Double order of Bruce Willis movies
JAKARTA (JP): This week, moviegoers will be seeing double: there's Bruce Willis the unhappily married man and there's Bruce Willis the mob hit man.
Meanwhile, a Hong Kong martial artist wreaks havoc in underworld America. The following reviews and grades are by Oren Murphy (OM) and Tam Notosusanto (TN).
The Bachelor. Romantic comedy, 101 minutes; starring Chris O'Donnell, Renee Zellweger, James Cromwell, Artie Lange, and Brooke Shields. Directed by Gary Sinyor.
Jimmie Shannon (O'Donnell) has twenty-four hours to get married or lose his US$100 million inheritance. He botched the job with the woman he loves (Zellweger) and so desperately searches for an alternative. The film heaps cliche upon stereotype about what men are like (mustangs ever looking for a new "succulent patch of grass") and what women are like (looking for romance and marriage). Flat acting, dumb script, and utterly predictable ending are just a few reasons not to see this film. Graded C- (OM)
Bicentennial Man. Drama, 130 minutes; starring Robin Williams, Embeth Davidtz, Sam Neill, Wendy Crewson and Oliver Platt. Directed by Chris Columbus.
Whatever the poster tells you, this is definitely not a comedy. It's an overlong tale of a robot (Williams) who spends two centuries of his lifespan to learn how it is to be human. It was written by the late, great Isaac Asimov and is turned into dull, uninspiring stuff by Columbus, who should just go back to making slapstick movies about kids being left alone in the house. Only the title is appropriate: the movie feels like it runs two hundred years. Graded C (TN)
Boys Don't Cry. Drama, 118 minutes; starring Hilary Swank, Chloe Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard and Jeanetta Arnette. Directed by Kimberly Peirce.
It is a misguided assumption that Swank easily won an Oscar thanks to her gender-bending role. She practically slips under the skin of Brandon Teena, the real-life Nebraskan youngster who successfully convinces everybody, including herself, that she is a man. When her object of desire (Sevigny) falls for her, Teena becomes even more steadfast in denying her actual identity and follows her impulses instead, all the way to her tragic end.
Director/co-writer Peirce manages to mold this fact-based story into a powerful human drama, even though we wish she had gone deeper into Teena's soul. Graded B+ (TN)
Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo. Slapstick comedy, 90 minutes; starring Rob Schneider, Eddie Griffin, Oded Fehr and William Forsythe. Directed by Mike Mitchell.
A fish tank cleaner, Deuce (Schneider), becomes a gigolo (or man-whore as they refer to themselves in the film) to pay off damage to an acquaintance's apartment. In the process of dating all kinds of eccentrics, he meets the love of his life, but has to struggle to show he really loves her. Mishaps and capers ensue. It's stupid, but you'll probably find yourself laughing anyway. Graded C (OM)
Romeo Must Die. Action, 100 minutes ; starring Jet Li, Aaliyah, Isaiah Washington, Russell Wong and Delroy Lindo. Directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak.
No, this is not the latest adaptation of the Shakespeare tragedy, although the story has two warring families and two youngsters from each clan who seem to be smitten by each other. That's as far as they would go, because this movie is mainly a showcase for Li's martial arts talent in his first English- speaking starring role, not for him as a romantic leading man.
Nonetheless, the movie has great, elaborately choreographed fight scenes. And the suspenseful, at times humorous script makes it the more enjoyable. Graded B (TN)
Sleepy Hollow. Gothic horror, 100 minutes; starring Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Jeffrey Jones, Christopher Lee and Christopher Walken. Directed by Tim Burton.
Not much in the film resembles Washington Irving's classic, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, but it is an enjoyable film nonetheless. Pathologist/detective Ichabod Crane (Depp) is sent up the Hudson to investigate a series of decapitations by a headless horseman in the small town of Sleepy Hollow.
Burton's film focuses on atmospherics over content, and creates a landscape as stunning as it is creepy. Depp is excellent as the faint-hearted detective. An often gruesome, but very entertaining film. Graded B (OM)
The Story of Us. Drama, 94 minutes; starring Bruce Willis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tim Matheson, Rita Wilson and Rob Reiner. Directed by Rob Reiner.
Ten years after When Harry Met Sally..., Reiner gives us this bleaker glimpse of a relationship, which shows a marriage breaking off at the seams.
Apparently wanting to mimic Ingmar Bergman's Scenes of a Marriage, the movie is never even half as intelligent or insightful. Rather, it teaches us that inappropriate happy endings could really ruin an already problematic film. And with his real-life break-up with Demi, you'd think Bruce could get some real juice into his acting here. What high hopes we have. Graded C (TN)
The Whole Nine Yards. Comedy, 100 minutes; starring Bruce Willis, Matthew Perry, Natasha Henstridge, Michael Clarke Duncan and Rosanna Arquette. Directed by Jonathan Lynn.
Analyze This begets a copycat with this story of a Canadian dentist (Perry) who gets all jittery when he realizes his new next-door neighbor (Willis) is a mob contract killer hiding from his former employers. The strange script, wooden acting and Perry's overblown schtick makes this movie a sore. But Arquette shows a hilarious Quebecois accent as Perry's gold-digging wife. Graded C (TN)