Fools Rush In (1997) [PG-13] ***/****

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, as the saying goes. Alex Whitman (Matthew Perry) is a construction project manager, based in New York City but managing construction of a new nightclub in Las Vegas. One evening as he's sampling Mexican cuisine for the nightclub restaurant menu, he meets the beautiful and exotic Isabel Fuentes (Salma Hayek), a nature photographer who grew up in Old Mexico. After a passionate night of love Isabel disappears; three months later she shows up at Alex's home and tells him she's pregnant, and the baby is his.

At first Alex is speechless, but after he and Isabel spend an evening with her warm extended family, he realizes she's the best thing that's ever happened to him, and he proposes marriage. Isabel's father is furious, and Alex is simply afraid to tell his parents in Connecticut. As they get to know each other, Alex and Isabel recognize that they have little in common besides their passionate attraction to one another; but they are determined to make their marriage work. Then, based on a tip from an old girlfriend who still has designs on Alex, his parents show up unannounced. At first they mistake Isabel for Alex's housekeeper, and that's when the real fun begins.

The smart, inventive screenplay is full of cultural clashes and memorable dialogue. Salma Hayek is warm and sensual, Matthew Perry is engaging and funny and the two have incredible romantic chemistry together. The soundtrack is delightful and the supporting cast is outstanding, especially Jon Tenney as Alex's co-worker Jeff, Siobhan Fallon as Isabel's girlfriend Lanie, Carlos Gomez as Isabel's old boyfriend Chuy, Suzanne Snyder as Alex's old girlfriend Cathy, and Jill Clayburgh and John Bennett Perry, Matthew Perry's real-life father, as Alex's parents. You can be sure that true love will triumph in this great date movie! Ignore the film critics' negative reviews. If you enjoyed The Object of My Affection (1998), I predict you will love Fools Rush In.

Labels: comedy, cross-cultural, drama, rom-drama-faves, romance, wedding
IMDb 61/100
MetaCritic (critics=38, viewers=63)
RottenTomatoes (critics=33, viewers=64)
James Berardinelli's review (3 stars out of 4)

Gattaca (1997) [PG-13] ****

Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke) has dreamed of space travel ever since he was a boy. However, since he had been conceived naturally, Vincent is genetically imperfect, an In-Valid or De-gene-erate in a world of elite Valid humans who have been created from carefully selected genetic material, and so are virtually defect-free. With In-Valid DNA, the only way Vincent can enter Gattaca, the launch site for interplanetary spaceships, is as a janitor.

So Vincent hires a DNA broker (Tony Shalhoub) who introduces him to Jerome Eugene Morrow (Jude Law in his first film role). Jerome is a Valid, a man with virtually perfect DNA; however, he's a wheelchair-bound paraplegic, the result of an automobile accident. Jerome rents his identity to Vincent, and provides him with samples of his Valid bodily fluids so Vincent can pass the daily substance tests at Gattaca. Vincent becomes Jerome and succeeds as a navigator at Gattaca, despite having a congenital heart defect that could kill him at any time. He's scheduled to depart on a mission to Saturn's moon Titan when one of Gattaca's directors is brutally murdered and a team of police investigators, led by Vincent's Valid brother Anton (Loren Dean), descends on Gattaca and begins an investigation that threatens to reveal Vincent's true identity and jeopardize his place on the mission to Titan. At the same time, Vincent finds himself falling in love with Irene (Uma Thurman) a beautiful Valid co-worker who, coincidentally, also has a heart defect.

As a romantic thriller, Gattaca has a taut screenplay, timeless costumes and sets that are simultaneously both futuristic and retro, an evocative soundtrack, outstanding lead performances from Hawke, Thurman and Law, and excellent supporting performances from Loren Dean, Xander Berkeley as a Gattaca doctor, Gore Vidal as a Gattaca director, Alan Arkin as a police detective and Ernest Borgnine as a Gattaca janitorial supervisor. Hawke and Thurman have decent romantic chemistry in Gattaca. The evidence of their locationship on the Gattaca set was a liaison that resulted in Thurman's pregnancy, a marriage to Hawke in 1998, a second child, and a divorce in 2004.

Gattaca reminds us that we stand on the threshold of being able to manipulate our DNA and control our evolutionary future. The question is – should we? If we use DNA engineering to filter out our genetic flaws, weaknesses and diseases, will our future resemble the two-class world of Gattaca? As a note, the name GATTACA is derived from the first letters of the four nucleic acids that comprise DNA: Guanine, Adenine, Thymine and Cytosine. 

