I Still Know What You Did Last Summer |
Idle Hands |
I'll Be Home For Christmas |
The Impostors |
Independence Day |
The Innocents |
Instinct |
Interview with the Vampire |
Intimate Strangers |
The Invisible Man |
The Italian Job
I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)
(R)
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The main character from I Know What You Did Last Summer goes on a island vacation with some friends, and the killer from the first movie shows up. The film has a couple jump-out-of-the-shadows scares, but not many. The rest of the film just shows the teens running around the island, trying to find something constructive to do. Not very exciting, and not scary nearly often enough to make it work. Note to film makers: right before you kill the main character is not the time to run the credits.
Links:
Official Studio Site
Dark Horizons's I Still Know... Page
Idle Hands (1999)
(R)
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A slacker discovers that his hand has a life of its own, and is
responsible for several murders that have taken place recently. He then tries to stop his hand from killing, while trying to impress the girl from across the street. All this movie seems to have on it's mind is drugs, sex, and violence. It also tries to keep a sense of humor, but only occasionally comes up with a funny joke. Overall, just a very gross and only occasionally amusing movie about people getting high and getting killed.
Links:
Official Studio Site
I'll Be Home For Christmas (1998)
(PG)
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Jonathan Taylor Thomas must make it home from all the way across the country before his family sits down to dinner Christmas Eve so that he can get the Porche his father promised him, but gets stranded in the middle of the dessert with nothing but a Santa costume. The movie doesn't handle the mushy parts very well, but the road trip part of the story is mildly entertaining, or at least amusing at points. Overall, just another Jonathan Taylor Thomas vehicle, but at least he has an idea how to drive it.
Links:
Official Studio Site
The Impostors (1998)
(R)
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This is a movie designed to look and feel like a comedy from the 40's. It involves two unemployed actors - Oliver Platt (Doctor Dolittle) and Stanley Tucci (Big Night) - struggling to survive. After a few comic sketches, they wind up on a cruise ship along with a man who's accusing them of trying to kill him. They go to great lengths to avoid getting caught, creating situations ranging from mildly entertaining to really funny. The supporting characters add to the fun, with good performances form everyone involved (although they could have used Steve Buscemi better, instead of just giving him his "The Wedding Singer" role over again).
Links:
Official Studio Site
Independence Day (1996)
(PG-13)
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Aliens attack earth, and a group of people band together to fight back. This is a fun movie, and Brent Spiner's (Data from Star Trek, The Next Generation) cameo in Area 51 is one of the most memorable scenes of the year.
Links:
Independence Day Headquarters
Radio Free's Review
The Innocents (1961)
(Unrated)
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A new governess for two children starts seeing ghosts she believes are after the children. The movie is fairly spooky and managed to keep me interested in what was happening. The director does well with what was available to him at the time, and the actors are all very convincing. Overall, an interesting story with good directing and acting, and much easier to follow than the book it was based on, The Turn of the Screw.
Instinct (1999)
(R)
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Anthony Hopkins plays a man who spent two years living with monkeys in the jungle, and was than captured and brought back to America. Cuba Gooding Jr. is the psychologist who wants to try to help him fit back into normal life. This film was very well made in a psychologically suspenseful way. It had several scenes that are very intense, but they never made the mistake of suddenly changing into a horror or slasher film. They shoot for suspense, and hit their mark nearly all the time. Some of it was a little over the top, but it never went too far. The acting was great, even if typecast, and the directing was near perfect. Over all, a good film.
Links:
Official Studio Site
Interview with the Vampire (1994)
(R)
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A vampire tells the story of his existence as a vampire to a reporter, while most of the story plays out in flashback. The movie is very dark and gothic, with most of the characters unhappy with their lives but looking for ways to continue to survive anyway. It was only sporadically able to draw me in to the story, but did have a few interesting moments.
Links:
Film.com's Review
Roger Ebert's Review
Intimate Strangers (2004)
(R)
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A French woman named Anna makes an appointment to see a psychiatrist. When she arrives for her session, she enters the wrong office and bares her deepest secrets to a tax advisor named William. William doesn't have the courage to tell Anna he isn't a psychiatrist, and she begins to visit him regularly. As these visits progress, we learn more about Anna's marital difficulties and about William's successful, yet repressed life. For those who may be deterred by the subtitles, the dialogue here is surprisingly minimalist. Intimate Strangers is a film that expresses a lot while saying very little, which speaks volumes of both the actors and the script. Definitely worth a look if your a fan of this genre.
Links:
Roger Ebert's Review
The Invisible Man (1933)
(Not Rated)
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A very simple but well made movie, this film reminds me a lot of Darkman. A man creates a substance that makes him invisible, and then gets ideas of using it to rule the world. The people who find out that he's invisible then try to stop him as he starts killing people. It's rather short (71 minutes long) but has a good story, is well acted, and has good visual effects for when it was made. The thing that surprised me the most was that they used the effects when the story actually needed them, not as just a way to show off visual effects like many Hollywood movie do. Gloria Stuart, Old Rose in Titanic, had a part in this film 64 years earlier.
The Italian Job (2003)
(PG-13)
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This film is "inspired" by a 1969 Michael Caine film of the same name. A group of thieves plot revenge against a former partner, Steve, who betrayed their trust. By creating the largest L.A. traffic jam ever, they hope to make off with Steve's 35 million dollars in gold. As expected, the new Italian Job owes less to the original than it does to more recent action films (no matter, since 99 percent of the audience won't recall the original). The chase scenes, for their part, are executed surprisingly well. The story, however, tends to bog down during several melodramatic scenes (the characters are far too thin for us to care about them when things go wrong). All in all, a fairly standard action pic. It's not exceptional, but thankfully not unwatchable.
Links:
Roger Ebert's Review
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