polsci/sentiment-polarity-dataset-v2.0 huggingface dataset:
having not seen , " who framed roger rabbit " in over 10 years , and not remembering much besides that i liked it then , i decided to rent it recently . 
watching it i was struck by just how brilliant a film it is . 
aside from the fact that it's a milestone in animation in movies ( it's the first film to combine real actors and cartoon characters , have them interact , and make it convincingly real ) and a great entertainment it's also quite an effective comedy/mystery . 
while the plot may be somewhat familiar the characters are original , especially baby herman , and watching them together is a lot of fun . 
the story begins in hollywood in 1947 . 
cartoon star roger rabbit is blowing takes and having trouble keeping his mind on work , so hard-boiled private detective eddie valiant ( bob hoskins ) is called in by studio head r . k . 
maroon ( alan tilvern ) to try to help get roger's mind back on work . 
maroon thinks that roger's wife , jessica's , possible unfaithfulness to him might be the cause of distraction and tells eddie to get some photos of her in the act before it costs him any more money in reshoots . 
valiant takes some photos of jessica playing , `patty cake' with marvin acme ( stubby kaye ) , the owner of toontown ( where all of the cartoon characters live ) and takes them to maroon . 
upon seeing them , roger is emotionally destroyed and soon after acme is found dead and roger rabbit is the prime suspect . 
the rest of the movie follows valiant and roger as they run around town ( and eventually toontown ) trying to clear roger's good name . 
along the way they meet judge doom ( christopher lloyd ) a judge-jury-and executioner type who's out to get roger and has discovered the one and only way to kill a `toon . ' 
`who framed roger rabbit' won 4 academy awards including a special achievement award for richard williams for animation direction and creation of the cartoon characters ( williams and his teams went through the film frame by frame and hand drew the cartoon characters in ) . 
director robert zemekis must be given an equal amount of praise for overseeing the entire production , which included hundreds of animators . 
also bob hoskins' performance should be credited . 
he , in addition to the rest of the human cast , finds the right note to play in all of the scenes with his cartoon co-stars . 
according to the internet movie database , hoskins studied his young daughter to learn how to act with imaginary characters and i guess his hard work paid off . 
`who framed roger rabbit' is a rare film . 
one that not only presented a great challenge to the filmmakers but one that can be enjoyed by the whole family ( although some very young viewers may be a little scared by judge doom ) . 
do yourself a favor and rent it , `p-p-p-p-please . "
by phil curtolo mel gibson ( braveheart ) gave a gripping performance as the father of a young kidnapped boy in ron howard's ransom . 
gibson plays tom mullen , a wealthy business tycoon whose past actions are coming back to haunt him as a deranged psychopath , played by gary sinise ( forrest gump ) , and his band of low-life thugs kidnap his only son for $2 million . 
tom and his wife , kate , played by rene russo ( tin cup ) were instructed not to inform the police , but they contacted the fbi . 
minutes later , an elite team of agents led by delroy lindo ( broken arrow ) are in tom's house and wiring every phone . 
the plot sounds average , just like most other kidnap movies that you've already seen , and it was nothing more than that . 
that is until about half-way through the movie . 
suddenly , tom goes to the fox 5 news room and makes a live broadcast saying , " this is your ransom . 
but this is as close as you will ever get to it . 
instead , i am offering this money as a reward on your head , dead or alive . " 
at this point , the plot thickened , and the unusually slow start of the film turned into a suspense-filled action film with great stunts . 
the last half of the film is very well done . 
another thing that carries this film are the superb performances by gibson and sinise , as they collide in a game of wits over their cellular phones for most of the movie . 
owen gleiberman of entertainment weekly commented on the subject : " it makes you wonder what kidnappers did before cell phones . " 
before this movie , sinise played mostly " good guys , " first in of mice & men , then in forrest gump , and most recently , in apollo 13 . 
but he was surprisingly devilish and cold in his portrayal of a cop-gone-bad . 
gibson , of course , was just being gibson , in an oscar-worthy performance . 
although most of the scenes were quite predictable , ransom is a very entertaining and suspenseful film . 
 ,
a fully loaded entertainment review - website coming in july ! 
>from ace ventura to truman burbank , jim carrey has run the whole gamut of comic , yet sympathetic , characters . 
1996's the cable guy was supposed to be his big " breakthrough " role from zany humor into darker , more dramatic acting . 
as most everyone knows , the results were , well , less-than-stellar . 
not only did the film not do so hot at the box office , but it was also panned by critics . 
as far as i know , gene siskel and i are the only ones willing to admit that we dug it . 
the first time i saw the cable guy , in theatres , i was in super critic-mode , and didn't really like it . 
however , due to the fact that hbo shows the movie every single day , i've had time to lean back , relax , and take in the film . 
and to my surprise , it grew on me . 
the plot is rather simple : broderick plays a guy named steven who befriends his cable guy , played by carrey , then is stalked by him when steven tries to break off the relationship . 
see , steven's been having some problems with his girlfriend , robin ( leslie mann ) , and he doesn't think he has any more room in his life for a new friend . 