Labels: drama, prophetic, romance, sci-fi, thriller
Internet Movie Database 7.8/10
Metacritic 64/100
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=71, viewers=82)
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Wikipedia - DNA

Breaking Up (1997) [R] **

Monica (Salma Hayek) and Steve (Russell Crowe) can't live without each other, and yet, when they are together for more than a few days they drive each other crazy. Monica is afraid of losing Steve. She clings to him; she practically smothers him while they are sleeping. Steve feels he is drowning in Monica. He is terrified that he is losing his identity, and if they break up he won't know who he is. He can't commit; he can't even bring himself to stay the night with her. They hate themselves and each other for generating the manic hypersensitivity that drives them apart. But their sexual relationship is so incredibly magnetic and powerful that it pulls them back together, and up out of the depression that follows the mania. This cycle goes on and on, building in intensity until they have to get away from one another or risk destroying one another.

Hayek and Crowe are terrific together, and since this is basically a two-person stage play, they are on camera alone or together the entire time. We may not like what they are going through, and we may not be able to understand it, but we have to acknowledge that what Monica and Steve are feeling is real and does happen in human relationships.

Labels: comedy, drama, romance

Internet Movie Database
Tomatometer (critics=NA, viewers=40)

Kodachrome (2017) [TV-MA] ****

Kodachrome is proof of the concept that solid direction and superlative acting can transform even a mediocre script into something worth watching. At its heart, Kodachrome is a middling road picture – a film whose every plot point is predictable. If you guessed at the beginning how it’s going to end, you’d likely be correct. Narratively, there are few (if any) surprises and the key relationships develop without twists or turns. Yet, like a well-made romantic comedy that follows all the rules, Kodachrome engages because the dialogue pops and the actors are sufficiently invested that they give breadth and depth to characters who are, for the most part, underwritten.

James Berardinelli's full review, 3 stars out of 4

Labels: drama

IMDb 68/100

MetaScore (critics=57, viewers=74)

RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=61, viewers=74)

Netflix

Starring: Ed Harris, Jason Sudeikis, Elizabeth Olsen

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry (2022) [PG-13] ***

A review by Avi Offer for the NYC Movie Guru.

     A.J. Fikry (Kunal Nayyar), a bookstore owner, lives alone on Alice Island. He turns to alcohol while grieving over the death of his wife. When one of his books gets stolen, he seeks the help of a local cop (David Arquette) to find the thief. He also finds an abandoned young girl, Maya, at his store and decides to take care of her as though she were his daughter. His sister-in-law, Ismay (Christina Hendricks), and her husband, Daniel (Scott Foley), help him to raise her. Meanwhile, he begins a relationship with Amelia (Lucy Hale), a sales rep who lives far away in Providence, Rhode Island.

      If the plot synopsis above sounds like three different movies in one, your predictions are correct. The screenplay by Gabrielle Zevin not only bites off more than it could chew, but it combines the subplots in a contrived way that makes the film become increasingly lethargic. It doesn't work as a character study of A.J. Fikry nor as a romance nor as a drama even though it spans years in the life of A.J. You'd think that by the time the film was over, you'd get to know him, but he still remains at a cold distance from the audience. In a novel, which the film is based on, it's easier to get inside a character's head. It takes a skilled, humanist screenwriter who knows how to open the window into a character's heart, mind and soul to accomplish that in a film. That's not accomplished here, so the screenplay fails to breathe life into any of the characters. There are also too many characters. If the plot were more focused and had fewer characters, perhaps there would be room for more emotional depth which is sorely lacking.

      The performances fail to enliven the film, but what's most disappointing is that the romance between A.J. and Amelia falls flat more often than not. When it doesn't fall flat, it's cheesy. Then there's the relationship between A.J. and Maya whom he wishes to adopt. There's nothing about A.J. that makes him seem like he would be a good father or even a good boyfriend. His character arc when it comes to grieving over his wife doesn't feel believable or organic, so it's hard to imagine that he'd be truly able to move on to a new romantic relationship. When filmmakers don't treat the characters like human beings, they don't treat the audience that way either which makes it hard to become emotionally invested in the story or characters. That's the systemic problem in this film. At a running time of 1 hour and 45 minutes, The Storied Life of A.K. Fikry is a painfully dull, hackneyed and undercooked slog.

