Double order of Bruce Willis movies

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)