Mouwiya/IMDb-Movie-Reviews-Sentiment-Dataset huggingface dataset:
while screen adaptations of john irving's novels have been disappointingly uneven , the films have all shared one particular strength : key casting . 
who can forget john lithgow as roberta muldoon , the transsexual quarterback of " the world according to garp , " or nastassja kinski as susie the bear in " the hotel new hampshire " ? 
a lot of good casting decisions have gone into the making of " the cider house rules , " an adaptation of irving's poetic 1994 novel about a restless young man called homer wells . 
among those sound judgments was the decision to have the splendid tobey maguire assume the pivotal role ; the decision to cast michael caine as his mentor and father figure , dr . wilbur larch , the ether-addicted head obstetrician of the st . cloud's orphanage , maine ; and the decision to offer jane alexander and kathy baker supporting roles as his head nurses . 
then there are the brethren who populate the apple orchard where homer wells finds himself shortly after leaving st . cloud's , including delroy lindo , oscar ? -worthy as the foreman of the migrant work detail that drifts up and down the coast as the seasons take them . 
there's kate nelligan as the matriarch of the cider house , and charlize theron as candy , the lovely , lonely wife of a wwii bomber pilot ( paul rudd ) sent away on a mission overseas leaving candy to set lobster traps with homer wells , a man who's never seen the ocean before let alone a lobster . 
am i forgetting anyone ? 
yes . 
kieran culkin and paz de la huerta as dissolute orphanage residents who make you sit up and take notice every time they're on the screen . 
but with " the cider house rules , " the good people decisions don't end with the cast . 
irving has written his own screenplay in order to get it right this time ( last year's " simon birch , " loosely based on his " a prayer for owen meaney , " was a big-screen example of irving handled sub-standardly ) ; the author appears fleetingly as a stationmaster here . 
rachel portman , a composer of such sweet and lyrical tenderness , provides a score that's absolutely right for the project--sweet , lyrical , and tender . 
there's impressive new england photography by oliver stapleton too . 
last but by no means least is " my life as a dog " director lasse hallstr ? m , who shows enormous skill in pulling this collective together and helping bring irving's marvelously touching story to life . 
for the many beloved who pass away in " the cider house rules , " it's an extraordinarily life-affirming story . 
and now , thanks to these talented individuals , it's an extraordinarily life-affirming film . 


Sentiment: pos
bob the happy bastard's quickie review : 
the odd couple ii 
grumpy old men , it ain't . 
hell , my fellow americans , it ain't . 
walter matthau and jack lemmon team up again for an even more worn out vehicle than any of their films over the past few years . 
odd couple ii feels terribly generic , where in the first movie , made thirty one years ago , feels like a wonderful tale . 
that's like repackaging campbell's soup in a generic food can , really . 
how writer neil simon could've made such a horrible mistake in screen writing is beyond me . 
throughout the movie , i really didn't laugh once . 
honestly . 
i mean , there were dumb situations , yeah , like the cropduster who let these old geezers have it without any notice , but they just really didn't seem funny to me . 
and that car rolling off the cliff ? 
the only way i would've seen humor in that is if they were still in it . 
and the ending gets all super-mushy , too . 
in the final twenty minutes or so , lemmon meets a girl he thinks is the one , then loses her ; matthau talks to his son ( a wasted jonathan silverman ) about his amrriage to lemmon's daughter ; and , of course , lemmon and matthau have another roomie situation on their hands . 
ooh , i really gave a lot away there , i'm sure . 
consider it a hospitable gester , you won't waste your time renting this muck . 


