MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

Kevin Costner makes a comeback after his box-office disappointment last year as The Postman playing Gared Blake, a loving husband who lost his wife to a terminal illness and sends letters to her in glass bottles by throwing them to sea. The elegant Robin Wright Penn (Forrest Gump and She's So Lovely) is a divorcee and mother to a son who chances upon one of the glass bottles, becomes enchanted by the mystery and allure of the letter, and tracks down the writer. Over time and with enpowering chemistry, the two falls in love as Robin teaches Kevin to let go of a painful loss to start what may be a promising future together. The turning point of this original film comes when Kevin finds out that Robin isn't just a stranger who met him but a researcher of a publication who printed his personal letter in the papers and hunted him down as part of her assignment.

This parallel to Sleepless in Seattle, without the comedy and the crowd-pleasing recipes makes this drama realistic and close to the heart. Kevin Costner delivers a long-absent charm and passes off convincingly as a faithful and grieving husband who lost his soul along with his wife a few years ago. A glimpse of hope for him glistens when Robin Wright Penn waltzs into his life with her alnatural beauty and humble sincerity. The plot progresses cleverly and unpredictably, compensating for a casual pace like that of Sandra Bullock's Hope Floats. The screenplay with few laughs speaks of relationships, loss and forgiveness illustrated by mesmerizing cinematography of the quiet town and its nature. Message In A Bottle manages to capture and sustain interest despite its length and limited subject matter.

If day-to-day love stories are your cup of tea, Message will stand to be more than expected. For comedy seekers or drama-phobics, keep your distance. For all that's worth, this truthful and graceful motion picture is so refreshing and reaping its in my present top 100 list. Kevin Costner's fans or ex-fans won't be sorry and Robin's can naturally take for granted another astounding performance.


THE FACULTY

Think Species meets Disturbing Behavior. Aliens plans to take over the earth by recruiting human beings. These parasites do so by sending slug-like creepy-crawlers into one's ears and using the human body as their host. Like the Gremlins, these extra-terrestial survives and thrives on water, originating in the form of a giant squid. A bunch of students in a Ohio high school discovers the shocking truth about these vicious and fast multiplying suckers and assumes the resposibility of the Men In Black, embarking on a quest to wipe them out with their knowledge gathered from The X Files and The Bodysnatchers. If you're a fan of teen-flicks or good ol' b-rate horror fests, read on. If you're finding this all too unnerving or insanely bogus, you can proceed to check out my picture galleries.

Rising star Elijah Wood of Deep Impact is the geek, Josh Hartnett of Halloween H20 is the cool dealer repeating his senior year, and the rest of the rescue team consists of a football quarterback, a cheerleader/bitch, an outcast/loner and a girl-next-door 'baby-spice'. This adolescent cast manages to make alien-fighting fun and exciting despite a terribly lame storyline from the creater of I Know What You Did Last Summer, Kevin Williamson. With many references to the past alien movies, this spoof is a feast for b-rate film lovers looking for a rushing ride. Better than H20 definitely, this average movie stands out due to its awful plot. Watching teenagers fight serial killers and psychopaths have become out-dated. The Faculty gives a fresh twist by throwing in antagonists with red feelers in the size of a roach and those with tentacles in the shape of the huge mutant freak from The Relic.

The coolest part about Faculty is undoubtedly its ultra-hip 'n rock soundtrack which features sounds from Oasis, Garbage, Class Of '99 and Soul Asylum. If you're in for a fun ride or cheap thrills, hold your breath and get the tix. If you're not remotely interested in such genres or Independence Day Scream-style, you should still consider this. Afterall, what's more fun than bashing a tacky reason for a movie with your pals. That is meant to be rhetoric.


A NIGHT AT THE ROXBURY

Two brothers ie. "ugly, pathetic losers" are constantly on a night scene rampage with always the same problem, they are never allowed to admit. These vain flashy Gucci-cladded pseudo-transvestites display tendencies not only through their gaudy dress-sense. With a making-up scene spoofing the popular Jerry Maguire "You complete me" dialogue, these brothers borders on being grossly incestuous. This short movie is basically about the two brothers carving their independence from their dysfunctional and rich parents and pursuing their blonde ambition : own a night club.

30 seconds into the movie before the opening title ends, I'd already regretted ever considering watching this. So extraordinarily corny and disgustingly childish are the 2 asthetically-challenged leads they literally repel not just those on-screen but even the audiences. Their synchronised 'dance-moves', idiosyncrasies and senseless vocal exchanges are not a tab bit entertaining or laugh-igniting. This Romy And Michelle's High School Reunion-gone wrong is like watching the Dumb And Dumber brothers act stupid in Studio 54. Being a fan of both movies with many spontaneous and ridiculously hilarious jokes, I will have to say A Night At The Roxbury is in a league so much their own.

Safe your dollars and catch a real movie instead. If you're thinking that Roxbury is like a funnier Swingers, think again. The Matrix being about a mathematical college comes closer. Did it spark at least one laugh? Honestly, I'll have to say nay.


