The Sixth Day (2000)
DIRECTOR: Roger Spottiswoode
CAST: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tony Goldwyn, Robert Duvall, Michael Rooker, Michael Rapaport, Wendy Crewson, Sarah Wynter, Terry Crews, Rodney Rowland
REVIEW:
The Sixth Day is a prime example of how an intriguing sci-fi premise can be squandered in the service of a generic action flick. There is fertile ground for all kinds of ethical dilemmas and fascinating scenarios here, but the team assembled is not up to the task of bringing them to the screen. And even for Arnold Schwarzenegger fans who only care about seeing the big guy kick some ass and take some names, The Sixth Day is lackluster. Schwarzenegger has previously starred in a couple great sci-fi action thrillers–1984’s The Terminator and 1991’s Terminator 2–but he doesn’t continue that success here. Continue reading
Shaft (2000)
DIRECTOR: John Singleton
CAST:
Samuel L. Jackson, Vanessa Williams, Christian Bale, Jeffrey Wright, Toni Collette, Richard Roundtree, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Dan Hedaya, Busta Rhymes, Daniel von Bargen, Pat Hingle, Josef Sommer, Philip Bosco, Mekhi Phifer
REVIEW:
Shaft originally hit the screens in 1971, at the height of the ‘Blaxploitation’ era, with Richard Roundtree starring as ‘the black private dick who’s a sex machine to all the chicks’. Almost thirty years later, John Shaft made a return to the screen- sort of. Continue reading
The Matrix (1999)
DIRECTOR: Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski
CAST:
Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Joe Pantoliano, Gloria Foster
REVIEW:
Entries in the sci-fi genre have a tendency to fall into one of two pitfalls: either they are dry, intellectual ruminations, or use intriguing premises as mere perfunctory launching pads for generic whizz-bang action and special effects. Continue reading
The Mask of Zorro (1998)
DIRECTOR: Martin Campbell
CAST:
Antonio Banderas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Anthony Hopkins, Stuart Wilson, Matt Letscher, L.Q. Jones
REVIEW:
The Mask of Zorro provides just about everything we could ask for from a crowd-pleasing summer action-adventure blockbuster: swashbuckling derring-do, romance, and action-comedy, helmed with a high level of energy and flair by director Martin Campbell (Goldeneye), and a somewhat irreverent tone that doesn’t go so far as to parody the legendary character. Continue reading
Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
DIRECTOR: Richard Donner
CAST:
Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Rene Russo, Joe Pesci, Chris Rock, Jet Li, Darlene Love, Traci Wolfe, Steve Kahan, Mary Ellen Trainor, Kim Chan
REVIEW:
Lethal Weapon 4 is a classic example of a sequel that was assembled to make money, not because of necessity or because there was even anywhere particularly fresh to take the story. There were rumors of its production since 1992, but development only rushed full-steam ahead once the reluctant Mel Gibson was convinced to return with a massive paycheck. In retrospect, no one should have bothered. Lethal Weapon 3 wasn’t as good as the first or second installment, but it would have been a much better place to end the popular series than this. Lethal Weapon 4 is a mess of a movie, a big, bloated, unwieldy, sputtering, past-its-prime cash grab that has a few entertaining moments scattered around but not enough to justify its existence, and creaks as badly as aging action heroes Mel Gibson and Danny Glover’s joints. Continue reading
The Jackal (1997)
DIRECTOR: Michael Caton-Jones
CAST: Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, Sidney Poitier, Diane Venora, Mathilda May, Jack Black, J.K. Simmons
REVIEW:
The Jackal, a very (very) loose remake of the 1973 Fred Zinnemann film The Day of the Jackal, is a patently ridiculous action thriller at every step of the way (sad for a movie loosely based on a meticulously logical original) but alas not enough to push it out of wallowing in flat mediocrity and into “so bad it’s good” territory. Fans of the 1973 film, or Frederick Forsyth’s 1971 novel of the same name, will be left decidedly unimpressed (unsurprisingly, both Zinnemann and Forsyth lobbied to have the film’s name changed to reduce its associations with the original), and so will everyone else save the most undemanding of action and/or Bruce Willis fans. Continue reading
Air Force One (1997)
DIRECTOR: Wolfgang Petersen
CAST: Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, Glenn Close, Wendy Crewson, Liesel Matthews, Dean Stockwell, William H. Macy, Paul Guilfoyle, Xander Berkeley, Philip Baker Hall, Jurgen Prochnow
REVIEW:
Air Force One, the third major American action thriller from German director Wolfgang Petersen (following In the Line of Fire and Outbreak), proves that an accomplished action director can turn a flimsy premise into an entertaining ride, smoothly distracting from some plot holes and implausibiliites to turn Air Force One into one of the better of the myriad Die Hard-esque action flicks that have come out in the years since 1988’s Die Hard popularized the basic premise. It’s not as good as the original Die Hard, but it’s an entertaining ride if you don’t scrutinize everything too closely. Continue reading
The Fifth Element (1997)
DIRECTOR: Luc Besson
CAST: Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Milla Jovovich, Ian Holm, Chris Tucker, Brion James, Luke Perry, Tommy Lister
REVIEW:
It’s unsurprising that Luc Besson wrote The Fifth Element when he was a teenager, even if it took him decades to bring it to the screen. Put simply, The Fifth Element is a hot mess of a movie, a scatterbrained, scattershot hodgepodge of colorful scenes thrown slapdash into the mix, with a borderline incoherent plot to string it all together, served up with $100 million worth of visual razzle dazzle, relying on a sensory overload to compensate for a muddled narrative. The result still has its entertainment quota, and is a colorful, lively, and vibrant enough ride that it’s at least not boring, but it helps to shut your brain off in the interim. Continue reading
The Saint (1997)
DIRECTOR: Philip Noyce
CAST: Val Kilmer, Elisabeth Shue, Rade Sherbedgia, Valery Nikolaev, Michael Byrne, Henry Goodman, Alun Armstrong, Charlotte Cornwell
REVIEW:
An adaptation of the 1960s television series, which was itself an adaptation of Leslie Charteris’ series of novels, The Saint is a fairly lightweight and insubstantial international spy caper that comes off a bit like second-rate James Bond (an irony on multiple levels, as Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels were in part inspired by Charteris’ Saint novels, and the television series starred future 007 Roger Moore). The Saint is an enjoyable enough diversion, but doesn’t make much of an impression alongside higher-level spy thrillers. Continue reading
DNA (1997)
DIRECTOR: William Mesa
CAST: Mark Dacascos, Jurgen Prochnow, Robin McKee, Tom Taus
REVIEW:
DNA is the product of two special effects technicians—-director William Mesa and screenwriter Nick Davis—-who developed loftier filmmaking aspirations while seemingly lacking the talent (or originality) to chew what they’ve bitten off. DNA is a patchwork quilt shamelessly derivative of other, better movies (most blatantly but not limited to the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi action flick Predator). Its producers Interlight Pictures——heard of them? Me neither—-rather hilariously oversold it as “Alien meets Indiana Jones”. That said, DNA is still a fun little diversion (if one can forgive it for practically plagiarizing swaths of Predator along with bits and pieces of other flicks along the way including Jurassic Park) with a humble 97 minute runtime that doesn’t overstay its modest welcome.
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