also , some of the cable guy's antics have been creeping him out . 
carrey , as the cable guy , gives steven various aliases , which later we find out are all tv characters : larry tate , chip douglas , ricky ricardo , etc . he apparently lives in his cable van , and while many critics didn't enjoy this newer , darker , less-manic performance from carrey , i thought it was interesting and rather well-done . 
for me , its not the movie as a whole that's enjoyable , but rather several individual scenes : a karaoke jam at steven's apartment , a medieval fight at a theme restaurant , and a bathroom beating ( a la liar , liar ) , just to name a few . 
perhaps the fact that more of carrey's humorous side comes out during these scenes is what makes them so funny . 
and if you really want to see something , you've got to hear his version of jefferson airplane's " somebody to love " , sung at the aformentioned karaoke jam . 
the cable guy has its bad spots , like most any movie . 
i didn't particularly like steven's girlfriend , and i felt that more focus should have been used on the relationship between steven and his best friend . 
also , the ending , while having you fooled for a moment , is rather contrived , and somewhat dissapointing . 
still , i found the cable guy to be a worthwhile venture ; if you're at the video store and can't think of anything to rent , i suggest you try it out . 
or if you have hbo , just wait till it comes on ( you won't have to wait long . ) 
hell , that's what i do every day .
for those of us who weren't yet born when the 1960's rock 'n' rolled around , monterey pop affords an affectionate glimpse of the music that influenced our parents to be hippies . 
from otis redding to jimi hendrix , janis joplin to the mamas and the papas , and jefferson airplane to the who , this documentary is jam-packed with contagious energy . 
but i give fair warning that i will reveal the ending , which does not do the rest of the film the justice it deserves . 
shot in 1969 at an outdoor concert that precluded woodstock , the film defies the stereotype of the general population at the time . 
sure , some have painted their faces and smoke joints , but d . a . 
pennebaker ( the war room , moon over broadway ) surprisingly chooses to show a broad spectrum of the audience . 
no matter who is watching , it all comes back to the talented musicians that stir your soul . 
the excitement starts before the music even begins . 
a young girl is cleaning thousands of seats and when asked why by an interviewer , she replies that she feels lucky to do so . 
there are moments of organized craziness as john phillips , leader of the mamas and the papas and one of the concert organizers , tries to get in touch with dionne warwick . 
and when one band is tuning up , a member remarks , " finally , a decent sound system ! " 
you can tell just by watching these first few moments that this show isn't about vanity , it's about playing the music you love to those who have an appreciation for it , a two-way street . 
this interaction between audience and performer continues throughout the film and becomes infectious to the audience . 
it's impossible to tear your eyes away from janis joplin as she belts out her ballad about love being a ball and chain . 
and while the lyrics to " wild thing " may not be all that complicated , watching jimi hendrix mime having sex with his guitar is as captivating as otis redding singing about love . 
even if you don't recognize every band you see on stage , you can imagine being as enthralled by their work as the public sitting in those seats . 
the only drawback to the film is the ending , which unfortunately i must reveal . 
all the other bands , big names then and still today , got approximately 7 to 10 minutes of screen time . 
in contrast , the last band on camera , a wholly forgettable one , gets an entire 18 minutes of screen time . 
for a film that's only 78 minutes long , that's too large of a chunk , especially when previous acts are much more stimulating . 
all in all , monterey pop is a precious , rare look at a time period that still holds sway over us . 
the variety of music , as well as the beautifully shot performances , are easy to become immersed in . 
if there was ever any question as to why most of these bands were so popular , this is quickly dispelled . 
it's almost depressing to think that music this moving doesn't get made much anymore . 
instead we're stuck with * nsync , the backstreet boys , and jennifer lopez , all of whom should have stuck with modeling .
unzipped is a cinematic portrait of isaac mizrahi , an artist whose palette is fabric . 
ostensibly , the film is a documentary , but use of that term requires stretching its meaning . 
many scenes appear staged , and a great deal of cutting-and-pasting has been done in the editing room . 
the cinema verite effect is a conceit -- genuine spontaneity is at a premium , and everyone is aware of and playing to the camera ( especially would-be actresses like cindy crawford ) . 
director douglas keeve ( who was mizrahi's lover at the time ) freely admits that he " couldn't care less about the truth " but was more interested in capturing " the spirit and love in isaac and in fashion . " 
despite violating nearly every rule of " legitimate " documentary film making , however , unzipped is a remarkably enjoyable piece of entertainment . 
while it sheds only a little light on the behind-the-scenes world of the fashion industry , it presents a fascinating , if incomplete , picture of designer mizrahi . 
this man is the perfect subject for this kind of study -- he's funny , energetic , and eminently quotable . 
he has unusual views on just about everything , from fashion ( " it's about women not wanting to look like cows " ) to mary tyler moore ( " between her and jackie kennedy , they shaped this country " ) to style ( " it's almost impossible to have style nowadays without the right dogs " ) . 
unzipped also gives a glimpse into the creative process by which mizrahi turns an idea into a dress . 
it's almost certainly different that anyone would imagine . 
