Epinions Recent Reviews for halfsweet

Curious George - Mellow Fun for All Ages

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 03:42:11 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - Curious George is an old-fashioned animated feature that is nonetheless quite entertaining. It's based on the beloved series of children's books by the husband-wife team of H. A. and Margret Rey. The Reys shared a love of animals, but as German Jews,...

The Movie You Need Is Nanny McPhee

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 14:21:37 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - I just love it when I go see a movie I know nothing about...expecting nothing...and then get blown out of my seat. That’s what happened with Nanny McPhee. I was not familiar with the popular Nurse Matilda books the movie is based upon, primarily...

Glory Road Takes the Long (and some might say the Wrong) Way Home

Fri, 20 Jan 2006 04:18:11 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - Glory Road tells the true story of famed college basketball coach, Don Haskins, and his scrappy team of African American players who had to overcome pervasive racism - ranging from nasty remarks to physical attacks - in order to win the 1966 NCAA...

Memoirs of a Geisha - Slow, but Memorable

Fri, 20 Jan 2006 04:02:13 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - Memoirs of a Geisha is a lush, sweeping, visual and tonal feast powered by intrigue and restrained longing, not to mention some really nasty cat fights. Based upon Arthur Golden’s celebrated, best-selling 1997 novel of the same name, Memoirs...

The New World: The New World - Pocahontas as you've never seen her

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 14:30:17 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - Terence Malick’s poetic soul runs right through “The New World,” his romantic retelling of the Pocahontas legend. In many ways, perhaps most ways...that’s a good thing. But in a couple of significant ways, it drags the film down. One...

Go Fish for a whopper of a movie

Wed, 14 Jan 2004 02:25:41 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - If you want to land a whopper of a wonderful movie, take your fishing gear right to the theater and go fish, Big Fish that is. Tim Burton’s wondrous new fable examines the life of Edward Bloom, (played as a young man by Ewan McGregor and an older...

Rock Star - From a Galaxy Far, Far Away, and It Should Have Stayed There

Fri, 14 Sep 2001 21:37:34 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - I like music as much as the next person, and I enjoy actor Mark Wahlberg's work, so I figured Rock Star would be an enjoyable outing.

I figured wrong.

Though most of the music is good, including such famous heavy metal hits as Bon...

Captain Corelli's Mandolin has a few broken strings

Wed, 15 Aug 2001 10:12:16 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - There are certain actors who, within certain narrowly defined parameters, can do a workmanlike job. But take those same performers and put them in anything that demands range or actual talent, and they fall flat on their faces.

Nicholas Cage...

Jurassic Park III Chows Down at the Box Office

Wed, 25 Jul 2001 23:51:33 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - Considering that screenwriter David Koepp just about wrecked Jurassic Park I with his incessant tinkering with novelist Michael Crichton’s brilliant book of the same name, and succeeded in turning The Lost World, the second installment in the series,...

The Score: De Niro and Norton - 100 points, Brando - Zero

Wed, 18 Jul 2001 00:47:33 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - Most of the news leaking from the set of The Score, the new Robert De Niro heist caper, seemed to center around actor Marlon Brando’s ongoing battles with director Frank Oz. He had several tantrums of Titanic proportions, made hugely unreasonable demands...

It's Reigning Cats and Dogs (at the box office, that is...)

Tue, 10 Jul 2001 16:04:49 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - Hollywood has a long history of ailurophobia (fear and hatred of cats), starting with the master himself, Walt Disney, who vilified felines to make Mickey Mouse seem more heroic and sympathetic. To which I say, which would you rather have cuddled up next...

Artificial? Yes. Intelligent? No.

Wed, 4 Jul 2001 23:53:25 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - If you don’t quite know what to think about A.I., Steven Spielberg’s latest film, then pity the poor reviewer who has to write about it.

On the one hand, A.I. is one of the most thought-provoking movies I’ve ever seen. It explores the nature...

