baseline movie reviews - "mission impossible," four others

7/22/2019 Baseline movie reviews - "Mission Impossible," four others

1/5

;aPopcom Palace - Hot Pix

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of a special lmpossible Mislions Force gxgcyting elaborate co,n games in^troublesome mittel-Europeanprincipalities embodies a certain kind of adolescent fantasy--"Dungeons & Dragons" in a real-world-settinA where science displaces magic.

POPCORI',{ RATINGS:

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The best boys-and-their-toys movie since GOLDENEYE, this big-screen velsisnof TV's classic "Mission: Impossible' (1966-73) is a conrucopia of goodies for15-year-olds of all ages.MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE opens like one of the TV episodes, but suddenly veersinto darker territory when most of the IMF team is killed. Ethan Hunt (TomCruise, also one of ttre film's producers) suwives, bu finds himself the fall guywho's

i'disavowed" and mustblear his name. That's the plot:now to the cool stuff.

tr{kTffi $*f ll:?*t:J,f:::##r#;fi#ffi,'ffiitfts;frTEand of co-urs9, thut fgrl$g.falo Schifrin the.me. If'1 all played straighl, "i1 t311P: lm ft,:yl:t ry :"Fans of the show won't like wlat the movie makes of venerable IMF leader Jim Phelps (Jon Voight), or

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Too SaltyBurnt or StaleHalf a KernelA Real Dud

BIG AT TI{E BOX OFFICEClick here to go to Baseline's Show Business. That's where you'Il find the nwnbers behind this week'sbox office winners.ttMission: Impossiblett --R""i"* by Frank Lovece

http:/Aruww. pkbaseline. com/screen/popcom/hotpix. html


2/5

Gtc)Popcom Palace - Hot Pixmight reVive a neglected genre.STARRING:Tom Cruise - Ethan HuntJon Voight - Jim Phelps

Emmanuelle Beart - ClaireHenry Czerny - KittridgeJean Reno - KriegerVing Rhames - LutherKristin Scott-Thomas - Sarah DaviesVanessa Redgrave - MaxDIRECTOR: Brian De PalmaRUNNING TIME: 111 mins.MPAA RATING: PG-13OURRATING: &&

http :/Alnanr. pkbaseline. com/screen/popcom/hotpix. html

ttTwistertt --Review by Frank Lovece

Less a movie than a theme-park atffaction, TWISTER is an unintentionally funny B-picture until thespecial eflects kick in. Then it becomes a rollercoaster ride so dizzingly sensationai--in all senses of theword-that you don't even need motion-control seats to feel it. As for a real story or real characters--well,the 1970s disaster movies tried those, and they were laughable anyway.After a 1969 prologue, in which a girl watches her daddy get killed by a tornado, we cut to present dayOklahoma. There's a mean wind a-blowin', and that's a breath of fresh air to eight grad-schooly youngstorm watchers led by the grown-up girl, Jo (Helen Hunt), who's now appaxently some sort of professor.Enter soon-to-be-ex-husband Bill (a colorless Bill Purton), there to pick up divorce papers so he canmarry therapist Dr. Melissa Reeves (Jami Gerra, in a "Swe, honey" role). Back when he was a wild-manstorm watcher, Bill designed a scientific barrel o' sensors called Dorothy. Jo, he discovers, has had fourbuilt, hoping to get one up into a funnel to glean unprecedented information about the inner life of killerstorms. Bill signs on, seduced by both the carnival-like atmosphere and by anger that Dorothy has beenripped-offby corporate storm watcher Jonas Miller (Cary Elwes). You can tell Jonas is bad by his fleetof glossy black vehicles.Jo and Bill survive a day and night of increasingly deadly tornadoes: flying cows, flying gas-filledtanker trucks, and flying fbrntequipment that regularly lands on the road in front of them with a scarythunk. And the extended clima< isn't just one spectacular sequence, but several. The characters are


3/5

' Cary Elwes - Dr. Jonas MillbrLois Smith - Aunt MegDIRECTOR: Jan DeBontMPAA RATING: PG-13ouRRATING: #ttSpy Hardtt --Review by Frank LoveceThe intermittently funny SPY HARD lacks the fi.rious pace and visual inventiveness of TOP SECRET ,and while it does offer more laughs than CASINO ROYALE it obeys the law that Leslie Nielsen muststar in any 1990s movie parody, and pays the price.Nielsen's deadpan befuddlement is an asset to the NAKED GUN series, but his simitarly straighfforwardperformance inthe dreadful DRACULA: DEAD AND LOVING IT is painfirl to watch. Nielsendeveloped SPY HARD (he's one of its executive producers) and plays super spy Dick Steele as both aclueless straight man and a bug-eyed buffoon. The result isn't pretfy.To be fair, he gets little help from the draggy script and clunky direction. College roommates JasonFriedberg and Aaron Seltzer wrote the script, and Friedberg's dad-Rick Friedberg, who directed Nielsenin a series of car-rental commercials and golf comedy-videos--served as producer, director andco-screenwriter. The Friedbergs Sr. and Jr. are both making their feature debuts, and it shows.The bare-bones plot on which jokes are occasionally hung involves evil mastermind General Rancor(Andy Griffith), who's tied agent Barbara Datrl (Stephanie Romanov) to a space missile. Steele, a.k.a.Agent WD-40, must save her. Assisted by driver Kabul (John Ales) and French-accented VeroniqueUkrinsky (a smoldering Nicollette Sheridan), Steele recovers a super-microchip and saves the day.The spy stuffis lame, but SPY HARD's other movie parodies fare better. Its lampoons of PULP_ _FICTION, HOME ALONE and SISTER ACT in particular are uproarious, and the send-ups of SPEED,E.T., JURASSIC PARK, TRUE LIES and BUTCH CASSIDY ANID TIIE SUNDANCE KID are prettyamusing, too.STARRING:Leslie Nielsen - Dick Steele "Agent WD-40"Nicollette Sheridan - Veronique UkrinskyCharles Durning - The DirectorMarcia Gay Harden - Miss CheevusBarry Bostwick - Norman ColemanA"di Griffith - General RancorDIRECTOR: Rick FriedbergRUI\NING TIME: 8l mins.MPAA RATING: PG.I3OURRATING: #&


