Epinions Recent Reviews for Andrew_Hicks

A self-loathing cheerleader movie? Bring it on!

Sun, 4 Feb 2001 23:04:57 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - Late January last year was dead season at the multiplex, the kind of time when Eye of the Beholder could lead the box office with an $8 million opening weekend. This year seems a different story – I can’t head out to the theater on a Saturday night and...

The Civil/Uncivil War on Drugs

Mon, 22 Jan 2001 15:09:01 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - Steven Soderbergh has become one of the most reliable filmmakers on the scene, and his output isn’t slowing down. I started to take note with Out of Sight, the 1998 film noir I’ve seen more than a dozen times and still can’t get enough of, and...

Deep-South D'oh!

Fri, 19 Jan 2001 22:04:16 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - I’m just as big a fan of the Coen Brothers as any… okay, so I’ve never seen Miller’s Crossing and think Blood Simple was overrated, but I’m a pretty big fan nonetheless. My video collection is lined with gems from Barton Fink to Fargo to The Big...

A less hackneyed script, perhaps?

Tue, 26 Dec 2000 18:22:30 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - Writing a review of What Women Want has been on my to-do list for more than a week – I saw the Mel Gibson release on opening afternoon with a nearly sold-out crowd and have slowly been forgetting its contents ever since. It doesn’t help that it...

Another perfect storm, another survivor

Mon, 25 Dec 2000 00:36:00 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - Tom Hanks might be the last invincible box-office star – even people like Harrison Ford and Mel Gibson stumble from time to time, but Hanks, man, he got all that nastiness out of the way early on. Bachelor Party, Joe vs. the Volcano, Bonfire of the...

A weapon loaded with near-brilliant jazz, funk and hip-hop

Thu, 14 Dec 2000 23:42:39 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - I can’t decide whether Erykah Badu is a driven perfectionist or just has sloppy organizational skills. Her new album, Mama’s Gun – follow-up to the wildly popular 1997 debut, Baduizm – was delayed for weeks and months. When it finally did...

The privacy-shattering life of a locksmith

Thu, 14 Dec 2000 19:58:10 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - Some of the most rewarding books in my collection have been rescued from the bargain-bin shelves of Waldenbooks, B. Dalton and other such mall stores with heavy corporate leanings. I’ll come across some famous or unfamiliar author’s labor of love,...

It's a wonderful, middle-class life

Sat, 9 Dec 2000 20:23:20 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - Just in time for the holiday season, The Family Man is this year’s feel-good, family-beats-money-every-time romance comedy, equal parts It’s a Wonderful Life and Mr. Destiny. Going into it, naturally, I had my Scrooge-like doubts –...

Fades almost as fast as the movie itself

Thu, 7 Dec 2000 23:36:22 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - I bought the Bamboozled soundtrack for probably the least Afrocentric-trendy reason of anyone – because there was a new Prince song on there. It’s the first new song from the Purple One since he changed his name back, and I heard it on the Movie...

Claymation and religious satire -- rewarding bedfellows

Wed, 6 Dec 2000 21:40:02 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - “A harp, a hymn book and wings? Good God, what a swindle. I’ve lead a considerably different path – heaven for climate, hell for company.”

--Claymation Mark Twain

Among the VHS oddities with which I whittled away my more than...

Community service as metaphor for life

Tue, 5 Dec 2000 18:44:39 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - I always think of Rob Thomas as the Kevin Williamson of the Young Adult Fiction market – he landed himself on the map with one amazing and refreshing work, then coasted downward on his remainders. Williamson had Scream, Thomas had the hilarious...

Shatterproof supernatural drama from Sixth Sense auteur

Fri, 1 Dec 2000 02:09:51 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - NOTE: This is the first film review I’ve posted since Epinions stripped me of my advisor status in the movie category, so y’all be sure and let me know if you notice an overall dip in quality or an increase in usage of lowbrow words such as...

