8 MM
C
3/4/1999 8pm Union Square
Nicholas Cage plays a private investigator who is chosen by the dead governor's
widow to determine if an 8mm film found in his safe is real or faked.  The
film shows a young girl being killed.  The movie then slowly drags us through
the world of porn, hardcore porn, semi-illegal porn, and finally the loweliest
scum in the business, the murderers themselves.  Throughout the film you feel
like the director is trying to make a "point" of some sort, like "porn is bad"
perhaps, but the whole thing is so over-the-top it gets lost in the mess.
Overall I can only say it wasn't very pleasant.

Analyze This
B
3/7/1999 7pm Secaucus
Robert DeNiro and Billy Crystal star in this offbeat, half-hearted comedy
about a mafia boss that suffers from nervous breakdowns and seeks the therapy
of a psychiatrist.  I'll let you guess who plays which.  There's lots of funny
scenes, but at times it does get a little repetitive and strained.  DeNiro
has been going downhill since "Heat"; hopefully he gets back ontrack with a
more serious role in the near future.  Crystal, as always, is lightly humorous.

The Corruptor
B
3/12/1999 10:45pm Secaucus
When I saw the trailers for this, I thought it could be on part with The Big
Hit, or at least, The Replacement Killers.  Sadly, it doesn't live up to the
potential.  No fault of Mark Wahlberg and Chow Yun-Fat; they both give fine
performances, although Mark needs to work on his more.  The screen play sucked,
as it didn't tell a very good story, and it really took the plot far too
seriously.  The direction didn't help either, Chow Yun-Fat requires a director
who can make action films, not a movie that vainly tries to tell a morality
story interspersed with violence, as this was.  Still, it's worth seeing, just
to see how Chow Yun-Fat is improving in english-speaking roles and american
films.

Wing Commander
C+
3/14/1999 7:30pm Ridgefield Park
A couple young hot shot pilots fresh (very fresh indeed) from the academy
join up with a battle group in this sci-fi flick based on the computer game.
The whole thing is very formulatic, with the only amusing piece being the 
romance between the young pilot and his commanding officer, which, I guess
makes sense since she never really shows any real leadership ability in this
very weak script.  A follows B follows C and there's some good special effects
with the spaceships, but the Kilrathi looked lame, and I just didn't really
get "into it".  On the bright side, this one will be dead and buried and
released to video by the time Star Wars rolls around.

200 Cigarettes
A
3/21/1999 2:45pm North Bergen
This was great movie with a great ensemble cast.  It's a tale of New Year's
Eve, 1981, in the Village of NYC.  It's amusing to watch the fears and hopes
of what people were going through in those times, which for some of us are
not all that long ago.  Personally I was still in grade school in 1981, but
I do remember watching the world on TV, and seeing how everything was going.
Anyway this movie is veritable matchmaking love-fest, as the various
personalities (a dozen or more) mix and mingle and work their way to a party.
En route to the party they all (well, almost all) learn something about
themeselves, or open the eyes of the people around them.  Overall, I thought
the film was really fun, and a great morale booster... I realize it is all
fantasy but if even all of these people could find love, so easily, then 
maybe there's hope for me yet.  In any case I had a good case of the happies
for a good hour or two after the film.