the designer draws on a variety of sources for his look , including nanook of the north and old bette davis movies , then enlists the aid of a ouija board to help form the collection . 
in particular , unzipped traces mizrahi's development of his fall 1994 line from its inception in the spring to the final fashion show , which highlights a number of prominent models , including cindy crawford , naomi campbell , kate bush , and linda evangelista . 
on the technical side , a number of interesting choices were made in filming unzipped . 
a variety of film stocks were used : super 8 , 16 mm black-and-white , and 35 mm color . 
there is a purpose to this beyond simple artiness -- the stock often serves as an emotional key to the movie , and , during the climactic fashion show , color is used to show the audience's perspective , while black-and-white is for the behind-the- scenes sequences . 
nevertheless , some viewers will be put off by this treatment . 
while unzipped isn't an expose on the fashion industry per se , keeve has enough clips of petulant models to make the viewer realize how tame robert altman was with ready to wear . 
overall , however , this movie is far more about mizrahi than anything else , and only when viewed from that perspective does unzipped succeed . 
when the designer declares that " everything is frustrating except designing clothes -- that's beautiful and liberating , " it fits perfectly with the image of him that unzipped has constructed .
dora ( fernanda montenegro ) sits behind a make-shift desk at rio+s major train station . 
she , in her colorful demeanor , offers a service that is unheard of in the states . 
she writes letters for the illiterate , who pass through , to try to find lost relatives , find love , or search after lost debts . 
she+s quirky , she+s elderly , she+s caring . 
totally trustworthy , right ? 
not a chance . 
once home , she never sends these letters , saving money on postage , and relishing in the drama contained therein with her neighbor irene ( mar ? lia p ? ra ) . 
one of the letters is sent by a young mother with her nine-year old son , looking for their father . 
shortly thereafter , she gets hit by a bus , and the son is orphaned . 
days go by , and the boy , named josu ? , roams around the station , hungry , desperate , and somewhat clueless to his predictament . 
through a series of circumstances too precious to elaborate upon , dora somehow takes a responsibility in trying to find josu ? +s father . 
this means leaving the security of rio , traveling to the outskirts of brazil , where unpaved roads , religious devotees and the poverty-stricken become commonplace . 
films like this remind me as to what i enjoy about some foreign films . 
it is an opportunity for me to get a fresh breath in another part of the world , so distant from my own . 
it does so entertainingly , and so heart-wrenchingly . 
and yet , it+s backdrop is merely that . 
the focus is on the minute transformation of dora , of how she learns to love this little kid , without being cloying or sentimental . 
the most interesting backdrop is the amount of religious dedication is in the film . 
dora being an amoral scam-artist , could care less about the amount of bickering between the candle-lighting of the catholics versus the bumper-sticker mentality of the evangelicals . 
but neither side is trivialized . 
she even begins to develop an affection for a non-drinking evangelical , who sees the problems with dora , if not initially . 
fernanda montenegro surprisingly got an oscar nomination for this very delicate performance , but the true marvel is that of vinicius de oliveira , who plays josu ? . 
he , like the discoveries of j ? r ? mie renier ( _la promesse_ ) and giorgio cantarini ( _life is beautiful_ ) , prove that the true acting discoveries may be outside of the united states . 
he is a natural , and never once grating . 
send a memo to jonathan taylor thomas .
sometimes a movie comes along that falls somewhat askew of the rest . 
some people call it " original " or " artsy " or " abstract " . 
some people simply call it " trash " . 
a life less ordinary is sure to bring about mixed feelings . 
definitely a generation-x aimed movie , a life less ordinary has everything from claymation to profane angels to a karaoke-based musical dream sequence . 
whew ! 
anyone in their 30's or above is probably not going to grasp what can be enjoyed about this film . 
it's somewhat silly , it's somewhat outrageous , and it's definitely not your typical romance story , but for the right audience , it works . 
a lot of hype has been surrounding this film due to the fact that it comes to us from the same team that brought us trainspotting . 
well sorry folks , but i haven't seen trainspotting so i can't really compare . 
whether that works in this film's favor or not is beyond me . 
but i do know this : ewan mcgregor , whom i had never had the pleasure of watching , definitely charmed me . 
he was great ! 
cameron diaz's character was uneven and a bit hard to grasp . 
the audience may find it difficult to care about her , thus discouraging the hopes of seeing her unite with mcgregor after we are immediately sucked into caring about and identifying with him . 
misguided ? 
you bet . 
loveable ? 
you bet . 
a life less ordinary was a delight and even had a bonus for me when i realized it was filmed in my hometown of salt lake city , utah . 
this was just one more thing i didn't know about this movie when i sat down with a five dollar order of nachos and a three dollar coke . 
maybe not knowing the premise behind this film made for a pleasant surprise , but i think even if i had known , i would have been just as happy . 
a life less ordinary is quirky , eccentric , and downright charming ! 
not for everyone , but a definite change of pace for your typical night at the movies .
warning : contains what the matrix is . 
rated r for sci-fi violence . 
starring : keanu reeves , laurence fishburne , joe panteliano 
some may be disappointed with the matrix . 
i'll tell you i was . 
