drvxd Reviews

Rollerball (2002)

Not quite as bad as I expected

[2 January 2004]

But still pretty dire. First off, I'll make it clear that I'm a long-time fan of the 1975 James Caan version so I may be biased by that. This movie seems to have missed the point of the whole story - we get lots of glitz and violence, and none of the social comment of the original. Even Jean Reno can't save this from the bargin bins - only bother seeing this if there's nothing else on TV and you don't have any paint to watch dry...

Payne (1999)

No redeeming features whatsoever.

[6 September 2002]

Really. None. A poor rip-off of Fawlty Towers but without the charm (or the Cleese) of the original. It's a testament to bad taste that more than one episode was made. If you see this in the listings, do yourself a favour and avoid it like the (bubonic) plague - you can use the time to pull your fingernails out instead (it'll be more enjoyable).

The Dinosaur Hunter (2000 TV Movie)

One for the "Saturday Morning Picture Show"

[7/10 · 17 February 2002]

This is the sort of movie kids would loved to have seen at the saturday morning picture show thirty years ago. A nice adventure featuring a couple of young kids - enjoyable family fare. Add in a dinosaur for some "post-Jurrasic Park" credibility. I'm not sure what an actor of Plummer's calibre is doing in there, but the story is the thing here. Good drama, happy ending, nicely executed. Not a cinematic classic, and I doubt I'd go out of my way to rent it, but it'll babysit a ten year old for an hour and a bit.

The Right Stuff (1983)

Fabulous

[10/10 · 9 February 2002]

Awesome. One of those movies that I can see time and again, yet each time I enjoy it as much as the first time I saw it. Fantastic cast, great music, brilliant script. Just the right combination of drama and humour - the sequence during which Al Shepard (played wonderfully by Scott Glenn) wants to relieve himself sitting atop Freedom 7, whilst the film cuts to images of the fire hose, the pouring coffee, the water cooler etc. is one of my all time favourites.

My only real criticism of the movie is the treatment of Grissom and the explosive hatch incident - the movie leaves it looking like it was Grissom's fault - but it has by now been well documented that it was indeed a malfunction.