Raymond's Movie Reviews

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Lara Croft Tomb Raider

The movie rocks, period. It captures the spirit of the game, radiates the Lara Croft attitude, and spins a surprisingly coherent, interesting tale.

Construct the movie in your mind. Start with Raiders of the Lost Arc, replace the tongue in cheek humor with the cool, edgy style of Mission Impossible; swap Indy with Sara Connor from T2 (yes, Angelina Jolie worked out hard for this movie); replace the Matrix and Crouching Tiger style special effects with the sophisticated moves of Catherine Zeta-Jones in Entrapment, and you've got Tomb Raider.

Toss out your pre-conceptions about this movie. Except for over-endowed breasts, the movie is surprisingly sexless. Like Saturday morning cartoons, almost no-one gets hurt or killed despite and hour and a half of gun-fighting and kung-fu. The movie is not just aimed at the teenage boys devoted to the game; everyone who enjoyed Indiana Jones will like the ride on this one.

Angelina Jolie dominates the screen and the surrounding cast of shallow, stereotypical characters. She's fun, interesting, and stylish, but there won't be any awards for supporting acts. Angelina rules. Expect her in sequels.

Why it only gets an eight: Raiders and Mission Impossible had killer theme music - This one, well, you won't even be able to hum after the movie. The plot is decently tied together; however, Lara inexplicably rescues an ex-boyfriend who deserves a fiery doom and there is a strange father/daughter theme that fails to resolve in a sensible way.

Look past these minor faults, don't expect deep characters, and be pleasantly surprised at how much fun you get for nine bucks.

Titanic

A poignant fictional romance set against a grandiose, historically accurate background. Four hours will fly by quickly and leave you ready to see it again and again. Perfectly directed, this film is flawless.

Favorite lines:

• A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets -- the heroine.
• You shine up like a new penny -- the unsinkable Molly Brown.

Wag the Dog

Robert DeNiro, Dusting Hoffman and Willie Nelson tease out a thought provoking satire on Hollywood, politics and the news media. Recent events make the presidential philandering premise more than plausible.

On the plus side, the film accurately parodies many memorable moments from the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton years. Most scenes use understated humor and employ an interesting, easy-going style.

On the minus side, any notion of plausibility goes right out the window in one very corny, yet pivotal scene involving the CIA. Even worse, the good natured humor of the film is demolished by the exceptionally harsh treatment of the most sympathetic character and by an unnecessary jaunt into brutality with a supporting character played by Woody Harrelson. These three scenes kill much of the entertainment value and completely take away from the film's "feel good" character.

It's unforntunate, because a little creative writing could have easily repaired these flaws and left a wonderful movie destined to have become a classic in the political satire genre. Your evening would be better spent renting The Candidate starring Robert Redford.

Scream 2

Wow, this one was great. It was sophisticated, scary, funny and well done. Don't go if you can't cope with blood; the body count is high. This sequel was close to perfect in that it recaptured all of the glory of the first without losing its freshness. However, the film won't make sense unless you've seen the original, so head over the video store and make-up for lost time.

If the beginning had matched Scream 1 or if the they had developed the killer's character a little more, then I would have awarded a 10. But hey, I'm picky. All of the acting was first rate. The plot was both intricate and coherent. There was no sex or nudity which is suprising given the genre, the R rating, and the cast of beauties and hunks.

Go see this great parody. It's a fun date movie but be prepared to jump out of you seat. Also, checkout a cool Scream website.

The Postman

This 2 1/2 hour Kevin Cosner movie covers a tremendous dynamic range from touching to maudlin, from thought provoking to downright corny. To roll you own, just mix the grandeur of Dances with Wolves and the worn plot of Waterworld. The sultry female lead role is fascinating but confuses an already incoherent plot.

Ambiguity is a fatal flaw in all forms of art. Tell a joke and people react to the humor. Tell a touching story and they react with their hearts. Randomly mix the two and then you have a problem. You can't laugh at the part which demands respect and you can't respect the part that is plain silly.

Just try to fathom why an evil army of bandits would prefer seeing The Sound of Music rather than a war movie. Try to accept that quotes from Shakespeare are revered like quotes from the bible. And then see if you can be feel patriotic, cynical, and silly all at the same time.

You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll wonder why it seemed like it should have had some meaning.

Tomorrow Never Dies

The best bond film ever!

The opening sequence captures the James Bond spirit. The introductory credit sequence tapped all of the talent of modern digit image technology. The rest has everything you would expect from a bond film: cool gadgets, debonair suits, beautiful women, corny one-liners, over-muscled and over-financed super bad guys, and some great chase scenes.

Bond's Chinese female counterpart is part beauty queen and part Jackie Chan. Her role is a sophisticated female lead with brains, saavy and a nasty rabbit punch.

Pure fun. I recommend it highly; unless you heart can't take lots of action.

The PeaceMaker

With a combination of action, adventure, and mystery, this is a fun movie falling in the same category as Mission Impossible and Patriot Games.

The basic plot is simple enough; terrorists steal nuclear bombs and the good guys try to find and stop them.

I was amazed by how well the movie reflected reality. The detectors they use in the helicopters are real. A train robbery is the most vulnerable point in weapon security. The U.S. does have a team, headed by a woman, to deal with domestic nuclear threats. It other words, the movie hits home.

The screenplay is rich; it covers a lot of territory, geography, cultures, and ideas. It rewards you with a brilliant and poignant insight into the mind of a terrorist. It takes you through the halls of power in the new Soviet republics. Two weaknesses keep it from greatness. First of all, the logic of the movie fails even when you accept its most improbable premises. What is the meaning of the clue "44E"? Is it the bra size of Russian weightlifter, the latitude of Sarajevo, the latitude of Baghdad, or a street address? The illogical film uses the same clue for two completely different conclusions. Second and more importantly, the film lacks unity. Characters, locations, ideologies, and clues get introduced, developed, and then never used. The film just doesn't tie together. It's a shame to see these flaws because they all could have been fixed without detracting from one of the film's many virtues.

Nicole Kidman convincingly plays a young team leader who is suddenly vaulted into a position of power. Her uncertainty and inexperience contrast sharply with George Clooney's superconfident, impulsive military character. Their customs are overplayed, he has a few too many medals and she appears too many times in sleeveless silk blouses.

Copland

Acting: Convincing acting of mysterious, non-standard roles. The characters were unusual and deep but not complex.

Predictability / Epiphany -- The climax begged a little believability but was within character, exciting, not entirely predicable, and more than a little satisfying.

Loose Ends: Does he get the girl? (I won't tell and you won't find out).

Logic: If you give this film a little license, it works okay. The license is necessary for the characters to face tough choices and hard routes when simpler, less interesting alternatives are available. Why would a scared Sheriff load his shotgun to face a town full of bad guys when he could just call the FBI? Because he's a do-it-yourselfer and because there is a paranoid suspicion of corruption everywhere. The reason this still works it that it reminds us of dozens of westerns where the Sheriff's didn't have the feds to come save the day.

Sex appeal: Jeanne Garafolo is not presented as a standard Hollywood bombshell; instead, she has that slightly ragged all-American, sultry appeal typified by Margot Kidder, Karen Allen, and Kristen Scott Thomas. Watch a warm, tentative kiss and wish for more.

Tension: Won't rack your nerves like Speed and Fatal Attraction but will keep you keenly interested throughout.

Fun: If there were other films out like this one, then it wouldn't be fun. However, being unusual gives it a little zest just like Fargo and Resevoir Dogs.

Action/Drama Stars: Sly Stallone in his most unRocky-like role ever.
Jeanne Garafolo in light supporting role (looking sultry).
Sly put on 40 lbs of lard to be able to look the part of an aging sheriff in a small town just across the George Washington bridge from New York.

Eddie Cockrell's comprehensive review.

Fargo

This one is winner. The winter Minnesota setting is unique among films. Many modern murder mysteries star psychopaths, supercops, or super villains; this one specializes in ordinary people caught-up in ordinary problems.

I would recommend this movie to everyone; however, you need to be able to look past some gruesome murders in order to be touched by the movie. For some, the moral themes might not be worth a few minutes of violence.

The movie is filled with quirky humor and admirably captures local accents and culture. Go see it and tell me what you think.

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