Conference bookie::movies

    I've been waiting for this to hit the local video store; looks like my
    cup of tea. (Or vitriol, or something.) I also wondered how it compared
    to "Man Bites Dog"...
    
    Oh, "X Files" fans might be interested to know that the would-be
    true-crime writer is played by David Duchovny (Agent Mulder).
    
    -b

    
    watched it on video last night:
    
    a complete bore.
    

    Didn't I hear someplace that Juliete Lewis was in the TV show, "The
    Wonder Years"?
    

	I caught this over the weekend and for some reason the word boring
	never came to mind....

	/Cap'n Quad

    NO JULIETTE LEWIS, EVER!!
    
    That's become my life's pledge, after seeing "Cape Fear"
    and "Husbands and Wives".
    
    Richard

>    NO JULIETTE LEWIS, EVER!!

I could agree with you, except she also stars in the latest Melissa Etheridge
video ("Come To My Window"). What's a person to do???

(I guess I'll just turn up the music and not watch the video! Except that
the music is interupted for 'dialogue'....)

alan

With the snowfall we had this weekend, I had time to watch a couple videos
Friday night. I guess you could call this "White Trash Weekend", after 
watching the double bill of both 'Kalifornia' and 'Flesh and Bones'. 8^)

Although I didn't like Juliette Lewis in either 'Cape Fear' or 'Husbands
and Wives', I did like her in this movie. All the characters were very 
believeable (scary as that may be). And special notice has to go to the 
dialogue, which is incredibly well written (and probably why the characters 
seemed so real). 

8.0 out of 10

alan

    I finally caught up with this one, to mixed reviews. While the premise
    and the characterizations seemed fine, I found the plot development and
    resolution way, way too predictable and - dare I say it? - boring.
    (More on this at the end.)
    
    I did rather enjoy the conceit of having the story narrated by the guy
    who's supposedly writing the book, and who supplies us with all sorts
    of quotes direct from Sociology 101, extremely trite and pretentious
    (and in character). And I also made a mildly amusing association
    between this film and "Six Degrees of Separation," both of which
    feature an ivory-tower couple (in "Degrees" they were rich, in this
    film they were just over-educated) who were fond of talking about
    life's grittier aspects but didn't enjoy experiencing them.
    
    And the excellently-annoying Juliette Lewis certainly pulled out all
    the stops on this one, managing to transition from incredibly
    irritating to (in its best sense) pathetic. I can't say I look forward
    to seeing her performances, but they're impressive.
    
    Re the ending (spoiler):
    
    
    
    It reminded me of the remake of "The Vanishing," and of the vast
    majority of psycho-killers-on-the-loose film ever made. Once the
    protagonists figured out that their companion was dangerous, the movie
    turned into a prolonged chase sequence, complete with several
    iterations of "knock down the bad guy and then fail to follow through
    so he can get up and attack again". If I'd felt that the characters
    were acting this way because they were really truly too scared to think
    straight, I _might_ have forgiven it its predictability, but as it was
    it just didn't play for me.
    
    [My preference: the film fades to black as the killer drives off with
    the photographer, and the writer's voice-overs make it clear that he
    does not know what happened... Sort of homage to "The Vanishing," but
    this protagonist doesn't seem to be the type to obsess on the search,
    and would instead spend his life thinking over the events and
    wondering. But, as is so often the case, nobody asked _me_.]
    
    -b

    I also have mixed feelings about the movie, but the good ones
    dominate.
    The acting of all four main charaters was VERY good - especially
    Juliette Lewis was perfect in that role.
    I also did not consider it boring, althoug the end was a little
    bit disappointing:
    
    spoiler
    
    
    
    I could absolutely not understand why the bad guy (Brad Pitt) left with
    the good guy's girl friend and left him in the house of the elderly
    woman living !
    He had not problem shooting anybody else who crossed his way, why
    didn't he do it this time ?
    Did he expect or maybe even want that he followed him and tried to rescue
    his girlfriend ?  I think this did not fit to the character. 
    
    
    A.

    re. .9 Why the male hero was left alive...
    
    I didn't like this fact either, but in retrospect it seemed plausible
    that Brad Pitt's character could had left him live because he wanted
    his life to become documented and famous.
    
    CV
    

	Also co-starring Michelle Forbes of Star Trek TNG fame.

    I caught this one on the strength that the reviewer who saw it refered
    to it as "this years Reseveroir dogs".So being a "dogs" fan I went
    along.I was disappointed.I wouldn't give this any more that 6 out of
    10.
     Juliette Lewis got on my nerves from the minutes she walked onto the
    screen and never let up.Her "acting" ability seems not have changed in
    the slighest from Cape Fear,same "ummm's " ,pauses and looking away
    from the person she's talking to.
    
    
    spoiler....
    
    
    
    I cheered out loud when she died! 8)

    I liked Kalifornia.  What impressed me was the subtext of a friendship
    developing between these two couples.  The narrator discusses it just a
    bit, but the point isn't overdone.  Great scenes of the two men getting
    drunk together while the two women sit in the motel room and talk.  I
    didn't feel that the movie was making any kind of feminist or
    chauvinist point; both situations are pathetic and perfectly real.
    
    I missed Cape Fear and Husbands and Wives, so Juliette Lewis was brand
    new to me.  I found her young, stupid, white-trash character to be very
    real and very well done.  If she can only do that one character, then
    that's a disappointment.  But she was good in this role.
    
    I recommend it.  Observe the relationships.  The old couple at the end
    symbolized (to me) a couple whose love endured for a lifetime.  The
    mannequin families at the brutal last scene symbolized the fragility of
    the relationships we build in our lives.  Could our hero/protagonist
    salvage his life, slay the bad guy, rescue his woman?  We see
    that last scene played out against a background of plastic families.  
    Great stuff.
    
    Spoiler warning
    
    At the end we see the girl, healed, still with her man, and her
    photographs accepted for a show.  Although she was raped and he killed
    a man, their love endured.  There wasn't any sappy music or pat ending,
    they just...endured.  I like that.
    

    
    I liked it, too.  A total deviation in characterisation for Pitt and
    Lewis and, as characters, they definitely stole the film (mind you, I
    could happily have pictures of Michelle Forbes stuck inside contact 
    lenses that I'd wear for the rest of my life).  Pitt was so
    fantasticly disgusting (the way he constantly hawked his phlegm made
    strange things happen in my stomach), and Lewis was so happily and 
    convincingly braindead.  Plot-wise, it was quite predictable (anything 
    else wouldn't fit the Hollywood success formula, I guess) but very 
    enjoyable quality escapeism.  I thought the hotel room scenes between 
    the two women were excellent - great use of the close up shot.
     
    Scott
    

    I find myself agreeing with .13 and .14. The best part of this movie
    was the hotel/poolhall segment. I liked Juliette Lewis, though she does
    seem to use the same mannerisms movie after movie.
    
    The problem with this movie is the way (spoiler)
    
    Pitt's violent character was uncovered so rapidly. It seemed too
    "Hollywood" the way everybody rather suddenly found themselves
    endangered by Early (Pitt) and all the overly staged violence.
    
    I think a more interesting plot development would have had the
    "good guys" slowly turning "bad", kind of into a Pitt/Lewis "lite".
    Would have been a lot more psychology and a lot less violence,
    which I would have found more interesting.
    
      John