Movie Reviews Archive

Up At The Villa (2000) -
Starring: Kristin Scott Thomas & Sean Penn
I got so excited when I found out that there was a new Kristin Scott Thomas film (shot in Italy too!) but I should have been suspicious when I heard it took 2 years to find a distributor a....

East Is East (1998) -
Starring: Om Puri, Linda Bassett & Jordan Routledge
It’s been a long time since I laughed so hard in a movie. This gem of a flick comes to us via working class England circa 1971. The Khan family are Anglo- Pakistanis. Mum is Eng....

Mission: Impossible II -
Starring: Tom Cruise, Thandie Newton & Dougray Scott
I’m always a bit wary when it comes to movie sequels. More often than not they don’t measure up to the original (e.g.: Speed II) and in this case neither does M:I2. I didn’t enjo....

Siam Sunset (1999) -
Starring: Linus Roache & Danielle Cormack
This is one quirky road movie from Down Under. Linus Roache is Perry, an English industrial chemist who creates paint colours. His life is seemingly one of contentment when one day his beauti....

Sunshine (1999) -
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Jennifer Ehle, Rosemary Harris, Rachel Weisz & William Hurt
If you missed this incredible epic about a Jewish/Hungarian family earlier this year, now's your chance to see it. Spanning almost 150 years in thre....

New Waterford Girl (2000) -
Starring: Liane Balaban, Tara Spencer-Nairn, Mary Walsh & Nicholas Campbell
Perhaps it’s the fact that I was born and raised West Coast Protestant, that initially made it difficult to identify with the East Coast Catholics featured i....

Butterfly (2000) -
Spanish with English Subtitles
Starring: Fernando Fernan Gomez & Manuel Lozano Innocence. There’s nothing like viewing the world through a child’s eyes and this lyrical film set in 1930’s rural Spain is an incredibly sweet story. ....

The Perfect Storm (2000) -
Starring: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg & Diane Lane
I don’t know what I was doing in the fall of 1991, but somehow I managed to miss the news of Hurricane Grace and the resulting devastation along the East Coast. I also admit to be....

Love’s Labour’s Lost (2000) -
Starring: Kenneth Branagh, Alessandro Nivola & Alicia Silverstone
Like most people I am a huge Shakespeare fan (and to a lesser extent one of Branagh’s) but I was incredibly wary when I heard that the latest offering contained Show ....

Bossa Nova (2000) -
English and Portuguese with Subtitles
Starring: Amy Irving & Antonio Fagundes
A half hearted attempt at a romantic comedy, “Bossa Nova” just fell flat with me. Amy Irving plays Mary Anne Simpson, a widowed airline hostess now living in Braz....

The Patriot (2000) -
Starring: Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, Jason Isaacs & Joely Richardson
I was hoping to avoid this movie, but when 5 people asked for my opinion in less than 3 days I figured the least I could do was offer an informed review. Well, what can I say? ....

Une Liaison Pornographique (1999) -
French with English Subtitles
Starring: Natalie Baye & Sergi Lopez
WARNING: for those of you hoping that this is a racy, sexually perverted French film, you will be disappointed. There is nothing pornographic about it. In fact, “Une Liaison....

Space Cowboys (2000) -
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland & James Garner
At last! A Summer Blockbuster that I actually enjoyed. “Space Cowboys” is an adventure drama about four military pilots who got passed over for the US Space Program in t....

Saving Grace (2000) -
Starring: Brenda Blethyn, Craig Ferguson & Martin Clunes
If you were a fan of “Waking Ned Devine”, then this Cornish comedy is right up your street. Grace (Brenda Blethyn) has a problem. Her no good, philandering husband has just had a fatal p....

The Replacements (2000) -
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Gene Hackman & Brooke Langton
I hate football. Rose Bowl, Super Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Punch Bowl, whatever. I’ve never understood the rules of the game or why people are such fans of the sport, and after having seen “The Re....

The Girl on the Bridge (1999) -
French with English Subtitles
Starring: Daniel Auteuil & Vanessa Paradis
Black & White
The thing I love about contemporary foreign films is their quirkiness, and more often than not they involve unique and unusual subject matter. “The G....

Croupier (1998) -
Starring: Clive Owen, Gina McKee & Alex Kingston
A gritty and somewhat dark film, “Croupier” is the story of Jack Manfred, a struggling writer trying to come up with a topic for his novel as well as money for his rent. Following up on a lead fr....

The Tao of Steve (2000) -
Starring: Donal Logue & Greer Goodman
Donal Logue is Dex, an overweight slacker living in New Mexico who surprisingly enough is very successful with the ladies. So successful that it seems the whole female population of Santa Fe has slept with ....

