Summer Film Reviews
A film review by Jason John Seaver
Copyright 1994 Jason John Seaver
Well, Labor Day has passed again, the summer movie season for 1994 is over. Since the response to my 1993 summer-movies-in-review was overwhelmingly positive (1 that-was-kinda-neat, 0 you-idiot-why-would-we-want-to-see-that?), I thought I'd do it again.
There were either fewer actively awful movies this summer, or I've gotten better at choosing movies to see, or my standards have dropped. I don't believe I saw anything I really loathed this year. However, while last year had several *GREAT* blockbusters (The Fugitive, Jurassic Park, Much Ado About Nothing, In The Line of Fire), this year had only one. By August mad bombers and comic-type movies were starting to get played out, too.
Anyway, on to the capsules! The "avoid at all costs" category is missing, probably because I didn't see COLOR OF NIGHT or THE CLIENT.
OUTSTANDING FOR ANY SEASON --------------------------
FORREST GUMP Movies like FORREST GUMP and SCHINDLER'S LIST are making the Oscars no fun at all. The prediction of "Gump takes everything" will probably be both pretty common and reasonably accurate come Academy Awards-time because not only do the actors (outside of Tom Hanks and Sally Field, mostly a group of relative unknowns) give believable performances in a difficult cast of characters, and not only are the visual effects incredible, falling solidly into the "FX so good you don't notice them" category, but the story seems to affect people on a spiritual level. Maybe the time was just right for a movie that told people that if they always did right, things would fall into place.
THE LION KING The general reaction to the musical number used to open THE LION KING is something along the lines of "Zounds!" The opening five minutes have some incredible animation, and it's done over one of the two Tim Rice and Elton John songs in the movie that are really exceptional ("Circle of Life"). The rest of the movie isn't quite up to the incredible technical achievements of the opening, but has (in Zazu, Timon, Pumba, and Scar) a bunch of nifty characters that are fun to watch. It's not as good as, say, THE LITTLE MERMAID or BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, but well worth seeing. "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" is also a shoo-in for the Best Song Oscar.
ABOVE-AVERAGE ENTERTAINMENT ---------------------------
CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER Harrison Ford. Tom Clancy. How can you go wrong? Watch PATRIOT GAMES to find out. This movie was a huge improvement over its predecessor because of the writing: The team of Donald Stewart (one of two people who have worked on all three Jack Ryan movies), Stephan Zailian, and Don Milus wrote a script which, though it couldn't include the whole book, kept as much as could be kept in a 2:10 movie. The Clancy fan will appreciate some of the film's attention to detail - unlike PG, C&PD actually includes, by name, Judge Moore, Emil Jacobs, Rob Ritter, and Dan Murray. Unfortunately, the last two had sever problems implementing. The computer confrontation rang true, and many screen shots actually looked reasonable. Even with the inevitable fist fight at the end, the movie never seemed to talk down to the audience, a welcome change from the legion of thrillers that assume the average movie-goer needs things done in words of one syllable.
THE SHADOW I'll admit, there were probably five other people in the country who liked this one. In a summer with four superhero/comics movies, though, this was the best of the lot, quite possibly because it had the best villain. John Lone oozed evil as Shiwan Kahn; his willingness to wallow in it made Alec Baldwin's title character of Lamont Cranston seem flat and uninteresting whenever the two were on-screen at the same time. But make no mistake: This is a fun movie, with lots of nifty visuals and battle-of- wills action. My only complaint is in some of the casting; Ian McKellern was almost a non-entity, and who came up with the idea that it was even necessary to write for Johnathan Winters?
SPEED The surprise hit of the summer, SPEED delivered the action/adventure goods with a minimum of pretense. Neither Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, or Sandra Bullock do a huge amount of acting in this three-act film, but that's okay because they don't have to; part of the thrill is that the movie-goer is along for the ride and in a way their low-key performances make it easier to place oneself on the rigged-to-explode elevator, bus, and train with them. This movie is due out on $20 video this November and will probably be a huge seller because it's so much fun.