Sentiment: neg
carry on matron is the last great carry-on film in my opinion . 
made in 1972 , it still features most of the regulars of this genre . 
sid james plays the head of a gang of crooks intent on stealing contraceptive pills from the local maternity hospital and selling them off to make a profit , kenneth williams is sir bernard cutting , head of the hospital but also a hypochondriac , hattie jacques re-takes her role as matron , and charles hawtrey is the psychiatrist dr . goode . 
the jokes come in fast and so do the laughs , with humorous antics between the matron and sir bernard . 
this time , williams is after matron ( jacques ) when he needs to prove himself that he is a man after visiting dr . goode . 
the doctor ( hawtrey ) is sworn to secrecy : - " i assure you , that anything you say to me today will go in one ear and straight out of the other ! " 
bernard thinks he is having a sex change and needs to prove himself . 
there are great cameos from joan sims , an expectant mother who is many weeks overdue and is eating constantly in every scene , and from kenneth connor as the expectant father who still thinks he's at work ( at the railway station ) . 
sid james' gang including cyril his son ( kenneth cope ) try to find out where the pills are by getting cyril to dress up as a nurse and live in at the nurses home . 
he has to share a room with nurse ball ( barbara windsor ) and she soon sees through him ! 
the film ends with the attempted robbery of the hospital's pills with panic ensuing . 
there are good performances by hattie jacques as the matron , however her character seems a little more subdued and quieter than her previous 'matron's' . 
williams is , as usual , on top form , but sid james isn't given a very good part in this movie and i would forgive anyone to forget that he was in the movie at all . 
the same does not go for charles hawtrey , for although he only first appears in the movie after 30 minutes gone and has scarce screen time , he seems to steal every scene he is in . 
by not making use of sid james and barbara windsor's talent to full effect , the film seems to flounder , but it certainly makes up for it with it's good storyline and it's other appealing characters . 
this film is genuinely funny and i could watch it again and again and not get bored ! 


Sentiment: pos
in a typical cinematic high school , the football jocks have sex with the girls and then dump them , but not before the boys' scores are dutifully recorded in their little black books . 
as the sexual acts take place , the other guys hang out nearby , guzzling beer and grunting like pigs . 
in the rage : carrie 2 , robert mandel's terminally bland sequel to carrie , there isn't a single original moment . 
only amy irving returns from carrie , and the talent of the rest of the sequel's cast is impossible to determine given the stupefying mediocrity of rafael moreu's script . 
as rachel , the horror story's lead , emily bergl gives one of the least scary performances in recent memory , but it isn't exactly her fault . 
the director asks for little from his actors , which is precisely what he gets . 
sporadically in this lame and lifeless movie , rachel will cause school lockers and windows to fly open , but generally she just mopes around looking like a victim . 
her fellow students delight in tormenting her . 
of course , she will get her revenge in the obligatory ending bloodbath in which she will decapitate and castrate the boys and crush the girls with burning timbers . 
as the movie marks time until its big finale , it throws in some repugnant scenes , hoping to turn audience's stomachs . 
rachel's girlfriend commits a horrible and realistic suicide after the boy who made " love " to her the night before spurns her . 
 ( he gets major points in his black book for this , but his buddies say he would have gotten more if he had had sex with her after her death . ) 
even a helpless puppy is run over , and we see his poor , little body flipping over and over under a truck . 
the teenagers in the movie are completely blas ? about it all . 
 " doesn't it offend you that some girl offed herself yesterday , " asks one of the few kids with a conscience . 
 " why ? " 
responds his nonplussed girlfriend . 
 " she wasn't anybody . " 
remarkably devoid of any energy , especially for a horror flick , the movie makes one yearn for a fast forward button on the theater's armrest . 
with material this bad , the film's only hope is to go for parody , but it isn't smart enough to realize it . 
even the mandatory epilogue is as pointless and predictable as the rest of the movie . 
the rage : carrie 2 runs 1 : 45 . 
it is rated r for graphic violence , teen alcohol abuse , sex , nudity and profanity and would be acceptable only for older teenagers . 