i sat there and sat there and sat there waiting for something to happen . 
now wait wait , i know most of you loved it , and i'm not saying i didn't like it . 
what i'm saying is the first half was extremely slow . 
now seeing the trailer it makes you think the whole entire movie is one big special effects show . 
don't be fooled , this movie has a big story . 
and big chunks of talky moments . 
but i will admit the special effects and the acting were above par , deserving the rating above . 
ok now to the story . 
well this may take a while . 
ok first of all , our world we live in now , is not the real world , actually we live inside a computer generated world known as the matrix . 
a man played by keanu reeves is about to find that out , when is kidnapped and almost coaxed to go into the real world . 
he does so , and finds out that he can do anything , be anything he wants to be . 
but he has to fight a 'matrix skipping' bad guy , who wants to send him back to his own world or destroy him . 
laurence fishburne , his guide of sorts plays his character well as does keanu reeves . 
but i sat in the theatre for over and hour wondering where all the special effects were . 
yeah there were some in the first half but not enough . 
the trailer for this movie was really decieving making people think that this was a special effects laden movie . 
now for the second half , it is explosive , and saves the movie . 
some of the special effects and fighting were breathtaking . 
the sound , the music , and all the effects were effective , and the last hour kept us entertained . 
but with a running time of 2 hours and 20 minutes , this movie is at least 40 minutes too long . 
one would have wished for a better 'matrix' , but i do have to say , i did like it and i was entertained .
national lampoon's animal house , made in 1978 and set in 1962 , remains one of the -- no , fuck that noise -- * the * funniest movie ever made . 
and this isn't just my opinion , either ; everybody knows this , and that's why about a gazillion inferior rip-offs have been made , trying to duplicate its success . 
 ( pcu anyone ? 
and the first person to bring up glory daze gets decked . ) 
animal house takes place at the fictional faber college , circa 1962 , where the omega frat calls the shots . 
these guys are wholesome , clean-cut , model-citizens . . . 
i . e . 
a bunch of assholes . 
greg , their leader , is going out with mandy pepperidge , but since the silly bastard doesn't believe in pre-marital sex , their relationship never goes further than a quick jack-off under the stars . 
neidermeyer is the supreme-bozo of the bunch , walking around with his dick out kicking freshman ass and trying to impress the muff . 
also hanging around these losers is babs , future universal studios employee and serious bitch . 
now let's just take a peak next door , at the delta house . 
over here , anything goes : you wanna throw shit out the window ? 
okay . 
you wanna crush a bunch of beer cans on your forehead and pour honey-mustard all over your chest ? 
go right ahead . 
the frat's leaders are otter and boon ( tim matheson and peter riegert ) . 
otter is the ladies' man , going out with another girl every night , and boon is the comedian . 
he's got a steady-date , katy ( karen allen ) , but she's sick of playing second-fiddle to a bottle of j . d . 
then there are the others : pinto , a wimp ; flounder , a blimp ; d . day , a biker ; stork , who may or may not have brain-damage ; and last but not least . . . 
bluto ! 
bluto , played by the late , great john belushi , is the man . 
he's the kind of guy who slugs back entire fifths of whiskey then proclaim , " i needed that . " 
the kind of guy who puts a cream-filled snowball into his mouth , puffs up his cheeks and spits it out , and then says " i'm a zit -- get it ? " 
the story is as follows : the omegas are getting the deltas kicked off campus . 
the deltas , knowing that fighting the omegas is stupid , decide to go out with style , throwing a wild toga party and ruining the homecoming parade . 
this is the fucnniest movie int he history of the world . 
do yourself a favor and go see it .
synopsis : leonard shelby ( pearce ) is a former insurance investigator on the trail of the man who killed his wife . 
leonard has only a few clues to the murderer's identity ; to make matters worse , he suffers from a condition which inhibits the creation of short-term memories , meaning that leonard is always forgetting what happened just minutes earlier . 
because of this , leonard is forced to rely on notes he leaves for himself . 
 " memento " traces the investigation back in time from its apparent culmination . 
review : " memento " is the sort of movie i wish i'd written ; i can think of no higher praise than that . 
i am envious that nolan has concocted such a brilliant , involved , original movie as this . 
an instant film noir classic , " memento " is virtually flawless . 
the script is unlike any i have ever seen -- a notable achievement in these days of recycled hollywood homogeneity . 
although the idea of starting at the " conclusion " of the plotline and then moving backward in time to the " start " is not entirely new , never before have i witnessed it executed with such flair and coherence . 
 " memento " is endlessly exciting and inventive , a rare story which keeps the viewers guessing during the film itself , and mulling over its connotations long after leaving the theatre . 
and it is not merely an exercise in cerebrality ; there is plenty of action and an unexpected dose of humour to keep the proceedings lively . 
nolan's direction is equally effective , never losing its crispness and clarity despite " memento " 's challenging gimmick . 
and to top everything off , all the performances rise to the occasion . 
pierce is terrific as the troubled leonard ; moss shows great range as enigmatic natalie ; and pantoliano's teddy achieves a splendidly affable yet sinister quality . 
