Chinese Box B- 5/1/1998 2:30pm Upper East Side This is a very artsy film about the heartbeat and life of Hong Kong, as it undergoes the changing of the guard. Our hero, an expatriate, has fallen in love with a local girl that he can't have. As Hong Kong's last days tick away, he seeks some kind of understanding into the culture of the country. The movie is kind of slow in places, gross in others, but for the most part it's relatively interesting as a culture study. Les Miserables B- 5/2/1998 9pm Secaucus Based on Victor Hugo's depressing novel, this dreary film drags on and on as Jean Valjean, played by Liam Neeson, suffers a series of challenges through his life, challenges he could easily go around if only he hadn't become such an honest man. It's also a character study of an inspector whose love for the law has wiped out almost all trace of humanity from him; but this is inconsistently portrayed. By the time we get to the damsel in distress, I felt like I was watching a horror film, or a crime drama: "Stay right here", and of course she doesn't, she has to go and get into trouble and fuck up everybody's lives. A really overdone theme in films. The Object of My Affection B- 5/10/1998 4:45pm Guttenberg Jennifer Aniston plays a ditzy blonde who has romantic challenges with her roommate and other people. Sounds like a TV show, doesn't it? This movie goes a little deeper than that, thankfully. So, she falls in love with a gay man, thinking that maybe, just maybe, they can work it out and live happily ever after. And the movie plays along this absurd line of reasoning for a while, but then the guy's inner nature gets the best of him, and we're off to the races with angst and despair. Great stuff. The supporting cast is amusing as well, although Alan Alda could certainly be doing better work. Overall the movie is an interesting view on the various kinds of gay lifestyles, and how their friends and "associates" react to them. Deep Impact C+ 5/16/1998 5pm Secaucus The promo for this film showed some neat special effects, particularly New York City's downtown getting hit by a massive tidal wave, with buildings being toppled. The problem with this movie is that there aren't really very many special effects beyond what you see in the promo. As if the promo was made, and then the rest of the film is filler. And it's really yucky filler, too: mostly promo spots for MSNBC (yeah, right) and people going crazy and acting stupid, like the girl who decides she'd rather die with her parents than live with her boyfriend, even when everyone is telling her to go. Or the president moping around from one failure to another. "Well, this is it." Bleah. And don't even get me started on the physics of this mess; obviously no one developing the movie has ever been to college, or even passed high school level physics. Or for that matter ever played pool! Some of the special effects looked recycled from ID4; change the fire from orange to gray, and hey, water! Ah, water! A tidal wave, I get it... Godzilla B- 5/23/1998 3:30pm Secaucus The third in a neverending series of "Jurassic Park" movies, this one provides a lot of excitement as a dinosaur arises not from DNA experimentation, but from nuclear radiation in the south pacific. The Godzilla dinosaur smartly crosses over to the Atlantic at Panama, and then makes way for the largest city on the east coast, New York. Through a combination of amazing tunnelling powers and lucky dodges, the dinosaur is able to make complete fools out of the Army and and the Navy. Matthew Broderick stars as the Scientist, and of course we have the Reporter, some incompetents in the military, Siskel & Ebert as the mayor (sort of), a randy redhead as the Scientist's boss, and so on. The acting was lame, the script was very lame, the special effects were recycled from Jurassic Park, and the direction was also a bit dull and directionless. The good parts are mainly watching bits of New York city get destroyed, although most of the damage is done by the Army. Most of the budget for this film was spent on marketing; that's typically a sign that the movie itself can't stand on two legs. So, we're treated to a couple hours of a dinosaur running around in the rain, a pile of dull subplots and characters that don't develop very well, and lots of landmarks being torn down. Eventually, the Air Force is brought in, and they make quick work of the matter. Yay, Air Force! Bulworth A- 5/30/1998 4pm Edgewater This is a very amusing and entertaining movie about a California senator that cracks under the pressure of campaigning in the 1996 primaries. He finds himself losing a lot of money shorting pork-bellies futures, and decides to take out a large life insurance policy on himself and hire a hitman to have himself killed. This leads him to become brutally honest at his next series of pep rallies and speeches, and brings him into the world of poor black people (who are given an extremely stereotypical treatment). The rap music is light, so it doesn't become a problem. Bulworth's antics are great though, as his adventures lead from one place to another, and the whole thing is very amusing, provided you don't take it seriously. Sliding Doors B+ 5/31/1998 7:30pm Guttenberg This is a bizarre, yet fairly original film about a woman whose live-in boyfriend is cheating on her. She is having a bad day when suddenly the film splits in two, and we are treated to parallel lives, one where she misses the train, and one where she makes the train, and how this makes all the difference. In one life she's meeting a new boyfriend, dumping the old one, and in the other she's continuing on as before, unknowing of her boyfriend's deceit.