Sentiment: neg
not so long ago , men by the names of peckinpah , ford , leone , and eastwood made westerns . 
real westerns . 
these were some of the best films of the twentieth century . 
those days are gone . 
now we have crap like wild wild west to pass for the western . 
and that record is not improved with the unbearable tale of american outlaws . 
outlaws is yet another re-telling of the jesse james legend , courtesy of b-movie king james g . robinson ( producer of such classics as wrongfully accused and chill factor ) . 
delayed since the spring , this version stars the irish hunka hunka burning love colin farrell ( the best part of schumacher's tigerland ) as the bad-ass jesse james . 
alas , any sense of his character has been left on the ranch , leaving us with only cute chicks like ali larter ( minus the whipped cream ) to watch . 
the spin this time around : fresh from serving as southern militiamen in the civil war , jesse james ( farrell ) , his brother frank ( gabriel macht ) , and his pal cole younger ( scott caan ) lay down their arms and head home to missouri to tend the family farms after the war has ended . 
but trouble is brewing in their small town of liberty when evil railroad baron thaddeus rains ( harris yulin ) and his cronies rollin parker ( terry o'quinn ) and allan pinkerton ( timothy dalton ) demand the boys turn over their lands to the railroads . 
the jameses and the youngers then join forces to fight the railroad -- by robbing banks up and down missouri , thus cutting off the railroad's financial surplus and playing robin hood to the local people . 
along the way , the boys squabble over who's the cutest of the gang , who's the most popular cowboy in the gang , and who ought to go on mtv's total request live . 
they rob numerous banks with identical interiors , always with the kindest of hearts , strutting in their grungy dusters as moby songs play in the background . 
the witty banter they share could be plastered within a hallmark card . 
the biggest disappointment here lies in the acting of colin farrell . 
after a great job in tigerland , farrell walks through this role easier then nicolas cage in gone in 60 seconds . 
and his american accent rivals richard gere's irish accent in the jackal . 
combined with feeling like bonanza : the teen years , this homogenized production ( toned down to get the ever-popular pg-13 rating ) gives us an invincible jesse james that quickly grows tiresome and boring . 
the unbearable villains courtesy of timothy dalton and thaddeus rains spend the entire film proclaiming that everyone should be hanged , sucking out any energy left in the film . 
not to mention : the real story of jesse james and his gang bears no resemblance to the plot of american outlaws . 
instead , the movie is full of old , outrageous tales about the wild west -- tales which went out of style in 5-cent magazines about a century ago . 


Sentiment: neg
it is movies like these that make a jaded movie viewer thankful for the invention of the timex indiglo watch . 
based on the late 1960's television show by the same name , the mod squad tells the tale of three reformed criminals under the employ of the police to go undercover . 
however , things go wrong as evidence gets stolen and they are immediately under suspicion . 
of course , the ads make it seem like so much more . 
quick cuts , cool music , claire dane's nice hair and cute outfits , car chases , stuff blowing up , and the like . 
sounds like a cool movie , does it not ? 
after the first fifteen minutes , it quickly becomes apparent that it is not . 
the mod squad is certainly a slick looking production , complete with nice hair and costumes , but that simply isn't enough . 
the film is best described as a cross between an hour-long cop show and a music video , both stretched out into the span of an hour and a half . 
and with it comes every single clich ? . 
it doesn't really matter that the film is based on a television show , as most of the plot elements have been recycled from everything we've already seen . 
the characters and acting is nothing spectacular , sometimes even bordering on wooden . 
claire danes and omar epps deliver their lines as if they are bored , which really transfers onto the audience . 
the only one to escape relatively unscathed is giovanni ribisi , who plays the resident crazy man , ultimately being the only thing worth watching . 
unfortunately , even he's not enough to save this convoluted mess , as all the characters don't do much apart from occupying screen time . 
with the young cast , cool clothes , nice hair , and hip soundtrack , it appears that the film is geared towards the teenage mindset . 
despite an american 'r' rating ( which the content does not justify ) , the film is way too juvenile for the older mindset . 
information on the characters is literally spoon-fed to the audience ( would it be that hard to show us instead of telling us ? ) , dialogue is poorly written , and the plot is extremely predictable . 
the way the film progresses , you likely won't even care if the heroes are in any jeopardy , because you'll know they aren't . 
basing the show on a 1960's television show that nobody remembers is of questionable wisdom , especially when one considers the target audience and the fact that the number of memorable films based on television shows can be counted on one hand ( even one that's missing a finger or two ) . 
the number of times that i checked my watch ( six ) is a clear indication that this film is not one of them . 
it is clear that the film is nothing more than an attempt to cash in on the teenage spending dollar , judging from the rash of really awful teen-flicks that we've been seeing as of late . 
avoid this film at all costs . 


