Plot: When Casey Connor, Herrington High School’s newspaper photographer, witnesses the murder of a nurse and sees her alive again, he decides to investigate the bizarre happenings.
Runtime: 1 Hour 44 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: The Faculty starts when students Delilah (Brewster), Casey (Wood), Zeke (Hartnett), Stokes (DuVall) and Stan (Hatosy) learn something is happening to their teachers. Coach Willis (Patrick) leads the teachers in a transformation, as they prepare to take control of the students next.
An alien parasite has infected the teachers, and the students must fix things before the infection spreads across the country. It becomes a race against time, and they don’t know who they can trust as they come from different backgrounds and social groups.
Verdict on The Faculty
Recap
The movie follows a group of high school students who must put their differences aside to fight an alien invasion. However, the invasion has targeted their teachers and spread across the town, leading them to race to save their loved ones.
Best Parts
We get a reimagining of Invasion of the Body Snatchers here, with creative ideas on how to make the characters adapt to the changes. It includes a twist on the test scene from the legendary The Thing and keeps us guessing who to trust throughout the movie. There are brilliant special effects when it comes to the blood splatter, transformations and reactions. This also has an incredible cast who have nearly all gone onto even bigger things having wonderful careers.
Final Thoughts – The Faculty is a brilliant sci-fi horror that stands the test of time.
Plot: A young, reformed gambler must return to playing high stakes poker to help a friend pay off loan sharks, while balancing his relationship with his girlfriend and his commitments to law school.
Runtime: 2 Hours 1 Minute
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Rounders starts when gambler Mike McDermott (Damon) loses everything against the biggest gambler in the city, Teddy KGB (Malkovich). It puts his future in law school in doubt and when his friend Worm (Norton) is released from prison, he must decide whether to return to the tables.
Worm takes advantage of Mike’s contacts to start a hustle in the underground clubs. However, he gets caught out and it forces Mike to play and risk everything he has been trying to leave behind.
Verdict on Rounders
Recap
The movie follows a law student who has a gambling problem but has been trying to escape. He loses everything but an old friend gets released from prison and drags him back into the underworld of cards to clear their debts.
Best Parts
The clear best part of this movie is the Poker itself. It has some of the best card scenes in any film put together. We get realistic hands that would see people bet, rather than the unrealistic ones many other films do. When it comes to the story, the idea a friend does what they can to support the other is strong and someone using their skills to solve the problem.
Worst Parts
The other frustrating part of this movie is Worm himself. He seems like a person you wouldn’t want near your life as he constantly causes problems. His attitude toward anyone and everyone makes him one of the most annoying characters in the film. I also think we could have seen more from Mike’s career being put on the line too.
Performances
Matt Damon is great in the leading role here, he followed up Good Will Hunting with another strong performance. While I don’t like the Worm character, he is designed to be annoying and Edward Norton makes the most of this role. The rest of the supporting cast is great and make the most of their roles.
Final Thoughts – Rounders is an excellent reflection of the poker world.
Plot: Eddy persuades his three pals to pool money for a vital poker game against a powerful local mobster, Hatchet Harry. Eddy loses, after which Harry gives him a week to pay back 500,000 pounds.
Runtime: 1 Hour 47 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels starts when Eddy (Moran) and his fellow hustlers Bacon (Statham) and Tom (Flemyng) look for a new score. Eddy has a skill for cards and poker, which he puts to practice in a high-stakes game.
However, Hatchet Harry (Moriarty) uses his tricks to make Eddy play outside his stake. He gives Eddy and his friend one week to make £500,000 and he will take a finger each day. What follows is a string of events trying to clear the debts leading to bloodshed and chaos.
Verdict onLock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a crime thriller following a hapless group of con men who mess with the wrong gangster. It follows the group trying to clear a debt, only to find themselves clashing with fellow gangs in the area.
This movie has a massive following and made Guy Ritchie a household name. It uses the typical tough British gangster stereotype to create a string of events. However, it goes too heavily into the stereotypes and leaves the gangster mentality in more of a comedic world.
Final Thoughts – Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is an oddball comedic thriller.
Plot: Killer ants from South America that eat the flesh of people attack a small town.
Runtime: 1 Hour 35 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Marabunta starts when an insect expert scientist Dr Jim Conrad (Lutes) heads to Alaska for a vacation. He is set to go fishing with an old friend, however, a startling discovery changes those plans.