4/5

ttFlippef ?f --Review by Frank LoveceFLIPPER flops. Simultaneously predictable and farfetched, thisshaggy-dolphin tale--based on the original 1963 film--combines aformul aic coming-o f- age p lot with far-more-talk-than- animal action.Miraculously, Paul Hogan, Jonathan Banks and Chelsea Field eachmanage to give their cardboard characters smart, engaging presence, andElijah Wood makes an'assured traflsition from child roles to surtyteenager.Sandy Ricks (Wood) has been forced to spend the..summer.in Coral Key,ff #tn his uncle, Porter Ricks (Hogan). Sandy's "adopted" by a dolphin whose life he saves by-lsair.cti"g bad charter-boat opbrator Dirk Moran (a wonderfully smarmypq*t} who fires rifles ataofpti"r *f do*ps toxic waste into the oge-an. Cari _g_for flipp.{ teaches S?nay Responsibi]ity.ItettingFiifip.ii.tr* to his family teaches S_andy Vryfiy.. What, if anything, blonde summer-girl Kim (JessicaWJsiso"; teaches him is leh unsaid. Cathy (Fields) is the marine-biologist-cum-bait-shop-owner who justcan't gei that darn Porter to settle down and propose.Though padded with lots of shots of boats pulling-out and tnrcks pulling up,.FLIPPER leaves Tany*ggfirg^questions unanswered-like, how come Uncle Porter's Australian when.S_attj; mom isn't? And*f;ij. iitries at first to keep Flipper's abilities within the realm of plau{bility, FLIPPER soon succumbsto the Lassie Syndrome. ('"TREEEP TREEEP " "What's that, Flipper? You've found the toxic-wastebarrels?") The -endless parade of product placements is the most blatant of any movie in recent memory.Flinoer--an amalsam of real and animatronic dolphins and digital compositing--looks remarkably real,;J.?i in the obrii,ously computer-animated final shot. Luke Halpin, ryh9 Pfayed 15-year-old S.qayRick'i--son of widowed Cordl Key Park ranger Porter Ricks--in the original screen version and thetg6+-e1 NBC series, can be glimpsed in the nameless role of Bounty Fisherman #3.STARRING:Paul Hogan - Porter

Elijah Wood - SandYJonathan Banks - Dirk MoranChelsea Field - CathYDIRECTOR: Alan ShaPiroRUNNING TIME: 96 mins.MPAA RATING: PGoUR RATING: # #ttJames and the Giant Peachft -RetiewbyFrankLoveceFeaturing more imagination per minute than in most LSD trips--let alone-most children'spi"gtffiing--JAMbs ANd THE GIANT PEACH is like nbthing most.kids have ever seen. Based onifoilA Dahl'Jclassic 1961 children's book, it brings to life the creepy whimsy of much of Dahl's writing.Stylized live action bookends lome 45 mir.ruteg of stop-motion animation with computer-generatedaslists, and the film is not only"true to the book but even a slight improvement on it.


5/5

big orange'Bllq"q. And even the animation occasionally falters: The denouemeni, involviqg arhinoceros-cloud, is confusing unq vagug. The otherwise engaging Terry is a singer of limit6d gifts--asthe song "My_Name_Is James"makespainfully apparenl--though -omposer Rand'y Newman's o:thertunes, particularly "Eating the Peach," are quite fine. The improvements?Keeping thg aunts-alive,rather than-squisling _{em immediately, which sets up an ominous tension, andturning a school of sharks into ong black-belching, diesel monstrosity. It's all,-in a word, peachy.STARRING:Susan Sarandon - Voice of SpiderRichard Dreyfuss - Voice of CentipedeJoanna Lumley - Aunt SpikerMiriam Margolyes - Aunt Sponge, Voice of GlowwormJane Leeves - Voice of LadybugDavid Thewlis - Voice of Earthworm

Pete Postlethwaite - Old ManSimon Callow - Voice of GrasshopperDIRECTOR: Henry SelickRT]NI\IING TIME: 80 MiNS.MPAA RATING: PGOIRRATING: ##S&

baseline movie reviews - "mission impossible," four others

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