Sentiment: neg
saving private ryan ( dreamworks ) running time : 2 hours 48 minutes . 
starring tom hanks , edward burns , tom sizemore and matt damon directed by steven spielberg already being hailed as the 'greatest war movie ever made , ' saving private ryan is an harrowing , saddening and riveting movie . 
it may not be the greatest war movie in my opinion , but it's certainly one of the best war movies made , and one of the best of 1998 . 
tom hanks stars as a captain who's troop has to find private ryan ( damon ) who has a ticket home because his three brothers have been killed in action . 
action , drama and even some humour occur as the troop journeys through wartime france to find him . 
after the disappointing amistad ( 1997 ) spielberg has returned to form with this excellent movie . 
i'm not the war movie genre biggest fan , but i found this film to be gripping , and very scary , thanks to the excellent cast , direction and terrifying battle scenes . 
tom hanks is superb , straying away from his usually soppy dramatic roles , such as in forrest gump ( 1994 ) . 
this time , he plays the role with gritty realism , and is much better for it . 
occasionally he overacts the sentimentally , but he generally delivers a fine performance . 
edward burns , looking a lot like armageddon's ben affleck , also delivers a top notch performance , moving away from his roles in films such as she's the one ( 1996 ) tom sizemore makes less of an impact , but is still watchable , and matt damon reinforcing his position as one of the finest young actors working today . 
spielberg directs very well , putting the audience right in the heart of the action of the battle scenes . 
and what battle scenes they are ! 
they're truly terrifying , yet the audience cannot drag their eyes away from the screen . 
the battle scenes are filmed with a jerky hand-held camera , and the panic and confusion felt by the soldiers is emphasized by this technique . 
the gore and violence isn't spared either , which body parts flying , and blood spurting . 
this film is certainly not for kids and sensitive adults . 
other factors help saving private ryan be a masterpiece of 90's film making . 
the cinematography is excellent , and the music score by john william's is also superb . 
it is never intrusive , and adds to the drama on-screen . 
but while they are thousands of good things great about private ryan , there's one major flaw that detracts the genius of the film : the writing . 
it is unusually flat , with many of the speeches strangely weak . 
the film never really makes any profound statements . 
this is not a major gripe , as private ryan is a film of action , not words . 
still , the script could of been a lot better . 
thankfully , the actors help partly to rectify the situation with their great delivery of their lines . 
saving private ryan , in the end , is an excellent film , but not the 'greatest war movie' due to it's weak acting . 
this film should be viewed by everyone who has the stomach for it , as it's rewarding and extremely worthwhile . 
it really shouldn't be missed , and dreamworks skg has finally found it's first hit movie . 


Sentiment: pos
my giant is two movies for the price of one , but neither is worth the cost of admission , even if you get in free . 
as lamely directed by michael lehmann , the picture tries to be a comedy by using and reusing every giant joke in the book . 
 ( " without goliath , david is just some punk throwing rocks . " ) 
languidly paced throughout , the movie becomes increasingly lugubrious as the screenplay by david seltzer ( the omen ) meanders toward its sad ending . 
since it's rarely funny or convincingly dramatic , what the filmmakers thought they were doing remains a mystery . 
other than a few nice visuals , there's nothing to recommend the picture . 
with great film comedies under his belt from when harry met sally ? to the original city slickers , billy crystal has shown that he's more than the world's best oscar host . 
he does , however , have a propensity for choosing hopeless material as in last year's father's day and this year's my giant . 
one wonders if he reads the script before agreeing to go ahead with a project . 
surely reading the one for my giant would have shown that there was nothing there . 
perhaps he thought he could ad lib it into success . 
or maybe he wants to be a dramatic actor and thought he could do something serious with the movie's somber tone . 
the most charitable thing that could be said about it is that it is so ineffectual that people will probably forget they saw it by the next day . 
this one-joke movie's single idea is to place real-life basketball player gheorghe muresan , who stands seven and a half feet tall , into as many visually striking situations as possible . 
sammy ( crystal ) , an agent currently without clients , is rescued after a car accident by a sweet romanian giant named max ( muresan ) . 
after throwing out constant one-liners ( " either god is in the salvage business or big foot just took my car . " ) , 
sammy decides to get serious , seeing max as his meal ticket . 
and although he doesn't like it , he's willing to sign max up to do disgusting events like a wrestling match with a half-dozen dwarfs . 
 ( the movie itself knows no bounds as it contains one of the most putrid and lengthy vomiting scenes ever . ) 
after a series of missed opportunities , the comedic part of the movie is over , and it turns into a cheap and maudlin disease movie . 
we learn that max's condition is terminal , and he will soon die . 
to be fair , the movie does contain a few good scenes - all of which you can see in the trailers . 
let's hope billy gets himself a pair of reading glasses before he signs up for another movie . 
my giant runs too long even at just 1 : 37 . 
it is rated pg for violence and profanity and would be acceptable for kids around ten and up . 
my son jeffrey and his friend matthew , both 9 , gave the movie a single star and had nothing good to say about it . 
matthew pointed out that it " is not as good as it could have been or should have been . " 
 ( amen . ) 
he went on to comment that he did not like the way the movie changed completely in the middle . 
jeffrey complained particularly about how gross the movie was . 


