Alien Ressurection
B-
12/6/1997 2pm Secaucus
Sigourney Weaver's DNA, poisoned with the Alien she was carrying, is used to
clone a new copy of her-- and the alien.  It is now three hundred years later,
and all the technology is more or less the same, with the exception of one
hand grenade.  Winona Ryder stars as the pretty face, and of course we get
our usual collection of tough guys.  The movie is very action-packed and has
plenty of really gross and bizarre images.  The plot, however, is fairly
linear and predictable, which doesn't make for a lot of interest.  The
special effects were decent, though.

The Devil's Advocate
A
12/13/1997 6:30pm Secaucus
An interesting yarn about an up and coming lawyer who is recruited to join
a major firm in the big city only to discover that the guy in charge is none
other than Satan, played ingeniously by Al Pacino.  Keanu Reeves plays the
young lawyer star.  He struggles with the pressures of his evil job and his
crazed wife, who just can't handle that the other lawyers' wives are demons
in disguise.  This drives her a bit nuts.  A great tale with many plot twists,
this one entertains very well.

Tomorrow Never Dies
A
12/21/1997 4:30pm Guttenberg
Pierce Brosnan returns as James Bond in an explosive thriller.  As times goes
by, the Bond films just get more and more violent.  Pushing this to more
extremes is costar Michelle Yeoh, who has worked with Jackie Chan in the past.
This is an exciting, rewarding, and very funny film.  Brosnan is an excellent
Bond, one of the best ever.  The special effects are top-notch, and the only
thing that could be improved would be the pacing; the transitions from
end-of-your-seat excitement with car chases and fights to the slower plots
and intrigue bothered me just a tiny bit.  What Bond films need now is a
more talented director or editor.

Jackie Brown
D
12/30/1997 3:20pm Ridgefield Park
Quentin Tarrantino gives us his worst film to date in this noisy and clumsy
tale about a black woman who tries to get away with committing a crime.  The
movie presents her as a goddess, but I just can't understand why.  She's 44
years old, and yet they make like she's a beautiful babe.  Everything tries
to justify her actions.  Michael Keaton plays the role of a government agent
and throughout the film he has the expression on his face of "I can't believe
I'm in this stupid film".  Robert DeNiro's talents are completely wasted on
as mumbling ex-con that spends the film in a drugged daze.  The only good
part to the piece is Samuel L. Jackson's performance, which he delivers in
his usual excellent way.  As for the noise, for some reason the director
felt we needed to be punished with loud, bad 70's music.  These tunes weren't
even popular, and they're played extra loud.  Overall, it was a major
disappointment.