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Edward-33
Reviews
Maximum Risk (1996)
I wanna be Van Damme!
Holy crap, Van Damme is a lucky guy. Having the Species girl, Natasha Henstridge, press her naked breasts against your chest is nothing to complain about.
Great movie, though, even without the girl. Van Damme has got to be my favorite action star. Well, Arnold comes pretty close...hard decision. Oh well. Watch this movie for the fight scenes, if you are in it for the action. They are more realistic than usual, because nobody takes fifty spinning kicks in the face and a hundred punches to the the ribs before falling down, then gets up after ten seconds, like normal action-movie fights go. Kinda sucks to have someone stab you through the toe of your shoe, too.
There's Something About Mary (1998)
Cameron Diaz is ADORABLE
"Something about Mary" is truly a wonderful film, regardless of all the "righteous perfect Puritan" critics it has. It is an endearing love story intertwined with hilarious jokes and stunts (esp. the hair-gel thing!); the balance between these two elements is perfect.
Cameron Diaz, I must say, is one of the most beautiful actresses in all of Hollywood, and she doesn't rely on seven layers of makeup. In fact, the only time she wore a significant amount of eyeshadow was in her prom dress (I hate chicks who wear eyeshadow--it makes them look hot, but it is so fake). Her character is one everyone falls in love with, including the audience, because she is the perfect girl--she likes sports, she's nice, and she doesn't mind if someone has imperfections--and she's a 'NINERS FAN!!! Yeah!!
"Something About Mary" is a refreshing break from all those other corny comedy romances in which you know from the first five minutes how they are going to end. I mean, it's not as if the ending is a surprise, but up until the last, you just kind of wonder if it's really going to end like that, and you really hope it does. Personally, for about three minutes, I thought Ted and Mary were going to just end up being friends, and I didn't want that. The movie keeps you hoping. Neither I nor my friends could help smiling really, really, big when Ted takes a big breath and starts toward Mary to embrace her at the end.
Ben Stiller is one of my favorite actors after I saw this movie, redeeming himself from the mistake of accepting "Mystery Men", an utterly pathetic movie which I saw before I rented "Mary".
Some say the acting was bad, but I don't see where they were coming from. The characters were perfectly believable, and those critics must have needed to just say SOMETHING bad because they know Diaz is amazing and can't admit it. I look forward to any and all sequels to this great film.
Oh...maybe I already mentioned it, but Cameron Diaz is SEXY!!
Beautiful Girls (1996)
Much more than I expected. Thoroughly moving.
(Maybe you should read this after watching the movie. I don't know if reading it before will spoil it for you--I doubt it, in fact, but you never know.)
Being the typical unmarried man, I rented "Beautiful Girls" because of its attractive title. I had no idea it could be so moving or endearing. I may be just getting soft, but it was one of the few films I have thought about for more than 72 hours after I saw it.
Aside from all the sexual content, swearing, etc., the dialogue between Marty (the now beautiful Natalie Portman) and Willie (my favorite actor, Timothy Hutton) is nothing short of astounding. Willie is enchanted and attracted to this little 13-year old girl next door. As they exchange more and more conversation, he realizes her great potential and even dreams about how he might just be able to wait ten years and maybe marry her.
The scene in which Willie discusses his feelings with Mo, his married friend was the turning point of the story. Willie realizes that, even if she had a love-at-first-sight crush on him, she would drift away as she matures; she would find someone closer to her own age, and Willie would become just some silly old man she met when she was young and had a ridiculous, immature attraction to. He realizes that by just being her friend, he will be able to keep her in a much more real way than if he tries to wait for her to be his lover.
But the one scene I will remember forever, the most perfect scene in the entire movie, in which the dialogue seemed neither forced nor over-elongated, was the scene in the ice-skating rink with Marty and Willie. Marty tells Willie all the things he would have liked to hear before his talk with Mo. She would marry him after they waited five years, etc. The association Willie makes with Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robins is so beautiful it almost made me cry. (Not really, but you get the point). He gives her a good taste of reality, and she seems mature enough to understand.
In a later scene, Willie tells Marty that he would like to continue being a friend, even a mentor to her, and he has total confidence that whatever she does will be amazing.
There are about three other stories intertwined into the movie, but the Portman-Hutton line stands out as the superior.
Overall, a wonderful movie to which they should have given a title that would attract people with the ability to be moved.
P.S. The funniest part of the entire movie is the confused look Willie and Paul exchange after Mo gives unusually-phrased threats to Steven, who beat up their friend. You have to have seen the movie to understand