Posts from the ‘1998’ Category

May 27

The Replacement Killers

Got a big sloppy gun fetish? The Replacement Killers is right up your alley. This is the directorial debut of Antoine Fuqua (Training Day). It’s also the first American film for star Chow Yun-fat, although the illustrious Wikipedia tells me that A Better Tomorrow 2 was shot on U.S. soil. Because that matters.

The Replacement Killers is Fuqua’s attempt to John Woo the audience. It’s honestly not much more than that. There are lots of Hong Kong-influenced action set-ups, the characters are cardboard cut-outs of other more interesting people and the drama’s just not there. What could have been a plot about a conflicted character goes down the road of gunplay to the extent that it becomes boring.

May 21

American History X

Tony Kaye’s American History X is a stunning moral play that falls into a couple of traps but feels convincing overall. The film lives and dies by its excesses in many ways and knowingly manipulates its audience like any Scared Straight style picture would, but confident performances and a tight script help get over most of its rough patches.

The film stars Edward Norton and Edward Furlong as two brothers drawn into a neo-Nazi lifestyle. More than that, the movie discusses what it means to dedicate your life to hatred. The waste of such a worldview is examined, but there’s no subtlety and everything happens to egg on the next set of events. Very little of American History X seems to come naturally, with characters redeeming themselves with the greatest of ease despite years of locked-in positions.

Mar 19

Shakespeare in Love

John Madden’s Shakespeare in Love is an interesting comedy about passion, romance and writer’s block. Written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, the 1998 film won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Gwyneth Paltrow. It was up against films like Saving Private Ryan, Life is Beautiful and the superb The Thin Red Line, but the mood of Shakespeare in Love almost single-handedly explains the victory.

Jan 25

Mulan

Disney’s Mulan is wonderfully animated, without question, but the 1998 film stumbles hugely as it goes along and features some truly annoying songs. The movie, directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook, was heavily promoted to Chinese audiences. The Lion King had been a tremendous success in China, so Mulan was hyped along the same lines.

Nov 25

A Bug’s Life

It was bound to happen sooner or later. With so many movies that I found myself crowing over, I was bound to run into a Pixar film that wouldn’t entertain me as much and wouldn’t send me into fits of hyperbole and incessant praise. That movie is 1998′s A Bug’s Life, the animation studio’s follow-up to the skilful and bright Toy Story.

A Bug’s Life isn’t a bad film, but it’s not a good one either. Directed by John Lasseter with Andrew Stanton sitting in as co-director, this is Pixar at its most uneven and colourless. Don’t get me wrong, an average Pixar movie is still better than 90% of the other animated movies out there. And A Bug’s Life still comes recommended, but it lacks the gusto and distinguishable traits that the other films from Pixar work in so well.

"Always make the audience suffer as much as possible." – Alfred Hitchcock

Posts from the ‘1998’ Category

The Replacement Killers

American History X

Shakespeare in Love

Mulan

A Bug’s Life

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