Logan's Run

SPRING BREAK 2006 Fast Review
Logan's Run is the quintessential science fiction movie of the seventies. The vision of the future is not all blacks and grays like today's sci-fi films. The future they predicted was just as corrupted, but everyone lived in vibrant exciting color. The story revolves around Logan, a sandman who hunts down and kills people. You see in the futuristic society everyone lives in a domed in paradise of sorts, they are bred in tubes with a color changing crystal in their hands called a life clock. This crystal life clock changes color as they grow older. Everyday the crystals in the hands of the people born exactly 30 years before blink red, this means they've reached "Last Day." Every night all those whose crystals are blinking go to a ceremony called "Carousel" where they are lifted into the sky. If they reach the flying Carousel they will be renewed, and their life clock reset, but no one ever does, instead they are incinerated. Logan's job is to hunt down the people who run from Carousel and to kill them. The real story begins when his life clock is advanced to blinking so that he can infiltrate a hidden sanctuary for escaped runners known only as "Sanctuary." with the help of the slowly trusting Jessica, Logan manages to escape, but his mission is forgot when he realizes the truth about life outside the domes and about Carousel. It's a lively little adventure, similar to "The Island." I must issue a strong warning however, In general my reviews are based on artistic merit and I leave the readers to check Screenit or PluggedIn to decide if a film is appropriate, this will not do here because Logan's Run predates those web sites. The movie received a PG rating when released, but it has a number of objectionable scenes that would certainly earn it an R rating if resubmitted today. The best advice I can give you is find someone who knows it well enough to edit, if you know me personally I'll be happy to do so for you. That said, I can only finish by saying that for a thirty year old sci-fi movie, Logan's Run kept my interest and was not overpowered by outdated special effects. This, like Big Trouble in Little China, may very well become spring break tradition.

A-

Office Space

SPRING BREAK 2006 Fast Review
Everybody has seen this movie. I can 't even begin to count how many people have asked me if I've seen it. It got to the point where I was so tired of hearing: "You HAVEN'T?!? OMIGOSH you HAVE to see that movie it is SO funny!" that I broke down and watched it. I wasn't avoiding it before, it's just one of those ones I never really wanted to see. I enjoyed it, though I didn't laugh hysterically during the viewing of it. I'd hear a joke or a bit of funny dialogue and I'd think, "I should be laughing at that, why aren't I laughing at that, there must be something wrong with me, I'm emotionally dead, why am I like this?" and by that point I'd have to rewind to hear what I missed. Fortunately it was after re-hearing the jokes that I realized like with Napoleon Dynamite, some things get better the second time around. Office Space pretty much tells about the modern nightmare of working in a cubicle for the all controlling corporation without thanks or job security. It's funny, but I'd imagine that the people who can relate to the predicament of the characters based on first hand experience will enjoy the jokes much more than I.

B

In Her Shoes

SPRING BREAK 2006 Fast Review
This movie is about family, and with a perfectly real family of my own, I may have been disinclined to watch it, after all...why watch someone else's drama when you have your own, right? Wrong. Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette, and Shirley MacLaine each give unique heartfelt performances, and a by the numbers story is elevated to a movie that teaches us something about the way a family works and the reasons it does so. The sisters are completely opposite, but they can't not stick together, there are about a million cliche sayings like "opposite sides of the same coin" and so forth, but that would only cheapen the effect of the movie. There are sad parts, and happy parts, there are times when we are disgusted with the characters only to feel for them later when we see the bigger picture. The movie is about the sisters coming to understand each other, and director Curtis Hanson makes this real for the audience by walking us through the same process. It's a B movie but there's something more to it that makes it ill at ease alongside the sappy dramadies with which it would usually be placed, I can't my finger on it, but it's there.

