A film has to pretty damn bad for me to not finish it - my $3.00 rental fee and I are difficult to separate in the first place and I'm determined to get my money's worth. when I saw The Minus Man on the video shelf, it had three things going for it: 1) Owen Wilson, who I think is a pretty good actor, 2) directed and written by Hampton Fancher, screenwriter of the classic sci-fi flick Blade Runner, and 3) those great, morbid TV ads for the film that had dead people floating in pools.

So I rent the film, take it home, and pop it in.

About an hour into The Minus Man, I stop the tape to catch a re-run of The Simpsons.

I know, I know, how can you write a review of a film you didn't even watch all the way through? There's your review right there. I sat through a double feature of Robot Monster and Journey to the Center of the Earth starring Pat Boone and I couldn't make it through The Minus Man!!

The meandering, pseudo-existential plot has to do with serial killer Wilson traveling throughout the American West picking off folks who he thinks want to die. Janeane Garofolo is a sort-of love interest who works at the post office. Singer Cheryl Crow tries to portray a junkie-turned-victim and MAN is she bad!

At almost two hours long, this must feel like four hours because the first hour of the film felt two hours long.

The Minus Man is one of those slow, empty films that tries to disguise itself as "art" hoping you'll give it a break. It is definitely NOT RECOMMENDED.

-- Editor X
6/6/00

Fight Club - Say what you will about this maligned, big-budget risk-taker, I liked it (of course it took me more than one viewing to come to this conclusion). Sure, the politics are sophomore. Sure, it suffers from "movie based on pseudo-literature"-itis (the existential voiceovers are sometimes annoying). Sure, Brad Pitt is too good-looking and "cool" for an anti-hero of epic proportions, but still ...

... Any $60 million film that has any politics, hackneyed or not, deserves respect. The soundtrack is great, the cinematography lush, and Pitt isn't above getting the crap beat out of him in a few scenes.

I think that Fight Club will gain respect and love as the years progress, due more to its visual panache than its "poor white middle class guy" story - although the film should be credited with ultimately chastising the "persecuted white male" complex.

The special edition DVD comes out this week - should be worth a look (or another look if you've seen the film).

SOMETHING OLD

Miracle Mile - I rented the droll Canadian End of the World flick Last Night the other day and while Last Night was okay, it reminded me of how good Miracle Mile is.

Anthony Edwards is a jazz musician who shows up late for a first date with a woman he really likes. Standing on the corner cursing his tardiness, he picks up a ringing payphone. On the other end is a worker in a missile silo who tells him that nuclear war has just begun. Is this a sick prank? Is nuclear war imminent? Will Edwards get to the woman he loves before the world goes insane or gets reduced to ashes?

Tense, suspenseful, horrifying, but ultimately a love story, Miracle Mile is one of the most brutally depressing and yet morbidly uplifting films I've ever seen. The viewer becomes more and more involved with Edwards' character as he races against time (and a nuclear holocaust that may or may not be real).

A good-looking film with an excellent "time ticking down" score by Tangerine (Three O'Clock High) Dream, Miracle Mile is another larger-budget risk-taker of a film that you should rent immediately!