Epinions Recent Reviews for benradford

Fire Me Up with Reign of Fire

Mon, 15 Jul 2002 12:14:50 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - Reign of Fire is a hybrid of monster, fantasy, and action films, an original and generally successful cross between The Road Warrior and Dungeons and Dragons. The film begins in present-day London, where a young boy, Quinn, accidentally rouses a huge...

Sadly, It's Scooby-Don't

Mon, 17 Jun 2002 13:30:10 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author benradford -

The parade of comic and cartoon characters making the jump to cinema continues with Scooby-Doo. This version is live-action (with the exception of a computer-generated Scooby), and the cast consists of Freddie Prinze Jr. as ascot-wearing hunk Fred,...

Unfaithful: Another Overheated Film

Thu, 16 May 2002 16:50:33 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - Director Adrian Lyne is best known for sex. Amid his body of overheated but popular films (9-1/2 Weeks, Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal), Lyne has also done some fine work such as Jacob’s Ladder and his beleaguered version of Lolita. His new film...

Spidey Snares My Vote!

Thu, 2 May 2002 16:49:28 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - After years of legal wrangling over the film rights to Marvel Comics’s stable of comic book heroes, the rights have finally been hashed out (probably because everyone realized that no one was making any money while the films were in legal limbo). The...

A Panic Attack

Fri, 29 Mar 2002 19:07:49 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - Newly-divorced Meg Altman and her daughter Sarah are looking to move into a New York City apartment. They find an old place, formerly owned by a reclusive and recently deceased millionaire. Meg is told by her real estate agent, in an obviously important...

Frailty: An Exceptional, Chilling Thriller

Fri, 22 Mar 2002 17:55:40 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - Frailty is a spectacularly creepy gothic mystery/thriller strongly reminiscent of the film Seven. Like Seven, Frailty involves Bible-inspired serial killings. And also like Seven, the film has a smart script with twists and turns that keep the audience...

Ice Age: Cool Fun for the Kids

Fri, 15 Mar 2002 14:35:59 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - Ice Age is the latest fully computer animated feature film in the tradition of Toy Story, Antz, and Shrek. As in Shrek, a goofy but lovable sidekick (a sloth) attaches himself to a large, grumpy giant (a mammoth) who reluctantly but eventually befriends...

Soldiers Deserve Better Than This

Fri, 1 Mar 2002 18:26:24 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - Idyllic family with beautiful wife and loving children: Check.

Stern but compassionate military leader: Check.

Doomed recent father called to war: Check.

Stirring speeches on duty and honor: Check.

Soldiers bravely ignoring orders...

John Q. Public vs. The Medical System

Tue, 12 Feb 2002 17:35:26 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - As I entered the screening of John Q., I puzzled over how the film would pull off the ending. From the commercials and previews, I knew the basic story: A struggling blue-collar man (John Q. Archibald, played by Denzel Washington) and his wife (Denise,...

Join the Brotherhood!

Mon, 4 Feb 2002 16:01:23 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - In the French countryside in 1765, a mysterious creature is killing dozens of helpless villagers. With savagery matched only by its stealth and strength, the creature has eluded capture for years. The local police are powerless to stop the killings, and...

Count Me In!

Fri, 11 Jan 2002 16:25:53 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - If you never got around to reading any of Alexandre Dumas’s books (as I never did), then the past few years of films have made it easier to see a version of his plots. Several films have been made from his novels (or related to them) in recent years,...

A Beautiful Film

Wed, 2 Jan 2002 12:06:27 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - A Beautiful Mind tells the story of John Nash Jr., a brilliant mathematician whose career is nearly derailed by schizophrenia. The film is based loosely on the life of the real John Nash, Jr., who shared the 1994 Nobel Prize for economic science. While...

Behind Enemy Lines: Worth the Trip

Mon, 3 Dec 2001 14:30:52 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - During the Balkan War, and on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Vinson, Navy pilot Chris Burnett (Owen Wilson) is stewing. He’s tired of being relegated to the role of air space policeman, doing routine patrolling without an enemy in sight. Soon the hotshot...