B+

Poltergeist

SPRING BREAK 2006 Fast Review
This classic of the horror genre had some slow parts mainly the middle of the movie, but what it lacked then it made up for in the creatively frightening climactic finale. It was before the times of the PG-13 rating so for a PG movie it's pretty gruesome, but it is after all a ghost story. The bottom line is it was entertaining and occasionally inventive, not to mention the fact that you'll never leave a TV on static again.
B

V for Vendetta

SPRING BREAK 2006 Fast Review
Of all the quick reviews I'm doing, this is probably the one I'd like most to expand to a normal run on, "skim to the number of stars he gave it," review. First time director James McTeigue packs a punch with his adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name. Hugo weaving brings life to the man behind the mask, creating a real character without the use of any facial expressions. (I think I just heard Jim Carrey faint) Natalie Portman pushes her awkward delivery of George Lucas' Star Wars scripts further and further from our minds with a stupendous performance of Evey Hammond. The acting on all parts was great, specifically Stephan Rea as the tired Chief Inspector Finch, and John Hurt as the power hungry totalitarian dictator Chancellor Sutler. Movies about futuristic overbearing social orders are seen often, but watching V for Vendetta really stirred me up over the idea of a government that tries to take the power away from the people. This movie isn't a breath of fresh air in a stretch of drab movies, it's an intriguing action movie about the immortality of ideas, it's exciting, but more than that it makes you think. I think this is what Batman Begins was trying to be, the only difference is that V for Vendetta has something meaningful to say, and it says it with style.

A-

Stay Alive

SPRING BREAK 2006 Fast Review
You may think a movie about a killer video game sounds dumb, and you're right. Oh I'm sorry was that a boring sentence, well it reads like the Pulp Fiction screenplay from where I'm sitting, and you know why? I'll tell you. It all has to do with this movie about a killer video game. Not once was I scared, never a jump scene, nothing. The only purpose this movie serves is to laugh at the ridiculous plot twists and ogle at Sophia Bush. But when you can get better laughs reading the rapper of a laffy taffy, and with Natalie Portman in the theater next door looking great and acting her heart out in V for Vendetta, what's the point. The filmmakers, the actors, and especially the viewers, can all do better.

F

Big Trouble in Little China

SPRING BREAK 2006 Fast Review
After a stretch of serious movies I feel it's necessary to enjoy some mindless entertainment. It probably speaks volumes about me that I rate this action/comedy/fantasy movie higher than two of the Best Picture nominees, but what can I say. Kurt Russell being swept into the black magic filled underworld of Chinatown San Francisco is probably even more crazy to watch than it sounds, but around here we like crazy. The script is written like a comic book, and a cheap one at that; the macho hero always has some tough guy line to spout off, and the mysterious woman who will ultimately wind up with the hero packs every sentence with as much plot exposition as possible while trying to make it sound off hand. The movie never takes it's self seriously, so neither do we. It's cheesy off the wall fun, and has potential to become a spring break tradition.

B+

Good Night and Good Luck

SPRING BREAK 2006 Fast Review
George Clooney takes the directors chair in this recreation of the historic feud between Senator Joseph McCarthy and newsman Edward R. Murrow. This also was a Best Picture Nominee, but unlike Capote I never really saw the reason. It was well made yes, it was well acted yes, the story was interesting, the sets were sharp, and so on and so forth. The thing about this movie is that it seems Clooney knew all the right notes to hit, and he hit them. I'm all for period pieces and historical movies, but the job of a director is to draw you in so they can tell you whatever it is they want to tell. While watching Good Night and Good Luck I never felt drawn in, I never really cared about the characters, I wanted to, but that's not the way it works. The way I see it, it's super straight forward approach and simplistic story arc worked against it, sorry to sound so completely cliche and mean but...Better luck next time George.

C+

Capote

SPRING BREAK 2006 Fast Review
The non-fiction story of author Truman Capote and his book "In Cold Blood" was a haunting story of a curious man whose life is irrevocably altered as he builds friendships with the killers about whom he is writing. Phillip Seymour Hoffman really is incredible in his Oscar winning embodiment of the writer, we can see his interest in the horrific story, his want to help the men with whom he can relate by means of sharing similar childhoods, and lastly we feel his guilt knowing that ultimately they must be executed to provide an end to his book. This movie was nominated for the best picture, however it lost to Crash and deservedly so. It was good, but the one great performance never quite made it great.

A-