Monday, April 26, 2004

Does Schilling often write to this board? And we know for sure it's Schilling?

MAN ON FIRE: Alright, I've seen other reviews for this film, and they're none too complementary. I will say this, that it takes forever to get going, and I think that's the main problem with this in the latest of Tony Scott films. However, we can't blame a movie for making the relationship between Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning something that matters. However, it DOES take too much time. Washington's character is set up so that he is much standoffish towards the little girl at first, so a lot of warming over has to take place. When the revenge factor sets in, though, it really begins to rock, although I could have done without the twists that took place, which are easily detected before they happen. A solid film, but it doesn't live up to the kick-ass second trailer that came out for it. I would recommend it, if you have time.

MICKEY: Harry Connick, Jr. plays a widowed dad who cheats on his taxes, and he must change his identity and flee his Washington state home with his star baseball player son, who must pretend he's a year younger. They move to Vegas, where the son becomes a phenom playing as a 13-year-old mixed with 12 and younger players, and the team goes on to play in the Little League World Series, to the championship game where they face off against an also-cheating Cuban squad. You can imagine the scenarios already, and this film would have been better off playing as an "Original Entertainment" film on ESPN. Mega-bestseller John Grisham wrote the screenplay, and it's filled with examples of cringe-inducing lines. One positive: the baseball scenes are realistic (except when people are striking out, much too obvious that the batters were trying to do so) and beat most baseball action scenes--usually, when you see a movie like THE NATURAL or THE FAN (Tony Scott, again!) and a guy hits a homer, there's no way that the swing and the ball trajectory would produce the hits that they show. Anyway, it depends on what mood you're in. It can be fun, but it's not really a theatrical film. Grisham, who makes a cameo, is going to be at Hollywood 27 for Tuesday's special screening.

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