Title: Independence Day
Year: 1996, Color
Run Time:
Genre/Sub/Mix: Science Fiction, Action
Era: Modern
Grade Catagory: Big Budget
Cast: Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch, Randy Quaid
Director:
Plot: An alien race comes to earth. Their sole reason, extinction of the human species. We fight
back, and July 4th becomes a world holiday.
Critique: Absolutly incredible. Lots of fun and excitement. Fantastic special effects. Great story
and good acting. The only problem is that the planet earth was a little too lucky.
Components:
PC: 9.3 (A)
CA: 9.0 (A-)
MS: 8.8 (B+)
DE: 9.5 (A)
CS: 9.8 (A+)
Critical Grade: 9.3 (A)
Final Word: Go see it. I haven t felt like this since I saw Jurassic Park. Look for a cameo by
Brent Spiner as a show stealing "Mad" Scientist.
Final Grade: A
Title: Judge Dread
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Diane Lane, Armand Assante, Rob Schneider and Max Von Sydow
Director: Danny Cannon
Genre: Science Fiction
Plot: The comic book adventure of future earth comes alive, as the earth has been plunged into a
post-apocalyptic world, in which, the police have the power of arresting officer, judge, jury, and
executioner. One heroic future cop named Judge Dread (Stallone) has been framed by an evil ex-Judge (Assante), and Dread has to fight his way back, to prove his innocence. He is aided by an
ex-con (Schneider), another beautiful Judge (Lane) and the commisioner, and adoptive father-type
(Von Sydow).
Critique: The film did have the apocalyptic feel, as well as the campiness of the comic book.
Von Sydow as usual does a good job. Set design, special effects are very good.
Bad Points: The film is slow paced and predictable, and even some of the action scenes fall flat.
The rest of the acting stinks.
Final Comment: It does not have the impact or the intellegence to keep people interested in what
will happen. That problem will create a feeling in people thet the story is weak, and it really is
not. The story is actually interesting. I will just barely recomend the film because of its
spectacular effects, models and set design. Do not look for good acting. However, do clap for
Von Sydow, because he does do a good job.
Grade: C
Title: Kingpin
Year: 1996, Color
Run Time:
Genre/Sub/Mix: Comedy
Era: Modern
Grade Catagory: Big Budget ($27 Million)
Cast: Woody Harrelson, Randy Quaid, Bill Murray and Vanessa Angel
Director: Peter and Bobby Farrelly
Plot: A young bowling champ (Harrelson) is swindled by a con-man bowler (Murray), and the result is his hand sawed off by the angry mob. Many years later the young bowler is now a washed up loser living in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He meets an amish kid (Quaid) who really shows promise as a bowler and enlists his aid in possibly winning a million dollors in a bowling contest. Along the way they run into a beautiful woman (Angel), who becomes part of their team.
Critique: The movie is very funny. The bad humor, and I mean that nicely is very subtle, and not overly gross because of that. I laughed a lot. The acting is fine although Murray may have over-acted a little. The treatment of the Amish in the film is cruel but I think it helps to remind us how ignorant we are about the Amish and their ways.
Components:
PC: 9.1 (A-)
CA: 9.0 (A-)
MS: 8.7 (B+)
DE: 8.6 (B+)
CS: 8.0 (B-)
Critical Grade: 8.7 (B+)
Final Word: If you can be opened minded about this film, you can thoroughly enjoy it. It is a lot of fun for adults. Try to understand that the Amish are not remotely like that.
Final Grade: B+
Title: Mission Impossible
Year: 1996, Color
Run Time: 121 minutes
Genre\Sub\Mix: Action, Suspence, Espionage
Era: Modern Era
Grade Catagory: Big Budget
Cast: Tom Cruise, Jon Voight and Vanessa Redgrave
Director: Brian De Palma
Plot: Let me see if I get this right. Cruise is a secret agent. His team is ambushed in Europe,
and he himself is called a spy by his boss. Cruise than has to figure out who ambushed his team,
killed his mentor (Voight), and see who taged him the enemy. He also needs to steal a list of spy
codes for a woman with no name, and keep from getting himself killed. The plot thickens, and
dead people pop up all over the place, as he fights to clear his name.
Critique: There is plenty of suspense in the film, There is some great cinematography, and use of
sound (or absense of sound). The special effects are great, and every action scene is a thrill ride.
The acting of Cruise and the rest of the cast is perfect. The plot is the problem. Too much
second guessing for the characters and especially the audience. The plot was confusing, with too
many questions at the end. The film is hills and valleys between action and non-action, and has a
weak pace to it. I had fun, but when the film took me to my seat, it than dropped me like a ton
of bricks, and I sat there looking for more.
Components:
PC: 6.8 (C-)
CA: 9.1 (A-)
MS: 8.5 (B+)
DE: 8.1 (B)
CS: 9.5 (A)
Critical Grade: 8.4 (B)
Final Word: This is not the best that DePalma can do. His greatest feat was the "Untouchables",
which blows this film out of the water. I understand he had some conflicts with Cruise and maybe
this threw his pacing off. However, the film is still fun to watch, and if you fiqure out what the
hell is going on you will have fun with it too. See Emilio Estevez in an uncredited roll as part of
Cruise s spy team.