A CIVIL ACTION

This movie is based on a true story about a small town with more than its share of deaths. Parents of 9 children of different families urged a small law firm to get to the bottom of their losses by pressing charges on a manufacturing plant in the vicinity which has been disposing their toxic wastes into the nearing rivers and contaminating the water supply. Big names John Travolta and Robert Duvall take centre stage as 2 opposing attorneys with their own agendas. John plays Schlichtmann whose small firm faces huge debts after investing in a costly and prolonged legal battle with the established giants of the field lead by Robert's character. With an intention of chewing a heftly settlement from the Woburn company responsible for the toxic waste disposal, John soon loses interest in monetary pursuits when the emotional integrity of the got to him.

This long film is visually clean-cut and stylish with good camera direction; perfect for such movie genres. Unfortunately, A Civil Action is plagued with a poor screenplay that goes on and on without a hint of a turning point and no sign of a climax. Worse still, it has an unsuspecting end. There's no visual legal struggle in the form of fierce courtroom dramas like those in A Time To Kill and A Few Good Men. There isn't any emotional scenes from the plaintiffs or close-to-the-heart moments between the 'new' Schlichtmann and the dead children's families such as those in The Rainmaker. Dialogues are lengthy and most sleep-inducing. Oscar-nominated performance from Robert Duvall does nothing to strengthen the picture but himself.

It is not surprising this hollywood film received a luke-warm box-office reaction. The receipes are just not there and for lack of a better word, A Civil Action even with its ethical and emotional implications, is just boring. John Travolta's critically-appraised roles in Primary Colors and now this may reveal his credibility-seeking intentions but at the price of alienating his fans who have learned to love his Michael and Face/Off self since his Grease come-back? Maybe a role that'll fit both bills? Now, isn't that every actor's dream.


URBAN LEGEND

The baby-sitter who receives a scary phone call tracking back to the room with the kids upstairs, the old woman who found her cat dried in a microwave, the date who finds her ex hanging from a tree above the car while making-out, the man who awakes in a bat-tub filled with ice and finds his kidneys missing... here are the Urban Legends and so-called old wives tales re-enacted by a pyscho in this movie. Beautiful Alicia Witt (Cybill) teams up with blue-eyed Jared Leto to hunt down the serial killer wrecking her life on the 25th anniversary of a mythic massacre on campus. Sounds cool?

Urban Legend is nothing new from its predecessors. Nothing fresh or interestingly inviting or even remotely foreign. However, writer Silvio Horta cleverly cooks up a flick with all the right ingredients with a fine blend. Urban has the beautiful but assertive and smart female lead survivor which has proven successful in Scream. It has the in-your-face gore along with breasts, hooks and trench-coats popular in I Know What You Did Last Summer. Besides a hip cast with resumes linked to cult TV-hits such as Dawson's Creek and Beverly Hills 90210, this 100 minute scary time has bad stormy weather, hit-n-runs, haunted houses, forest-chases and plenty of deaths. Not forgetting the never-ending endings and twists after twist (think Halloween H20). To top it all off, there's the guess-who's-the-killer game going throughout the movie with many suspects and just as many false-leads. And of course, the screams and shrieks from not just the gals but the guys as well. What's worse than too many cheap thrills? To many flopped cheap thrills. Urban Legend redeems itself as it goes along with promises of fun and mirth and a reasonably convincing ending for a teenage horror movie. Not as good as the mother of all 90s flicks but still highly watchable and surprisingly undisappointing. Here's my ranking of all such movies since the birth of the reigning queen: 1. Scream 2. Scream 2 3. I Know What You Did Last Summer 4. Urban Legend 5. The Faculty 6. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer 7. Disturbing Behavior 8. Halloween H20


OFFICE SPACE

Office Space is about work: working, hating work, enjoying work, out-of-work ... you get the drift. Dermot Mulroney cross Brendan Fraser dude Ron Livingston (Swingers) is the heavily stressed software engineer with job claustrophobia and basically sick of life 9 to 5 in the same cubicle dealing with the same work routine and facing the same'o irritating bosses. Under the advice of a far-from-desirable girlfriend, Peter seeks help from a job-hazard hypnotherapist who sends him into a trance and collapses from a heart-attack before snapping him out of it. With this newly acquired serenity and peace, Peter learns to live life his goofy way. He finally dumps the cheating girlfriend, asks the waitress he has been eyeing-on (Jennifer Aniston) out, absents from work and does what he has always wanted to do, rest. Things get a little out of hand later and very interesting from then on.

This endearing film is as cosy and intimate as its budget. Although not exactly Oscar material like The Full Monty, Office Space is like that in its feel and pace. It basically follows this part of the life of a job-frustated employee and where it goes from then on after a drastic move. Fun and funny, director Mike Judge and Ron manages to capture the essence of the aloof chap who wants nothing more in life than a simple job and a plain-Jane but just as beautiful waitress. This is where Jennifer Aniston comes in made for the role, right from the physical package to the charming performance. From She's The One to Picture Perfect, she always ends up in the 'correct' film with the 'correct' costar. A mere coincidence I think not. With this icing, this Office cake is tasty right till the crumbs.