Labels: comedy, drama

IMDb 66/100 

MetaScore (critics=tbd, viewers=tbd) 

RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=52, viewers=90) 

Chasing Amy (1997) [R] ****

A film review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews.net.

And to all the critics who hated our last flick -- all is forgiven. -- Chasing Amy's closing credits

Well, I didn't exactly hate Mallrats, but I thought it was a comedown for Kevin Smith, the talented writer/director who debuted strongly with 1994's Clerks. Chasing Amy is the third film in Smith's so-called New Jersey Trilogy (a series that may end up having more than three entries), so named because most of the action takes place in the Garden State. Like Clerks, but unlike Mallrats, principal photography took place in Smith's home town, as well as across the river in Manhattan.

Chasing Amy fits in nicely with the director's previous two films. As in Clerks and Mallrats, there are numerous references to pop culture (the ubiquitous Star Wars films, comic books, the Archie comic strip, TV shows Alice and Star Trek, and even a few in-jokes related to Clerks). Smith's brand of bawdy humor is also very much in evidence, although it should be noted that Chasing Amy isn't as hilarious as Clerks. In fact, it could be argued that this film isn't even as funny as Mallrats. Instead, Chasing Amy finds other ways to satisfy its audience, and the result is the most complete and mature film of Smith's short career.

With Chasing Amy, it's easy to anticipate a certain degree of inventive humor, but what's a bit unexpected is the solid drama, effective romance, and strong characters. Clerks worked because the dialogue sparkled, but Smith has honed his screenwriting and film making skills since then. While Chasing Amy boasts the same keen interplay, that quality, along with first-rate character development, acts as a supplement to the smart, surprisingly original plot. The movie starts out as light as a feather, but it doesn't take long for us to realize that Chasing Amy isn't just another lark for Smith. This movie is about something, and the deeper we get into it, the more we realize how emotionally on-target the script is.

Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck) and Banky Edwards (Jason Lee) are comic book authors. Their Bluntman & Chronic magazine is a big seller, and, when they attend a comic book convention in New York, they attract long lines for autograph signings. At that convention, Holden meets fellow comic writer/artist Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams). Alyssa's project is the less testosterone-oriented Idiosyncratic Routine. She and Holden hit it off almost immediately. They go out for a few drinks and play darts. Later, when talking to best friend Banky, he claims that he and Alyssa shared a moment and confesses that he has fallen for her. But, whether or not it's really love, Holden is in for a big surprise because Alyssa is a lesbian. So, while she wants to be friends and pal around with him, Holden finds himself helplessly, hopelessly smitten.

Smith clearly has his hand on the pulse of his generation ("X" marks the spot). His observations about comic books, video games, and other aspects of life in the '90s are as insightful as they often are scathing. But this is nothing new -- it was evident in both Clerks and Mallrats. What's different here is that Smith has crafted a touching, nuanced romance which may be the most memorable screen love affair since Before Sunrise. There are real human feelings and problems involved in Holden and Alyssa's relationship, and, every time the storyline threatens to devolve into a cliché, it somehow avoids the trap. There's also a rich subtext pertaining to the difficulty that many individuals face in attaining a level of comfort with their sexual identity.

The best scenes are those that explore the evolving relationship between Holden and Alyssa. There's a wonderful montage that depicts them doing all the kinds of things that friends do. Ben Affleck and Joey Lauren Adams, both veterans of Smith films, develop an effective chemistry. Adams, who looks a little like Cameron Diaz and sounds a little like Jennifer Tilly, displays surprising dramatic range and ability. She's someone to watch.

Affleck and Adams aren't the only familiar faces to appear in Chasing Amy. Jason Lee, who played one of the leads in Mallrats, is back, albeit in a different role. Brian O'Halloran, Clerks' Dante, has a cameo as a TV producer who wants to develop Bluntman & Chronic into a Saturday morning show. And, of course, Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) are on hand, dispensing advice as only they can. The end credits once again promise their return (in the long-awaited, often-delayed Dogma, which was originally supposed to be the follow-up to Clerks).

Ever wondered exactly what lesbians do when they're together? Or how they define virginity? Banky does, and he's not shy about asking. This leads to a graphically funny sequence that results in Alyssa and Banky comparing war wounds gathered from past sexual encounters. Like Clerks, Chasing Amy doesn't shy away from profane conversations. There's even an instance when oral sex is compared to (of all things) The Weather Channel and CNN (you'll have to see the movie to understand why). In fact, I can't print any of Chasing Amy's best lines here -- they're all R-rated.

