Home   Reviews   UCSD   Jokes   Pictures   Stories   Me   Friends   Weird News   Links

Old Movie Reviews




SAVING PRIVATE RYAN ***

Pretty much an Oscar worthy movie from actors to the movie itself. However, too much blood, gore, and fighting made me feel icky.



EVER AFTER: A CINDERELLA STORY ***

Okay, maybe that rating is a tab high. But maybe that is influence by a slew of stupid male-oriented, plotless movies I've seen in weeks past. Drew Barrymore continues to act beautifully through her career with a caring and tender role as Danielle. Angelica Huston also did well in her evil role. Good acting, however not Academy Awarding winning, but good enough, especially after Lethal Weapon was too 'Lethal' in stupidity. Ever After carries some good soundtrack and has charisma with charm. I would like to advise that it's just a basic Cinderella story and a much "chic-flick" (so guys may not be that interested). Heck, anything better than Nickolas Cage and his chic-flick 'City of Angels'.



THE NEGOTIATOR **½

The plot of a police negotiator getting framed for his best friend and cop partner's killing. He (Samuel L. Jackson) takes over his own hostages and demanded to find the real killer and to clear his name. His negotiator (Kevin Spacey) trys to bail him out by the end. This movie had a good plot and great acting, however the end of the situation and the movie was quite weak. It just did not finish strong.



THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY ***½

Romance plot. Like five different guys like the same girl, Mary. All of them continue to chase the girl all around Miami. She (Cameron Diaz) and the gang come together to bring a huge set of laughs. Many including sexual jokes on masturbating and zipper caught in the wen-wen. The laughs continued to the end making it a contender for best comedy in years.



LETHAL WEAPON 4 **

Jet Li, Chinese Star. Need more acting in this movie. Movie has a plot worse than a girl's perfume in the morning. Come on, those two stupid cops would have been dead if all of that plot holds in real life. Oh ya, the movie was sure lethal. Though I would say the movie was okay, till the bitter end where stupidity entered.



THE MASK OF ZORRO **½

A hero in his own right. This movie thriller comprised of a superhero in Anthony Hopkins fighting for the Mexican people in California before the region's U.S. tenure. Then his wife was killed and daughter (Catherine Zeta-Jones), taken from him. He teaches Antonio Banderas to become the next zorro to save the day again, winning back his daughter. This movie was indeed action filled with swords and stuff. Yet, some of the plot near the end was indeed confusing and unrealisitc. Romance of certainly vivid, but hard to flow in the movie.



THE X-FILES MOVIE: FIGHT THE FUTURE ***

A global conspiracy. Two determined FBI agents. One great science fiction story. The X-Files movie is what that is expected from the television version. A deadly alien virus, attacking human, using us as host, laying dormant, till now, under the surface of the earth. This movie gave much talk of the global conspiracy plot with much action with little good special effects. As a X-File fan myself, I thought this movie had the stuff of a good movie. The romance between Scully and Molder needs more work though.



ARMAGEDDON **½

Well here we go again. Another comet movie, only two months after Deep Impact soared into our motion picture experiences. This time, Armageddon was full of action and a huge amount of great special effects. The ending was done extremely good, with a young couple marrying after one of them return from the heroic mission to save earth (Liv Taylor and Ben Affeck). The lead actor Bruce Willis did a somewhat so-so job for his portrayal of a drill team lead. This movie however is struck by the multiple stupidness you can ever find. Come on, a drill team goes to space to save earth? How many things can go wrong on a space mission to place a nuclear weapon on the rock? Distorting Greenpeace is a very bad idea. Go watch this movie for its good action and some emotion. Don't expect to be tamed by a good plot.



MULAN ****

Finally. A Chinese devoted film at the Domestic Box Office. And you know what? It's good! Actually, it's phenomenally good! Based on the famous Chinese legand, a young girl, Mulan (voice: Ming-Na Wen), takes his father's armour and heads to war in his place since he is too old and weak. When she comes home, she brought back honor and peace to her family. In the process, she falls in love with Captain Shang (voice: B.D. Wong). Okay. The real story of Mulan wasn't really shown in the movie. (In fact, the movie screws the real story up.) The songs aren't that memorable. But hey, its a cartoon. Mulan was very funny, enjoyable to everyone in the audience, and broke the race and gender barriers without hurting anyone in return. No doubt, watch it now!



THE TRUMAN SHOW ***

This movie, featuring Jim Carrey, had a lot of heart and great drama. Jim Carrey was excellent in a new role as a serious actor instead of a crack up fool. Carrey, as Truman Burbank, is an insurance salesman which has his whole life in a tv show. However, the movie is a little too much to be true. And the movie wasn't as good as I expected. But it is still very good. Of course, it's holdovers may not be as good, since it's a drama and not the funny old Jim Carrey.



