Monthly Archives: June 1997

Face/Off - * * * 1/2*

It is not often that you encounter an action film that can actually challenge its actors (not counting featherbrained musclemen, of course). And it isn’t often that you get strong performances, either. Yet, both of those are true for Face/Off, … Continue reading

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My Best Friend’s Wedding - * * *

People bursting out in song. It’s not the sort of thing that you expect in a non-musical, yet it happens quite often in My Best Friend’s Wedding, and exemplifies the type of movie that it is: Light and frothy, enjoyable … Continue reading

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Batman & Robin - * *

Batman is back, this time not only saddled with Robin, but Batgirl as well, and facing some of the series’ most lightweight villains to date. Unfortunately, the caped crusader gets no help this time from the filmmakers. A truly awful … Continue reading

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Hercules - * * *

Disney’s latest animated adventure has plenty of flaws, but a solid sense of humor and an excellent villainous performance save the show. As has been the custom with Disney’s most recent cartoons, Hercules deviates wildly from its source material. In … Continue reading

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Ulee’s Gold - * * 1/2*

Peter Fonda’s good performance is the star of this otherwise slow moving drama about a man’s struggle to draw his family together amid adversity. Fonda portrays Ulee Jackson (short for Ulysses), a widowed beekeeper who is raising his two granddaughters … Continue reading

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Speed 2: Cruise Control - *

There’s a memorable moment in Jurassic Park where Jeff Goldblum as Ian Malcolm cautions “your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” While he was talking about genetic tampering, … Continue reading

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The Pillow Book - * 1/2*

Director Peter Greenaway has created a film with plenty to look at, but no sense of where it is going. It’s like watching a pretty car spin wildly out of control. Vivian Wu stars as Nagiko, a Japanese woman who, … Continue reading

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Con Air - * * 1/2*

Con Air introduces, then fails to exploit, the largest collection of onscreen villains since the Legion of Doom. Instead, we are treated to a run of the mill plane hijacking, and more explosions and climactic fights than I’d care to … Continue reading

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Buddy - * 1/2*

Hollywood just can’t escape the man in the gorilla suit, no matter how grateful the rest of the world would be. The latest film to fall victim to this evil menace is Buddy, a children’s film that purports to examine … Continue reading

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