"Szanta polityczna" *
"Inflacja marzen" ("Kulig w strusich jajach") **
"Ulica cynikow" *
"Uciszcie sie" ("Kulig w strusich jajach") **
"Lis" *
"My Narod" *
March 3, 1997
Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Prezent od sw Mikolaja (1997) ***
"Gdziezes ty Misiu byl?" *
"Puszka z Pandora" ("Kulig w strusich jajach") **
"Kanapy" **
"Homines unius libri" ("Kulig w strusich jajach") **
"Wrzesien" *
"Dyktatura wolnosci" **
"Zlustruj mnie" *
Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Kabina cieni (1997) ***
"Mysmy juz byli" **
"Polskie pieklo" ("Tok szol") **
"Czart w internecie" **
"Umarl Polak" **
"Parawaniki" **
"Malo nas" **
Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Gdyby nie raj (1997) **
Piosenki:
"Jak za komuny" *
"Upal w raju" ("...zza krzaka") **
"Gdyby Adam był Polakiem" *
"Pod Biala Lilia" *
"O raju raj" *
Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Wczasy od Polski (1997) ***
"Rinaldo" ("New age Niu Ejdz") *
"Na Mazowszu" **
"Gramy w kolory" ("Dajmy sie zwariowac") ***
"Kapitalisto" **
Kabaret Olgi Lipinskiej: Skok w Nowy Rok (1997) ***
"Pospieszmy do szopy" ("Kulig w strusich jajach") **
"Zespol Meniera" *
"Odlatuja artysci" *
"Bez mazura final" *
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.
January 1, 1997
A Simple Wish (1997) *
Terrible film about a little girl (Mara Wilson) and her fairy godmother (Martin Short).
Seven Years In Tibet (1997) *
True story of a Nazi mountain climber who escaped from a British internement camp in India, found refuge in Tibet and befriended the young Dalai Lama.
Rocket Man (1997) *
A goofy computer nerd joins the first manned mission to Mars. This film would have worked better as a parody of "Apollo 13". Instead, it's just a vehicle for the newest Jim Carrey wannabe, Harland Williams. If you love toilet humor, be prepared for a couple of real stinkers. Hold your nose and enjoy.
Austin Powers International Man Of Mystery (1997) *
This film tries hard (too hard) to spoof every single James Bond movie, and "Blow Up" (1967) as well. Instead of being funny, it's merely pathetic and embarassing. But Elizabeth Hurley is one sexy babe!
Anna Oz (1997) *
Clearly inspired by Kieslowski's "La Double vie de Veronique", only much more bizarre.
An American Werewolf In Paris (1997) *
French skinhead werewolves, angry at American cultural imperialists and other degenerates, are hunting down Yankee tourists in Paris. One of the them falls in love with a female werewolf (or is that a were-she-wolf ?). Plenty of slapstick, bungee-jumping and howling, but nothing very scary. A failure.
All Over Me (1997) *
A frienship between two young girls - gay bashing, petty jealousies, lesbian attractions.
Air Bud (1997) *
A dog can play basketball! Imagine that. Adult viewers will struggle hard to stay awake, but little tots might eat it up along with their crayons. Films about young boys and their pet pooches are a dime-a-dozen; wake me up when they finally make a good one.
Addicted To Love (1997) *
Matthew Broderick and Meg Ryan play a pair of scheming voyeurs trying to get even with their former partners.
The Rainmaker (1997) *
A young lawyer is suing a big insurance company that refused to pay for a bone-marrow transplant for a young boy suffering from leukemia. It's not a bad movie, just a dishonest and manipulative one. Barely hidden among its narrative elements is an obvious piece of political propaganda - the glorification of lawsuits.
Fetishes (1997) **
Everything you never wanted to know about bondage, whipping, dominatrixes, dungeons, sadists, masochists and humiliation. Extremely unpleasant (especially when dealing with members of various persecuted minorities asking for racist forms of domination). Yet, the film is surprisingly unexploitive. It's the subject, not the way it's presented, that's truly shocking here.
Murder At 1600 (1997) *
Solid, but very predictable thriller about a murder at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC.
Mr Nice Guy (1997) *
Not since the early 80's did Jackie Chan appear in a more incompetently directed, disorganized and cliche-ridden flick. Those who haven't seen any of his movies, might enjoy some of the action scenes, but his loyal fans, used to far better things, will be bitterly disappointed.
Mr Magoo (1997) *
Moderately entertaining, but hardly memorable, live-action comedy based on the classic UPA cartoons from the 1950's. In those films, Jim Backus' original character was a bullheaded and very opinionated old geezer, who clearly needed glasses, but was too stubborn to admit it. In this film, Nielson's Magoo is a myopic old gentleman who happens to be kind and sentimental - a far less interesting figure. According to the credits, the film is not "an accurate portrayal of blindness or poor eyesight". What a relief!
MouseHunt (1997) *
Wretched and stupid movie about a filthy rodent who makes life miserable for two rather sympathetic (but very dumb) brothers. By comparison, the "Home Alone" movies are Oscar material. Few films have such ugly-ass sets and interior designs.
Mortal Kombat Annihilation (1997) *
The evil warlords from Outworld will take over the Earth unless a band of fearless fighters... You know the drill. Ed Wood could have written a better screenplay. Worse still, the martial arts sequences are below average. The only highlight: blond Sonya in a tight T-shirt, wallowing in the mud. Princess Kitana's leather outfit isn't bad, neither.
Money Talk (1997) *
This interracial buddy comedy has more clichés than a 19th-century photo camera. It's a "wunza" movie: one's a black street hustler, one'a a white reporter. They are chased by cops. They steal diamonds from French terrorists. They run some more. There is a big shootout and the bad guys die. Sorry for revealing the ending.
Kull The Conqueror (1997) *
Aren't we supposed to live in the age of post-modernist irony, satire and self-reflexivity, where such dead-serious, pompous, self-important and totally unhip movies are at the receiving end of ripe tomatoes and rotten eggs? This sword and sorcery film would have been just fine 10 or 20 years earlier, but in 1997 it was hopelessly out of style.
Island On Bird Street (1997) *
A little Jewish boy hides in the ruins of a ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland.
Inventing The Abbotts (1997) *
Had this film been made in the late 50's (i.e. at the time its action is set), it would have been a fairly decent soap opera in the "Peyton Place" (1957) mold. Made in 1997, it's hopelessly out of date.
Liar Liar (1997) *
All the good jokes from this Jum Carrey comedy have already been revealed in the trailer.
Waco The Rules Of Engagement (1997) *
A documentary about the tragic events at Waco in 1993. The film tries hard to present David Koresh as an innocent victim, but it only succeeds at making the ATF and the FBI look like "jack-booted thugs". What finally emerge is a confrontation between religious fanaticism and "law-and-order" fanaticism. Depressing.
Leave It To Beaver (1997) *
After the undeserved success of "The Brady Bunch Movie", a big screen adaptation of "Leave It To Beaver" was inevitable. There are many problems with this film: little Beaver Cleaver is sickingly cute and adorable, his mother wears way too much makeup (she looks like a high-class hooker) and his brother's 12-year-old girlfriend seems to have wandered off the set of "Lolita". Those subversive touches aside, it's a pretty boring movie.
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