CriticNick Reviews

Mousehunt (1997)

A movie for kid-like adults

[21 February 2000]

I am in my mid thirtees, married for 10 years, have two children, have my own international trading business, and still enjoy watching old Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Yosamite Sam, and Tom and Jerry cartoons.

If you can appreciate child-like humor, you will thouroughly enjoy Mouse Hunt. The only detracting point I could find was the unnecessary nudity, and the cleavage delving antics towards the end which ultimately left the movie in no mans land. Aimed at children, yet with scenes not meant for children.

Nathan Lane and Lee Evans really click together and are definetely reminiscent of legendary comic duos such as Laurel and Hardy, and Abbot and Costello. The scene soon after Ernie Smutz is blown through the chimney and a display cabinet comes crashing down on Lars Smutz was absolutely hilarious even though not a word was spoken. Christopher Walkens portrayal of the somewhat overzealous pest killer was superb.

If you are looking for a deep meaningful adult comedy or satire, look elsewhere. If on the other hand you are looking for something that really made you laugh as a child. Watch Mouse Hunt. Pure silly, relaxed and uncomplicated fun.

Heat (1995)

I wish I could call this movie a classic

[12 January 2000]

I must admit that I really wanted this movie to be a classic. It was headed in that direction, but did not quite make it there.

I personally feel that the director should have further developed the 'cat and mouse' aspect between Niel (DeNiro) and Vincent (Pacino) and also the odd relationship that developed between the two. The scene I found most impressive and could rewind and watch a thousand times is the discussion that Niel and Vincent have in the coffee shop. You get a feeling that these two have so much in common and in a way like each other. A few more 'scores' with both outwitting and out-thinking each other would also have made the movie more intense.

Unfortunately by the end of the movie, I felt sad that an opportunity of making a true classic had been wasted.

Still worth watching though.

Contact (1997)

True Science Fiction again at last

[5 January 2000]

If you feed on junk for long enough, you will get used to it. Eventually you will get hooked on it.

The recent Science fiction releases from Hollywood have been intensely disappointing for real sci-fi buffs but have at the same time been huge box office hits. I enjoyed The Matrix and Independence day from an entertainment point of view, but as far as sci-fi goes these movies were thought provoking for the brain-dead only.

Contact is boring only if you are entertained by non-stop special effects, slo-mo and stop action shots, lasers, phasers, warp drives, shields and planet pulping torpedos, weird ugly aliens, 'end of the world', 'alien take-over' and other cliche'd scenarios, gargantuan spaceships, robots, androids, humanoids, artificial intelligence graphically produced for those with a seemingly definite lack of intelligence and imagination.

Contact provides the most likely scenario of a contact with an alien civilisation. Via radio telescopes, unfortunately that does not leave much room for graphic depiction. But yet it is handled in a thought provoking way whether you agree with the way the situation unfolds or not.

Special effects were shown only when needed and in a controlled way. Ellies journey and the simulated blue watered beach set against a star filled sky was simply beautiful. I for one wish that there was such a place in reality. And by the way for those of you who as usual switched your brains off during the movie, that is not an alien appearing as Ellies father, it is a simulation.

I am also amazed by the increasing number of American movie goers who find any thought provoking movie 'boring', and any movie hodge-podged and loaded with effects 'mind blowing and one of the best movies of all times'. A sad indication of the 'Jerry Springer' mindedness of Americans today.

For me 'Contact' is a science fiction classic. An excellent combination of the factual, and the imaginative. It has something for everyone whether you are an Aetheist, a Scientist, a Skeptic, a Religious person, a combination or none of the above. It puts us, our planet, and our point in time into perspective. 'This is the way its been done for billions of years', Ellie is told. Makes you feel pretty humble when you realise that not only you, but the entire history of our planet has been in around for an insignificant period of time compared to the eons that our universe has been around.

It certainly made me think how far into space the broadcast of the Berlin Olympics has reached so far. It also scares me to think that one day aliens may pick up broadcasts of the 'Jerry Springer Show'.

Better than the book, Contact gets 9/10.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

Seriously addictive movie - The most balanced movie ever made?

[10/10 · 18 December 1999]

The first time I saw this movie I had difficulty in understanding a lot of the dialogue not just because of the weird accent, but because the actors spoke so damn fast. But despite this I became literally addicted to it. To begin with my wife got pretty annoyed because any other movie we rented would be ejected after about 20 minutes of viewing and in would go LS&2SB. Now she is hooked as well.

I have lost count of the number of times I have seen LS&2SB and still cannot put my finger on why I find this movie so good to watch. I suppose the most obvious feature of this movie is that it is beautifully balanced between being serious and humorous at the same time. The characters are two-dimensional. The villains are menacing, and yet they are made to look like idiots, and the good guys think they are so smart yet keep getting the rug pulled from under them. They are all projected as 'cool' yet the situation is always out of their control. Maybe it could be called a satire on true life.

The style of this movie is unique, full stop. I cannot think of any movie that can be compared to LS&2SB. Quite a few people say that the style is a mix of 'Pulp Fiction', 'Goodfellas', 'Trainspotting' and 'Reservoir Dogs', but I think that you would make that kind of description only if you are really desperate to match LS&2SB to something.

The best description I can think of is 'MTV does a crime comedy', and I honestly don't think there is anything wrong with that. Like music videos, it is all non-stop movement and sound. Something is always happening but unlike music videos, not without reason.

The humor is incredibly sharp yet 'as a matter of fact'. No one is really trying to be extraordinarily funny, but again it is the balance between being menacingly serious and funny that the humor really flies at you. I think that it is for this reason that a few people are really disappointed with LS&2SB. If you are expecting a 'belly laugh Leslie Nielson, Jim Carrey, Steve Martin, typecasted' type all out comedy, or a serious 'Al Pacino, Andy Garcia, DeNiro typecasted crime thriller, you will find this movie a big let down.

My favorite characters are Rory Breaker (Vas Blackwood) and Big Chris (Vinnie Jones) mainly because their two dimensional over-the-top characters are the most obvious. Big Chris takes his son with him debt collecting, and while he beats up someone who owes chastises him for swearing in front of his son and Rory Breaker is the most idiotic drug-lord you could come up with.

I haven't even mentioned the excellent and unique camerawork, speaker blowing soundtrack, beautifully threaded plot, perfect ending and the grittiest visuals I've seen. You wont see any reflective glass laden sky scrapers here, or 'over head city shots', or incredible special effects. This movie has actors I have never heard of, dialogues that you have to rewind and replay to understand, buildings that look as though they have been condemned for demolition, cars that wouldn't even be seen in our scrap yards, has probably been made with a budget that most movies in Hollywood use for make-up alone, has no love scenes, or romance or complex relationships, no Oscar-worthy performances, and yet is perfect entertainment.

Where our movies normally rely on budgets, this movie works on human talent alone.

If any movie deserves a 10 out of 10, then this is it.

'And there's one more thing...............it's been emotional'