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Ang Lee's Wondrous Dream of China

Wed, 24 Jan 2001 21:24:35 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - I came away from a screening of director Ang Lee's transcendent masterpiece, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, feeling as if I was floating in a wonderful dream. I didn't want to wake up.

It doesn't matter that the picture was filmed in Mandarin...

We know the ending, but Thirteen Days is still a nail-biter

Tue, 9 Jan 2001 13:04:42 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - On October 14, 1962 a United States spy plane flying high over the island nation of Cuba took a photograph of a chilling sight: a military encampment being run by a group of Soviet army personnel. The Russkies were busily installing medium range...

Clearly C is clearly for me

Fri, 5 Jan 2001 18:24:51 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - Before I got hooked on Avon's Clearly C, I tried another vitamin C product I bought at a health food store. That product made my face sting, not to mention it turned me bright red, which isn't surprising when you consider that vitamin C is, after all, an...

GE Profile Prodigy Washer - This mom's new best friend

Sun, 31 Dec 2000 23:17:23 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - If you've read my review of my new vacuum cleaner, you already know of the series of recent disasters which required me to replace my washer, vacuum and toaster oven all in the same week.

If you haven't read that review, suffice it to say that...

Hoover Caddy Vac Deluxe - easy to maneuver, hard to unclog

Fri, 29 Dec 2000 22:22:40 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - Ever have one of those months when just about every mechanical thing in your house goes on the fritz? My friend who follows such things tells me it's because the planet Mercury goes into retrograde and upsets the Earth's electromagnetic field. Whatever...

Unbreakable is unwatchable

Fri, 24 Nov 2000 13:53:56 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - Unbreakable is probably one of those movie ideas that looked a lot better on paper than it does up on the screen. But who can blame M. Night Shyamalan for wanting to follow up his smash success with last year's The Sixth Sense with another suspenseful,...

Pay It Forward - too much work for too little pay

Thu, 2 Nov 2000 04:12:17 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - I should pay more attention to my own rules. I have a rule that I NEVER read what anyone else has to say about a movie before I go see it, for fear that their way of thinking might taint my way of thinking. This rule has become even more important since...

The cast bedazzles-the movie fizzles

Fri, 20 Oct 2000 22:51:09 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - You'd think with such a dependable cast and crew, not to mention the time-honored premise, the new comedy Bedazzled would leave audiences breathless with laughter. After all, director Harold Ramis has helmed such funny favorites as Groundhog Day,...

Dr. T. is DOA

Thu, 19 Oct 2000 15:56:43 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - There are so many reasons to avoid Dr. T and the Women like the plague I hardly know where to start. Ignoring for a moment the fact that it is the most deeply offensive film I have ever seen, let's discuss how director auteur Robert Altman decided it...

The world of pageants - not so Beautiful

Wed, 11 Oct 2000 01:54:02 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - It's that slim-pickins' time of year at the box-office, the deadly lull between summer blockbusters and the studios' big-ticket holiday fare. So, this week I found myself in a darkened theater with three other people watching Beautiful. Doesn't exactly...

Woman on Top - a feast for all the senses

Tue, 26 Sep 2000 23:20:17 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - I always approach a movie with a deliberately silly title cautiously, because experience has taught me if a director doesn't have the discipline to walk away from a cutesy-pie but poorly thought out title choice, he or she might not have the discipline...

Almost Famous - If you liked the 70s, you'll like this movie

Thu, 21 Sep 2000 12:47:44 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - Many reviews of Cameron Crowe's new film, Almost Famous, characterize the movie as a semi-autobiographical account of the director's early life. But to hear Crowe himself tell it, there was nothing "semi-" about it; Almost Famous is the...

Nurse Betty - Smart and funny, but not for everyone

Thu, 14 Sep 2000 13:40:03 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author halfsweet - Nurse Betty is one of those movies you're either going to love or hate. I doubt there will be much in the way of lukewarm reaction to this one.

Me? I liked it...a lot. That's not to say there weren't missteps or room for improvement, but...