, by the lake of Como. Two holidaying Brits, an old major and an old maid, in a leisurely mating game. Well played by Edward Fox and Vanessa Redgrave, but a frightful bore. From a novella by H. E. Bates; with Uma Thurman …
Sister, stepmother, and neighbor form the support group around a sudden widow ("I just realized," she announces upon her return home from the hospital, "that now I am the 'W' word"), and the ensuing hen party is invaded but briefly by a solitary cock: rock star Jon Bon Jovi in …