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jwillis
Reviews
The Convent (2000)
worst film ever made?
This is arguably the worst film I have ever seen, and I have quite an appetite for awful (and good) movies. It could (just) have managed a kind of adolescent humour if it had been consistently tongue-in-cheek --à la ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, which was really very funny. Other movies, like PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE, manage to be funny while (apparently) trying to be serious. As to the acting, it looks like they rounded up brain-dead teenagers and asked them to ad-lib the whole production. Compared to them, Tom Cruise looks like Alec Guinness. There was one decent interpretation -- that of the older ghoul-busting broad on the motorcycle.
The Firm (1993)
Tom Cruise serious liability
One does not expect much of a movie to be made from a book by John Grisham, and Tom Cruise is the kiss of death to most films he is in. (I make an exception for MAGNOLIA). Still, Gene Hackman is a decent actor and the film has a certain, if confusing, intrigue. Say totally average.
Truly Madly Deeply (1990)
first class
This is a wonderful movie and does great credit to Anthony Minghella (who also did THE ENGLISH PATIENT). Here is a film reminiscent of the best made at Ealing Studios during the 1950s. No flashy chase scenes or special effects, just a very touching story, beautifully told, with excellent performances. Re-watching this will pay off; there is some depth.
Gossip (2000)
paper-thin characters are a serious flaw
The story line is not all that bad. What hurts is the superficiality of the characters played by actors whose smirking inanity remind me of nothing so much as Tom Cruise. They seem to have been chosen for good looks only, though frankly, the lines they have to deliver seem to have been written by an air-head.