POMO

If someone in the cinema had got the celluloid reels mixed up, you wouldn't even notice it. If this movie is a commercial success, that will mean the beginning of the end of good American film entertainment – nothing more than a big budget is needed to make something like this. I’m glad that I will die with the current generation and not be a witness to the time when 90% of Hollywood productions are guided by this equation.

The initial investigation of past events through flashbacks is so boring and uninteresting that it doesn’t draw you into the plot at all and after the first major twist, you don't know which way is north. And you’re only halfway through the movie, with about ten more twists like this still to come, plus one final twist that would put a hole in Keyser Söze’s head. The problem with Basic is that John McTiernan is no Bryan Singer. And predatory action in the rainforest is not a priority in his screenplay. The film is just an unbelievably overwrought and muddled cock-and-bull story that not even the excellent cast can save.

The Animatrix: Final Flight of the Osiris is like the best action sequence from Final Fantasy. In fact, it’s even better. The film completely fulfilled its ambitions and to want more from it than a feast for the eyes would be nonsense.

Dante’s Peak is a moderately impressive but quite bountiful adventure with beautiful natural scenery and likeable characters. And without gunfire. It’s technically flawless and sufficiently intelligent. A very pleasant film to relax with. Watching on the big screen or your souped-up home cinema upgrades it to an adrenaline rush of almost Twister proportions.

Ronin’s elegantly depicted atmosphere of old European crime dramas, excellent actors and perfect car chases are all wasted due to the routine and meandering screenplay. And that’s a shame.

Relic is a run-of-the-mill and totally unimaginative addition to the Hollywood “horror” genre that gets by with an attractive lady scientist, a tough detective and one mediocre digital monster. The film is reasonably well made and accordingly not boring, but it quickly fizzles out. Deep Rising was more entertaining and worked more adeptly with clichés.

Escape from L.A. is a cheap, stupid and muddled B-movie – it’s just maximally bad in terms of directing. Like most of John Carpenter recent work.

Macho Alec Baldwin, sexy Kim Basinger, a bit of eroticism, a bit of action and tough and nasty bad guys in a slightly amoral and suspenseful adventure that neither bores nor thrills.

The Hunted is an intentionally cold (in the style of Insomnia) and relatively raw thriller that gets its distinctiveness mainly from the use of unobtrusive music in passages where you would expect a large orchestra. This was evidently done to achieve greater authenticity and naturalism. The first, slower and more clichéd half is handicapped by poor development of the characters and the occasionally dumb flashbacks that introduce them to us. In the second half, however, the pure action kicks into gear and the film takes on some decent dynamics and shocking gore. It’s actually rather raw for the mainstream – that many slash wounds are not normally seen in a single film. The actors are fine, but they deserve a better-developed psychological aspect. Connie Nielsen is again very, very good.

The Quiet American has an interesting story, great actors and is reasonably well made. But it’s exceedingly low-key and quiet, both emotionally and in terms of the viewing experience.