Movie Review: Outbreak

Outbreak started out with promise. It was a thriller whose villain and danger was unique (a deadly virus), and its presence was treated with a sense of gravity that made it seem real. For the first hour or so of the movie, I was hooked. And then, right the movie was crossing the line from “good” to “excellent”, it dive-bombed. The plot developed more leaky holes than my old shower, and became standard triller fare – cleverly of every type (military, medical, etc), but no sturdier for it.

Somehow, I found myself unable or simply unwilling to buy the last half of the movie. Biological weapons, homicidal military leaders, and a plethora of soldiers who are willing to obey absolutely foolish orders – up until the climax demands they change, anyway. I was just disappointed, frankly. Outbreak had a clever, original plot in its grasp, and it traded it away for the standard, idiotic plot developments that all thrillers seem bent on conjuring up. I realize human beings can be truly sinister, but please. Just once, can we not have the plot and tension artificially extended because of crazed, homicidal maniacs? I'm just not buying it anymore.

Cinematography: Alright

Story: Weak

Rating: 5/10

Movie Review: Along Came a Spider

As I watched Along Came a Spider, I really couldn't shake of an uncanny feeling that the movie was just not with it. It is like having a conversation with somebody, and halfway through the meal, you realize they have not been listening to a word you have said. Your first clue would be their nonsensical babbling, and your second clue would probably be their empty gaze. This is a lot like Along Came a Spider, whose plot meanders, seemingly without logic or reason, for the full hour and fourty-five minutes. It even goes so far as to employ crappy CG effects during the opening scene.

Technically, it's a sequel to Kiss the Girls, which wasn't very good either. The first movie gave Morgan Freeman a bit more to chew with though, and he was good then. He has few lines in Along Came a Spider, and his acting feels dispassionate - probably due to the nonsensical actions his character demands he take.

Mostly, it's just a crappy plot, with a weak ending, and unnatural plot twists. It's not really even worth seeing if you like Morgan Freeman (which I do). Pass, please.

Cinematography: Weak
Story: Dumb
Rating: 3/10

Movie Review: Enemy of the State

I've seen Enemy of the State before, but I was younger then, and the movie's themes went over my head for the most part. Having given the movie a second viewing, I found it much more interesting now, and its message is just as applicable today as it was in 1998. I won't comment on the political issue here, but it is an issue, and so the movie is given an extra edge because of it. Yet, Enemy of the State is also not just a preachy liberal movie. It's smarter than that; it's a gripping, suspenseful spy thriller, where the people who are supposed to be the good guys are also the bad guys, and the action does not take place in another country, but in our own. The fact that the plot is based around a "this is happening today" concept makes it intriguing, but even the final scenes of the movie leave the question of national security versus civil rights unanswered. (I'm sure the movie's creators have an answer, and so this could just be my own opinion: that neither extreme, while being easy answers, is satisfying. But I leave that to you.)

Yet as I watched the movie near its climax, I became less concerned about the message, and more concerned about the characters. I was entertained by the tricky plot twists that spy thrillers always pull, although the ending was a bit much to swallow. I was gripped by the action, and pleased by the obligatory explosions. In some ways, the movie is just that: a simple spy thriller, with a plausible reality spun around it. The fact that the movie's reality is now a current issue in our nation is intriguing, and it is handled well - I found it an interesting thing to sit through after 9/11. Still, the movie does devolve into a standard thriller which, while enjoyable, is still nothing terribly new. I'm a stickler for thrillers, though, when they make sense, and this movie did do that.

Cinematography: Exceptional
Story: Exceptional
Rating: 8/10

Movie Review: Say Anything

It is rare that you find a movie, in any genre, that is as real as Say Anything. I've never really seen a movie like this before, and it's not just because it has a unique plot. Lots of movies have unique plots. Yet this movie also has characters. Romantic comedies, and romantic movies in general, generally only have two characters in the movie with actual character (that being the two leads), and if any of the supporting characters have any character at all, it is most often eccentricities that paint the lead in a better light. Of course, there may also be the overbearing parents/parental figure.

While Say Anything has all these characters - the overbearing father (is there any other kind?), the concerned friends, the scarred-by-love family members, they are all real. They have real lives, real backstories, and real concerns. We would all expect to see one of the two leads crying in the bathtub at some point during the film. We would not expect to see one of their fathers doing so. Not only does that very thing happen in Say Anything, but it's revealed during her first scene that one of the supporting characters has love problems of her own - and with consequences that are very real, and go beyond simply encouraging the male lead to do better for us with the female lead.

These are the kinds of thing that give Say Anything a real weight and reality that makes us wonder if we're really watching a movie, or just being shown a documentary of actual people. The ending is almost as you'd expect, but because of its honesty, if it had ended differently, I don't think it would have been unexpected. I found myself rooting less and less for the happy ending over the touching emotional one, and just watching more and more to see what would happen. I never realized during the hour and fourty minutes of it, as I often do, that I was watching a film. And I think that is the best any work of art can hope for.

Rating: 10/10