AvidClimber

Traffic is a solid drama by Steven Soderbergh that's all about the drug war an its real life futility. The scenario is a nice mesh of stories that are captivating with lots of drama, some excellent action, a bit of intrigue, and some suspense.

The acting is uniformly great for this star studded cast. Here are those that truly distinguished themselves: Benicio Del Toro, Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Erika Christensen, and Don Cheadle. They admirably portrayed the main characters.

In secondary roles, I also liked Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, and Luis Guzmán. In an uncredited and very small part, you can briefly see the beautiful Salma Hayek.

A must see, unless you don't like tough movies.

Runaway Jury is not well known by the general public, but a gem nonetheless.

The good. Engrossing story with nice twists to the plot. Great suspense with a slow developing intrigue. Imaginative and smart scenario. The main characters have a lot of depth. Solid photography, camera work, editing, and score.

The actors. John Cusack and Rachel Weisz both are just right as the young intelligent and dedicated puppeteers. Gene Hackman once again plays a despicable persona and manages not to over do it making the result very believable. Dustin Hoffman plays brilliantly the lawyer with a social conscience, one of his best, if very simple, role. Playing secondary characters, Bruce McGill, Jeremy Piven, and Bruce Davison have given us very commendable performance.

The bad. One or two minor logical flaws, but that's it.

The ugly. Nothing.

The result. A surprisingly entertaining legal battle. For everyone.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day is the superb sequel by James Cameron of the original cyberpunk movie, The Terminator.

The good. Slick polish to the production. Tons of superb action. Great liquid metal special effect. Gripping score. Riveting story that just won't let you go. Imaginative background and settings, just like the first one. Tight suspense. Attention grabbing intro with some laughs. Absolutely perfect ending. A few funny scenes, with the best line of the film being: "I need a vacation." Hilarious. Great acting on the part of all the cast.

The actors. By that time, Arnold Schwarzenegger had acquired enough polish to really give some dimension to his machine role, especially one who can learn. Linda Hamilton shed off some of her beauty to better portray an action role, and she did great being finally mature as an actress. Edward Furlong was perfect and very natural as the young John Connor even if it wasn't probably very far from who he was at the time. Robert Patrick played his role so well, that it took years for him to shake it up and play any other with credibility.

The bad. A few minor logical flaws and awkward projection screen, but that's it!

The ugly. Nothing.

The result. A sci-fi masterpiece. A must for everyone.

Personal note. I went to see it without knowing any details of the plot. It was quite a surprise.