PLANET SICK-BOY: http://www.sick-boy.com
One of the surest signs that your impending wedding may not be the wisest of life choices is when your grandpa keels over at your bachelor party. If that doesn't change your mind, try having Gramps telling you, on his deathbed, that he never loved your grandmother. Despite these colossal warning signs, Ben (as in Affleck, Armageddon) decides to proceed as planned with his nuptials to his bland but beautiful fiancée (Maura Tierney, NewsRadio).
As if that wouldn't make things stressful enough, the two New Yorkers decide to take separate flights to Savannah, Georgia - where the wedding will take place - because Ben wants to spend time with his ailing granddad. His best man (Steve Zahn, You've Got Mail) stays behind with Ben, but, as they're about to board their flight, bails out because he forgot his shoes and the all-important rings.
Again Ben ignores this as an omen and hops on the plane, even though he is deathly afraid of flying. He is seated next to a woman named Sarah (Sandra Bullock, Practical Magic), who looks like Ally Sheedy heading back home for her 10-year Breakfast Club High School reunion. As it takes off, a seagull flies into the plane's engine, causing it to crash into that lovely `Welcome to NY' sign that graces the end of the runway at LaGuardia. This forewarning also goes unnoticed by Ben. Starting to get the impression that he's no super genius, eh?
Long story short, Ben saves Sarah and hauls her body out of the wreckage. After she comes to, he finds out that she also needs to get to Savannah tout suite in order to sell a failing bagel shop. The two decide to travel together and the following eighty or so minutes unfolds just like Planes, Trains & Automobiles, with each mode of transportation being less successful than the previous. But their predicament only seems to invigorate the dopey Ben except, of course, for that fact that he (duh!) falls in love with Sarah. Unfortunately, there is no `Where's your hand?' `Between two pillows.' `Those aren't pillows!' scene.
Don't let the ads fool you – Forces is no chick-flick. It's surprisingly funny and has a terrific look, thanks to director Bronwen Hughes (Harriet the Spy) and cinematographer Elliot Davis (Out of Sight), and culminates in an amazing finale that merges a big outdoor wedding and a powerful hurricane. As far as acting, Affleck does his best to make you forget about that abominable `animal cracker' scene from Armageddon, while Bullock does okay with her less meaty role. In spite of the strange transformation that her character goes through (from thick black eye makeup and crazy hair to…well, to Sandra Bullock), she gives her least annoying performance in years.
1:49 – PG-13 for some adult language and adult situation
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