An American crime action directed by Pitof Comar, starring Halle Berry, Lambert Wilson, Frances Conroy and Sharon Stone.
A woman working for a cosmetic company overhears company secrets and is killed. A new life is given to her by a cat and she becomes a superhero, working to prevent the cosmetic company from releasing a dangerous product. While this is going on, she is beginning a romantic relationship with a cop who is trying to find her.
This is among the worst crap I have ever watched. Between piss poor writing, terrible acting and decreased continuity editing, it ranks right there next to The Garbage Pail Kids Movie (1987). This is from a worst films list and I agree, it does belong there. Given that this is a steaming pile of crap, I feel justified in being as bigoted and racist as I want. Besides, the movie had to put this racist moment in for me to notice it. When Halle Berry sees the necklace in the jewelery store window, I was reminded of a scene from The Secret of NIMH (1982) when Jeremy (the crow) sees Mrs. Brisby's new necklace and says "I've always wanted a sparkly of my very own!" (image). Halle's white co-worker also speaks more black than her. That's just bad writing, though. When I was in school, I was told in video classes that average shot length is 3 seconds and that was called "increased contiuity editing". I call it decreased because flashing, disjointed close-ups are disorienting at best. This film used that technique through the entire duration. It would be difficult to find a clip that went over 3 seconds without cuts. My last point is the motorcycle scene. It's mandatory for all crappy action flicks to have a motorcycle scene. See my review of Ecks vs. Sever for more discussion on this. I rate this shit because I watched it all the way through, wishing that I had turned it off about 3 minutes in. DO NOT WATCH!
A French American drama directed by Jim Jarmusch, starring Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy, Tilda Swinton, Julie Deply, Mark Webber, Chloe Sevigny and Christian McDonald.
A man receives a letter with no return address which says that his son is looking for him. His neighbor decides that the mystery must be solved and sends the man on a quest to visit the women he had relationships with.
This follows what I think of as Jarmusch's style by being a series of vignettes. I'm just saying this because of Night on Earth (1991) and Coffee and Cigarettes (2003). I have seen more of his work than that (Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) Mystery Train (1989)) and will be watching more. His style doesn't jump out and grab you, it invites you in. This seemed a little more tragic than his other works, but the pacing was dead on. The video looked good, but the audio was a little low. I really liked the daughter at the first house, but won't spoil it. I'm rating this good for being by a good director, having an all-star cast, presented as vignettes and the slow pacing. You should watch it.
An American action film directed by Andrew Davis, starring Steven Seagal, Pam Grier, Sharon Stone and Henry Silva.
Steven Seagal plays a "loose cannon cop who doesn't play by the rules". He is on a case involving drug smuggling, illegal immigration, explosives trafficking and assassination.
This was on a kung fu list, but there was very little fu that got kunged. An hour and 36 minutes of yet another LCCWDPBTR was too much for me. Shootout, chase scene, computer hacking in DOS and cheesy '80s music made it very cliche and stereotypical. The plot failed to hold my interest because I of how many times I have seen this type of thing before. Reiterations of the classic cop flick characters did not entertain me either. Their dialogue could have been copied and pasted from the gargantuan amount of similar films that preceded this one and the acting was as cheesy as the music. Sets and costumes consisted of regular '80s clothing in a city. The only unique set was the martial arts dojo in the beginning. Special effects consisted of blanks for the guns and squibs for people getting shot. There were also some falls from tall buildings. The audio was mixed correctly and the music, although cheesy, was from a time when musical virtuosity was still driving creativity and before Kurt Cobain wrecked rock. Hal Hinson of the Washington Post said this was "woefully short on originality". It has 6/10 on IMDB, 53% Tomatometer and 48% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. 53% average failing grade seems about right to me. I rate this poor because I have seen much worse than cliche and repetition.
An American science fiction thriller directed by Barry Levinson, starring Dustin Hoffman, Samuel L. Jackson and Sharon Stone.
A team of scientists goes to examine a ufo at the bottom of the ocean. There they encounter a magic ball of unknown material, which they all enter. Things start to go wrong and there is heated debate over who or what is causing the disturbances.
Dustin Hoffman and Samuel L. Jackson are both very good actors. Having them encounter an alien thing at the bottom of the ocean is an alright idea. There were some good shots of marine life. Unfortunately, the rest of the film sucked donkey nards. Maybe I've seen too many movies. Maybe this screenwriting class has wrecked my enjoyment of them with a single sheet of paper. Maybe it's just not that great a flick. I didn't notice any camera-work that could be labeled anything approximating "good" and Samuel L. Jackson's acting was really only used in 2 scenes: eating and reading a book. It's not that this movie is bad. It's just not good, or even o.k. I rate it poor. You probably should not watch this.
A western directed by Sam Raimi, starring Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio.A female gunfighter goes to a town where a gun tournament is held. She enters the tournament, along with a priest, a father and his son. She makes friends with the priest while there.This fits the description of a good film. The characters, plot, setting, style and pace were all good. The production value was good as well. It had the action style of many short camera shots strung together and there was a gunshot near the end that did something that I've never seen a gunshot do before. I can't help but rate it good.
