Rat Race (2001)
DIRECTOR: Jerry Zucker
CAST: Breckin Meyer, Rowan Atkinson, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jon Lovitz, Whoopi Goldberg, Seth Green, Lanei Chapman, Amy Smart, Vince Vieluf, John Cleese, Kathy Najimy, Wayne Knight, Dave Thomas
REVIEW:
Rat Race, a throwback to screwball chase comedies like It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, is not a great comedy, but it’s a hard-working, fast-paced, sometimes creatively zany one that serves up a reasonably steady supply of laughs until running out of gas at the finish line. Jerry Zucker (Airplane, Naked Gun) hasn’t delivered a comedy classic, but it’s an entertaining enough diversion. Continue reading
Jurassic Park III (2001)
DIRECTOR: Joe Johnston
CAST: Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Tea Leoni, Alessandro Nivola, Trevor Morgan, Michael Jeter, John Diehl, Laura Dern
REVIEW:
Ironic for a series about genetically resurrected dinosaurs, the Jurassic Park franchise just keeps devolving. 1997’s The Lost World had its moments but was a step down, and now Jurassic Park III is easily the weakest entry yet. With Steven Spielberg moving on and replaced in the director’s chair by Joe Johnston (he of such mediocre titles as Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Jumanji), the third installment has descended into a pointless hour and a half of generic scurrying around that when it’s over barely feels like it happened.
Continue readingThe Score (2001)
DIRECTOR: Frank Oz
CAST: Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, Marlon Brando, Angela Bassett
REVIEW:
The Score isn’t a classic entry in the heist movie genre, but it’s a slick little diversion that sets fairly modest goals and achieves them, gives us some interesting interplay between accomplished actors, and treads familiar ground with enough assurance to make us not mind coming along for the ride. Continue reading