Ronin B 10/2/1998 7pm Times Square Robert DeNiro and Jean Reno play mercenaries hired to recover a mysterious suitcase. We never learn what's in it, but I guess that's not important; rather, the point of the film appears to be, how well can these guys play mercenaries, or perhaps the point is, how well can Jean Reno be typecast. Anyway, we do have good tough-guy car chase scenes through France, but the film is missing something... a "point", I guess. Anyhow, the title is completely wrong, as the film has nothing to do with Ronin. Go figure. A Night at the Roxbury A 10/10/1998 6:30pm Greenwich Village The Saturday Night Live crew comes together and makes a surprisingly very good movie based on one of their popular skits. It tells the story of the Butabi brothers, a couple of young guys who really don't have their shit together, and how they develop after deciding to make something of themselves. Their determination to get into the Roxbury is only met with failure until a lucky incident with Richard Grieco. Anyway there's more to the plot, with the neighbor's psycho daughter that's trying to marry the dumb brother to forward her plots of company expansion, and the trainer at the health club, and the club owner's grumpy assistant. It's all great fun and has lots of laughs, and is far more developed than the SNL skit. It made me feel pretty good too, without sappiness or cop-outs, they paced it well and followed everything to the proper course, the way entertaining movies should. And of course, the music is great! You may find yourself nodding your head to the beat though. Antz C+ 10/11/1998 6:50pm Ridgefield Park This is basically a sappy Woody Allen movie done with computer animated characters, with a weak plot and short running time. There's really not a lot to it, and Toy Story was a lot more involved. I guess it would have helped a lot if this wasn't a story about damn vile insects. Pleasantville A 10/24/1998 7:45pm Secaucus Through some mysterious magic, a dweeby kid and his slutty sister are zapped into his favorite fifties black & white family show, Pleasantville. This is a perfect, idealistic town that's lacking in emotion and desire, and as the kids taint the environment with their modern ideas and values, the people in the town slowly come alive, and also become... in color. The story is beautifully presented, and while the critics have panned the preachy liberalism (coloreds vs. noncoloreds), it's really not a major part of the film, and this is shown by how the main characters laugh it off and refuse to take it seriously, as if they were just in a dream, or in a TV show, which, of course, they are. I really enjoyed this film, it's definitely a feel-good flick, brilliantly executed. John Carpenter's Vampires C+ 10/30/1998 9:30pm North Bergen While it's great fun to watch James Woods say "Padre" and kick priests around, the joke gets a little old after repititions. If only they could have written some more varied dialogue into the screenplay, it would have been a lot better. The plot is fairly straightforward, with the exception being one doesn't usually see the Vatican hiring mercenaries, at least, not since Hudson Hawk. One of the pudgier Baldwin brothers co-stars, but he's not very convincing and has some really absurd lines as well... there's 12 or 13 of these Baldwin guys, right? The gore was quite overdone as well, so if that bothers you, then you'd better give this a pass, as this is easily the goriest film I've seen this year. Orgazmo A- 10/31/1998 5:30pm East Village From one of the makers of South Park, this is an earlier work that has managed to see the light of day, albeit barely. It's a story about a Mormon missionary who gets dragged into porn industry, and while there's hardly any nudity, the adult content slaps the movie with an NC-17 rating. Go figure. Still, it would not surprise me at all to see this on late-night TV down the road, as it's very campy and extremely funny in places, and while "cult classic" may be a bit premature for the flick, it should at least be considered a contender. Soldier A 10/31/1998 9pm Times Square Kurt Russell returns in a difficult role, playing a programmed-from-birth super soldier who gets retired and dumped on a garbage planet. The difficulty lies in the fact that his character has almost no personality, and basically lacks all emotion. Still, as a sci-fi action-adventure, this movie gets high marks, and the special effects are up to par. Fans who like to watch Kurt Russell kick some ass and kill the bad guys should love this film, I know I sure did.