Chasing Amy is entertainment of the best sort. For nearly two hours, it keeps the audience enraptured. There aren't many missteps, and, those few that exist are minor and easily forgiven. Chasing Amy is touching, funny, sweet, and most important of all, real -- a welcome breath of fresh air. You can't ask for more than that from any motion picture, and you'll be hard-pressed to find a movie in theaters these days that offers anything more appealing, revealing, or enjoyable than Kevin Smith's third feature. [Berardinelli's rating: *** 1/2 out of 4 stars]

Labels: comedy, drama, lesbian, romance

Internet Movie Database 7.3/10

Metacritic 71/100
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=74, viewers=70)

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Dante’s Peak (1997) [PG] ***

A film review by James Berardinelli.

Where are the flying cows (from Twister) when you really need them?

Dante's Peak is obviously predicated on the dubious idea that bigger is better. 1996's Twister brought in hundreds of millions at the box office by showcasing relatively small (if something so destructive can be gauged as small) natural disasters -- namely, tornadoes. The next logical step would be to go for something larger and more devastating. Apparently, hurricanes weren't deemed visually impressive enough and earthquakes have been done to death, so Hollywood has set its sights on volcanoes with not one, but two, similarly-themed disaster flicks. Let's just hope Volcano shows a glimmer more intelligence, not to mention a higher energy level, than Dante's Peak.

No one is ever going to accuse Twister of being a masterpiece of originality, but, as roller-coaster movie go, it's a great deal of fun. Part of the reason is the effective use of audio and visual effects; the other part is that director Jan de Bont knows how to get the adrenaline flowing. Twister is a rush. Dante's Peak, on the other hand, is a bore. Oh, it has its moments, but most of them are concentrated in the final forty-five minutes. The first hour, which is all typical disaster movie setup, is interminable.

In keeping with time-tested formulas, we have a male/female pairing, children and animals in danger, a voice of reason that no one listens to until it’s too late, and a character with a tragedy in the past. Volcanologist Harry Dalton (Pierce   Bond, James Bond   Brosnan) lost his beloved girlfriend four years ago when they were studying an erupting volcano in South America. As a result of this incident, he tends to be jumpy about any possible volcanic activity, and when there are signs that the snowcapped mountain overlooking the tiny Washington state town of Dante's Peak (population 7,400) may be about to blow its top, Harry calls for an evacuation. The local mayor, Rachel Wando (Linda Hamilton), backs him up, but the others on the town council aren't so sure. Enter Harry's boss, Paul Dreyfus (Charles Hallahan), and his group of roving geologists (who look like refugees from Twister's ragged band of storm hunters). Paul, sensitive to the delicate political situation of spreading panic without proper scientific evidence, calls off the evacuation. So, of course, when disaster inevitably strikes, people are needlessly killed.

The first hour of Dante's Peak is spent getting to know the characters. Not that we need that much time, since they're all familiar types. In addition to Harry and Rachel (who predictably become romantically involved), we're introduced to two kids, an independent old lady, and a dog. If you manage to stay awake through fifty-five minutes of drivel, you'll be rewarded with some nifty special effects as the mountain throws everything it has at the town: fire, water, air, and earth. No stone (literally) is left unturned. It's pretty impressive, I admit, but there's an unwelcome sense of déjà vu. As recently as the aforementioned Twister, we've already been there and done that, and it was a lot more enjoyable last time around.

Brosnan and Hamilton gamely try to generate some chemistry, and, while both are appealing in their own right, the moronic plotline and dumb dialogue defeat them at nearly every turn. It will come as no surprise for astute viewers to learn that the screenwriter for Dante's Peak, Leslie Bohem, also wrote Stallone's Daylight. Both movies feature some similarly embarrassing bad lines. Meanwhile, director Roger Donaldson (No Way Out, The Getaway) fails repeatedly to do anything interesting to enliven the proceedings.

Even discounting the first hour, Dante's Peak still isn't all that satisfying. I suppose there's a certain degree of tension as Harry and company flee rivers of molten lava and volcanic shockwaves in their attempt to get out of town before it's buried in ash, but, with everything being done according to a well-established formula, the level of excitement stays low. Once the film is over, you'll likely acknowledge that, although there's some nice eye candy, the experience as a whole leaves something to be desired.

And there aren't even any flying cows to redeem the situation.

Labels: action, adventure, disaster, thriller

Internet Movie Database
Metacritic 43/100
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=49, viewers=54)
Blu-ray