Groundhog Day

I must be missing a gene or something. Everyone else seems to love this movie; I'm less enthusiastic. I wouldn't call this a laugh riot, but the film also isn't gentle enough in its vision to be a heartwarming story either; there's a little too much of a cynical, acerbic air to really accept the emotional stuff at face value. Thus, the film winds up caught somewhere between two worlds--trapped in its own dilemma, as it were. Nor is this movie engaging for its entire length; in fact, I'm tempted to call some scenes downright boring. I guess it's good enough to avoid a HISS from the Bad Cat, but had I developed a more nuanced ratings system, this would probably get something below a MEOW.

Short Cuts

You can't really call someone's creative work 'pointless,' can you? Well...of course you can, and here's a fine example. Slice of life vignettes about uninteresting people yield uninteresting results. I only got about an hour into this one, so maybe it got better as it went along. I'll never know--I can't envision going back for more.

Sex, Lies and Videotape

The lead off of Steven Soderbergh's hit and miss career, a turgid study of the lives of four boring people. Characters aren't enough, folks; we need reasons to care about these people. Those reasons don't show up here. Skip it.

Four Weddings and a Funeral

The film that launched a thousand sheepish grins, a.k.a. star Hugh Grant's career. Not always a good thing, but it works to perfection here.