 " memento " may be the year's best screenplay , and is certainly amongst the top theatrical attractions of 2001 .
up until about a year ago , john travolta's career consisted of those " look who's talking " movies ( notice how they never called them look who's talented ) and the 1991 bomb shout ( which was bad enough to make most people scream ) . 
but somewhere along the line , travolta got the starring role in the tarantino masterpiece pulp fiction and his career soared once again . 
weird how someone whose career was on par with the bee gees back in 1978 would experience fame and fortune once again , while barry , robin and maurice gibb could do no better than a 1993 straight-to-the-cutout-bin album aptly named " size isn't everything " ( and of course , they learned that sales are everything ) . 
but now travolta's back on the hollywood scene once again , and i think we all know why . 
four words : contract with the devil . 
and this has nothing to do with newt gingrich's " contract with america . " 
no , satan is much more humane . 
anyway , yes , travolta has sold his soul to the hairy host of the netherworld . 
how do i know ? 
i own the document in question . 
amazing what you can buy at those collector's shops for a few hundred dollars , isn't it ? 
get shorty continues in the vein of pulp fiction , with travolta as crime minion chili palmer . 
he goes to collect some of the mafia's money from a b-grade director ( gene hackman ) and suddenly finds out he wants out of the mob game and into the movie game . 
sure , a ruthless criminal like him is far too honest to make it in hollywood , but i guess that's beside the point . 
palmer is determined to get hackman's next project made , so he sets out to convince big star martin weir ( danny devito ) to star in the movie , bringing along down-and-out horror actress karen flores ( rene russo ) , who has already had affairs with hackman and devito . 
it doesn't take a las vegas odds-maker to predict that she and travolta will soon be hitting the sheets as well , after the customary sexual tension and denial , which has been used in every comedy from " who's the boss ? " 
to speechless . 
it works in this case , unlike " who's the boss ? " 
although it's interesting to note that tony danza has signed a contract with the devil also . 
complicating matters somewhat are the mobsters who have backed hackman's other films and want in on this one too , along with travolta's mob boss trying to track him down for defecting . 
get shorty is by no means on the same level as pulp fiction , despite the obvious similarities . 
this movie doesn't have near the amount of originality or depth as pulp fiction but it is definitely one of the most entertaining movies i've seen this year ( yes , even better than halloween vi ) . 
get shorty is my kind of movie , one that mixes intelligent humor with action and violence . 
i'm definitely going to have to check out the novel it was based on . 
are you getting this , shorty ?
the disney studios has its formula for annual , full-length animated features down so pat that it's hard to remember which one you're watching at any given moment . 
 " mulan , " their 36th animated adventure , is the latest case in point . 
once again we have a tale focused around a strong central character ( female as usual ; disney is one of the few studios whose heroines--ariel , belle , pocahontas , and now mulan--get equal screen time with their heroes in recent years ) . 
add the requisite love interest and a wise-cracking sidekick or two , pep up the soundtrack with a handful of strategically placed show tunes ( an introspective number by a pool or looking in a mirror , a rousing anthem , a cutesy , montage-backed crowd pleaser ) , pose a few threats to our engaging lead , and tie things all up neatly by the closing credits . 
bob's your uncle ! 
better make that walt's your uncle . . . 
kids will no doubt go ga-ga over " mulan " ( or at least the fast food tie-ins ) , but familiarity can , after a while , leave grown-ups--this reviewer included--wishing for a little more . 
maybe an animated feature without--shock ! 
horror ! --the 
songs , for example ? 
or maybe a film in which a cheeky chihuahua called pepe longs to become a matador from trinidad ? ? 
how about simply ditching the sidekicks altogether ? 
it isn't gonna happen . 
like disney's previous entries , " mulan " is slow to make its mark . 
the animation tends to suffer from some slackness in the early going and the humorous element , a madcap dragon wannabe ( in the guise of a loquacious lizard with a case of dry mouth , courtesy eddie murphy's animated vocal talents ) , plays like an inappropriate if necessary ( formula-wise ) afterthought . 
however , after about an hour everything comes together and the formula , like it or not , clicks . 
highlights include a spectacular cavalry charge on a snow-covered pass ( which , due to the sophistication of today's computer-generated imagery , is hard to tell from the real thing ) , a memorable , show-stopping musical interlude ( " i'll make a man out of you , " penned by matthew wilder and david zippel ) , and last but not least , mulan herself . 
voiced by ming-na wen , mulan is disney's strongest female character to date . 
when hordes of huns pour over china's great wall and threaten to overthrow the imperial palace , the emperor decrees that every family in the land dispatch one man to serve in the imperial army . 
since mulan's father is infirm , but proud , the high-spirited mulan steals her father's armor and , incognito , signs up to face the mongolian menace . 
attracted to , but not distracted by , her commanding officer shang ( b . d . 
wong ) , mulan outmatches her fellow combatants in smarts , wit , and physical ability . 
she's a woman of the '90s a couple of millennia ahead of her time .
i had been expecting more of this movie than the less than thrilling twister . 
twister was good but had no real plot and no one to simpithize with . 