Sentiment: neg
hav plenty , as we are told in the beginning and reminded during the film , is a true story . 
life itself is a series of true stories , but most are not movie material . 
as scripted , directed , and acted by cinematic newcomer christopher scott cherot , hav plenty limps along at best . 
its dialog is so stilted - " you know what they say , 'no women ; no cry . ' " 
- that the actors are content to read the screenplay rather than invest much energy in trying to act it . 
in the story , lee plenty ( cherot ) is a 28-year-old author and teaching assistant . 
the movie , which happens mainly over the new year's holiday , consists of a series of incidents in which various single and married women try to kiss lee or take him to bed . 
since he consistently refuses , caroline gooden ( tammi katherine jones ) figures that he must be gay . 
eventually he and havilland " hav " savage ( chenoa maxwell ) get together , proving that he wasn't gay after all , just picky . 
sexy women can sit on his lap and ask him to go to bed with them , but he will not even kiss them . 
he's a man who knows his mind , which he frequently shares directly with the audience in a series of trite and overly cute monologues . 
filled with wealthy african-americans , the story is closest in tone to love jones , which was better . 
hav plenty's story doesn't go anywhere . 
at the end it subjects us to lee plenty's new film , which is a movie of the movie we've just seen , but with even worse acting . 
 " remember folks that , as outrageous as this all seems , this is a true story . " 
hav tells the camera , but the problem is that it's not outrageous at all or even the least bit interesting . 
hav plenty isn't so much a bad film as it is a total waste of the audience's time . 
hav plenty runs 1 : 32 . 
it is rated r for profanity and would be fine for most teenagers . 


Sentiment: neg
as you should know , this summer has been less than memorable . 
with a total of 4 decent films , it's not a surprise that these big budget failures keep appearing . 
with that said , you can pretty much predict what my opinion on " the 13th warrior " will be . 
the film is based on the michael crichton " eaters of the dead " , in which ahmed ibn fahdlan is banished from his country for looking at a wife of a king . 
after tarveling for many months , he comes across a gang of norsemen , who are forced to pick 13 men to protect a town from mythical monsters who travel in the fog . 
so , they start picking men , and are left without 1 , thus ahmed is choosen . 
so far it sounds interesting right ? 
not when all of this takes place in 15 minutes . 
after that , they basically run around killing . 
that alone shows how much a script is needed for a film , because once your story is introduced , you have the rest of the film to start developing it . 
obviously that's not the case here . 
even if you are going into the film expecting an action packed adventure , you will be disappointed . 
since all the action takes place in fog , it is constantly hard to see a scene clearly due to those circumstances , and to poor camera work . 
can't the camera men sit still ? 
i'd like to actually watch a film in focus , but again , they failed to deliver that as well . 
the film moves on and on until the point , where you can care less about anything but the popcorn you're eating . 
with corny dialogue , that the characters laugh at for some odd reason , a script that goes nowhere , dull action sequences , a predictable ending , and worst of all weak characters , there's basically nothing to like here , except for maybe the set designs . 
that's the only thing that honestly caught my interest . 
when i heard that john mctiernan , the director , wanted his name kept out of the project , that made me wonder why ? 
well now i know . 
crichton's greed forced mctiernan to edit his finished product , which led to a big arguement . 
what's there to argue about anyway ? 
the film couldn't be saved , no matter how much they spent or casted . 
seeing films like the haunting and big daddy making money , i wouldn't be surprised to see " the 13th warrior " become a hit . 
please do me a favor and save your money at all costs , or else you will be lost in the fog , like the film itself . 


