Paycheck
a movie review by Rick Norwood
Great directors pay careful attention to the script: James Cameron, Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg. Their movies make lots
and lots of money. Wouldn't you think that would motivate lesser directors to pay attention to the script? Why don't John Woo
and Richard Donner buy good scripts?
Peter Pan
a movie review by Rick Norwood
It is impossible to film Peter Pan well. Like Tom Sawyer, the book is so politically incorrect
that anyone who dared make a film true to the book would be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail. And so, in
this Peter Pan, in the interests of political correctness, Peter acknowledges from the first that girls are smarter
and stronger than boys, all Native Americans possess wisdom greater than any white man, and the many things we call love...
Brother Bear
a movie review by Rick Norwood
A man is changed into a bear and must travel to a mountain, making friends along the way. When he reaches the mountain he must
choose whether to remain a bear or change back into a man. For this story to work at all, we must take it for granted that there
is no real difference, either in language nor intelligence, between man and bear. For the ending to work, we must take it for
granted that as soon as we learn to love one another, bears and men will become friends, and nobody will eat anything but
fish. Which naturally raises the question, what if one of those fish is Nemo?
Timeline
a movie review by Rick Norwood
The action is often entertaining. The story is not. Between action sequences you start to think
about the many flaws in the plot. We move from full daylight to pitch black night in less
than two hours with no twilight. A huge explosion knocks down stone walls but leaves the person standing next to it without a
scratch. The hero and heroine escape from a burning house and are suddenly fifty yards away, unseen by the enemy soldiers surrounding the house.
The Matrix Revolutions
a movie review by Rick Norwood
"This doesn't make any sense!" cries one character near the end of the final film in this trilogy. How nice of them to
review their own movie. It would be a waste of time to point out the many absurdities. Superman's battle
with General Zod didn't make a whole lot of sense either, and it didn't set off any alarms. It wasn't supposed to
make sense. The battles in the Matrix are Superman vs. Zod
raised to the nth power, and can be enjoyed on that level.
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life
a movie review by Rick Norwood
It was a lazy Sunday afternoon, and Rick felt like seeing a movie. He'd already seen all
of the good ones (saw Finding Nemo twice) so I took a chance on this one.
It was two hours of his valuable time watching the film, just so you won't have to bother sitting through it.
Spy Kids 3D: Game Over
a movie review by Rick Norwood
It's boring, but worse than boring, it's preachy in a way only kid movies can be preachy. This film, with its stiff, cheap, red and green
cardboard 3-D glasses, causes the viewer actual physical pain. Even the credit cookies are dull.
Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines
a movie review by Rick Norwood
The Terminator series has always been a reliable entertainment machine, and it seems that this episode holds up better
than Alien 3, Hannibal Lecter 3, or Jurassic Park 3, despite James Cameron's absence. Would it have been better
with James Cameron directing? Certainly. But except for one BDM (Big Dumb Moment), it is very well done. The main
writers, John Brancato and Michael Ferris, who also wrote a clever thriller, The Game, know you have to give the audience a
reason to care about characters before you start throwing helicopters at them.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
a movie review by Rick Norwood
"I got this really cool idea, see. We'll buy the rights to a comic book from this Alan Moore dude, who's so hot right now in the
whadda-ya-callum graphic novels, and then, and here's the really clever bit, we'll take out everything that makes the graphic novel
interesting, and put in tried and true Hollywood clichés, so the audience will love it."
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
a movie review by Rick Norwood
It is lots of fun, some very good Monty Python-type humor, and then a little more Monty Python-type humor, and then just a wee bit too
much Monty Python-type humor, but still a highly enjoyable experience.
There are a few quibbles but the intelligence of the writers shines through.
28 Days Later
a movie review by Rick Norwood
Rick ran into someone who asked, "Have you see 28 Days Later... yet?"
He hadn't, but after several more people started talking about it, he went. He is glad he did.
Instead of screen-busting special effects, the movvie relies on realism and likable characters. It is a nice change of pace.
Hulk
a movie review by Rick Norwood
There is a lot to like here. Unfortunately, intellectual directors such as Lee (that's Ang, not Stan -- though Stan gets applause
for his cameo) shy away from resolving a story with a superhuman outburst of climactic violence. Too early they learned the lesson "Violence
never solved anything." What they do not understand is that, in the Marvel universe, violence solves everything. You need that payoff.
The Animatrix
a DVD review by Rick Norwood
This DVD consists of nine (really eight) short animated films set in the universe of the Matrix. The first
four (really three) are written by the Wachowski brothers, and so add to our information about the Matrix universe.
It is always fun to discuss which works set in a given universe are canonical. Almost everyone agrees that movies set in
the Marvel universe are not, nor are comic books set in the Star Wars universe. As for the Matrix...