but twister had amazing effects and i was hoping so would volcano 
volcano starts with tommy lee jones at emo . 
he worrys about a small earthquake enough to leave his daughter at home with a baby sitter . 
there is one small quake then another quake . 
then a geologist points out to tommy that its takes a geologic event to heat millions of gallons of water in 12 hours . 
a few hours later large amount of ash start to fall . 
then . . . . it 
starts . 
the volcanic eruption . . . . 
i liked this movie . . . but 
it was not as great as i hoped . 
i was still good none the less . 
it had excellent special effects . 
the best view . . . the 
helecopters flying over the streets of volcanos . 
also . . . there were interesting side stories that made the plot more interesting . 
so . . . it was good ! !
disney's 35th animated feature-- a retooling of the olympian legend crossed with , well , the superman story-- is surprisingly soft at the center . 
great wit , great art , and a great villain ( james woods as hades , lord of the underworld and local lounge act ) can't quite stifle the yawns induced by a bland hero , his colorfully monotonous sidekick ( danny devito as the satyrical trainer phil ) , and a largely unremarkable soundtrack . 
 ( none of the alan menken/david zippel tunes are particular- ly noteworthy . 
some lack lyrical snap . 
others need more memorable melodies . 
boring ballads we expect , but boring production numbers , too ? ) 
so , hercules is a bit of a long sit , but you won't stay bored . 
the highlights include a nifty round of animated action ( herc battling a cgi hydra ) , a steady stream of anachronisms ( " somebody call ix-i-i " ) and pop references ( " let's get ready to rumble ! " ) a la aladdin , and several long-overdue jabs at the mouse's marketing and merchandising depart- ments . 
while not as rock-solid as hunchback , it's a still a new world of improvement over pocohontas . 
directed by ron clements and john musker , with voice credits including tate donovan , susan egan , bob goldthwait , matt frewer , samantha eggar , paul shaffer , and , as lighting bolt zeus , rip torn , who's having a very good summer , also appearing in trial and error and men in black .
susan granger's review of " the closet " ( miramax films ) 
in this hilarious french farce , a shy , boring accountant ( daniel auteil ) named francois pignon discovers he's going to be fired from his job at a condom factory . 
lonely and distraught , he contemplates suicide . 
but then he runs into belone ( michel aumont ) , an elderly homosexual neighbor , who suggests a " sex discrimination " lawsuit to intimidate management . 
as evidence , belone concocts provocative photographs of pignon locked in a leather-clad embrace with another man and mails them anonymously to pignon's boss . 
when the racy snapshots start circulating around the factory , not only does pignon get his job back but he suddenly finds himself the focus of attention as an openly gay man . 
his lusty supervisor ( michele laroque ) is so intrigued that she wonders if , perhaps , she could change his sexual preferences . 
even his ex-wife ( alexandra vandernoot ) and indifferent teenage son ( stanislas crevillen ) drop their disdain . 
but not everyone is enchanted . 
a mucho macho co-worker felix ( gerard depardieu ) , a self-righteous homophobe , is stunned and repulsed when he's forced by the pr director ( thierry lhermite ) to grovel and court pignon's friendship or risk losing his own job . 
writer/director francis verber artfully milks the farcical comedy as he dissects the hypocrisy of political correctness , veering off-track only occasionally into pedophilia . 
daniel auteuil ( " the widow of saint-pierre " ) is delightful - particularly with a blown-up condom perched on his head , riding on a float in a gay pride parade - and gerard depardieu delivers one of his most restrained , and effective , performances . 
on the granger movie gauge of 1 to 10 , " the closet " is a frankly sexual , adult 8 . 
it's so clever , in fact , that hollywood is already planning to re-make it in english , like " la cage aux folles . "
ingredients : starving artist lusting after a beautiful woman from his childhood 
synopsis : great expectations ( 1998 ) is a modernized version of a charles dickens novel . 
in the original charles dickens classic an orphan boy named pip learns about life through his friendship with an escaped convict , his relationship with a bitter old lady named miss havisham , and his hopeless lifetime infatuation with havisham's snobbish adopted daughter , estella . 
the gist of the story is that an anonymous benefactor sends pip to london for pip to become an upper class " gentleman . " 
pip leaves for london with " great expectations " to be groomed into a gentleman so that he can one day be classy enough to marry estella . 
but life has a way of complicating things . 
pip becomes an arrogant s . o . b . 
until he learns just who his secret benefactor is . 
in this new 1998 version of great expectations a poor florida lad named finn ( ethan hawke ) with a talent for drawing has an early memory of helping an escaped convict ( robert de niro ) . 
but soon the focus of finn's life becomes romance , as he develops a lifelong infatuation with estella ( gwyneth paltrow ) , an upper crust girl with some psychological and emotional issues due to being raised in a dysfunctional environment . 
estella was raised in wealth by ms . dinsmoor ( anne bancroft ) , an eccentric , aged and embittered , man-hating single aunt whose groom left her abandoned at the altar on the day of her marriage . 
this causes estella to 'fear the daylight' of relationships , but finn thinks it's just a case of snobbery . 
when finn becomes a young man , an anonymous benefactor sets finn up in new york with the connections and publicity to be groomed into a famous artist . 
finn leaves florida with " great expectations " to be a successful artist so that some day he might become classy enough to marry the snobbish estella . 
what will happen to all of finn's " great expectations ? " 
opinion : if you're looking for a romance with a happy ending , look no further ; you've found one here . 
ethan hawke is romantic lead . 
 ( he romanced winona ryder in reality bites . 
he romanced julie delpy in before sunrise . 
he romanced uma thurman in gattaca . 
now in great expectations he gets to chase gwyneth paltrow , a rail-thin blonde . ) 
hawke plays a lovestruck , earnest and unchanged finn throughout the film . 
meanwhile paltrow portrays estella as alternating between infuriating tease and ice princess ; estella's whole purpose is to get men to fall in love and then hurt them rather than become intimate . 
anne bancroft goes a little overboard as the deranged and pessimistic ms . dinsmoor , while robert de niro carries off the convict part suitably . 
the difference between the classic dickens novel and this 1998 adaptation is that the dickens novel is ripe with deep and timeless themes about class struggle and love , whereas great expectations ( 1998 ) is more artsy , less complicated story about a 1990s artist dealing with a lifetime tease .
the long kiss goodnight ( r ) meryl streep tried it and failed . 
even pamela anderson lee made an attempt but fell flat on her well-bared assets . 
however , geena davis could very well become the first bankable american female action star with the long kiss goodnight , a preposterous but incredibly fun action thriller directed by her husband , renny harlin . 
davis plays samantha caine , a mousy suburban school teacher and mother whose memories only go back eight years . 
with the help of ethically questionable private detective mitch hennessey ( samuel l . jackson ) , she slowly remembers--and reclaims--her past as charly baltimore , tough-as-nails cia operative . 
needless to say , with the reappearance of samantha/charly comes the appearance of an assortment of no-goodniks out to erase more than her memory . 
shane black netted a cool $4 mil for his script ; i'm not so sure if his prose is truly deserving of such a hefty price tag , but for what it's worth , it delivers the goods . 
like black's previous work , such as lethal weapon and the last boy scout , the script juggles some impressive action scenes with funny , quirky dialogue . 
the humor especially works well in this case , for the story is so preposterous that the laughs help to keep things from taking things too seriously . 
but there's no argument that the more unbelievable sequences are original and entertaining as hell : who can resist the sight of davis tossing her daughter from a hole in her house into the nearby treehouse or chasing after a car . . . 
while ice skating ? 
jackson and davis make a good team . 
jackson is funny as ever as ever ; in fact , his spirited line deliveries , especially when he first appears , are more than reminiscent of his work as jules in pulp fiction . 
as good as he is , the one who should benefit the most from this project is davis , who shows much promise as an action heroine . 
what makes her so effective and why she should succeed where streep and lee failed is that she doesn't take herself too seriously . 
she is obviously in on the joke , slyly taking jabs at herself and at the situation . 
this is not to say that she doesn't need work--sometimes she lays on the " toughness " a bit too thick and comes off too much as a caricature . 
but should the public embrace the film and , in turn , the notion of a kick-ass female , davis could have found her special niche . 
it seems as if davis and harlin's first collaboration , the middling pirate epic cutthroat island , was just a dress rehearsal ( albeit a very costly one ) for long kiss , in which the wife-husband team hit their action stride . 
anyone simply looking for a fun , escapist entertainment that requires little-to-no thinking will find this film to be a more-than-welcome kiss .
well , i know that stallone is 50 years old now , but in daylight he doesn't look it ! 
daylight is a great disaster movie . 
if you've seen cliffhanger , you'll know stallone's character already . 
a guy with a bad past , but is in the right place at the wrong time . 
a tunnel connecting new york and new jersey has both sides collapses when a group of robbers collide with a truck carrying * very * flammable toxic waste . 
a dozen or so people survive the collapses and the incinerating fireball ( and what a fire ball it was ! ) 
stallone , a former emergency medical service man , is chauffeuring a rich couple around , when they reach the outside of the tunnel , before the explosion . 
then , 30 minutes into the movie , boom ! 
>from here on , the plot takes a back seat , and we are treated to some of the best camera work and action staged . 
most all the action is plausible and will hold you at the edge of your seat . 
there are a few melodramatic parts here , but , they tend to work out well . 
there is no general antagonist in this film , but the action and suspense makes you forget all about that . 
daylight is a great film , i saw a non-matinee showing of it , and i thought it was worth every penny . 
the characterizations are mostly flat , one dimesional , but they have enough in them to get you to care for some of the characters . 
rob cohen ( dragonheart ) does a great job with this film .
no film in recent has left me with such conflicted feelings as neil jordan's harrowing , humorous , horrifying adaptation of patrick mccabe's novel about young lad francie brady's ( eamonn owens ) descent into madness in 1960s ireland . 
on one hand , it was difficult for me to become invested in francie's story because he is such an unsavory character , unjustifyably venting his rage at his nosy but otherwise harmless neighbor mrs . nugent ( fiona shaw ) . 
