Shooting Fish (PG) ** 1/2 (out of ****)
Dylan (Dan Futterman) and Jez (Stuart Townsend) have made a career out of "shooting fish"--i.e. pulling off con jobs. Dylan is the cocky smooth-talking Yank who masterminds each elaborate schemes; the Burt Bacharach-loving Jez is the socially-impaired British technogeek whose electronic wizardry makes such swindles possible. A host of complications, romantic and otherwise, arise after sweet medical student Georgie (Kate Beckinsale) joins their fold, helping the boys out in the belief that the illegally-obtained proceeds go toward building an orphanage.
Director/co-writer (with Richard Holmes) Stefan Schwartz has crafted a light, easy-going fluff piece whose pleasance is elevated by the appeal of the top trio of actors, particularly the pixie-tressed Beckinsale. Unfortunately, her main subplot about a loveless engagement is so poorly developed it seems like an afterthought, even as it eventually takes center stage toward film's end. But the more curious miscalculation is that, for a comedy, Shooting Fish is rather light on real laughs. There's a sly dig at the musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber, but a number of the big con scenes are more amusing than funny. However, there is a certain amount of charm about the film, which is as agreeable as it is refreshingly unpretentious. (opens May 1)
Michael Dequina Chat Forum Host, The Official Michael Jordan Web Site http://jordan.sportsline.com
mj23@michaeljordanfan.com michael_jordan@geocities.com | mrbrown@ucla.edu
>My personal WWW sites< Mr. Brown's Movie Site: http://welcome.to/mrbrown Michael Jordan Beyond the Court: http://fly.to/michaeljordan A Michael Jordan Fan's Heartbreak: http://fly.to/mj23 Personal Page: http://welcome.to/w3md >Other WWW sites I work on< CompuServe Hollywood Hotline: http://www.HollywoodHotline.com Albany Online: http://www.AlbanyOnline.com Eyepiece Network: http://www.eyepiece.com
"I didn't know what to expect. It's like something you chase for so long, but then you don't know how to react when you get it. I still don't know how to react." --Michael Jordan, on winning his first NBA championship in 1991 ...or, my thoughts after meeting him on November 21, 1997
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews