The Road to Wellville
The Road to Wellville 1994, R, 119 min. Directed by Alan Parker, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Anthony Hopkins, Bridget Fonda, Matthew Broderick, John Cusack, Dana Carvey. Simply execrable, or just plain shitty? Parker’s take on T. Coraghessan Boyle’s novel about cereal magnate and health food guru Kellogg is a muddled mess of…
What Happened Was …
What Happened Was … 1994, R, 91 min. Directed by Tom Noonan, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Tom Noonan, Karen Sillas. First dates – the nightmare potential is boundless. Noonan directs himself and Sillas in what has to be one of the more appealingly awkward recent displays of romance onscreen. Misunderstood jokes, non…
Double Dragon
Double Dragon 1994. Directed by James Yukich, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Robert Patrick, Mark Dacascos, Scott Wolf, Alyssa Milano, Julia Nickson. I suppose it was inevitable that video games would become the next medium to be recycled by Hollywood. Lately, most fighting video games have as much plot as an average Jean-Claude…
To Live and Die in Tsimshatsui
To Live and Die in Tsimshatsui Directed by Wong Jing, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Jacky Cheung, Tony Leung Kar Fei. Following his own Return to a Better Tomorrow, this is director Wong Jing’s second production to speedily cash in on the current trend of gangster pictures in Hong Kong, as well as…
Butterfly and Sword
Butterfly and Sword 1993, NR, 86 min. Directed by Michael Mak, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Joey Want, Donnie Yen, Michelle Yeoh, Tony Leung Chi Wah. A berserk action melodrama with all the stops pulled out, Butterfly and Sword is an adrenaline-charged swordplay fantasy that starts out over the top, and then continues…
… And God Spoke (the making of …)
… And God Spoke (the making of …) 1993, NR, 83 min. Directed by Arthur Borman, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Michael Riley, Stephen Rappaport, Soupy Sales, Eve Plumb, Lou Ferrigno, R. C. Bates. A mock documentary about a producer and director of exploitation flicks who try to do a class adaptation of…
In the Land of the Deaf
In the Land of the Deaf 1992, NR. Directed by Nicolas Philibert, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring . Movies. Talking pictures. Sight and sound. In this day and age, we accept the pairing of moving images and synchronous sound as a given. They’re the movies. So how does a more-or-less silent documentary fit…
Bullets Over Broadway
Bullets Over Broadway 1994, R, 98 min. Directed by Woody Allen, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring John Cusack, Jack Warden, Chazz Palminteri, Joe Viterelli, Jennifer Tilly, Rob Reiner, Mary-Louise Parker, Dianne Wiest, Harvey Fierstein, Jim Broadbent, Tracey Ullman. If Damon Runyon and Anton Chekhov had ever gotten together to make a movie, the…
Stargate
Stargate 1998. Directed by Roland Emmerich, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring James Spader, Kurt Russell, Jaye Davidson. When genres collide. Ridley Scott fused the science fiction movie with film noir in Blade Runner. James Cameron fused the science fiction movie with the war movie in Aliens. In this genre-bending era, it was only…
The War
The War 1994, PG-13, 126 min. Directed by Jon Avnet, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Elijah Wood, Kevin Costner, Mare Winningham, Lexi Randall, Christine Baranski, Gary Basaraba. To paraphrase an old slogan: The War is not healthy for children or other movie-goers. Despite its no-doubt good intentions and its wholesome PG-13 rating, The…
Totally F***ed Up
Queer New Wave classic tracks six teenagers living in Los Angeles.
Silent Fall
Silent Fall 1994. Directed by Bruce Beresford, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Richard Dreyfuss, Liv Tyler, Ben Faulkner, J.t. Walsh, Linda Hamilton, John Lithgow. For a while, the clues in the psychological drama Silent Fall are as subtle as autumn leaves dropping to the ground, but when the narrative turns lurid, the film…
