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Mustang_Ed
Reviews
Sports Night (1998)
Loved watching the DVD Complete series
My wife and I gave each other the "Sports Night" DVD that includes the complete series from the two seasons for Christmas. We enjoyed watching the 45 episodes over the course of a number of evenings. The writing is witty and fast paced. Good comedic acting. Too bad the series only lasted two seasons. "Sports Night" is a gem!
Holiday Heart (2000)
Fun watching Ving Rhames' walk on the wild side!
Remember Lou Reed's classic "Walk on the Wild Side"? Ving Rhames' portrayal of a gay female impersonator reminded me of that song.
It was fun to have a movie take us into the life of a character who is so different than the characters usually played by the male lead.
The opening scenes of the funeral service for Ving's lover/domestic partner are tragic comic. I laughed out loud but got a lump in my throat at the same time.
Alfre Woodard is great as a hopelessly drug addicted mother. I felt anger, disgust, and sympathy for her character.
Gladiator (2000)
Too Long!
We're not big fans of this genre but we enjoyed the special effects of the war scenes. I remember Spartacus as being better written and acted. But my wife's and my biggest criticism is that Gladiator is just too long. When Gladiator ended, we and others we overheard in the audience were really happy to get up and leave. We went to see Gladiator because it was so highly rated (8.4!) by the participants in this great website (IMDb) and because we wanted to see Meg Ryan's new love, Russell Crowe, in the starring role for which he has won praise for his acting. Because of the length of the movie, we came away wanting less. Save it for a rainy day and video when you have a lot of time to kill. (But you better have a big t.v. screen so you can appreciate the action). We rated Gladiator as a 4 on a scale of 1 to 10.
Sliding Doors (1998)
We are shown via simultaneously running plots how a young woman's life is dramatically changed by a split second happenstance.
"Sliding Doors" uses simultaneously running plots to show how a young woman's life is dramatically changed by a split second happenstance that causes her in one story line to catch her subway train by barely squeezing through the sliding doors and in the other story line to just miss her train.
We, the audience, are brought into the film because virtually everyone of us can not resist the "only what if" questions that have occurred in our own lives.
The fun of "Sliding Doors" for my wife and I, was watching the personality changes Gwyneth Paltro's character(s) goes through in each plot line knowing that what's happening to her and the changes that occur within her, like her self worth, are happening because of a chance occurrence that some might call fate.
After viewing "Sliding Doors", my wife and I then discussed the issue of whether or not one's own character, imprinted upon us by our genes and molded by parents, teachers, and experiences throughout our childhood, is such a determining factor that our character overcomes the chance mishaps that may misdirect us from fulfilling our destiny.
We are challenged by the age old and unresolved question! Do we each have our very own free will to determine our own fate, or is our fate sealed before we are born by the billions of predetermined factors that channel our lives through an incomprehensible maze, from birth to grave, as if we were mere data, manipulated by the master computer program created by the master programmer himself?
A poem that presents us with an interesting argument from one side of this debate:
"One ship drives East and one drives West, With the self-same winds that blow. 'Tis the set of the sails and not the gales Which tells us the way to go.
Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate, As we voyage along through life. 'Tis the set of the soul that decides its goal, And not the calm or the strife."
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
My interpretation: The winds of the sea are used as a metaphor for fate. You and I, my friend, can determine our own direction by how we set the sails of our own souls.
Of course, I know many intelligent people of good will disagree with my answer to the question. And that's all right.
Could the pure chance of reading my silly little unimportant review change your life's direction?
The journey you must embark upon to answer that question is what makes "Sliding Doors" a movie worth seeing.