BLOWN AWAY The second big mad-bomber movie of the summer, BLOWN AWAY suffers a little in comparison to SPEED because they are not the same sort of movie and as such really shouldn't be compared to each other. BLOWN AWAY is a pretty straightforward thriller, with a Good Guy (Jeff Bridges) and a Bad Guy (Tommy Lee Jones) who wants the aforementioned Good Guy dead. Why he does is best left unsaid here, but the method, a series of intricate bombs, may not appeal to all; the penultimate device is a treat for those who like "Rubes," but the rest of the theater groaned, not appreciating what they saw as nifty in the extreme.
TRUE LIES Tom Arnold is just a gas in this movie. He steals scene after scene from the other Arnold in it and deserved his name before the title much more than Jamie Lee Curtis, who is just barely present and breaks the pattern that director James Cameron had established of strong female leads. Though the middle section featuring Ms. Curtis is at times acutely painful to watch, the sandwiching (a James Bond opening, a terrific horse chase, and a hugely expensive and impressive finale) makes this worth the money.
THE MASK Jim Carrey is a funny guy. That's one of the problems with THE MASK, because Carrey happens to be much funnier with the Mask off than he is with it on. He gets a lot of help, though, from two new actors making their movie debut: Cameron Diaz, a 21-year-old beauty who displays more acting ability than most models, and Max The Dog, who provides half the movie's laughs as Milo the wonder dog. The cartoony stuff isn't quite up to ROGER RABBIT, but Carrey, Max and Diaz are all up to the task.
HONORABLE MENTION: JURASSIC PARK played at a *lot* of $2 theaters this summer and was still a blast. Went to see it with members of my family that hadn't seen it yet, and a good time was had by all.
NOT BAD, BUT NOT GREAT ----------------------
MAVERICK This movie was about two really funny scenes away from being in the "Above-Average" category. As it stands, it's still a fairly entertaining way to spend five bucks, with light-hearted performances from Mel Gibson, James Garner, and Jodie Foster that carry the inoffensive fun for the full two hours-plus. There's about three of the aforementioned "really funny scenes," two involving poker games and one hilarious cameo by Danny Glover.
THE FLINTSTONES This was a potentially poor movie but for the casting of John Goodman as Fred. Goodman's roly-poly, lovable personage was a natural for this live-action cartoon, which is how one must look at this movie. It's a cartoon, even if they are using (for the most part) real actors and not line drawings. It's pretty easy to enjoy if looked at on that level, with the exception of a squandering of Johnathan Winters even more complete than THE SHADOW's.
THE CROW The defining characteristic for this movie was its bleakness. At times, life only seemed worth living by the thinnest of margins, and the fact that it was, in fact, marginally better than death was cruel because as soon as the movie starts, the characters who seem to have the most to live for are dead. This bleakness sets up a very interesting film-noir atmosphere - for example, the film seems to be filmed in three primary colors, black, white, and red - and the acting is above-average for an action movie. It's too bad that there's not a more interesting story; this movie really could have been something special with it.
A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE Only a summer movie by dint of being released three days before Labor Day, A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE is an uneven drama written by and starring Steve Martin, inspired by the novel SILAS MARNER. The movie encounters problems because it's tough to have a melodrama without a villain. Gabriel Byrne's character, though put in that slot, has motivations that are not entirely reprehensible; Stephen Baldwin's character isn't in the story long enough to be considered a proper villain. On the plus side, there's good chemistry between Steve Martin and Catherine O'Hara (who become fast friends, NOT love interests) and the series of young actresses who play Mathilda.
PROBLEMS --------
BLANKMAN The second- and third- most funny guys from "In Living Color" (David Allen Grier and Damon Wayans, respectively) can't hold a candle to #1 (Jim Carrey). However, this movie does supply some laughs, even if it's the most deserving-of-an-R PG-13 movie I've seen in some time (nude pictures in the background, long jokes trying to milk humor out of a guy getting an erection). When it's on in the final action sequence, it's very funny - especially David Allen Grier's karate-chopping hero known as "Other Guy," but not funny enough.
WAGONS EAST! Though not as bad as its reviews, this is NOT John Candy at his best. The story (pioneers facing danger when they head east, trying to go home) may have had potential in the right hands, WAGONS EAST! only succeeds when it tries to be a cartoon. Hopefully there's hope for CANADIAN BACON, the other "John Candy's last movie" that's in the can. Tri-Star could have released THE QUICK AND THE DEAD instead of this. Tragic.
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