The Naked Gun | NASCAR 3D | The Negotiator | Never Say Never Again | The Newton Boys | A Night at the Roxbury | The Ninth Gate | No Way Out | Nurse Betty | Nutty Professor II: The Klumps

The Naked Gun (1988)
(PG-13)
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A cop must stop a conspiracy to kill the queen of England at a baseball game. This is a slapstick parody of cop movies, and is full of goofy sight gags and bad puns. The acting is great for this type of film, and the script has a surprisingly high number of jokes that actually work. The director doesn't let the film get caught up on any joke too long, allowing the movie to move from joke to joke quickly enough that the movie is very enjoyable, in a stupidly funny sort of way.

Links:
Roger Ebert's Review

NASCAR 3D (2004)
(PG)
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This was a good film for the un-initiated, but it did have its problems, especially the factual errors in the narration. Most notably: “there has never been a NASCAR race without a Petty in the field” -- I've watched qualifying runs where Kyle Petty failed to make the Sunday race -- 2000 and 2001 were awful years for Team Petty, and they missed several races. Admittedly there are very few races without a Petty, but none? Let's tell the truth here. Additionally, I’m sure there were a few races when NASCAR first began where Lee Petty may have missed a race or two, if for no other reason than NASCAR would usually run two or three races a week, sometimes with conflicting schedules.

Even though there were some minor errors in the telling of NASCAR’s tale, it really didn’t detract from the overall effect of the movie. The video and sound were pretty accurate to what it’s really like to be at a race, and the on-track footage was pretty great, too. My only complaint about that on-track footage was they did not film with a full field, usually shooting with no more than about a dozen or so cars. A full field at a race consists of 43 cars and drivers. Anything less than about 36 cars on the track is a gyp, and so this part of the film wasn’t close enough to the real thing for my tastes.

Long story short, the first two-thirds of this film was pretty good, but the end was a real let-down. They got a little caught up in being preachy about how great NASCAR is and how much potential it has, and forgot to let us know why. The script needed a few more re-writes, but otherwise I enjoyed having 3400 pound cars drive by on either side of my head at 160 miles per hour or more.

The Negotiator (1998)
(R)
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A hostage negotiator is accused of stealing money from the police department, and will most likely go to jail for it. He (obviously) didn't do it, but no one will listen to him or help him figure out who did, so he takes matters into his own hands by taking hostages and trying to get the cops to find the guys who framed him. The movie builds the tension fairly well, and was mildly fun to watch. Overall, good enough to keep me interested.

Links:
Bookhouse's Negotiator Page

Never Say Never Again (1983)
(PG)
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Sean Connery returns to the role of 007 for one last time. Actually, this film is just a remake of Thunderball. Produced by Jack Schwartzman, Never Say Never Again doesn't count as an "official" Bond film. Copyright laws prevented the filmmakers from using the 007 logo, the gunbarrel sequence, and even the James Bond theme music. Connery's presence is the only thing that keeps NSNA from being the worst Bond film ever. Frankly speaking, he carries the movie on his shoulders. Kim Basinger's Domino is completely forgettable, and the casting for the rest of the film is dubious at best (watch for Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) to make an appearance as Bond's contact in the Bahamas).

Links:
Britmovie Review

The Newton Boys (1998)
(PG-13)
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Based on a true story, a group of five brothers and friends rob banks and a train in the early 1900s. The actors are fairly good at their roles, but the movie just didn't move fast enough for me. When the story picks up it's pace, the movie gets fun, but most of the movie moves slowly from one robbery to the next, spending too long developing the characters. There are some great clips from T.V. at the end of the movie, with two of the actual people the movie is based on.

Links:
Official Studio Site
San Francisco Chronicle's Review
San Francisco Examiner's Review

A Night at the Roxbury (1998)
(PG-13)
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A couple of losers go to clubs, try to pick up women, get in a fight, and do just about everything else to get a laugh. The humor is hit or mis for the whole movie, and it misses a lot more than it hits. They had a good idea, but needed to expanded on it more. Most of the movie just feels like a group of jokes thrown together, with the few parts they manage to smooth out providing most of the laughs. Decent, but not memorable.

Links:
Official Studio Site

The Ninth Gate (2000)
(R)
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A man is hired to compare a book rumored to have been co-written by Satan with the other two known to be in existence and try to determine if any of them are real. The movie tries tries to be a supernatural suspense film, and does a decent job. The story was creative enough to keep me mildly entertained, and the director gave an ominous style to the film, which helped keep it interesting. There were a few times, however, where I found myself wishing they would pick up the pace a little.

Links:
Official Studio Site
Film.com's Review

No Way Out (1987)
(R)
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Kevin Costner is a Marine having an affair with a woman in a relationship with a senator. The senator finds out about the affair, but not that Costner was the other man, and in the resulting argument, accedently kills the woman. Costner has to try to keep his name clear while the senator looks for the other man, not just to find out who it was, but to also frame him for her murder. The acting was presentable, the directing decent, and the script acceptable. Overall, a fairly forgetable but acceptable thriller, but the music has got to go.

Links:
Roger Ebert's Review
Washington Post's Review

Nurse Betty (2000)
(R)
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Renée Zellweger plays a woman who witness the murder of her husband and represses the memory, at the same time creating new memories based on the soap opera she she is a big fan of and was watching at the time. She then goes in search of a character on the show (Greg Kinnear), who she now believes she had an engagement with, while her husband's killers (Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock) try to track her down. The movie is creative and works well because of it. The acting is believable and the direction is good, which help make the movie fairly entertaining and funny.

Official Studio Site
"Official" A Reason To Love Site
Kims' Dr David Ravell Fan Page
Robert Horton's Film.com Review
Ernest Hardy's Film.com Review
Roger Ebert's Review

Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000)
(PG-13)
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Eddie Murphy is back playing every member of his character's family, including main character Sherman Klump who is now hoping to become involved with fellow science professor and experiment partner Denice Gains (Janet Jackson) but is too scared to ask. After Buddy Love begins to occasionally take control of Sherman's mind, Sherman figures out that a gene in his mind still has remnants of Buddy. He then combines his research with Denice's and is able to separate the gene, only to have Buddy come to life and start ruining his life. The movie is funny if you can sit back and enjoy the ride, just don't expect to think too hard. Overall, if you're a fan of the original Eddie Murphy version of this movie, than you'll probably enjoy this one too.

Links:
Official Studio Site

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