Movies

With all the terrible news from the Gulf Coast this week, it seemed to me like my usual yammerings on here weren't really appropriate. Plus I haven't really done anything except sit around and write, and the new book has, wouldn't you know it, already reached the not-particularly-fun stage. However, on the theory that the world really does need a certain amount of yammering to counteract the weightier discourses going on elsewhere, here are some brief comments on a few movies we've seen lately:

HOSTAGE -- Any movie with Bruce Willis where a bunch of stuff blows up real good will have at least some entertaiment value going for it. That's my theory, anyway, and it holds true here. I read and enjoyed the book by Robert Crais, and while the movie makes quite a few changes in the story, the source material is at least still recognizable.

THE AVIATOR -- Mixed reaction to this one. It's beautifully filmed and a lot of the actors in the supporting parts are good. In order for it to be a tragedy, though, don't you have to have some sort of sympathetic feelings for the hero (in this case Howard Hughes) for his downfall to be effective? DiCaprio never made me like Hughes enough to feel much when things went bad for him. I liked Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner, though. (I have a feeling I'd like Kate Beckinsale in just about anything.) Cate Blanchett's much-praised portrayal of Katherine Hepburn just didn't work for me. She doesn't look enough like Hepburn.

THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX -- I read the Elleston Trevor novel years ago and also saw the original version of the movie, which starred Jimmy Stewart. Pretty good cast in the remake and some nice moments, although the whole thing was a little slow. The novel is the best of the three versions, though.

BOTTLE ROCKET -- A ten-year-old indie film about some bumbling would-be criminals in Texas, an early effort from Luke and Owen Wilson (who also co-wrote the script). When the word "quirky" is the first one that comes to mind when you're trying to describe a movie, that's not a good sign for me. Good acting and some decent, fairly amusing moments, but not enough overall for me to say that I liked it.

SAHARA -- And now to prove my absolutely lack of credibility as a film critic, I loved this movie and thought it was wonderful. Just a big, loud, goofy, good-hearted, over-the-top adventure movie. Sure, the plot didn't always completely make sense, and yeah, even based on reading just one Dirk Pitt novel I could tell that the two leads were miscast, but I don't care. They tried hard and made it work just fine. Of course, I'm prejudiced, because



SPOILERS BELOW



as soon as Dirk and Al uncovered the ironclad, I knew they were going to get one of the cannons to work and shoot down the bad guy's helicopter with it because that's exactly the way I would have written it. No wonder I thought this movie was so good.

I have several other movies checked out from Blockbuster, so expect more comments in the days to come.