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Mission Impossible 2
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It felt like only yesterday that I was wearing shorts to screenings and complaining about the heat. Now, in the midst of the holiday movie season, the Summer 2000 Blockbusters come roaring back courtesy of a new wave of video releases. Of course, three months of hindsight confirm that many of these wannabe blockbusters were cinematic letdowns. For such films, the hope is that the couch potato crowd will embrace them with a newfound gusto. Just because moviegoers skipped Freddie Prinze Jr.'s Boys and Girls at the multiplex this summer doesn't mean they won't watch the video again, and again and ...
Mission: Impossible 2
Rated PG-13
2000, Paramount
Tom Cruise is back as spy boy Ethan Hunt. Still, it's Hong Kong action director John Woo who turns Hunt's mission to find a killer virus into the high-opera equivalent of a summer blockbuster. There are plenty of Woo's action trademarks in M:I-2 -- slow-motion spins, damsels in distress and an acrobatic fight to the finish between its hero and villain. Still, my favorite part of M:I-2 is how Woo beats Cruise's pretty face to a bloody pulp. For a sequel, M:I-2 turns out to be a rousing surprise. -- SR (Grade: A)
Road Trip
Rated R
2000, Dreamworks
Reckless youth get a rowdy and affectionate send-up in this comic tale about a bunch of college friends driving from New York to Texas. Road Trip pays ample homage to National Lampoon's Animal House. Still, director Todd Phillips' laugh-out-loud comedy stands on its own gross-out merits. A likable cast of fresh faces makes its slapstick surprisingly endearing. It's hard to find fault with a film goofy enough to let MTV celebrity Tom Green swallow a mouse. -- SR (Grade: B)
The Perfect Storm
PG-13
2000, Warner Bros.
George Clooney dons a fisherman's slicker in this tale about a crew aboard a Massachusetts fishing boat caught in one of the worst storms of all time. Clooney looks out of place as the Perfect Storm's blue-collar hero. Basically, you never accept him as a man who catches fish for a living. Without a compelling hero, a killer wave proves to be the true star of The Perfect Storm. Instead of a story about the power of the human spirit, director Wolfgang Petersen ends up with another cinematic exercise in digital effects. -- SR (Grade: C)
Boys and Girls
Rated PG-13
2000, Miramax
Freddie Prinze Jr. loses some of his luster as a moviemade heartthrob in this clumsy romantic comedy about college opposites falling in love. Claire Forlani is pretty as the object of Prinze's affection. Still, her attempt to remake her character into a modern-day Annie Hall is somewhat embarrassing. Granted, Prinze Jr. and Forlani look great together. The problem is that everything they do or say feels stiff and artificial. It's sad when bad writing squashes a face as pretty as Forlani's. -- SR (Grade: D)
The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle
Rated PG
2000, Universal
The computer animated hijinks of moose and squirrel are as dazzling as ever. Actually, it's the surreal mix between Rocky and Bullwinkle and their live-action nemesis, Boris (Jason Alexander), Natasha (Rene Russo) and Fearless Leader (Robert De Niro), that's truly amazing. Nevertheless, Jay Ward's 1960s cartoon deserved better. It's astounding just how unfunny The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle turns out to be. At least director Des McAnuff gives us a vision of De Niro we won't ever forget. From now on, whenever I see De Niro in another film, my mind will return to his clownish costume as Fearless Leader. -- SR (Grade: D)
Contact Steve ramos: sramos@citybeat.com