Spy This Spy Game

Wed, 28 Nov 2001 18:15:54 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - The year is 1991 and veteran CIA officer Nathan Muir (Robert Redford) is about to retire when he finds out that a former operative of his, Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt) is in trouble. Bishop was caught trying to get someone out of a dank Chinese prison, and is...

Heist: Quite a Caper!

Mon, 19 Nov 2001 14:38:02 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - Heist begins as Joe Moore (Gene Hackman) leads a small gang of thieves in a bank robbery. In and out, no shooting, a well-crafted plan. The job goes like clockwork until Joe’s face is captured on a surveillance videotape. They make the getaway, but Joe...

"Disturbance" Only Somewhat Disturbing

Wed, 31 Oct 2001 15:09:16 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - In the small coastal town of Southport, Maryland, twelve-year-old Danny is acting up, and the situation gets worse when he learns that his divorced mother Susan is going to marry her popular but mysterious boyfriend Rick (Vince Vaughn of The Cell)...

Bandits Stole 2 Hours of My Life!

Thu, 11 Oct 2001 16:10:57 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - Bandits is a romantic comedy that happens to take place amid a string of bank robberies. The bandits in this case are Joe Blake (Bruce Willis) and Terry Collins (Billy Bob Thornton), bank-robbing partners who make a name for themselves as the “Sleepover...

Don't Say: A Slick Generic "Thriller"

Mon, 1 Oct 2001 10:32:16 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - When I first heard the plot for Don’t Say a Word, I was skeptical: The young daughter of Manhattan psychiatrist Nathan Conrad (Michael Douglas) is kidnapped, and the only ransom is a six-digit number that resides in the brain of Elisabeth, a disturbed...

Sinking 'Hearts': Another King Movie Dud

Mon, 17 Sep 2001 13:50:50 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - Hearts in Atlantis is set in 1960 when eleven-year-old Bobby and his self-obsessed mother take in Ted, a mysterious lodger (Anthony Hopkins). Ted, though genteel and well-read in the classics, seems to be in hiding. He soon befriends Bobby, asking him...

Kevin Smith Strikes Back!

Thu, 30 Aug 2001 13:03:55 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - Kevin Smith’s first film, 1994’s Clerks, introduced the two slackers in the title: Jay, a lanky, hyper, swear-spewing stoner; and Silent Bob (Smith himself) as Jay’s mum best friend. In Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the pair find out that a film is set...

Audience Wins with Rat Race

Mon, 13 Aug 2001 11:26:01 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - In Las Vegas, a motley, randomly picked group of gamblers each get a special gold token with their slot machine winnings. The group is summoned to the office of eccentric tycoon Donald Sinclair (John Cleese), who proposes a gamble with high stakes and a...

Jonesing for a Better Movie

Mon, 6 Aug 2001 11:35:43 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - When I was in sixth grade or so, I had a class that happened to include one of those health films from the 1950s— you know, the ones that featured primitively animated teachers named Sammy the Sperm or Ralph the Red Blood Cell. Sammy or Ralph would take...

More of a Tease than Sexy

Mon, 16 Jul 2001 17:32:19 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - Gary Dove (Ray Winstone) is a former criminal enjoying retirement in a sunny Spanish villa with his wife on ill-gotten gains. Gary’s idyllic life—his biggest worry is his suntan— is upset when a former associate (and erstwhile psychopath) Don Logan (Ben...

A.I. Almost Incoherent

Mon, 2 Jul 2001 14:21:50 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - In the distant future (or whenever the polar ice caps melt), a couple’s only son is cryogenically frozen due to an illness, and the wife is inconsolable. The husband soon seeks a surrogate child, not one of flesh but a robot boy (Joel Haley Osment) made...

It Ain't Easy Being Green

Mon, 4 Jun 2001 13:53:49 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author benradford - It has been said that it ain’t easy being green, and that’s certainly true for Shrek, a crotchety ogre with both halitosis and self-esteem problems. He’s hounded by humans who fear and dislike him because of his looks and he prefers to be alone. He finds...