Cinema-Scene.com > Volume 6 > Number 04 |
Capsule Reviews: The Butterfly Effect, Calendar Girls, The Cuckoo, Das Experiment, Duplex, The Eye, Intimacy, Laurel Canyon, Respiro, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over.
The Butterfly Effect BY: DAVID PERRY
The ridiculously awful love child of Sliding Doors and
Back to the Future, The Butterfly Effect is likely meant to be some debutant
ball for a serious, pensive Ashton Kutcher. Jim Carrey in The Truman
Show this is not. Instead, it's two hours of watching people complain
and debase each other in different lifetimes. A wholly uncomfortable
experience, by the dénouement, you feel punk'd without being able to laugh
it off because you're rich and famous. |
Director: Starring: Release: 23 Jan. 04 |
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©2004, David Perry, Cinema-Scene.com, 23 January 2004 | ||
Calendar Girls BY: DAVID PERRY
Calendar Girls is an inoffensive little trifle of a film, patterned after
decades of disposable minor comedies coming from the U.K. The cast
seems to be having fun, and some of this is infectious during bits, but by
the fifth old lady's imperfect breast joke, the whole thing just becomes
thinner than the film's flimsy premise. |
Director: Starring: Release: 19 Dec. 03 |
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©2004, David Perry, Cinema-Scene.com, 23 January 2004 | ||
The Cuckoo BY: DAVID PERRY
Poingiant and often uncompromising in its finger-pointing,
The Cuckoo may not be exactly The Grand Illusion or even No Man's Land, but
it still has something to say and a useful, if awkward way to say it.
The overall impression is admirable, even if its romantic subplots become
hilariously outrageous as the film attempts to find some meaning in their
presence. |
Director: Starring: Release: 11 Jul. 03 |
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©2004, David Perry, Cinema-Scene.com, 23 January 2004 | ||
Das Experiment BY: DAVID PERRY
Das Experiment seems like a Kiyoshi Kurosawa film but never
packs anything remotely like the punch brought by the Japanese thriller
auteur in Cure. Instead, the film's reenactment of a real psychology
experiment gone awry becomes tedious, and the way it poses questions of
class and superiority are too simplistic and remedial to mean much. |
Director: Olivier Hirschbiegel Starring: Release: 20 Sep. 02 |
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©2004, David Perry, Cinema-Scene.com, 23 January 2004 | ||
Duplex BY: DAVID PERRY
For Danny DeVito's recent directorial works, Duplex is a huge
step up. For anyone else (short of Michael Bay and Ron Howard), this
would still be passably minor.
The whiny Ben Stiller characterization is getting older than this film's
weary jokes and Eileen Essel's SAG card (nonetheless, she's devine).
The biggest treat in Duplex, if short, is an appearance by Wes Anderson
regular Kumar Pallana. |
Director: Danny DeVito Starring: Release: 26 Sep. 03 |
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©2004, David Perry, Cinema-Scene.com, 23 January 2004 | ||
The Eye BY: DAVID PERRY
The Pang brothers are supposedly famous for their riveting
Asian thrillers, but The Eye, their biggest North American release, makes
such comparisons to Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Takeshi Miike feel like a lie.
With a mystery that can be unraveled fifteen minutes into the film's
overreaching length, The Eye just never delivers the jolts that were
promised. I didn't particularly like Miike the first time, so maybe
there's still hope, though, for the Pangs. |
Director: Starring: Release: 6 Jun. 03 |
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©2004, David Perry, Cinema-Scene.com, 23 January 2004 | ||
Intimacy BY: DAVID PERRY
Patrice Chéreau's
Intimacy received barely any fanfare for a fairly well-known French
filmmaker (hell, every Patrice Leconte release is treated like an Event),
but the film, admittedly, merits such a tepid response from its distributor.
The film's attempts to eroticize a clearly uninteresting affair is tedious
for much of the film, even if the screenplay offers a few surprising
complexities to ponder during the cold sex scenes. |
Director: Patrice Chéreau Starring: Release: 19 Oct. 01 |
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©2004, David Perry, Cinema-Scene.com, 23 January 2004 | ||
Laurel Canyon BY: DAVID PERRY
Other than featuring the year's worst original songs, Laurel
Canyon also features the Frances McDorman performance
at her annoyingly worst and a gaggle of sexual pairings that couldn't be
less convincing. It's been some time since Kate Beckinsale arrived for
cineastes to drool over in Cold Comfort Farm and The Last Days of Disco --
by now, with Michael Bay and this film's yawn-worthy strip tease, it's time,
Kate, to just call it quits. |
Director: Lisa Cholodenko Starring: Release: 7 Mar. 03 |
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©2004, David Perry, Cinema-Scene.com, 23 January 2004 | ||
Respiro BY: DAVID PERRY
Valeria Golino, who I thought had dropped off the face of the planet, shows
that she's finally found her niche: charming, disposable Mediterranean
romantic dramas. There's nothing especially great about Respiro, but
at least it has amazing scenery and a plot that couldn't be less distracting
for the viewer while gawking at the vistas. |
Director: Emanuele Crialese Starring: Release: 23 May 03 |
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©2004, David Perry, Cinema-Scene.com, 23 January 2004 | ||
Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
BY: DAVID PERRY
Even though it isn't anything near the surprise treat of the first two Spy
Kids films, the third time around isn't especially bad. The removal of
Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino is a bit disappointing, but the kids do
fine carrying the film on thier own, especially when joined by Sylvester
Stallone, admirably chewing the scenery at a rate unparalleled since his
"Eh, yo, Tommy Gunn" days. |
Director: Starring: Release: 25 Jul. 03 |
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©2004, David Perry, Cinema-Scene.com, 23 January 2004 |