A PERFECT MURDER ***

This film is like Gweneth Palthrow's fourth or fifth this year. Certainly none of them hits, however this is the closest. She plays an unfaithful wife who is married to a super rich man, but in love with a poor painter. Her husband (Michael Douglas) gets into serious debts and hires the painter (Viggo Mortenson) so he can collect a super hundred million dollar amount. The painter will receive half a million of his murder of his own love. However, the plan falters twice, leaving two dead at the end (I won't tell whick two). The movie tends to give moviegoers a sense of scary moments during the murder situations. The movie flows and the acting was pretty good. Each player has a different motive to kill, and that gave this movie a great plot line.



HOPE FLOATS ***

It is the sign of the times. A woman, Birdie, has been just told that her husband was having an affair with her best friend. What is worse is that Birdie (Sandra Bullock)was told by her best friend on a nationally live talk show. She decided, naturally, to leave him and move back to her hometown of Smithville, Texas with her daughter, Bernice (Mae Whitman), and live with her mother (Gena Rowlands). In Smithville, Birdie trys to recover from her misfortune, but was failing miserably. Her relationship with her daughter falls apart. In the meanwhile, Justin (Harry Connick, Jr.) starts to fall in love with Birdie, but Birdie still thought that her husband would still come back to her. However, Birdie's father just had a stroke, and then, her mother dies. This is where Birdie's husband wanted a divorce, and left her and Bernice forever. The movie was done nicely, showing much emotion and heart-breaking moments. There is so a touch of comedy. But most importantly, it touches a real life experience, and it's heart break feeling.



BULWORTH **½

A U.S. Senator (Warren Beatty) trys to do a suicide by paying a hitman to kill him, all of this in the middle of his reelection campaign. The movie was pretty funny, including rap and such and centered around the African-American community. However, the movie had many stupid situations and discrimatory comments and just overall, the plot was downright stupid. Oh ya, the 60-year old senator falls in love with a 26-year old African-American girl and then dies at the end. (oops!)



GODZILLA **

In this remake of the great Japanese lizard, the special effects were very good, however, not second-to-none. Despite the good acting, the writers made a very stupid decision of including romance in the movie. Romance in Godzilla? That is what the nerd (Matthew Broderick) does, falling for his college sweetheart (Maria Pitillo) while he goes trying to find the nest of Godzilla. Godzilla in the meanwhile goes destroying Manhattan, which is very fun to watch. The line goes that Godzilla likes Manhattan because it has water on all sides. Of course what director, writer, and producer Roland Emmerich (Dean Devlin also produce and wrote) didn't use logic that the island is downtown New York City, what big reptile want to live there? Anyway, there is this mayor of New York City (Michael Lerner) who was going for reelection and only worries about that reelection when the world's most famous city gets manhandled by a monster creature who has been shot and hit and hurt so many times and didn't even die. The U.S. government looked too stupid in this movie. Then the Godzilla nest, where 200 Godzilla babies were born, takes over the Madison Square Garden. Come on, the Garden? Of course, there was good special effects and the splendid destruction of the great city. But the plot needs a lot of work. Someone said that they were embarassed of being an American after watching the movie because the military destroyed the city, not the ugly lizard. Come on, if the real U.S. military got involved, that enormous ugly looking iguana will be dead before it was born. Okay movie to go once, but not more than once.



THE HORSE WHISPERER ***½

Adopted from a best-selling book a couple years ago, director, writer, and actor, Robert Redford deals with a horse and teenage girl recovering from an awful and horrible accident. The teenage girl, Grace MacLean (Scarlett Johansson) had her leg amputed while her horse Pilgrim hit head-on into the imcoming truck. Grace's friend and horse were killed. Grace's mother decided to take Grace and her horse to a horse whisperer in Montana to let them recover, in which they eventually did. The movie features a good soundtrack and cinematography including a great acting cast of Robert Redford, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Scarlett Johansson.




1998 Movie Star Ratings

Movie Title (Release Date) My Review
As Good As It Gets (12/25/97) ***
The Big Hit (4/24/98) **½
Bulworth (5/22/98) **½
City of Angels (4/10/98) **
Chinese Box (5/1/98) ***½
Deep Impact (5/8/98) **½
The Full Monty (1997) ***½
Good Will Hunting (12/5/97) ***
Godzilla (5/19/98) **
He Got Game (5/1/98) ***
Hope Floats (5/29/98) ***
The Horse Whisperer (5/15/98) ***½
Hush (3/6/98) **½
L.A. Confidential (1997) **½
Les Miserables (5/1/98) ***
Lost in Space (4/3/98) *½
Love and Death on Long Island (3/13/98) ***
The Man in the Iron Mask (3/13/98) **½
Mercury Rising (4/3/98) ***
My Giant (4/11/98) **½
The Object of My Affection (4/17/98) **½
The Odd Couple II (4/11/98) **½
Paulie (4/17/98) ***
Primary Colors (3/20/98) ***
Replacement Killers (2/6/98) **½
Sliding Doors (4/24/98) ***
Species II (4/11/98) **½
Sphere (2/13/98) *½
Suicide Kings (4/17/98) **½
Titanic (12/19/97) ****
Tomorrow Never Dies, James Bond 007 (12/19/97) ***
The Wedding Singer (2/13/98) ***
U.S. Marshals (3/6/98) **½
Wild Things (3/20/98) *