charlietuna

Herein is one of those times when a film simply sucks but you love it anyway. Perhaps it is because it has been six years since I have had a taste of Tarantino. Perhaps its because I'm a sucker for all the hommage stick. Common people, Bruce Lee's yellow jump suit!! What ever the reason, this film entertained me. The Hong Kong action, the Western feel, the animae, all equals one rocking good afternoon in the dark. That aside, from a serious critical standpoint, this film is his worst. From wooden and over used characters like "Buck", to miraculous coma recoveries, to silly Batmanesq same time, same channel endings, this film is a huge disappointment from a man who looked like he was getting better with each release. If you put your action adventure goggles on, this is a winner. If you expect a Tarantino film, have an extra one at happy hour before buying your ticket.

It is a sad day for us. At the very time technology has reached new heights, the writing has commensurately declined to new lows. Treasure Island blends Robert Louis Stevenson and Robert Heinlein into something so wholly indistinguishable, as to be nothing short of sad. As my daughter sat there amazed by the cool boarding scenes, I could only secretly crumble knowing that she would soon forget the visual candy, and have nothing of the literature to bolster them with. Chalk another full length animated feature up for the Springer crowd.

Barbet Schroeder and especially photographer Luciano Tovoli are to be commended for attempting to bring a slick off beat thriller to mass release. Stuck in between "Last Exit to Brooklyn" and "The Hudsucker Proxy" Jennifer Jason Leigh turns in a solid performance and saves it from the clutches of Bridget Fonda (who was on her way to the inexcusable "Point of No Return" and struggling to find the talent she would display in her later films.) and the woeful Steven Weber. Unfortunately Leigh could not snatch the pen out Don Roos's hand and stop him from penning a typically ridiculous and cliche ending. SWF works all the way through until the last ten or fifteen minutes. At that point, you can no longer forgive Roos and to that matter Schroeder for their excesses. Unfortunately, it is the ending that reduces SWF to a level only slightly above stylized pap. Schroeder would again have this problem with "Desperate Measures", yet the man gave us "Barfly" so I guess we can give him some props for bringing style to the otherwise mundane.