Final Grade: B
Title: Multiplicity
Year: 1996, Color
Run Time:
Genre/Sub/Mix: Comedy
Era: Modern
Grade Catagory: Big Budget
Cast: Michael Keaton and Andie MacDowell
Director: Harold Ramis
Plot: Doug (Keaton), a construction worker with a family finds that his busy life is too busy and
he needs to find a way to make his life easier. One day, he is doing construction work for a
research center, and he meets a scientists who "can make miracles happen." Doug aggrees to
have himself cloned so that his clone can handle work and he can take a vacation. He also has to
deal with his wife(MacDowell) and kids, and that is too much also, so he has himself cloned again
and clone #3 becomes the babysitter. However, each clone carries separate personality
characteristics of the original Keaton character. Clone #2 is the angry one and clone #3 is the
feminine side of the Keaton character. They make a blunder and create clone #4 from clone #2,
and well chaos resumes.
Critique: The film is very funny. Lots of fun. Keaton shows again that he is a genius and he
really can handle different personalities. MacDowell is fine but she is almost a carbon copy of the
character she played in "Ground Hog Day". All the supporting characters, like John DeLancey
are very good. I had a good time.
Components:
PC: 9.0 (A-)
CA: 9.2 (A-)
MS: 8.0 (B-)
DE: 8.4 (B)
CS: 8.9 (A-)
Critical Grade: 8.7 (B+)
Final Word: This film is funny, and enjoyable. The four different Keatons work together in a
scene, and are believable. If Ramis could find a better use for MacDowell, and something more
original for her I would have liked her more. There were some slight editing problems.
Final Grade: B+
Title: Nutty Professor
Year: 1996, Color
Run Time:
Genre/Sub/Mix: Comedy
Era: Modern
Grade Catagory: Big Budget
Cast: Eddie Murphy and Jada Pinkett
Director: Tom Shadyac
Plot: An obese proffesor named Klump (Murphy) gets pushed too far by fat jokes, and decides to
take action by creating a cure for obecity. His cure works but only temporary and instead of
creating a thin man he creates a Mr Hyde playboy who wreaks havoc all over town. The woman
of his desires (Pinkett) creates all kinds of misconceptions about the thin man and Klump which in
turn makes the situation even harder for the proffesor.
Critique: This film will help rejuvinate Murphy s career, but he still will need help. His acting
and role playing is still perfect. He plays eight different roles in the film. The story is funny but
the humor starts to feel over done. Fart jokes become old and the Mr Hyde entity is too out of
control. However, overall it is a fun film.
Components:
PC: 8.7 (B+)
CA: 8.9 (A-)
MS: 8.0 (B-)
DE: 8.4 (B)
CS: 6.9 (C)
Critical Grade: 8.2 (B)
Final Word: If you can take an out of control Murphy and overplayed humor than this is the film
to see. Murphy fans can be glad to see that he may be returning to greatness.
Final Grade: B
Title: Phenomenon
Year: 1996, Color
Run Time:
Genre/Sub/Mix: Drama
Era: Modern
Grade Catagory: Big Budget
Cast: John Travolta, Robert Duvall, Forest Whitaker, and Kyra Sedgwick
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Plot: George Malley (Travolta) becomes a witness to a strange light, and once he awakes from the
sudden shock of the experience he relizes that he is not the same guy he once was. His mind is
opened up to a higher level of consciousness and he becomes a genius. His doctor and his freind
(Duvall and Whitaker), as well as the rest of the town notice the change. The girl of his desires
(Sedgwick) and most people just think it is George acting strange, but once he saves the life of a
young boy, the townspeople than turn questions into fear.
Critique: Travolta has turned his career into an empire, and his acting could not be better. You
really learn to love his character. Everyone else in the film is great also. Wonderful look to the
film, and direction is great.
Components:
PC: 8.5 (B+)
CA: 9.5 (A)
MS: 8.3 (B)
DE: 9.1 (A-)
CS: 9.1 (A-)
Critical Grade: 8.9 (A-)
Final Word: It is a very good film. A little slow in some places. The story is well defined and
you will be in for a startling surprise.
Final Grade: A-
Title: Pocahontas
Year: 1995, Color
Run Time:
Starring: Voices of: Mel Gibson, Irene Bedard and David Ogden Stiers
Director: Mike Gabriel
Genre: Animated
Plot: This Disney family adventure tries to explain the facts between the relationship that occured
be-tween the beautiful indian princess Pocahontas (Bedard) and the British colonist John Smith
(Gibson). When the ship lands at the new world, cultures between the colonists and the indians
immediatly collide. When the indian chief, who is the father of Pocahontas, declares war against
the greedy English, Smith is caught in the middle and Pocahontas has to save his life. They also
fall in love.
Critique: There is a deffinate lesson here for chidren about the way indians were like. Also,
it explains how prejudice can be very harmful. The story is good. It does have the typical sad
Disney ending.
This is no Lion King. The film is slow paced. The music is dull. The overall film
does not match the normal fun-loving standards of a Disney film. I was also told by a third grade
teacher that Pocahontas was thirteen when she met Smith, so I question the historical accuracy of
the film. I was upset about this film.
Components:
PC:
CA:
MS:
DE:
CS:
Critical Grade: C
Final Comment: The film did not possess the magic of the normal Disney film. Even the color
seemed a little bland, and the fluid motion witnessed in "Lion King" and classics like "Pinnocio"
was not evident. It is entertaining for kids and there are some very funny parts in the film. I
worry about the historical significance for children, but I do not really want to use that in my
judgement of the film until I can do some research on this subject. It is an average animated film.
A poor Disney creation.
Grade: C