Sentiment: neg
an indian runner was more than a courier . 
he * became * the message he was carrying . 
what danger is a bear , to a message ? 
i used to think sean penn was an immature , arrogant , photographer- punching , madonna-marrying , loudmouth . 
but all that has changed now . 
the guy has grown up . 
and that's not all . 
it seems that sean penn has talents both as a writer and a director , if this film is any indication . 
one might imagine a movie with plenty of ruthless rage and showy machismo , given penn in charge of bronson and and hopper . 
but , no . 
this film is about a real struggle , and the victories and defeats are not simple . 
penn lets the story unfold at a pace dictated by the lives of the characters , without unnecessary rush or flash . 
the focus of the story is two brothers . 
david morse is the brother who has grown up in the small midwestern town in which they were raised , tending a failing farm and finally becoming a police officer . 
viggo mortensen is the wild brother , whose wild behavior seems to be a reaction to some ancient pain that he can't name , much less resolve . 
the film picks the story up on the day when mortensen returns from vietnam , and morse coincidentally encounters an armed youth fleeing for the state line . 
it becomes clear that some kind of conflict threatens the link that the brothers once shared . 
the film is unobtrusive , simple , direct , plain , and sincere . 
it isn't exactly perfect , but its sincerity is well invested in the struggle of the two brothers to identify the sickness before it destroys them . 
life seems to move forward a little faster than they can get a handle on their problems . 
this is a good film without big budget sets , or big name stars pushed into your face . 
in fact , i'm reviewing it because i suspect that it may not get much marketing . 
there were perhaps 10 others at the showing i saw . 
i thought the structure was clean and not oversimplified , though there are a few free-form sections which also work very well . 
the obligatory 1960s music seemed a little cliche , but what are you going to do--this movie * does * take place in the 1960s after all . 
in my opinion , it is worth full-price admission . 


Sentiment: pos
the long and illustrious career of robin williams , which has included both forgettable turns like mrs . 
doubtfire and flubber , was punctuated with the actor's first academy award in 1998 for his role in good will hunting . 
it was his first truly dramatic role since 1989's dead poets society , and critical remarks were unanimously positive . 
his next role , that of a deceased pediatrician in what dreams may come , was unfortunately lackluster . 
and so , after a six-year stint as a comedic actor , the proof on whether or not williams can cut it in the dramatic league has come down to patch adams . 
williams is the title character , hunter " patch " adams , sporting scruffy facial hair that falls between the clean-shavenness of dreams and the grotesque hairiness of will hunting . 
we're introduced to patch as he commits himself to a mental institution because of his suicidal tendancies . 
it's at the institution , however , that he discovers a latent talent for relating to people . 
he removes himself from the institution and enrolls at the university of virginia's medical college , where he finds that medical doctrine is a calculating , impersonal trade . 
his attempts to inject humanity into the profession result in several bouts with expulsion , and the movie climaxes with patch's appearance before the state medical board . 
the characters are well-defined in an oscar-worthy sense . 
although the script does not perform well as a narrative -- there's little story to be told outside of patch's skit-length experiences -- the script does go a long way toward building the relationships of characters . 
at medical school , patch meets up with truman schiff ( daniel london ) , an outsider like himself who relishes patch's zest for humanity . 
the two instantly become the best of friends , and it's easy to see why . 
monica potter plays patch's love interest , a young woman who personifies the things that patch hates about medical school . 
for some reason he's attracted to her , and although it never gets said , the audience understands from an intrinsic point of view . 
the script -- based on hunter adams' own story -- works well this way . 
the rest of the cast , bob gunton as the villain professor in particular , is solid . 
director tom shadyac ( liar liar ) leads us in and out of patch's life in a sound , intentional manner ; combined with williams' presence on screen , the movie rarely becomes boring . 
patch adams' lack of purpose is its major shortcoming , and for the first ninety minutes out of two hours , there's little feeling of continuity or the passage of time . 
nevertheless , it's an emotionally moving picture , and patch adams looks to be one of the more memorable of the holiday season . 
it succeeds at everything it tries , and only fails at the stuff it doesn't try in the first place . 
by and large there may be another oscar nomination herein for williams , but more importantly , it's entertainment for the entire family . 


Sentiment: pos
i can sum up first strike in one word : awesome . 
never in my life have i seen an actor as insanely dedicated as jackie chan . 
for the simple reason that he has performed his own stunts in his every movie he's ever appeared in , he should be awarded greatly . 
the same tom and jerry formula that was used to make chan's rumble in the bronx and supercop so entertaining can be found here as well . 
however , first strike was probably the most exciting out of the three , for the simple reason that practice makes perfect . 
his last two movies were almost like practice and this one was great . 
like rumble , this film is about the mafia , the former kgb . 
now chan must do battle in the freezing arctic temperatures of the ukraine against a group of very large bad men . 
the trailer for the film sums it up quite well . 
first strike is action-packed , but the fight scenes are so fast and furious , they almost have a witty , italian-like humor to them . 
jackie chan is a regular comedian . 
well , he's no eddie murphy , but he can really crack you up . 
for example , he is hanging off a roof and he humorously taunts his foes to come and get him , as he claims to be the korean 007 ( that's secret agent james bond ) . 
even the plot to this film improved above the others , as a sort-of twisted nuclear-weapon smuggling deal is botched and jackie takes the blame . 
but never fear , as the chinese mafia aids him in uncovering the truth behind the incident . 
with some of the most high-flying stunts and side-splitting comedy , first strike is a sure-fire hit that's guaranteed to draw some major , world-wide attention . 
 , 