Comedic hellspawn

Fri, 10 Nov 2000 20:12:44 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - Kevin Smith wrote the script for Dogma years before he filmed it – even attempting a religious satire of that sort requires the credibility and ability to talk a studio into financing it. Makes me wonder if longtime script collaborators Adam...

Could it be too dumb to dislike?

Tue, 7 Nov 2000 22:09:49 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - I was, at one point in my life, utterly obsessed with television reruns. I was the Nick at Nite poster boy, and my repertoire extended from “I Love Lucy” through “Cheers” and “Quantum Leap.” If basic cable or a local syndication offered it five nights a...

Fascinating half-memoir, half-workshop

Thu, 2 Nov 2000 23:51:31 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - In the grand scheme of things, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft is a transitory book from Stephen King, a lightning-fast read that states, “Yeah, I got hurt, but I’m still here, and now I’m going to try and lay everything bare for you before I...

Not as bad as you might think

Sun, 22 Oct 2000 22:01:24 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - It’s an unavoidable fact of life – as long as there is Hollywood and softball satire, not to mention the talk-show self-promotion circuit, there will be “Saturday Night Live,” and as long as there is “Saturday Night Live,” there will be movies based on...

A blue-ribbon improv satire

Tue, 17 Oct 2000 19:45:47 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - In the beginning, there was This is Spinal Tap. With Rob Reiner polish, mind-numbing documentary interviews and a deftly comic principal cast – Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and Michael McKean – immersed in chiseled caricature roles. Then, in...

Shameless Oscar bait, and I still couldn't resist

Sun, 15 Oct 2000 15:00:34 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - Pay It Forward is certainly the most shameless Oscar Bait movie of the upcoming fall season. With its assembled cast of Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Haley Joel Osment, it may as well be called As Good As Sixth Sense American Beauty Gets...

As a friend said -- a modern-day Christmas Vacation

Mon, 9 Oct 2000 22:40:04 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - If you're wondering why my film reviewing output has slowed, the one big reason is that I have to pay for movies now, and the vast majority of releases this time of year are simply not worth paying for. It wasn't too hard to motivate myself with titles...

“Ya gotta freeze up on dat sh*t, Iesha!”

Sat, 30 Sep 2000 23:10:33 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - Somehow, in the seven years since its release, this movie slipped through the cracks for me, despite the following factors:

--I like director John Singleton’s work, melodramatic and forced as it sometimes is

--I’ve always been...

Oh my God -- it DOES unite the bourgeoisie and the rebel!

Wed, 20 Sep 2000 01:16:27 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - I do prefer the opposite sex and all, but certain years in my past were marked by an unhealthy obsession with Madonna. I probably still own more of her albums than the average San Francisco drag queen, and even though her hold slipped on me in the...

Tour buses of the holy

Sun, 17 Sep 2000 23:08:26 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - Almost Famous is the kind of movie you really have to try to dislike. It's so willing to win you over, it works overtime, straining to wring every warm-hearted laugh it can and pausing to resolve all possible conflicts before it finally remands...

Not Mike Judge's finest hour

Thu, 14 Sep 2000 17:30:34 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - Scarcely months after its debut on MTV, “Beavis and Butthead” had already spawned merchandise of every conceivable nature. Of course, that included a celebrity-studded soundtrack album, featuring cast-offs from the likes of Nirvana, Aerosmith, Run DMC...

If you can swallow the premise, you'll be home-free

Fri, 8 Sep 2000 22:07:01 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - If you’re expecting the same brutal, disturbing humor from Nurse Betty as in Neil LaBute’s first two films, In the Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors, you’re in for a disappointment. And if you’re expecting a mainstream...

Cannabrits

Thu, 7 Sep 2000 19:18:15 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Andrew_Hicks - Saving Grace blends together two distinct film genres - the light-hearted British comedy and the weed movie. Recent members of the former include The Full Monty and Waking Ned Devine, while the latter includes such classics as Up...