beachguy64 Reviews

The Bone Collector (1999)

Those meddling screenwriters !

[24 March 2000]

After watching this movie, I immediately went to the user comments to find out if the plot in the book had been changed for the movie. I see that it had.

This film is an edge-of-your-seat thriller. Denzel and Angelina are excellent together and are very believable in their roles. The movie is paced nicely and draws you in. So, what's with the ending ??? When the killer makes himself known, I was immediately reminded of those Scooby Doo episodes, where the criminal fills in the plot holes when he is captured. I had a hard time believing that a thriller writer as well known as Jeffrey Deaver would have come up with an ending like this.

This would have been an excellent film if it wasn't for those meddling screenwriters !

Can't Hardly Wait (1998)

Can't Hardly Wait til its over

[22 March 2000]

OK -- I'll be honest. I'm not a teenager and its been years since I've been one. But, I know a good teen comedy when I see one and this isn't one of them. Hollywood knows how to make a great teen comedy. The 80's brought us such classics as Sixteen Candles, Fast Times, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, etc. The 90's has produced a few classics as well, including Empire Records, Clueless and American Pie. Can't Hardly Wait was painful to sit through. It has a truly capable cast, including such emerging stars as Jennifer Love Hewitt, Seth Green and Ethan Embry. But the movie falters because of a tired storyline, vapid dialogue and poor characterizations. The plot is simple - its the last day of highschool graduation and everyone is excited to attend a house party. The jock has dumped his girlfriend (Hewitt) so that he is free to date college girls that will be flocking all over him; the nerd is plotting to publicly embarass the jock for all of the humiliation inflicted on him during the year; the all around cool guy (Embry) wants to finally ask out his dream girl, who happens to be the same girl dumped by the jock. Nothing turns out as planned -- the jock finds out he'll be a nobody in college and wants Hewitt back; the nerd gets drunk and becomes the life of the party; Hewitt mistakenly reads a love letter from Embry, but doesn't know who he is. Seth Green is convincing as an annoying rap star wannabe who's smitten by the class pessimist after being locked in a bathroom together.

The dialogue is so ridiculous and the jokes so flat that I kept fast forwarding through. I probably watched in total about 30 minutes of this 90 minute film, and feel I followed the story lines enough to not miss anything important. A truly awful movie -- don't waste your time !

Detroit 9000 (1973)

Aside from the dated phrases, clothes and music this could be the present.

[8 March 2000]

As a huge fan of 70's action movies, I was looking forward to seeing this, especially since it has Quentin Tarantino's endorsement. I was expecting another campy blaxploitation movie, but was very surprised that this was not the case. The film explores the politics and race relations in Detroit in the early 70's, using the repercussions of an armed robbery of a political fundraiser as a backdrop.

Aside from the funky music and 70's fashion, and to a certain extent the dialogue, this could easily be any urban area in the 90's. The media is portrayed as eager to turn this high-profile crime into a racially-motivated crime. The cops are shown as being under pressure from all sides to solve the case quickly.

As the investigation unravels, the viewer finds out that not everyone is who they seem to be. And although the end of the film is somewhat predictable, it is still entertaining.

Some of the dialogue is typical camp, and some of the acting is wooden, but the one major complaint I have with this movie is the chase scenes that are shown in immediate succession. Its almost as if the writers thought to pad the drama with some action as an afterthought. Overall, though I was very suprised by this film and the issues it attempts to address.