Rob Roy (1995)
DIRECTOR: Michael Caton-Jones
CAST:
Liam Neeson, Jessica Lange, Tim Roth, John Hurt, Brian Cox, Eric Stoltz, Brian McCardie, Andrew Keir
REVIEW:
There actually was a Robert Roy MacGregor, a Scottish cattleman whose battles against wealthy landowners made him a folk hero in 1700s Scotland, but the film by Michael Caton-Jones is only inspired by MacGregor’s story, and ultimately how much or little of it is based on fact is irrelevant to one’s enjoyment of the movie. Continue reading
Priest (1995)
DIRECTOR: Antonia Bird
CAST:
Linus Roache, Tom Wilkinson, Robert Carlyle, Robert Pugh, Christine Tremarco, Lesley Sharp, Cathy Tyson
REVIEW:
It is a not uncommon experience for me to happen across some older independent film I had only fleetingly heard of or not heard of at all, that turns out to be underrated and worthy of more recognition than it received. Priest is not a “great” movie, but it is an intelligent and thoughtful drama that provides some food for thought and a serious examination of themes involving homosexuality (and to a lesser extent sexuality in general), celibacy, incest, and religion, and how they relate to and conflict with each other. Continue reading
Circle of Friends (1995)
DIRECTOR: Pat O’Connor
CAST: Minnie Driver, Chris O’Donnell, Saffron Burrows, Geraldine O’Rawe, Colin Firth, Alan Cumming, Aidan Gillen
REVIEW:
An adaptation by Irish filmmaker Pat O’Connor of Maeve Binchy’s novel, Circle of Friends isn’t anything hugely ambitious or original, but it’s a charming, delightful romantic comedy/drama, heartwarming and a little nostalgic and poignant, anchored by an effervescent debut by lead actress Minnie Driver. Continue reading
The Quick and the Dead (1995)
DIRECTOR: Sam Raimi
CAST: Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio, Lance Henriksen, Keith David
REVIEW:
The Quick and the Dead is Sam Raimi switching gears from campy horror movie (his Evil Dead movies) to campy Western. To this end, Raimi proves he’s intimately familiar with Western tropes and cliches which he both gleefully satirizes and pays affectionate homage to. The result is a movie that’s style over substance, often feeling like little more than a vehicle using a flimsy narrative skeleton to move from one gunfight to the next, but it’s still often a lot of campy fun until never really seeming to amount to very much and eventually running out of gas with an underwhelming conclusion.
Continue readingMurder in the First (1995)
DIRECTOR: Marc Rocco
CAST:
Christian Slater, Kevin Bacon, Gary Oldman, Embeth Davidtz, William H. Macy, R. Lee Ermey, Stephen Tobolowsky, Brad Dourif, Kyra Sedgwick, Mia Kirshner
REVIEW:
Murder in the First is a serviceable, if generic, courtroom drama with one exceptional performance and a couple harrowingly effective sequences. Unfortunately, it’s also a film that makes a virtual lie of its ‘based on true events’ tagline and docudrama style from beginning to end. If you’re looking for a movie to stoke the flames of righteous indignation at prison system injustice, Murder in the First may get your juices flowing, but keep in mind to take everything you see and hear with a very large grain of salt.