Posted on December 13, 2002 at 5:17 am
D
| Lowest Recommended Age: |
Mature High Schooler |
| Profanity: |
Some strong language |
| Nudity/ Sex: |
A few sexual references |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: |
Drinking and smoking, character takes many prescription drugs |
| Violence/ Scariness: |
Extreme -- plot centers on a serial killer, many deaths |
| Diversity Issues: |
None |
| Date Released to Theaters: |
2000 |
A couple of clever turns don’t rescue this movie from its tired plot, laughable dialogue, and disastrous casting. James Spader plays Campbell, a burned-out FBI agent from Los Angeles who was unable to catch a serial killer and now lives on disability in Chicago, taking massive doses of pharmaceuticals and talking to a therapist (Marisa …
Continue reading “The Watcher”
Posted on December 13, 2002 at 5:17 am
C+
| Lowest Recommended Age: |
Mature High Schooler |
| Profanity: |
Very strong language |
| Nudity/ Sex: |
Sexual references and situations, scenes in brothel, adultery |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: |
Drinking, smoking, and drug use |
| Violence/ Scariness: |
Extreme and prolonged violence |
| Diversity Issues: |
Interacial affair handled casually |
| Date Released to Theaters: |
2000 |
Christopher McQuarrie, the screenwriter of the deviously brilliant “The Usual Suspects” wrote and directed this bleak, tough-talking story about a couple of petty criminals named Longbaugh (Benicio del Toro) and Parker (Ryan Phillipe). Longbaugh says, “Our path had been chosen and we had nothing to offer the world. So we stepped off the path.” The …
Continue reading “The Way of the Gun”
Posted on December 13, 2002 at 5:17 am
D
| Lowest Recommended Age: |
Mature High Schooler |
| Profanity: |
Some strong and graphic language |
| Nudity/ Sex: |
Mild references, extended comic sequence concerning a statue's genitals |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: |
Comic drunkenness and hangover, comic alcoholism, social drinking |
| Violence/ Scariness: |
Mild peril |
| Diversity Issues: |
Some ethnic diversity (Lopez plays an Italian-American) |
| Date Released to Theaters: |
2001 |
This disappointing would-be romantic comedy is neither comic nor particularly romantic. Its biggest problem is a sitcom-style script with too much emphasis on the situation and not enough on the comedy. It fails to create a single believable or sympathetic character. What it gives us instead is a string of barely related skits about people …
Continue reading “The Wedding Planner”
Posted on December 13, 2002 at 5:17 am
Plot: This quiet, thoughtful, visually striking adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings covers a year in the life of the Baxter family, post-Civil War settlers in remote Florida. The focus is on Jody (Claude Jarman, Jr.), 12, a dreamy boy who loves animals and wishes he could have a pet, “something …
Continue reading “The Yearling”
Posted on December 13, 2002 at 5:17 am
A+
| Lowest Recommended Age: |
Middle School |
| Profanity: |
Brief strong language |
| Nudity/ Sex: |
None |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: |
None |
| Violence/ Scariness: |
Very tense situations, character killed in combat |
| Diversity Issues: |
Accurately depicts all-white and male historical characters |
| Date Released to Theaters: |
2000 |
For once the tag line has it just right: “You’ll never know how close we came.” It may seem like a movie script, but it really happened. American planes took photos of Soviet missiles in Cuba, a “massively destabilizing move.” If they had been armed, they could have wiped out most of the mainland US …
Continue reading “Thirteen Days”