Finding Nemo
a movie review by Rick Norwood
It is an absolute delight. The film is beautiful, inventive, and very funny.
Rick thinks you should go into the movie with no foreknowledge of what you are about
to see. Afterwards, when you get together with someone else who has seen the film, you can both just share a smile.
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The Matrix Reloaded
a movie review by Rick Norwood
Our story opens when young Jedi Knight Neo is instructed by Obi Wan Morpheus to forget logic and reason and trust in the Source. Neo
kicks ass until he meets his maker, and they talk. Thereupon,
Neo leaves his creator and flies to rescue Lois Lane, who is falling from a tall building at the time.
Holes
a movie review by Rick Norwood
This is the most intelligent, original, and entertaining movie so far this year. In a non-linear but compelling narrative,
it tells how two curses, uttered more than a hundred years ago and half a world apart, work themselves out
in a hole-studded desert in the present day.
X2: X-Men United
a movie review by Rick Norwood
The three greatest fantasy novels of the 20th Century (not counting children's fantasy) are The Lord of the Rings,
Gormenghast, and The Once and Future King. Director Brian Singer pays tribute to the latter -- we
see both the villain Magneto and the hero Professor X reading that book. Easily the best movie so far this year,
this is a long way from making the best of the century list. However, it is a lot of fun, full of clever bits, skillfully told.
The Core
a movie review by Rick Norwood
If you thought space travel was boring, try burrowing through the earth.
Beginning well, the movie acknowledges how far away the core of the earth is, especially compared with the few miles humans have ever drilled,
and how hot it is, at what terrific pressure.
Dreamcatcher
a movie review by Rick Norwood
Since you'll be buying a ticket to watch the Animatrix short, you'll be glad to know that staying for
the movie is not a total waste of time. The opening scenes are quite good, the horror is about as horrible as it gets. Then, two-thirds
of the way through, the movie changes genres, and the ending is not horror at all...
Daredevil
a movie review by Rick Norwood
Marvel is three for three with this new movie. It's deeply imbued with the spirit of superhero comics, where plot
consistency and the laws of physics do not count for much, as long as the characters are cool and the action fast, and where
nobody in a costume ever stays dead except Bucky.
The Two Towers
a movie review by Rick Norwood
The Two Towers takes far greater liberties with J.R.R. Tolkien than did The Fellowship of the Ring.
They reduce Gimli to comic relief. His friendship with Legolas should be a major theme in the story. That only
works if Gimli and Legolas meet as equals. Here, Gimli is reduced to the role of side-kick.
Star Trek: Nemesis
a movie review by Rick Norwood
Rick is a Trekie from way back, so he enjoyed the movie. All they have to do is play the music from the original Trek
and he's hooked. But if you are neither a Trekie or a Trekker, but one of the vast untrekked, then all the movie has to offer you
is a pretty good space battle at the end. Among current films, it is not as bad as My Big Fat Greek Wedding, not as
good as 8 Mile.
Solaris
a movie review by Rick Norwood
This movie is intelligent and technically excellent, but empty and ultimately boring. It is full of visual and musical quotes
from 2001 - A Space Odyssey, but to what point? 2001 was a new visual experience. Everything here we have seen before.
Treasure Planet
a movie review by Rick Norwood
There are worse ways to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon than watching the new Disney animated feature. But there hasn't been a
great Disney animated classic since Tarzan (****) and this offering is not even up to last year's Lilo and Stich (***).
The key choices that sink this space-faring galleon are so bad they must have been made by someone with an MBA from a Midwestern
university.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
a movie review by Rick Norwood
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is not quite as good as the first Harry Potter film, but it is
still filled with charm and excitement. The director, Chris Columbus, noted for letting his actors go too far in hamming it up,
kept everyone well under control in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
Signs
a movie review by Rick Norwood
The plot is as old as Job, but M. Night Shyamalan tries to answer the unanswerable.
The movie is a powerful entertainment and you do want to see it. Go. Read this when you get back.
Men in Black II
a movie review by Rick Norwood
Rick always walks into a movie with high hopes, even when other reviewers have all panned it. And sometimes his hopes are
realized: he loved Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Not this time. There are some hints that there was
once a clever script by Galaxy Quest co-author Robert Gordon, but the current version by Barry Fanaro is stupid almost beyond belief.
Minority Report
a movie review by Rick Norwood
It is intelligent, witty science fiction. There is a fifteen-minute action
sequence that is original, spectacular, and thrilling. There is a murder mystery -- how do you commit
the perfect murder in a society where precogs foresee murder before it happens -- with a clever
solution. There are a lot of deft predictions about the near future that are both convincing and original.
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
a movie review by Rick Norwood
Most action films have three big action set-pieces, one at the beginning, one in the middle, and one at the
end. This movie has six or seven really big action sequences, and when it comes to
action directors, George Lucas is one of the best.
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