Epinions Recent Reviews for laughing_lion

four for four

Wed, 1 May 2002 22:56:26 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author laughing_lion - After years of halting development during which investors like Steve Jobs tried to liquidate their stakes, Pixar finally hit - really hit - the big time with the release of Toy Story, one of the two best animated films of the latter half of the 1990s...

Charmless dreck

Mon, 20 Aug 2001 03:30:05 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author laughing_lion - This was a looks best/starts soonest choice for me. I had some free time in the afternoon, wanted to take in a movie and get the matinee/rush hour price, and walked over to my local multiplex. Planet of the Apes had another 1.5 hours to showtime, and I...

true artifice

Mon, 2 Jul 2001 15:45:09 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author laughing_lion - In a summer of wearisome cookie-cutter action FX schlock, AI rises above the ashes by presenting a truly troubling future world wound around the story of a young robot that has been programmed to love, but is not loved in return. David is a mecha, a...

gripping action, weak melodrama

Wed, 30 May 2001 04:49:39 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author laughing_lion - Jerry Bruckheimer’s career as a producer has spanned twenty years now, getting off with a bang with Flashdance and pretty much staying at that level of quality, with the high point probably being Beverly Hills Cop. As part of the production team of...

winning cast, flatulent plot

Fri, 25 May 2001 02:00:26 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author laughing_lion - A Knight's Tale doesn't really accomplish what it sets out to do. It wants to be a rollicking 'Rocky' story set at jousting matches. It wants to have a contemporary flavor and still keep its period feeling. It wants to have a double-barreled rivalry...

such wonders

Sat, 6 Jan 2001 05:26:25 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author laughing_lion - In many ways, Cast Away reminds me very much of another very good Robert Zemeckis film, Contact. Both of them had endings that were somewhat disappointing (as one person I heard said it about Contact "I waited three hours to see the aliens and...

critical overkill

Sun, 24 Dec 2000 02:25:45 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author laughing_lion - My feelings about the idea of a movie called Dungeons & Dragons (herein D&D) were somewhat mixed. Although I think the genre of sword and sorcery movies has been greatly overlooked by the major studios, I couldn't imagine why someone would want...

The most important sci-fi novel of the 80's

Sun, 12 Mar 2000 05:53:03 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author laughing_lion - Neuromancer was one of the most important science fiction novels of all time, and was the seminal science fiction novel of the 80's. For almost a decade, the shockwaves of cyberpunk, especially from this fantastic novel, would resonate through the...

I've changed, but I still love it

Sun, 12 Mar 2000 05:18:03 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author laughing_lion - I picked this up as a used CD because of my fond memories from 1977, when I was just 11 and this was one of the first 'serious' (beyond Beach Boys and Beatles) rock albums I ever had. I remember loving it then and it still brings back sweet memories...

Never read Stephenson without Reason

Sun, 12 Mar 2000 00:52:04 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author laughing_lion - I have been reading Neal Stephenson (in fits and starts) since 1984, which was when his vainglorious and little-read comic epic The Big U appeared on bookshelves at University bookstores. With its trade-paperback size and cute cover of dormgirl eating...

Popping the bubble

Mon, 17 Jan 2000 23:16:18 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author laughing_lion - Few films have received as much advance hype as P.T. Anderson's Magnolia. Ecstatic word of mouth and laudatory critical acclaim practically prepare the viewer for a life-altering experience when entering the theater. For what it's worth, Anderson...

Totally engrossing - an achievement

Sun, 19 Dec 1999 07:47:36 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author laughing_lion - The extraordinary success of Titanic has spawned no end of naysayers. It's tawdry. It's melodramatic. It's overhyped. I agree. It's all of that and more. Titanic is an amazing achievement.

There is something about the film that draws...

disjointed and unmysterious

Wed, 8 Dec 1999 22:50:41 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author laughing_lion - Sleepy Hollow positions itself as a detective story - but it isn't. It has a romance, but it's exceptionally weak. There are elements of horror here, but absolutely no suspense. The storytelling in general seems to have been pieced together out of...

outstanding choice

Tue, 7 Dec 1999 00:17:26 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author laughing_lion - I just came back to the US and bought a Solara after reviewing dozens of models and trying to decide what I needed. It's closest competition was the Honda Accord EX V6 Coupe and the Acura 3.0 CL. It won out because Toyota was brave enough to pair a...