Dr. T. and the Women (2000) -
Starring: Richard Gere, Helen Hunt, Kate Hudson & Shelley Long
The unimaginative title of Robert Altman’s new film should have been the first clue that this would be a dud of a picture. The second was that Richard Gere and Helen Hunt were starr....

Best of Show (2000) -
Starring: Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Michael McKean & Parker Posey
If you’re a dog lover (or know someone who is) rush and see this comedic mockumentary by writer/director/actor Christopher Guest (the infamous Nigel from “This is Spinal Tap”....

Pay It Forward (2000) -
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt & Haley Joel Osment
The premise of this film is wonderful: young Trevor McKinney (Osment) has been assigned a Social Studies project in which he must come up with an idea that would change the world for the bett....

Billy Elliot (2000) -
Starring: Julie Walters, Gary Lewis and Jamie Bell
For an 11 year-old boy living in a Northern English town in the early 80s, Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell)has a pretty tough life. His mum is dead, his dad and older brother Tony are caught up in the....

Waydowntown (2000) -
Starring: Fabrizio Filippo, Don McKellar, Marya Delver & Jennifer Clement
For any and all of you who’ve ever been trapped in a dead-end office job, this is the film for you. Tom, Sandra, Randy and Curt have made a bet with each other to help re....

Charlie’s Angels (2000) -
Starring: Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz & Lucy Liu
Well…what can I say? The long anticipated remake of the infamous 70’s “Jiggle & Wiggle” show “Charlie’s Angels” is “Mission Impossible: 2” meets the Spice Girls. We all know that the original T....

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) - Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh & Zhang Ziyi

The opening of the 19th Annual Vancouver International Film Festival was “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” Directed by the very versatile Ang Lee (of “Sense & Sensibility” fame), it is a fantas....

Proof of Life (2000) -
Starring: Meg Ryan, Russell Crowe & David Morse
This movie is aptly called “Proof of Life” as there’s barely a pulse to be found. After all the hoopla surrounding the off-screen romance involving Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe, I was prepared to see....

Quills (2000) -
Starring: Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Michael Caine & Joaquin Phoenix
The Marquis de Sade is probably the most infamous writer the French Revolution ever produced, and his novel “Justine” the most erotic and sexually deviant tome ever written. M....

Chocolat (2000) -
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Johnny Depp & Judi Dench.
Think of all the words that can describe chocolate: sweet, luscious, delicious, desirable etc. and you have the latest movie from director Lasse Hallström. “Chocolat” is the tale of Vianne an....

Traffic (2000) -
Starring: Michael Douglas, Benicio del Toro, Catherine Zeta-Jones & Don Cheadle
Based on the British TV series “Traffik”, Steven Soderbergh’s latest offering is one chillingly powerful film. Concentrating on 3 main story lines, “Traffic” shows ....

Snatch (2000) -
Starring: Brad Pitt, Jason Stratham, Vinnie Jones & Dennis Farina
Okay folks, you read it here first: “Snatch,” the sophomore picture from director Guy Ritchie, is fabulous. For those of you who saw his debut “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrel....

Shadow of the Vampire (2000) -
Starring: Willem Dafoe, John Malkovich, Cary Elwes & Eddie Izzard
I’ve never been a fan of the Horror movie genre, so it was with trepidation that I ventured forth to see “Shadow of the Vampire.” Normally I would have dismissed the opportunity t....

The Wedding Planner (2001) -
Starring: Jennifer Lopez & Matthew McConaughey
I agreed to see Jennifer Lopez’s new movie this weekend for the sole reason that one of my oldest and dearest friends is getting married this summer. I figured that even if the film was a flop, I c....

The Wedding (2000) -
Starring: Marat Basharov & Maria Mironova
In keeping with the matrimonial theme that seems to be running rife through the offices of vancouverwomen.com, I ventured forth to see the latest Russian cinematic export “The Wedding” (or “Svadba” for t....

The Perfect Son (1999) -
Starring: Colm Feore & David Cubitt
Ryan and Theo are estranged brothers who are brought together by the death of their father. A successful lawyer, Ryan (Feore) is the perfect son, while Theo (Vancouver’s own David Cubitt) is a drug addict who....

Enemy at the Gates (2001) -
Starring: Jude Law, Joseph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz & Ed Harris
One word sums up this bloody World War II picture: Khaki. Not only are the uniforms khaki, but the buildings, the scenery, the people, even the mud has a greenish tinge. If you had t....

Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001) -
Starring: Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant & Colin Firth
The Easter Bunny delivered his present early this year in the form of “Bridget Jones’s Diary”. Having waited months to see how Helen Fielding’s best selling novel of the life of a London sing....

A Knight’s Tale (2001) -
Starring: Heath Ledger, Rufus Sewell, & Mark Addy
I cannot supply enough adjectives to describe this absolutely, positively, irrevocably dumb movie from writer/director Brian Helgeland. The screenwriter of one of my all time favorite films (“....