The best of the current lot.

Films/DVD Asylum

Movies from comedy to drama to your favorite Hollyweird Star.

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Panic Room: Ultimately, isn't it Jodie's sheer acting ability that makes this very entertaining? And the sensitive yet powerful presence of Forest Whittaker? Yoakum proves he's a very scary guy, too, for the second time in his acting career. Lastly, Fincher knows how to build to a climax.
Frailty: I'm an occasional admirer of Paxton's acting (One False Move, Twisters, and now Frailty), but he proves he's less gifted as a director. An entertaining movie, but doesn't approach the similarly plotted, but immensely better Australian effort, The Interview (check it out at Blockbusters, Hollywoods, or your local small vid store (first)). Problem: no building to climax. Fairly even throughout. The woodeness of the actor portraying the older son doesn't help.
Changing Lanes: should have changed one lead. Does anyone else out there think Affleck hit his peak in The Boiler Room (cruelty almost made me write "Pearl Harbor")and has headed down ever since? In this one, the director made a mistake of placing him opposite Samuel Jackson. Big mistake. Like pairing John Daly with the Tiger: mismatch of biblical proportions. Unfortunately, Ben A is a big part of the show and manages, therefore, to water it down. Entertaining, but little else.
High Crimes. Why was this made? The plot is a mishmash of many other Hollywood plots. Even though I'm a big fan of Ashley Judd's (check out Ruby in Paradise to see what an accomplished actress she was many years ago), neither she nor the redoubtable Morgan Freeman (rapidly becoming the African-American equivalent of Michael Caine: both make-made too many movies, phoning in performances) can save this movie. Which brings us to Jim Caviezel. Not a lead actor. Though he appears a bit more mature than Ben Affleck, he cannot act, pure and simple. If he had one more scene where he cried I thought I would. More liquid on this set than "Waterworld." I'm notorious for getting caught up in movies and not seeing obviuos plot contrivances. That being said, I saw the end of this one coming after fifteen minutes. Avoid at all costs.
So, of the four, I'd say 3 are worth seeing. Panic Room I'd rate as the best, because it seeks to do less and does what it sets out to do better, i.e. entertain you. Changing L s and Fraility seek to be deeper, and fail on the seriousness meter. But they too are entertaining. Fraility doesn't fail by much from being quite good. Anyhow, so far, isn't this year miles ahead of last year?

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Topic - The best of the current lot. - tinear 08:29:14 04/25/02 (0)

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