Reviews »
13 Ghosts (2001) Movie Review
Steve Beck’s “13 Ghosts” is yet another modern “re-imagining” of a classic horror film. There has been a flood of such remakes, probably indicating Hollywood’s inability to hire a decent writer to craft an...
Read More »The Thin Red Line (1998) Movie Review
Liberal Hollywood hates real wars, but adores the hell out of war movies. How else can you explain the sheer bulk of actors, stars and would-be stars, who flock to be a part of...
Read More »Friend (2001) Movie Review
Kyung-taek Kwak’s “Friend” is a memoir, a recollection of memories about 4 friends and their divergent paths from childhood to school to adulthood. The film is narrated by one of the 4 friends, middle-class...
Read More »Purple Storm (1999) Movie Review
In the past few years, there has been a shift in Hong Kong filmmaking towards a more Westernized standard. Films in this group have included Gordon Chan’s 2000 A.D. and Jackie Chan’s The Accidental...
Read More »The Lost Battalion (2001) Movie Review
The A&E original movie, The Lost Battalion comes under the subgenre of Historical Spotlight because it spotlights a point in history that is not very well known, or has been completely forgotten. The 2-hour...
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X-Men (2000) Movie Review
Not many people know this, but the hit-movie Men in Black with Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith actually started life as a comic book, published by an underground comic house. Men in Black...
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Faust: Love of the Damned (2000) Movie Review
Early in Brian Yuzna’s Faust: Love of the Damned, a doctor experimenting in what she calls “music therapy” to cure psychotic patients goes into the room of one of her patients, a mass murderer...
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Musa (2001) Movie Review
“Musa” tells the story of an official government convoy from Korea making its way to Nanjing, China; the convoy is under the leadership of young General Choi (Jin-mo Ju), a nobleman with a lot...
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Out of Sight (1998) Movie Review
The funny thing about Steven Soderbergh’s 1998 movie Out of Sight isn’t that it looks like a warm-up to Soderbergh’s 2001 movie Ocean’s 11, but that Out of Sight is actually a romance dressed...
Read More »Focus (2001) Movie Review
It’s hard to believe now, but back in the ’40s (and even earlier), the Jewish population around the world was actually looked on unfavorably and with great suspicion. This may account for their usage...
Read More »Wing Chun (1994) Movie Review
Some day someone will do a serious study of woman’s roles in Ancient China, but until then, we have Yuen Woo-ping’s Wing Chun to keep us busy. Wing Chun stars action mistress Michelle Yeoh...
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Malena (2000) Movie Review
Malena takes place in the 1940s, as Italy gears up for war with the Allied nations, confident in its superiority and in its righteousness. The film stars the beautiful Italian actress Monica Belluci (Brotherhood...
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Blade (1998) Movie Review
The new trend for horror films, or movies dealing with the traditional creatures of horror films (vampires, werewolves, monsters, etc.) has been, for the last decade or so, to find a new “twist” to...
Read More »Plunkett and Macleane (1999) Movie Review
Jake Scott, the director of Plunkett and Macleane, is the son of director Ridley Scott (Gladiator and Black Hawk Down), and this may explain why he, a young man without much of a resume,...
Read More »Once Upon a Time in China and America (1997) Movie Review
As was the case with the original Once Upon a Time in China (heretofore known as OUATIC) I don’t expect a lot of historical accuracies in Chinese movies dealing with the “outside world.” It’s...
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Paranoid (2000) Movie Review
Like some people I know, some movies think they’re more interesting than they really are. This is the case with John Duigan’s Paranoid. Paranoid stars Jessica Alba (TV’s “Dark Angel”) as Chloe, an up-and-coming...
Read More »Gen-X Cops (1999) Movie Review
At one dangerous point in Benny Chan’s Gen-X Cops, the movie’s 3 protagonists, all undercover cops, find themselves surrounded by men with guns aimed at their heads. One of the cops, thinking fast, grabs...
Read More »Sorum (2001) Movie Review
I was hesitant to watch Sorum, simply because I’ve seen too many Asian horror films that just didn’t, well, horrify me all that much. The Slow Bore Horror genre, in particular, is wearing thin,...
Read More »One Hour Photo (2002) Movie Review
Photos are curious things. I don’t particularly go out of my way to take photos, but when I do take them I sometimes (and I believe most of us do this) act “happier” than...
Read More »Resident Evil (2002) Movie Review
I once played Resident Evil 2, the sequel to the original Resident Evil, on a Playstation for 8 hours straight, completely obsessed with beating it. I did finally beat the game, and had some...
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