Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
DIRECTOR: Nicholas Meyer
CAST:
William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, Kim Cattrall, Christopher Plummer, David Warner, Iman, Kurtwood Smith, Rene Auberjonois
REVIEW:
WARNING: This review discusses elements of the film’s plot
The end of an era came in 1991, when Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country hit theaters, featuring the adventures of the Enterprise with her original crew for the last time. Continue reading
Paradise (1991)
DIRECTOR: Mary Agnes Donoghue
CAST: Don Johnson, Melanie Griffith, Elijah Wood, Thora Birch, Sheila McCarthy, Eve Gordon, Louise Latham
REVIEW:
Paradise is one of those quiet little low-key films that slips through among the summer blockbuster action-adventure flicks and romantic comedies without hardly attracting anyone’s attention. A thoughtful, deliberately-paced drama, it fell largely under the radar despite featuring popular—at least at the time—stars Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith. But for those who happen across it, Paradise is not a “great film”, but a nice little story about four people, two adults and two kids, who grow emotionally through their relationships with each other. Continue reading
Regarding Henry (1991)
DIRECTOR: Mike Nichols
CAST: Harrison Ford, Annette Bening, Mikki Allen, Bill Nunn, Bruce Altman, Rebecca Miller, Donald Moffat
REVIEW:
There’s the potential of a deeper, more complex movie somewhere inside Regarding Henry, but Mike Nichols’ direction and J.J. Abrams’ script never aims any higher than earnestly treacly “feel good” fluff that paints both the title character’s rehabilitation and character arc (if it can be called that) in simplistic shallow black-and-white. The result is too technically competent and earnestly intentioned to hate, but its oversimplifications are irritatingly in the way of a better rendition of the basic premise. Continue reading
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
DIRECTOR: James Cameron
CAST:
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick, Joe Morton, Earl Boen
REVIEW:
With 1984’s The Terminator , then fledgling filmmaker James Cameron displayed narrative prowess, a deft hand with action sequences, and economical use of a limited budget. Continue reading
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
DIRECTOR: Jonathan Demme
CAST:
Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine, Anthony Heald, Diane Baker, Brooke Smith, Chris Isaak, Charles Napier, Daniel von Bargen
REVIEW:
Few cinematic villains are a source of as much morbid fascination as Hannibal Lecter. Like the heroine Clarice Starling, we are frightened and disturbed by him, and yet we are too intrigued to turn our eyes away. Dr. Lecter is undoubtebly the character best-remembered from the psychological thriller The Silence of the Lambs, and the acclaim showered on Anthony Hopkins for his Oscar-winning performance sometimes threatens to overshadow Jodie Foster’s also Oscar-winning lead role as FBI trainee Clarice Starling, a fine performance and a well-developed character in her own right. Clarice and Hannibal are two of the strongest characters ever written and acted in a horror movie, and they are given a script that does them justice, a dark, intelligent thriller that relies much less on blood and guts than on well-honed characterizations, a few scenes of indelible purely verbal interactions, and a vivid sense of atmosphere. All of these elements combined to make The Silence of the Lambs a classic of the thriller genre and earned it five Academy Awards in 1991. Continue reading
Sleeping With The Enemy (1991)
DIRECTOR: Joseph Ruben
CAST: Julia Roberts, Patrick Bergin, Kevin Anderson
REVIEW:
Sleeping With The Enemy briefly flirts with a semi-serious, down-to-earth study of domestic abuse, and then disappointingly quickly abandons any pretensions of anything loftier than a generic thriller where the heroine can run, but she can’t hide. What follows might have still been a moderately engaging diversion, but an already bad aftertaste of disappointment from its more promising opening is further undone by manufactured plot contrivances and a narrative that only gets more rote and by-the-numbers as it slips into its generic slasher movie finale.
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