Doctor Strangeblog
Doctor's Collection
Doctor's collection is private.
Doctor's Friends
Doctor's Activity
Doctor reviewed...
The Transporter (2002)
Pretty good mindless action flick. Jason Statham exhibits more… More
Pretty good mindless action flick. Jason Statham exhibits more personality than Stallone or Van Damme, less charisma than Willis or the Governator, and more shirt changes than the conclusion of a soccer match. Its well-choreographed fight sequences owe much to Jackie Chan for inspiration, let's say on par with Mr. Nice Guy for example. Qi Shu, who perhaps not coincidentally featured as the love interest in Chan's 1999 feature Gorgeous, earns a merit badge in her winsome Euro-American debut (erm, except when delivering that high-pitched shriek.) Just don't think too much or you'll be asking yourself "How did the baddies know where Frank lives?" or "How could the police chief not be aware of gunfire and rocket launching two minutes after leaving Frank's house?" or "Do colliding cars really explode upon impact?" or "Will that sadistic doctor from Alias ever break free from typecasting?"
15 hours ago via Flixster
Doctor reviewed...
Small Time Crooks (2000)
Starts off with a great premise, takes a befuddling left turn and… More
Starts off with a great premise, takes a befuddling left turn and wanders adrift for half the run time, and then finds its way back into a caper comedy for the conclusion. Woody Allen is Ray, a thief by nature who cannot help but concoct a scheme even when life brings good fortune. He eventually wears down his very reluctant wife Frenchy (Tracey Ullman) into his latest plan for a heist: rent a shop two buildings from a bank and tunnel underground to the vault. They need a front for the shop to avoid attracting suspicion, so after much debate they decide that Frenchy can sell her homemade cookies. To everyone's surprise, Frenchy's cookies are a huge success, drawing huge crowds which become a major inconvenience to the people trying to remain undetected while making a lot of noise in the basement!
This development is brilliant and would make a memorably uproarious conclusion to a movie - but in Small Time Cooks this is only the setup! Ray & Frenchy strike it rich with her cookie business, and the bulk of the movie deals with their relationship and how money causes them to drift apart as Frenchy wants to experience high society while Ray quickly grows tired of gourmet dining and craves a cheeseburger. Hence, the laughs largely disappear until Ray teams with his wife's cousin, the dimwitted May (Elaine May), in order to steal a famous necklace during a cocktail party. Another hindrance is that Woody is playing dumb here. Ray is not nearly the mastermind he thinks he is, and while his shortcomings get some chuckles, Woody's more effective when making wisecracks about the world around him.
In short, a great idea gets suffocated by a less-than-great screenplay decision, resulting in a modest success rather than a return to greatness.
16 hours ago via Flixster
Doctor reviewed...
Deeply (2000)
Soggy love story of interest only to Dunst diehards. Here she sports… More
Soggy love story of interest only to Dunst diehards. Here she sports some young rugged beauty, enviable long golden hair, and among the worst Canadian accents ever heard. The location of this isolated fishing isle is never specified so, judging from the dialects, for a time I thought it was near Ireland until I began picking out the faces of some familiar Canadian actors. However all the musical cues are distinctly Irish, so who knows? Regardless, Kirsten sounds like she spent some misplaced deep-fried Southern time.
Part of the movie takes place in the present where we're supposed to sympathize with a sullen teenage brat (Julia Brendler); part of my brain was whispering "Jump!!" after she climbed in despair to the top of a lighthouse. She meets a crusty old unpublished author (Lynn Redgrave) who recounts her latest work, and that's the story that sluggishly plays out during most of the film. Writer/director Sheri Elwood touches upon a curse that plagues this fishing community every 50 years and hints at a dark secret to lift the curse, but nothing ever comes of the foreshadowing. Much of the rest of the script is similarly underwritten with only a couple characters gaining any foothold, but at least the vital ingredient of the budding romance between Dunst and naval captain's son Trent Ford works.
10 days ago via Flixster