on another hand , i found it difficult to laugh at some of francie's darkly comic shenanigans because he obviously is such a sick , needy child , having been raised by a drunken father ( stephen rea ) and a suicidal mother ( aisling o'sullivan ) . 
on yet another hand , i also found it difficult to completely sympathize with francie during his more emotional scenes because some of his , for lack of a better word , " bad " deeds are so incredibly shocking in their brutality and the malicious glee in which he performs them . 
however , the butcher boy's power is undeniable , and the film as a whole is unforgettable--perhaps because it is so disturbing . 
what makes it so unsettling is the francie's overall wink-wink yet matter-of-fact attitude about everything , expressed in a cheeky voiceover narration delivered by the adult francie ( rea again ) . 
think heavenly creatures played largely for laughs , and you'll sort of understand . 
anchoring the whole film is the astonishing debut performance of owens ; love francie or hate him , you cannot take your eyes off of owens . 
the butcher boy truly is a twisted , unusual film that is bound to make just about anyone uncomfortable . 
in the lobby after the screening , i overheard one man raving about how great yet disturbing it was ; i also heard one particularly offended woman say with disgust , " that movie was so unfunny ! " 
 " i didn't know what to expect . 
it's like something you chase for so long , but then you don't know how to react when you get it . 
i still don't know how to react . " 
--michael jordan , on winning his first nba championship in 1991 . . . or , 
my thoughts after meeting him on november 21 , 1997
just how inseparable is the team of sgt . 
martin riggs ( mel gibson ) and sgt . 
roger murtaugh ( danny glover ) ? 
let's just say that when one partner asks the other partner to strip to his boxer shorts and then further asks him to run out into the middle of the road , flapping his arms while feverishly cackling like a chicken just to create a distraction , his partner actually does it ! 
the familiar lethal weapon family is back , including rene russo , who is now the expectant mother of riggs' child and joe pesci as the soprana-like , foul-mouthed former accountant who has decided to become a private eye . 
new to the team is chris rock , also a fast-talking , up and coming detective . 
trouble seems to follow the two veteran detectives where ever they go , and in this film , that is no exception . 
even when they are just taking a leisurely boat ride , they somehow manage to collide with a freighter ship . 
we here some ominous music , which clues us that a confrontation is about to happen . 
gunfire ensues , and when it's all over , the detectives want to learn more about this freighter by questioning a chinatown crime lord . 
although they don't know what they're looking for , their inquisitiveness causes the bad guys to take some action . 
and there's plenty of action here for two movies . 
led by fighting sensation jet li , whose martial arts skill is nothing less than impressive , he does what he can to make sure that no one finds out what they are up to . 
li is ruthless in his approach , will kill anyone just to make a point , and develops enormous disdain for the two detectives . 
there are terrific car chases , explosions and gunshot galore . 
it's a summer action recipe followed to the letter , and the result is nothing less than pure , unadulterated summer fun . 
but even too many explosions can get boring . 
to counter that , we are treated to several amazingly choreographed fight sequences with jet li . 
luckily , he'd rather fight hand-to-hand instead of firing off guns . 
meanwhile , when the detectives aren't reloading their guns or running from fireballs , they're engaged in sophomoric banter and silly conversations that provide a nice diversion from the hail of bullets . 
everybody gets in on the shtick . 
russo screams during her delivery , the crime lord has a few funny bits when he's being interrogated while being given laughing gas , and pesci and rock are very funny as they go at it discussing the drawbacks of having cellular phones . 
gibson and glover are always in sync and the film moves at a brisk pace to get to the final and terrific mano a mano . 
score one for the old guard .
a big surprise to me . 
the good trailer had hinted that they pulled the impossible off , but making a blues brothers movie without jake blues ( john belushi ) is such a dumb idea i really had no hope . 
they replaced him just fine . 
not with john goodman , he didn't do much of anything , but with the brilliant actor joe morton , who can really sing . 
the fourth blues brother is j evan bonifant , who's ten . 
this was another of my fears for the film , but he's a really good dancer , and plays a mean harmonica ( although he may have been dubbed ) . 
things that intellectually had bothered me before , like no mission from god , everyone being richer , it not being filmed in chicago -- gave me no problems at all . 
i'm quite pleased that there were less car pile-ups , because they meant less music , and john landis seems to have lost interest in the whole thing . 
there's a few early crashes , and then one huge pile-up , but after that it all stops . 
it's just the music . 
one of my problems with the first is that cab calloway's song is so good the actually blues brothers look dull after him , but there's no problems with this . 
the music is all as good as ever , tons of great musicians showing up -- with the exception of johnny lang , who can't sing , all the musicians do a great job . 
the only real problems i had was the special effects . 
these were superfluous and a waste of money . 
since the film isn't doing very well , they could mean we have no possibility of another sequel , which i want to see . 
the bluegrass version of riders in the sky is even better than rawhide . 
-- http : //www . geocities . com/hollywood/academy/8034/ 
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 " drive carefully but recklessly " , mama , child's toy " the only excercise i take is walking behind the coffins of friends who took exercise . " 
peter o'toole