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Reviews
Correlli (1995)
Amazing performances from Jackman and Furness
This show was completely character driven, dependent on the depth brought to the characters by its two leads and the chemistry between them.
The performances are brilliant, showing both the reality of prison life and the slow build from attraction to friendship to impossible love between Kevin Jones (Jackman) and Louisa Correlli (Furness). They have relatively little screen-time together in many of the episodes but the connection between them is electrifying.
Jones is a flawed hero, a loner (at least initially) and repeat offender who is often bitter and angry or even savage but there is a added depth to him that makes it easy to understand Correlli's compulsion to reach out to the good heart that lies beneath his pain and sometimes shines through unexpectedly.
The supporting cast are also excellent, giving the leads strong characters to play off and mostly avoiding the pitfalls of two-dimensional caricatures of prisoners and guards. Prison life is starkly portrayed, showing the hope and despair that the inmates feel and the bonds of friendship or enmity that can form between them.
Someone Like You... (2001)
Watch with your finger on fast-forward
The only character of any interest in this film is Eddie. Jane is unsympathetic and self-absorbed and Ray is simply boring. There is no chemistry between the two and you never really understand why they got together in the first place.
Without Hugh Jackman's interpretation of Eddie, this film would have absolutely nothing to recommend it, however he manages to take an ostensibly two-dimensional character and lift it up to something real enough to create a connection between the character and the audience that makes you keep watching simply because you want to know more about him. He conveys depth more by his expression than the dialog, although he is also blessed with the best one-liners in the film, which he makes the most of with his dead-pan delivery.
Unfortunaly, he is simply not on screen enough to redeem the rest of the film and you are left with the somewhat perplexing question of what he saw in Jane.
The Thin Red Line (1998)
Unspeakably dull!!!
How can a movie about the taking of Guadalcanal be so boring? The film takes about 30 minutes worth of interesting material and stretches it out over more than 2.5 hours. Potentially interesting characters are rendered impotent by the fact that they don't do ANYTHING - so how can you care what happens to them? - while others are only present long enough for you to go "wasn't that...?"
By the end of the film I wanted to shoot Private Witt myself just to get him to stop remembering the (totally uninteresting) past.
I give this film 2/10, for the twenty or so minutes where Captain Gaff (John Cusack) leads a team of men to take the bunker & his conversation with Colonel Tall (Nick Nolte) afterwards - it was the only point in the film where I felt any connection to the characters.
Con Air (1997)
Cringe at Nick Cage's accent (& hair) but watch for John Cusack
Con Air is basically your standard popcorn flick - lots of explosions, bad-guys with really silly names (Cyrus the Virus, Billy Bedlam, Diamond Dog etc...) and just enough plot to get you to the next special effect.
What makes this film better than average is the quality of its cast. Accent aside, Cage is fine as paroled con, Cameron Poe (who, of course, had a perfectly good excuse for killing someone and isn't a bad guy at all), but he is overshadowed by John's Cusack & Malkovich.
Malkovich seems to relish playing Cyrus Grissom - the criminally insane sociopath who masterminds the capture of the plane - with an over-the-top flair that is both comic & chilling by turns while Cusack steals the show as U.S. Marshall Vince Larkin, who is on the ground struggling to contain the situation and keep his superiors from blowing the plane to bits (the exchanges between him and DEA agent Duncan Malloy (Colm Meaney) are particularly note-worthy).
The finale is as over-the-top as you would expect from a Jerry Bruckhemimer production, cramming the maximum possible mayhem into the smallest possible time as the plane crash-lands on the Las Vegas strip, followed by a high speed chase through the city.
Con Air doesn't pretend to be anything other than another fairly mindless action film and, if you watch it with that in mind, you won't be disappointed as (after a slightly slow start which sets up the reason for Cage being in prison) the action doesn't stop and the humour is better than average.
My advice is watch this with friends & a plentiful supply of alcohol for an enjoyably pointless evening in.
Rating: 7/10
The Road to Wellville (1994)
John Cusack is okay - the rest stinks!
Terrible! The repeated references to enema's aren't funny the first few times & are beyond irritating by the end of the film. The sub-plot about the non-existant factory has its moments and John Cusack is always worth watching but even he cannot save this film. If you're a fan, I recommend fast-forwarding through & watching only those scenes in which he appears, it won't make any difference to your understanding of the plot and will spare you the painful experience that is the rest of the film.
A low-point in the careers of some usually talented actors: 2/10
Eight Men Out (1988)
Good film but...
...there is a little bit too much going on. The film attempts to present the events of the "Black Sox" scandal from the perspective everyone involved when (IMO) it would have been better to focus a little more on the players themselves - I found myself wanting to see more, to understand their side of things a little better.
That said, the cast were excellent, I thought John Cusack in particular was outstanding as Buck Weaver. Of all the players, he was the one I felt most badly for at the end - a geuninely nice guy who didn't betray his friends & paid a high price for it.
Rating: 7/10
Hot Pursuit (1987)
The plot stinks - but John Cusack is always worth watching!
While this is undoubtedly the worst of John Cusack's teen comedys, he still manages to lift the film above most other '80's films of the same genre through his sheer screen presence (despite a truly terribly haircut).
The script is uninspired and nonsensical but inoffensive & there are a couple of good moments, particularly the "That's democracy!" scene on the plane which stand out above the rest.
Rating: 6/10