Jim discovers a rare South American ant in the area. They have started spreading and devouring anything they come in contact with. Jim teams up with local school teacher Laura Sills (Campbell) to track down the queen in hopes of stopping the spread before they become unstoppable.
Verdict on Marabunta
Marabunta is a creature feature horror following a small Alaskan town dealing with a South American killer ant infestation. Luckily, an expert happens to be vacationing in the area and is on hand to lead the plan to stop them.
This is a fun little creature feature that shows how suddenly an environment can be changed by a new species introduced to the area. When it comes to the way the ants operate the overreaction to the deaths adds an element of comedy. It does seem like a lot of potential gore involved is held back on, leaving extremely clean-looking skeletons. Overall, you will know the type of movie you are going in to watch and it delivers on those expectations.
Final Thoughts – Marabunta is an enjoyable fun creature feature.
Plot: A teenager at Rushmore Academy falls for a much older teacher and befriends a middle-aged industrialist. Later, he finds out that his love interest and his friend are having an affair, which prompts him to begin a vendetta.
Runtime: 1 Hour 33 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Rushmore starts as Max Fischer (Schwartzman) finds his place at Rushmore Academy in danger. He has been taking his classes too easily, he needs to sort out his school career. Max ends up making friends with an industrialist Herman Blume (Murray) using his ideas to expand his empire.
Meanwhile, Max gets a crush on teacher Rosemary Cross (Williams) leading to an uncomfortable position between the two. His ambition gets him in trouble until he learns about Herman’s and Rebecca’s new relationship.
Verdict on Rushmore
Rushmore is a romantic comedy following a schoolboy crush that ends up seeing everybody’s life around them change. It sees how he tries to win a teacher’s heart, only to learn the reality of his age is never going to let that happen.
Wes Anderson has always had a certain style for his movies. This showed early on that he always created a set-up for the big final and made everything come together in the movie. However, his style is a style that isn’t always the most enjoyable, as nothing ever feels as free as it could be. In the end, this is entertaining but not one of the great comedies many people it out to be.
Final Thoughts –Rushmore is an entertaining movie from one of the most stylistic directors.
Plot: The true story of a heroic man, Hunter “Patch” Adams, who determined to become a medical doctor because he enjoys helping people. He ventured where no doctor had ventured before, using humour and pathos.
Runtime: 1 Hour 55 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Patch Adams starts when Hunter Adams (Williams) checks himself into a psychiatric hospital for his own mental health. Here, Hunter helps the patients unlike any of the doctors in the hospital. Becoming Patch because of his work, he sets out to become a doctor enrolling in medical school.
As Patch starts medical school, he is drawn to helping the patients against his teacher’s decision. The more he rebels, the more he shows that he wants to help people more than follow the rules.
Verdict on Patch Adams
Patch Adams is a comedy biographical movie, that tells the life of Hunter Adams. A man that struggled with his own mental health before finding his purpose in life, helping people. Only medical school isn’t as smooth as he imagined but his desire to help people change the people around him.
This is a movie that wasn’t enjoyed by the man it is based upon. It does lean more toward comedy, which can take away from the more serious subject matter.
For me, this is a movie that was perfect for Robin Williams. He got to play the comedy like he would in everyday life. While handling the serious side of the movie. Bringing together the two sides of his character. The supporting cast is great too, with a large selection of actors we have seen in even more movies over the years.
Final Thoughts – Patch Adams is a delightful biographical comedy playing perfectly into Robin Williams’ strengths.
On 13th February 1998, Sphere was released by Warner Bros. 25 years later, it is time to look back at the movie and see where it stands in film history. Early 1998 was always going to be difficult for any movie, as every movie got overshadowed by Titanic which constantly shone at the Box Office.
Director
Sphere was directed by Oscar-Winning director Barry Levinson. He had previously won his Oscar for Rain Man, while also getting a nomination for directing Bugsy. After he directed Sphere, he tended to lean more into comedies, never getting to the levels he achieved during the 1980s and early 1990s. The stand-out movie for this era would be The Bay, though he always worked with the biggest names in Hollywood.
Writers
Sphere is based on of a novel by Michael Crichton, the man who wrote Jurassic Park, Westworld and the TV smash hit ER. The 1990s saw plenty of his work being turned into visual media following Jurassic Park’s success, Rising Sun, Disclosure, Congo and The 13th Warrior followed. This proves that he was one of the most popular authors to adapt in the decade.
