February 2, 1997
Jazz '34 (1997) **
Nostalgic re-creation of the Kansas City jazz scene in the 1930's. No narrative interruptions, just a series of great jamming sessions. Great jazz at its purest. The film was made with the same musicians, who worked on the musical score of Robert Altman's "Kansas City" (1996).
Red Corner (1997) **
Richard Gere plays a big-shot attorney who finds himself framed for murder while negotiating a huge satelite television deal in Beijing. The victim is a daughter of an influential Army general. Misguided political thriller will surely anger Chinese leaders, but it fails to condemn the real human-rights abuses in that country.
Clockwatchers (1997) **
It's hard to make a movie about boredom that avoids being boring itself, but this cynical comedy succeeds quite nicely. It's about four temps employed at a large credit company, where their bosses pretend to care about them and they pretend to care about their work. Parker Posey won an acting award at Sundance for this film (ex-aquo with "The House Of Yes" and "Suburbia").
Chinese Box (1997) **
An allegory about Hong Kong, Britain and China, starring Jeremy Irons, Gong Li and Maggie Cheung.
Zero Effect (1997) **
Bill Pullman and Ben Stiller star in this intelligent drama about a reclusive private eye investigating a blackmailing case.
Wild America (1997) **
If this were a silent movie, it would be highly watchable. The three young hunks are handsome enough to give any 12-year-old girl her first erotic fantasy and their encounters with wild animals (alligators, bears, wolves, snakes) are quite exciting, too. But the guy who wrote those dialogues should be pelted with rotten eggs. Cover your ears and enjoy.
Washington Square (1997) **
While it's inferior to the 1949 William Wyler's version ("The Heiress"), this adaptation is much more faithful to Henry James' original novel (probably his greatest work). Performances are uniformly excellent. It's a story of a shy, introverted girl torn between a domineering father who despises her and a callous, money-hungry suitor. It ought to be shown on a double bill with "In The Company Of Men" - both films offer prime examples of men's inhumanity to women.
Gridlock'd (1997) **
Two junkies (Tupac Shakur and Tim Roth) try to kick their habit while their girl (Thandie Newton) recovers in a hospital.
Gang Related (1997) **
This otherwise mediocre picture notheless achieves a perfect balance between a gritty police drama and a black comedy. Two evil cops (Shakur and Belushi) have a hard time framing an innocent man for murder. Every dirty trick they try blows in their faces. Some plot twists are ingenious, frighteningly cynical and very ironic. In this film, crime definitely doesn't pay.
The Game (1997) **
Many of Michael Douglas' previous films were misogynist ("Disclosure"), homophobic ("Basic Instinct") or even fascistic ("Falling Down"), but at least they were saying something and had a strong, ideological point-of-view. This movie is politically-correct, but completely empty and devoid of any message, good or bad. It's a pure stylistic exercise. The game in question involves a billionaire (Douglas), his brother (Penn) and a mysterious company called CRS (Consumer Recreation Services). There is no suspense, because we know that everything that happens is part of the game (otherwise, the movie wouldn't make any sense).
Fools Rush In (1997) **
Gorgeous Salma Hayek and Matthew Perry star in this romantic comedy about two young people who have sex, get married and then get to know one another.
Dante's Peak (1997) **
Instead of one disaster movie, we get four: one about an earthquake, another about a flood, yet another involving an exploding volcano and finally one set inside a collapsed mine shaft. There is also a boat trip on an acidic lake amid clouds of volcanic ashes. Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton have to get through all these ordeals. Special effects are superb; the screenplay is merely serviceable.
Contact (1997) **
Thoughful, but unexciting film about a contact with an alien civilisation in the Vega system.
Con Air (1997) **
The villains (John Malkovich, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi) are great, one-liners are sharp, but the film fails to deliver the most important element - good action scenes. A few nifty explosions aren't enough.
Most Wanted (1997) **
A perfectly fine action movie in the "Fugitive" mould. Not very original, but quite entertaining, enjoyable and very fast-paced. While Jon Voight overacts shamelessly, Wayans and Henessy forcefully underplay their roles (it's a nice way of saying they're stiff).
Metro (1997) **
Entertaining Eddie Murphy's action/police thriller with an impressive chase sequence.
Masterminds (1997) **
Evil terrorists take over a building, but the hero hides in the ventillation shafts and defeats them. No, it's not "Die Hard". A smart kid sets elaborate traps for adult intruders. No, it's not "Home Alone". Hero witnesses terrible injustices and saves many innocent people from the clutches of a madman. No, it's not "Schindler's List". There isn't a single frame in this movie that wasn't shamelessly ripped-off from another. "Masterminds" is actually quite entertaining, but it reeks of "deja vu".
Volcano (1997) **
An earthquake awakens a dormant volcano beneath the La Brea Tar Pits in downtown L.A. Better than "Dante's Peak", because its premise is more dramatic - instead of merely evacuating people, emergency crews actually have to stop the lava flow.
The Typewriter The Rifle And The Movie Camera (1997) **
Quentin Tarantino, Tim Robbins, Martin Scorsese and Jim Jarmusch are singing the praises of Sam Fuller, a great American filmmaker.
Kiss The Girls (1997) **
Morgan Freeman plays a DC cop tracking down a psychopath who kidnapped several young college girls. This is a routine crime movie, neither fascinated nor repelled by its subject matter, devoid of any deep psychoanalytical insights, burdened by slavish attention to generic conventions and often fairly tedious.
In And Out (1997) **
Flawed, but often hilarious comedy about homophobia. Inspired by Tom Hanks' Oscar-acceptance speech for "Philadelphia", it tells a story of a small-town teacher outed on national television by his former student. Comic highlights include: dialing a rotary phone, listening to a self-motivation audio tape and getting into a brawl over Barbra Streisand ("Yentl sucks !"). Tom Selleck steals the movie as an openly gay TV reporter.
