The Prince of Egypt
B+
1/1/1999 3:10pm Wilmington
If it wasn't for the sappy songs, it would have been an excellent film.
As it was, it was still really good, especially the special effects.
Sooner or later, these movie-makers are going to realize that it's just
not necessary to put stupid songs into an animated film, that it can stand
on its own merits as a film!  Until then, we are going to see the wonders
of new technology achievements in animation spoiled by insipid songs.
The computer-generated animation mixed very well with the regular painted
animation, and certain scenes were extremely well done, including the
river, the wrath of God, parting the river, and Moses's dream.

The Faculty
B
1/10/1999 7:15pm Guttenberg
Robert Rodriguez directed this horror flick.  He does a good job, and I wasn't
aware it was Rodriguez until the end credits.  He's capable of much better
work, and I hope this doesn't start a nasty trend of him getting pigeon-holed
into doing just horror movies.  The film itself is okay, but the cast is kinda
lame, 'cept for Robert Patrick's role as the football coach.  The plot is
basically a cross between Heinlein's "The Puppet Masters" (mentioned in the
film!) and your typical high school teen angst dreck.  The special effects
are pretty good, and for a horror flick the overall movie is above average.
Rodriguez has done better in the past though, like Desperado and From Dusk
'til Dawn.

The Thin Red Line
B-
1/16/1999 8:45pm Secaucus
I'm not sure what the point of this movie was.  It dragged on for three hours
and was pretty boring most of the time.  I guess they wanted to make an 
all-star answer to Saving Private Ryan.  It wasn't as horrific, thankfully.
It tells the tale of the capture of Guadacanal, and presents the horrors of
war (as if we needed convincing that war is horrible).  It also (sadly) tries
to throw a liberal bent to it, making like we were evil to fight the japs.
Hello?  They bombed us in our country... they had to be defeated.  Anyway,
Nick Nolte and Sean Pean give excellent performances, and there's some okay
acting by a couple other guys I didn't recognize, but the whole thing just
dragged on and on.  There was no real plot, and the whole thing just kinda
ended after a while.  I thought they were done at the two-hour point, but
they dragged on for another hour after that.  I miss the old-fashioned war
movies, where there was a definite plot, less gore, heroic heroes, and you
felt good watching it.  After all, movies are supposed to be entertainment.