Writer-director Kurt Wimmer adapted the screenplay in what is one of his first writing credits. He went on to direct Equilibrium and Ultraviolet where he helps created his own form of action fighting known as Gun Kata. The main screenplay writers are Paul Attanasio and Stephen Hauser. Paul is a two-time Oscar-nominated writer, while the pair previously worked together on Disclosure.
Cast
Dustin Hoffman is the lead in the movie, and the two-time Oscar Winner (Rain Man and Kramer vs Kramer) teams up with Barry Levinson for the fourth time. The pair had previously worked on Rain Man, Sleepers and Wag the Dog. In the 1990s Dustin Hoffman was in demand by seemingly selective with his roles making him a great choice for the leading role in the movie.
Sharon Stone took the female leading role in the movie. The Oscar-Nominated actress was at the peak of her career in the 1990s following her head-turning performance in Basic Instinct. She went on to other movies, with Casino being one of the biggest movies to her name.
Samuel L Jackson is another actor that was in high demand in the 1990s. having previously appeared in the Michael Crichton adaptation of Jurassic Park. It was Pulp Fiction that made everybody takes Samuel L Jackson seriously and he followed that up with Die Hard: With a Vengeance. Samuel was on his way to the superstar franchise man we know now.
In the supporting roles, we have Peter Coyote a serial supporting star, usually in some form of authority figure. Here, he is the man leading the mission. Scream star Liev Schreiber continued his own series of supporting roles that make a bigger impact in the film. Rounding the supporting cast was musician Queen Latifah in one of her first major movie roles.
Story
The story follows a group of select scientists, a psychologist, astrophysicist, biochemist and mathematician who have been recruited for a discovery in the Pacific Ocean. They must travel 1000 feet below the surface to the ocean floor to understand a structure. The evidence suggests it has been there for nearly 300 years, but once they get closer, not everything seems as clean-cut as before.
Once they enter the structure, they find an object, a perfect sphere just floating, it reflects everything except the crew. With a storm coming on the surface, the crew are left below the surface until it passes over. This sees them being isolated, as more unexplained events around the structure happen. They must work together to solve the problem, as unexplained events are starting to have devastating consequences.
This is a story that has a very interesting concept. The idea of a discovery on the planet that can’t be easily explained is what we have seen elsewhere. However, a lot of these ideas have been done a lot better in the future. Arrival might well be the best version of the idea, as it keeps us wondering about communication. Sadly, despite having an interesting concept, this story ends up going in a mixed direction, never gaining the focus it should have with the source idea.
Box Office
Sphere was made with a budget of $73 Million and only took $50 Million at the Worldwide Box Office. It only opened at number three behind Titanic and the new release The Wedding Singer, which goes down as a big disappointment. Sphere only ended up staying in the top 10 for 4 weeks, which is even more disappointing for a movie with this sized budget.
Critic Response
Sphere is currently sat on 11% on Rotten Tomatoes with only 6 Fresh reviews. Roger Ebert is quoted with ‘The only excellence is in the acting, and even then the screenplay puts the characters through so many U-turns that dramatic momentum is impossible.’ Even the fresh review from Empire Magazine’s Jeff Dawson reads similarly. ‘Decent performances and an abundance of good ideas and effects. But there is definitely a lack of pace to the dramatic tension, and you may find yourself just not caring.’
Metacritic offers a much more balanced response. Even though the movie on receives a score of 35, out of the 21 reviews, 10 are mixed, with the remaining 11 negatives. The New Yorker’s Sarah Kerr gives the most positive score of 60.
Event Horizon Shadow
In August 1997, Event Horizon was released. This movie saw a group searching for an abandoned spacecraft which leads to them having a nightmarish trip. Event Horizon went on to gain a massive cult following. It does feel like any movie around the same era would have struggled to make an impact. The home release of Event Horizon would have been happening around the same time as Sphere’s cinematic release. The fact this movie ends up using a lot more psychological horror over gore. You can see why it never reached the same level.
On the 16th of January 1998, Warner Bros released Fallen in the cinema. it struggled to make a major impact due to the juggernaut that was Titanic. Fallen only ended up making $25.3 Million in its 9-week cinema run. Having already made $21.3 million by its third week.