I Married A Strange Person (1997) **
Directed by Bill Plympton. An outrageous animated feature. Obscenely amusing and amusingly obscene.
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) **
Fine horror movies about attractive young people stalked by a monstrous fisherman.
187 (1997) **
Samuel L.Jackson plays a Dirty Harry with a teaching certificate. Kevin Reynolds, the grossly underrated, brilliant director of such expensive classics as "Rapa-Nui" and "Waterworld", returns to low-budget filmmaking, and the results are mostly disappointing. This film proves that Reynolds is a masterful stylist, capable of handling any material in a fresh and inventive way. But it also proves that he should be more picky with scripts - this must be Hollywood's 187th film about a sir with love standing, delivering and leaning on blackboards while substituting for dangerous minds in high school jungles. "187" is gritty and realistic, but so somber, it's dull. It would have worked better as a black comedy a la Tarantino.
Hoodlum (1997) **
Evil white gangsters, led by Dutch Schultz (Roth), want to take over Harlem's numbers racket, but local black gangsters, led by Bumpy Johnson (Fisburne), find an ally in Lucky Luciano (Garcia) and manage to defend their turf. Clear parallels are drawn between that vicious gang warfare of the 30's and the a noble civil-rights struggles of the 60's, with Bumpy Johnson presented as Martin Luther King, Dutch Schultz as the Ku-Klux-Klan and Lucky Luciano as JFK.
Mad City (1997) **
A remake of Billy Wilder's "Ace In The Hole". Once again, we've got an ambitious journalist who crosses the line between covering a story and creating one. The film tries hard to be cynical and uncompromising, but fails. But it's still a well-directed, tense drama.
The Headhunter's Sister (1997) **
A slice-of-life film about a carefree middle-age man, his sister and his wife.
The Apostle (1997) **
Slightly overrated film about a runaway preacher (Robert Duvall) yelling at the Lord, invoking "Holy Ghost power", converting racist troublemakers and attracting hordes of followers. Scenes in which Duvall works himself into a state of religious frenzy will strike you as either powerful or ridiculous, depending.
Love Jones (1997) **
Quiet and intelligent little film about two young people dating. A "Booty Call" for a more sophisticated audience.
Breakdown (1997) **
Here's the pitch - it's "The Vanishing" meets "Duel" meets "Deliverance". A woman mysteriously disappearing. Trucks driving cars off the road. Clean city folks fighting sinister country villains. The action scenes are quite good, but the film lacks that little extra touch of originality that would set it apart from countless other thrillers.
Box Of Moonlight (1997) **
Quite surprising (though ultimately disappointing) black comedy about an uptight executive and a happy-go-lucky anarchist.
Booty Call (1997) **
Very entertaining comedy about two horny young guys and two flirty young girls trying to score. Vivica A.Fox is one gorgeous babe.
A Better Place (1997) **
Clearly inspired by "Heathers", this imaginatively directed and cleverly scripted film emerges as something of a triumph of extremely low-budget filmmaking. But it's simply not a finished work. It badly needs re-shoots - for example, crucial close-ups are missing from key scenes.
Nothing To Lose (1997) **
Average comedy of the "black/white/buddy" variety. We've seen it before, though usually much worse. Most of the jokes have been revealed in the trailer, but there are a few more, along with some plot twists, castrated statues and nifty dance routines. There aren't many dull moment in this unambitious, but crowd-pleasing movie.
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) **
A Thousand Acres (1997) **
If Tennessee Williams had written "King Lear" (and added scenes from "The Bridges Of Madison County" and "Twister" for no apparent reasons), the result would strongly resemble Jane Smiley's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, adapted here into an emotionally overwhelming, but hopelessly conventional film. Jessica Lange and Michelle Pfeiffer play two older sisters who share a horrible secret about their father. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays their younger sibling who has no clue about her sisters' sacrifices. This is a film about hate, self-loathing, hypocrisy and other edifying family values.
Picture Perfect (1997) **
Pleasant comedy about a young advertising director (Aniston) whose love life becomes hilariously complicated. The film is quite watchable, even though its contrived plot would seem more appropriate for an old sitcom like "Three's Company". It isn't as good as "My Best Friend's Wedding", but it's still a perfect date movie.
Phoenix (1997) **
Directed by Danny Cannon. With Ray Liotta, Daniel Baldwin, Brittany Murphy, Anjelica Huston, Tom Noonan and Giancarlo Esposito. Corrupted cops pulls off a daring robbery. A very uneven film. Murphy is superb, but she disappears from the film too soon.
Paradise Road (1997) **
Let's call it "Queen Rat". It's a story of English, Dutch and Australian women, captured by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore in 1942, who spend the rest of the war in a concentration camp in Sumatra.
Paradise Lost (1997) **
Shocking documentary about a witchhunt trial in Arkansas in 1994, where three young boys were convicted of murder despite insufficient evidence.
Synthetic Pleasures (1997) **
Virtual reality, Internet, plastic surgery, cybersex and other technological intrusions are explored in this documentary film, which resembles a science-fiction movie, but actually deals only with real-life issues.
Switchback (1997) **
There are definitely too many films about serial killers being tracked down by FBI agents, but this one is very different from the others. It's like a mix of "Lone Star" (small-town sheriff investigating a crime), a Wim Wenders road movie and "Runaway Train". It lack coherence and fails as a suspense thriller, but it's definitely an interesting, even original, effort.
Sunday (1997) **
A woman invites a man to her appartment thinking he's a famous film director while in fact he's a homeless person.
Squeeze (1997) **
Story of three young boys trying to survive in the slums of a big American city. Pretty good until a preachy ending. Directed by Robert Patton-Spruill.
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