Will Randall (the incomparable Jack Nicholson) is on his way home from a business trip when he strikes a wolf. Who would have thought? A wolf? In this day and age? But still, he hits a wolf. When he gets out to check it, it bites him. What is this world coming to?

Over the next few days, the bite starts to take hold of him, but it’s not all bad – at least, not at first. The wolf seems to have imparted some of its qualities to Will, and he finds that his senses are sharper, and for the first time in a while, he feels more awake (though he had to sleep for twenty hours first). Then he can see without his glasses, hear every little thing that happens and his libido awakens with a vengeance. But that’s just the start.

Read the rest of this entry »

Officer Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves) foils the plot of a bomber, and the next day as he gets a coffee, he witnesses a city bus blown to smithereens. Then he receives a call that another city bus has a bomb on it, and when it accelerates to fifty miles per hour, the bomb is armed. If it goes below fifty, the bomb will detonate. Suddenly he has to try to help the people on this other bus. Can he make it in time?

The first task is to find the bomb, and the bomber has determined that this game has certain rules. Of course one of those rules is finding the bus, and in a city the size of Los Angeles, being able to find a lone bus is a difficult task at best, so Jack has a bus number and is told where the bus is. Now he just needs to get to it. This he does.

Since he can’t get to the bus stop on time, he has to catch a lift by taking over a car and driving alongside like a maniac, and eventually jumping into the bus itself, but by then it’s too late. The bus has already hit fifty miles per hour and the bomb is armed. The game is on.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jack Hammond (Charlie Sheen) isn’t having a good year. First he had to take those gigs as a clown, just to make ends meet, then when the lady next door turned him in as the red-nosed robber, the blood evidence from the other guy was thrown out because it was collected improperly, so he’s facing 25 years in prison.

When he catches a break and manages to escape before getting stuck in jail, he steals a car, but wouldn’t you know it, it doesn’t have any gas. He stops in at the convenience store, and as he’s trying to get the guy to give him his change, a couple of police officers show up and sure enough, they get a notice over the radio about a stolen car, and they notice the very same vehicle just happens to be parked out front at the pumps. Uh-oh.

Read the rest of this entry »

Long before The Santa Clause 2 (eight years, in fact), there was The Santa Clause. This movie introduced us to Scott Calvin (Tim Allen), who is basically a regular guy trying to come to grips with the fact that his ex-wife and her new husband have custody of his son, and he doesn’t get to see him very often.

Add to that the fact that his job is rather demanding, and even when he does get to see his son, such as on Christmas Eve, he’s usually running late, and his son doesn’t always want to see him, so things just aren’t going very well. All that is about to change.

Read the rest of this entry »

Danny O’Shea (Rick Moranis) was always the last kid picked when it came to just about anything, but especially in football. This fact was always made worse by the fact that his brother, Kevin, wasn’t just Kevin, he was the great Kevin O’Shea (Ed O’Neill), who won the Heisman Trophy in college and had an amazing career.

Now he’s a car salesman, but he’s still the great Kevin O’Shea, and his Cowboys are the team to be on. When Danny’s daughter Becky, also know as The Icebox (Shawna Waldron) is denied a spot on the team, everyone knows it is because she is a girl. After all, The Icebox is the best player in town – what else could it be?

Read the rest of this entry »

Perhaps the original Major League wasn’t a great film. It was still funny. It wasn’t for kids, but it wasn’t that bad either. This time around something was missing. Actually a lot was missing.

The same basic cast is back, but the edge is gone. While the desire to produce a wider-market film is understandable, in the process, something was lost. I’m not saying that adult language makes a film better, not by any means. But along the way something happened. Otherwise, how can a movie with almost the entire cast back, and the addition of a great character actor in the form of Randy Quaid go wrong?

Read the rest of this entry »

I recall watching this on TNT (I think it was TNT) when released and thinking that it was pretty good. I don’t think I had seen it since. I’m glad that we watched it again, because it really is quite an excellent telling of the tale. Even Kenneth Branagh, who I don’t really like, fit perfectly. Normally I find him just a little too self-absorbed. In this case, that’s exactly what was needed. He directed as well, and did a fine job.

Meanwhile, the always excellent Robert de Niro ably filled the body of the creature and actually gave the role some life. Uh, so to speak.

For those who aren’t familiar with the tale, Victor Frankenstein has gone to university to study medicine, only to become obsessed with bestowing life on dead tissue, because his own mother died in childbirth. Unfortunately his own brilliance becomes his downfall, as he spirals into the world of his own making, and when he does create this life, it is to see his own life fall apart around him.

Read the rest of this entry »