Cast
Denzel Washington took the leading role and at the time of release, he had already received 3 Oscar nominations (Cry Freedom, Glory and Malcolm X). following those three nominations, Denzel had turned to a mix of lawyers, military men or law enforcement roles. These included: The Pelican Brief, Philadelphia, Crimson Tide, Virtuosity and Courage Under Fire. Fallen continued this trend as he plays a complex character in the movie.
John Goodman appears as Denzel’s partner, kicking off what was a great year in his career with The Big Lebowski and Blues Brothers 2000. This role continued to show Goodman as one of the very best performers in Hollywood. James Gandolfini also reteams with Denzel after Crimson Tide a year before his iconic turn as Tony Soprano.
Elias Koteas plays the psychotic serial killer that gets a flamboyant introduction, thriving through the sequence before execution. He gets to make the most of his role because the execution happens in the opening sequence of the movie. Elias has to show just how much his character had gotten under Hobbes’ skin over the chase.
Donald Sutherland and Embeth Davidtz complete the cast. This showed that we had a great cast for the later 90s, a cast that works very well to make this movie stand out. Everyone in the cast knows how to make the most of their scene, to help Denzel shine with his uncertain mentality coming through.
Director
Gregory Hoblit is the director of Fallen, having spent most of his early career on television shows. In 1996, Gregory directed the smash hit Primal Fear, which would have put him firmly in the front seat for Fallen. He went on to director Frequency, Hart’s War, Fracture and Untraceable. Showing he had the skills to balance the movies with an extra twist involved.
Story
Fallen follows homicide detective John Hobbes (Washington) who witnesses the execution of a serial killer. However, after the execution, the killings start again with a very similar method. The movie sees Hobbes need to question his own sanity when he believes the devil might well be contacting him. This sees him wondering whom he can trust during the difficult times, where the honest cop in himself starts to turn into a prime suspect.
The movie gets to bring us plenty of twists along the way, never letting us know whom Hobbes can trust. Showing how easily the devil can make for a more possessed figure in Hobbes’ life. When it comes to the big reveal of how to deal with the events. It does bring to life a disturbing series of events, that only keep us wondering if they could even stop.
Critic Response
On Rotten Tomatoes Fallen has a rating of 40% despite most of the ratings fitting the average score. Despite Roger Ebert giving the movie 2.5/4 his score is classed as rotten with the simple quote ‘The idea is better than the execution.’ Whereas New York Times critic Janet Maslin called it ‘A stylish if seriously far-fetched nightmare’. In her positive review.
Conclusion
If Fallen had been released in a different month away from Titanic, it would have been a bigger success at the Box Office. The star power and the returning director of Primal Fear. The final line between reality and the supernatural becomes clear and the killer twist ending only leaves us wanting more from this world.
ABC Film Challenge – Thriller – G – The Sender is under G because of the Grayson family.
Director: Richard Pepin
Writer: Nathan Long, Richard Preston Jr (Screenplay)
Starring: Michael Madsen, R. Lee Ermey, Rochert Vaughn, Dyan Cannon, Steven Williams, Shelli Lether, Brian Bloom
Plot: An Air Force captain pursues the government agents who kidnapped his daughter after discovering that she has incredible “sending” powers.
Runtime: 1 Hour 38 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: The Sender starts as Dallas Grayson (Madsen) is trying to find answers to his father’s death. Knowing his plan crashed years before, now it has been discovered. Dallas is trying to remain strong for his ill daughter Lisa, when they get a visit from Colonel Rosewater (Ermey). Taking Lisa, shooting Dallas in the process.
Dallas is saved by Angel (Lether) an alien that has come to protect Lisa, knowing Dallas is key to this. Lisa has the ability to become a Sender. Someone who can send objects through the galaxy.
Thoughts on The Sender
The Sender follows a man who goes on the run with an alien being. In search of his daughter, who has been taken by the government. She has abilities to send objects through space, which is why the alien being has been helping her. The journey to the base is filled with a host of different problems the two must overcome.
The government side of the story shows how they will not accept the unexplained. Wanting violence towards anything they can’t control. Angel the visitor does have amazing powers, ones that can help along the journey. She has become a force which only wants peace, unlike most visitors.
When it comes to the action, it is mostly chases and gunfire. The car chases, usually end the same, with a vehicle going through or over another. Michael Madsen in the leading role does well. The supporting cast get everything right, not giving enough to make a major impact in the movie.
Final Thoughts – The Sender is a basic sci-fi movie, one that we have seen before.
