I can’t think of two hours more unpleasant than the ones I spent watching this, but if you like to watch women getting tortured by serial killers when they’re not tracking them down, this may be your cup of tea. Holly Hunter and Sigourney Weaver, a cop and a shrink, are the main trackers, but so little is done in Ann Biderman and David Madsen’s script to give them or their colleagues or even their prey interesting human dimensions that the overall ambience is chiefly pornographic. It seems that the serial killer likes to copy other serial killers in the same way that the filmmakers (including director Jon Amiel) like to copy other serial-killer movies, but little is made of this boring self-referentiality. I suppose you could call the film efficient, but that doesn’t mean you have to like it. The cinematographer is Laszlo Kovacs; with Dermot Mulroney, William McNamara, Will Patton, and Harry Connick Jr. (JR) Read more
Kevin Smith’s 1995 follow-up to Clerks is a clear illustration of the principle that if you want to eliminate what’s distinctive and potentially dangerous in a low-budget independent, offer him a Hollywood contract. The Sundance festival, I know, is founded on a reverse principlethat Hollywood contracts are what everybody needsbut if this were the first Kevin Smith movie I’d ever seen I wouldn’t be especially eager to see another. As an Animal House romp about consumer slackers in a New Jersey mall, it’s harmless enoughjust don’t expect any sort of edge. At least with this outing, Smith left the working class to become just as boring as everybody else. With Shannen Doherty, Jeremy London, Jason Lee, and Claire Forlani. 95 min. (JR) Read more
A rather lame comedy-drama, about four women recalling their adventures when they were 12 and the best of friends in Indiana. Hampered by a sprawling script (by I. Marlene King) and uneven direction (by Lesli Linka Glatter), the actresses playing the 12-year-oldsChristina Ricci, Thora Birch, Gaby Hoffmann, and Ashleigh Aston Moorecan’t hold the same amount of interest as Melanie Griffith, Demi Moore, Rosie O’Donnell, and Rita Wilson, who play the grown women and are around only for extended cameos. (JR) Read more