Sentiment: pos
breakdown is an moderately entertaining , if underwhelming , thriller . 
kurt russell and kathleen quinlan play couple jeff and amy taylor , taking the scenic route to california through redneck country . 
however , while in the middle of nowhere , their jeep decides to break down , leaving them stranded . 
a friendly truck driver , warren ( walsh ) , offers to give them a lift to town . 
although jeff rejects the offer ( he wants to stay with his car ) , amy agrees , hops into warren's lorry , and promptly disappears . 
jeff wonders where the hell she is , and when he later catches up with warren and warren says he has never seen amy in his life , the plot thickens and jeff goes on a chase to find his wife . 
although comparisons can be made with this film to deliverance ( 1972 ) and the vanishing ( 1993 ) plot wise , the latter two are far superior character and script wise . 
kurt russell is o . k as jeff , although he can seemingly only pull of one expression , which is angry . 
throughout the whole film , he looks angry ( or just pissed off . ) 
quinlan is o . k again , but again she can only pull off one expression , which is looking dorky . 
throughout the whole film , she looks dorky . 
j . t walsh ( who , sadly , recently passed away ) is fine as warren ( who we soon find out is a kidnapper ) although his actual character is pretty weak , and not really menacing enough . 
the supporting cast do their best aswell , with rex linn as a doubting sheriff , and the other kidnappers . 
the story , written by first-timer jonathan mostow ( who also directs ) is o . k , if surprisingly familiar and sometimes extraordinarily stupid . 
some of the things the characters do in this movie is beyond the bounds of idiocy . 
there are some flaws with the plot also , as the characters do the complete opposite to logical ( presumably to keep the story 'exciting' ) and also the fact that the story just isn't strong enough to sustain the audience's attention . 
the picture moves along very slowly also . 
it almost threatens to drop dead . 
the picture does pick up towards the end , but by then it's too late . 
mostow directs the action sequences well enough , however . 
the film doesn't really come to a satisfying conclusion , either . 
the ending tries to be bleak , but just comes off annoying . 
breakdown could of been a far more enjoyable picture had it had a stronger cast and director . 
instead , it just turns out to be merely average . 
a missed opportunity . 
overall rating= review by david wilcock 


Sentiment: neg
this is a good year if you want plenty of sci-fi on your multiplex . 
>from the comedies mars attacks and men in black , to luc besson's powerful the fifth element , and to this , sci-fi/horror that is event horizon . 
 ( more is on the way with contact and alien : ressurection being released later this year . ) 
the story is thus : in 2040 an explorer ship called the event horizon tests out a newly invented gravity drive . 
a device that enables a craft to travel anywhere in the universe , instantaneously . 
this is achieved by creating a gateway , infact , a black hole , between the craft and it's required destination . 
in this case , from near neptune to proxima prime . 
however , when the event horizon attempts this , it dissappears , without trace , leaving two searches for it fruitless . 
seven years later , it reappears , transmitting a distress signal and this is where the film starts . 
a search and rescue ship is sent out to investigate . 
the team is led by laurence fishburne , and joining them is sam neill who plays the scientist that invented the gravity drive . 
as the team search the event horizon , they find no trace of the crew but plenty of blood lying around . 
not a good sign . . . 
to make matters worse , as they search the ship , they find themselves being subjected to a series of illusions based on their own individual inner secrets and worse , some very bloody events start to occur as they slowly piece together the events that transpired on the ship seven years ago . 
it soon becomes apparent that , wherever the ship went , it bought something back with it . 
something very , very evil . . . 
the first thing you'll notice in this film is it's incredible visual effects . 
they really are eye popping , with some great models to boot . 
the acting is quite good , with some occasional witty moments . 
sam neill does a good job as the scientist that increasingly becomes more and more disturbed as the search continues , but a tip of the hat goes to laurence fishburne who leads the team , in a cool , calm , take no nonense manner . 
it is his acting skills that help hold this film together . 
the idea behind event horizon is certainly a good one . 
it starts off incredibly well , but the middle section becomes quite confused and sometimes muddled , leaving the viewer unsure on just what the reasons are behind some of the bloody and bizarre events that occur . 
however , the closing 20 minutes of the film more than make up for this , producing one the most nail biting ( or in my case , straw of my drink biting ! ) 
climaxes i've recently witnessed . 
overall , event horizon is a smart film indeed . 
it's very enjoyable and has some amazing visuals . 
but be warned , the horror scenes , despite being very brief are very , very , gory . 
not for the squemish ! 


