Change Your Image
katpbennett
Reviews
Along Came a Spider (2001)
A serious plot flaw in an otherwise good story.
uglykidmatt hit it right on the nose. Not only does Monica Potter sound like Julia Roberts, she could pass for her sister!
I was really enjoying this film. The story was intriguing and very tight. However, there's a major plot flaw with this film. Just how did the bad guys (I won't give 'em away here) manage to KNOW the kidnapper was going to kidnap who he did when he did? Just knowing that they'd kept tabs on the guy ain't enough. It's too bad; this film has a lot going for it, otherwise.
It's worth watching, but I wish the writer had stepped back and looked at the plot a bit more logically. A wee bit tighter and it could go down as a classic.
Monolith (1993)
A great movie for getting other things done around the house.
The reference to Starsky & Hutch by another viewer is brilliant. This movie has no story, but, instead, seems to have been pieced together with bits and pieces pulled from Hollywood's vast supply of garbage cans. Bill Paxton does his usual out-of-control-but-I'm-really-hurtin'-inside schtick. Lindsay Frost's hair stays miraculously manageable, despite her being blown into a pool, shot at on a high-rise terrace, and (why do they subject us to this schlock?) diving into sewage. Both actors serve as the other's straight-man to hackneyed one-liners that are as predictable as the victims. Just who or what this alien with eyeballs that shoot fireballs is... or wants... is never explained, nor do we have any idea what the goon scientists have been doing with/at it all these years. I paid 20 cents for the video of this film on the streets of Seoul. I think I was ripped off.
War Party (1988)
Predictable, but worth watching.
Pretty well-written and well-directed. The plot has holes, and there are the stereo-typical Caucasian jerks one expects to find in a story involving racial tension between two cultures. However, despite its failings, this film has a refreshing quality to it. The dialog is far more natural than one usually finds, and the characters mostly behave the way people really behave... mostly. Predictable? Yes, but I've seen far worse.
The Tripods (1984)
Gripping and well-written
I saw this series when it first came out, and I was hooked! I arranged my schedule each week, to make sure I wouldn't miss an episode. It was riveting and menacing and sinister. My only complaint was that the series seemed to peter out at the end. Perhaps PBS in the USA simply stopped running the series. I really wanted some closure, some final battle in which the evil tripods were defeated, once and for all! It's really well done and very well written... worth watching, if you can ever find it (in the US, anyway).
Dark Angel (2000)
A terrible waste of a good idea.
The opening to this pilot was great; it had intrigue, suspense, a bunch of persecuted kids you could come to care about. But, as soon as Jessica Alba is on-screen, this thing has MADE FOR TV written all over it, and mediocre at that. The people are just too coiffed, too smart-mouthed, too slick, too cliche.
The dialog is trite, and most of the actors, including Alba, mumble like they've got marbles in their mouths. It's a terrible waste of a good idea, and a waste of John Savage's talents.
The overlying scenario of a magnetic pulse that could wipe out all binary information, thereby throwing the planet into chaos and economic distress, was believable. It's too bad the characters were so unbelievable.
If it became a series, I'd give it a miss.
The Last Seduction (1994)
A tight story and fine performances.
Excellent writing. The main characters are not likeable at all, with the exception of poor Mike. Bill Pullman is fabulous and Linda Fiorentino gives her best performance ever. This would make a killer double-feature with Body Heat!
Jock of the Bushveld (1995)
A fine man-and-his-dog film.
If you read the first user comment, forget it. At no time does this film take place in Ireland. It takes place entirely in the bushveld of South Africa. Animal violence, why, yes there is some. Guess what, folks, it's Africa. It might be a bit short of drama, but the movie is a fine man-and-his-dog story, based on Sir Percy Fitzpatrick's own novel. It's an interesting depiction of the hard work of transporters in the days following the gold rush. Jock is a fine dog, with all the moxy and strength typical of bull terriers, and there's enough good African scenery to make you forget the almost vapid love story.