Sentiment: pos
synopsis : bobby garfield ( yelchin ) lives in a small town with his mirthless widowed mother ( hope davis ) . 
bobby's world revolves around his friends , especially the spritely carol ( boorem ) . 
then one day , a new boarder arrives at bobby's house . 
ted brautigan ( hopkins ) is an enigmatic man to whom bobby takes an immediate liking . 
as the bond between bobby and ted deepens , bobby becomes privy to ted's great secret , an event which will change both of their lives forever . 
review : a small but enchanting movie , " hearts in atlantis " easily recalls another king-inspired coming-of-age film , " stand by me " , both in terms of its setting and the sentiment it conveys . 
 " hearts " is a tribute to the magic of childhood , to those summers when the days seem neverending , and nothing means more than your closest friends . 
unlike " stand by me " , there is a supernatural element to " hearts " , but although it is key to the plot , it is not prominent . 
like " stand by me " , this is a mostly character-driven film , and as such it benefits greatly from superb casting . 
yelchin is very good as bobby , finding a good mix of innocence and resignation . 
more splendid still is boorem , whom i praised highly for her work in " along came a spider " and who is simply radiant here as carol . 
and then there is hopkins , who despite playing such a quiet , introspective character as ted , nonetheless commands our attention every time he is onscreen . 
less successful is davis , whose strident elizabeth comes across as overly cartoonish . 
i also found it odd that bobby and carol's other friend , sully ( whose death as an adult sets up the movie's flashback framing device ) , is paid virtually no attention . 
but hicks' direction is lovely without being cloying , and despite the movie's general lack of incident , it never ceases to weave its spell over the audience . 


Sentiment: pos
in the first death wish movie , mild-mannered new york architect paul kersey , played by charles bronson , was avenging the death of his wife . 
in the second , he was avenging his daughter . 
in the third , he instigated small war in order to avenge the old friend . 
fourth movie , on the other hand , begins with kersey doubting the point of his violent crusades and living the quiet life with his girlfriend karen , played by kay lenz . 
however , since this is death wish movie , we know that sooner or later something bad is going to happen to the people kersey cares for . 
this time karen's teenage daughter dies of a crack overdose and kersey is forced to return to his old vigilante ways . 
kersey's new targets , unlike the previous movies , aren't the ordinary street punks but rich , heavily armed and well-connected drug dealers . 
even such unstoppable killing machine like kersey needs some support , and it comes from the publisher nathan white ( john p . ryan ) , determined to avenge the drug-related death of his own daughter . 
white's plan is to make kersey kill major players in two rival drug dealing organisations and thus instigate the war between them . 
the plan begins to take shape , but kersey's actions bring attention of two police detectives - reiner ( george dickerson ) and nozaki ( soon teck-oh ) . 
fourth ( and , unfortunately , not the final ) installment in the death wish series , will probably remembered as the typical movie of cannon group , production company responsible for some of the worst cinematic trash of the last decade . 
however , although some critics might argue , death wish 4 : the crackdown represents slight improvement over the death wish 3 . paul kersey , one of the most intriguing ( and potentially controversial ) characters of the 1970s , is still being dumbed down by mediocre script , and charles bronson really doesn't feel the need to put much effort in his acting . 
however , the hand of a veteran director j . lee thompson seems more capable of michael winner's and the action scenes seem slightly less surreal , although they still look cheap and repetitive and downright boring . 
there are some attempts for the movie to have a plot between the numerous scenes of violence , and one of such attempts is a potentially interesting plot twist at the end . 
the script even tries to fake some social conscience ( through criminally underused kay lenz's character ) and predates the war on drugs campaign that would inspire many hollywood products in next few years . 
there are even some half-hearted attempts of humour - both intentional and unintentional , like in a scene where kersey assassinates mob figures by a wine bottle - but the quality of this movie is still far away from bronson's 1970s classics . 
 ( special note to x-philes : mith pilleggi , the actor who plays ad skinner in the x- files , could be seen in a small role of cannery lab foreman ) . 


Sentiment: neg