DEEP RISING http://chaplin.pkbaseline.com/screen/strange/reviews/deeprisi.html DEEP RISING (United States, 1998) SYNOPSIS: ‘A group of gunrunners in South China come across a deserted cruise ship occupied by a killer creature... with tentacles. REVIEW: More dumb fun that it ought to be, DEEP RISING is this year's CONGO, updating adventure-movie archetypes with hip humor and a visually-powerful monster. Its one big fault: It doesn't know when to stop. Charter-boat operator Finnegan (Treat Williams) has a motto: "If the cash is there, we do not care." That's sensible since his entire boat looks like a greasy engine room and his passengers tend to be the type who sneak aboard boxes of torpedoes, put guns to each other's heads for fun, and speak the accented English preferred by intemational mercenaries. Led by the dour Hanover (Wes Studi), the current band of brigands plans to rob a gigantic cruise ship called the Argonautica, the dream project of an oily American (Anthony Heald) who presides over the monied multinationals of this Monte Carlo of the South China Sea and has a hidden agenda. None of these human matters matter after the ship gets rammed straight into THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE by some enormous something. Then the first person gets pulled down through a toilet with a violent squish, accompanied by the appropriate far-reaching splatters of blood and flesh. Hanover and company--including Finnegan and his hilarious, smart-mouthed nervous-nelly engineer (Kevin J. O'Connor)--board the Argonautica and find it destroyed and deserted. But even as various parties are devoured by a mysterious leviathan with enormous, spiked, alien-suckered tentacles, Finnegan finds time to rescue and be rescued by a tough, wisecracking thief (Famke Janssen) in low-cut red gown. ‘The exhausting final sequence drags on way too long, and you're more than ready for the film to be over by the time the spectacular pyrotechnics engulf the screen (Oscar-winning cinematographer Dean Cundey co-directed the second unit). Otherwise, suspense-savvy writer-director Stephen Sommers has made monstrously delicious seafood gumbo. —-Written by Frank Lovece STARRING: Treat Williams - Finnegan Famke Janssen - Trillian DIRECTOR: Stephen Sommers U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: Buena Vista Distribution Company RUNNING TIME: 106 min MPAA RATING: RDRAGONHEART |tp://chaplin.pkbaseline.com/screen/strange/reviews/dragonhe.html —PUWains a i “Te DRAGONHEART (United States, 1996) SYNOPSIS: Set in the war-torn 10th century, a once beneficent fil knight, Bowen, joins forces with the 18-foot-high, [a 43-foot-long dragon he names Draco, the last of | (igs his species, in a heroic battle to free a country held in an iron grip by its tyrannical ruler, Einon, to whom both knight and dragon are connected in fateful ways. REVIEW: What a dragon it is, getting old. And in A.D. 984, the only way for a dragon to reach dragon heaven is by doing one tremendously good deed. Unfortunately for the specimen later dubbed Draco (voice of Sean Connery), the good deed of granting half his heart to a dying prince does not go unpunished. Jump forward 12 years, and young tyrant King Einon (David Thewlis) is a sadistic despot who laughs at King Arthur's Old Code~the one taught him by former mentor Sir Bowen (Dennis Quaid), now an itinerant dragon slayer. When the cynical, fallen idealist Bowen confronts and eventually teams up with Draco—the last dragon--the symbiotic link between king and beast has all the mythic patricidal overtones of any good faux Shakespearean drama. Or more to the point, faux Shakespearean seriocomedy. The gloriously affable DRAGONHEART is an adventure fable in which the noble, chivalric dragon gets all the best lines, dramatic and lighthearted alike. "I only chewed in self defense," he proudly retorts when accused of eating a knight, adding loftily, "I never swallowed." As voiced by Connery, in his majestic Scottish brogue, this is a creature with both the heart of Avalon and the timing of Jerry Seinfeld. Combined with spectacular special effects that only occasionally falter, Draco proves one of the most magnificent and sympathetic characters of fantasy cinema. Perhaps it's not so ironic, then, that he's much more fully fleshed-out than the stock medieval humans, complete with the new cliche of the capable and strong willed young woman. Quaid, of course, plays Quaid, delightfully enough. And though the dialogue sometimes veers perilously close to the Monty Python-esque--there actually is a "the peasants are revolting” joke--the battles and routines involving Draco and Bowen are enormous fun and emotionally believable. DRAGONHEART has a wonderfal heart. ~-Written by Frank LoveceJOHN CARPENTER'S ESCAPE FROM L.A. http://chaplin. pkbaseline.convscreen/strange/reviews/escapela htm! =PUWWranng 2 a JOHN CARPENTER'S ESCAPE FROM (United States, 1996) SYNOPSI: It's 16 years after Snake Plissken's rescue of the President in New York. Now, a different President is in power, and declares the United States to be a land of moral superiority: no smoking, no red meat, no freedom of religion and no unapproved marriages. A massive earthquake has hit Los Angeles, leaving it in ruins and completely surrounded by water. From this new island hell rises an army of discontent, led by brutal South American revolutionary Cuervo Jones. L.A. has become an anarchist state. The President deports all immoral (and therefore criminal) citizens of the U.S. to the City of Angels. However, his own daughter Utopia joins forces with Cuervo, taking with her the key to ‘a doomsday device that could send mankind back to the dark ages. Once again, Snake is recruited by the President's men to complete an impossible task: penetrate the Sodom that is L.A., retrieve the device, and eliminate Utopia. REVIEW: Less a sequel than a remake, JOHN CARPENTER'S ESCAPE FROM L.A. reuses the hero and mirrors situations from the cult-fave ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981). But whereas NEW YORK was an action-adventure picture with humor, director and co-writer Carpenter's new one is a fantasy-satire with action. A promising, high-tech opening finds legendary fugitive Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell, reprising the role) again captured for use in a rescue mission. His last coerced assignment, sixteen years earlier, was to save the President from New York City, a walled-off prison. Now, in fascistic 2019, he must enter post-earthquake Los Angeles Island-last stop for future America's moral undesirables-find the Patty Hearst-like daughter (A.J. Langer) of the President (Cliff Robertson), and rescue a briefcase containing the controls for a doomsday weapon that can precipitate a permanent, world-wide blackout. Steve Buscemi, playing "Map to the Stars" Eddie, essentially reprises Emest Borgnine's NEW YORK cabbie. Pam Grier is wasted in a small role as criminal kingpin Hershe, analogous to Harry Dean Stanton's NEW YORK Brain. Even NEW YORK's recurring joke about Snake~"T heard you were dead"-- comes back as "I thought you'd be taller."JOHN CARPENTER'S ESCAPE FROM L.A. hip:/chaplin.pkbaseline.com/screen/strange/teviews/escapela htm The generous action sequences and regulation dystopian future sets look remarkably stagebound for a major production, and you can spot the seams around a number of special effects. And though coolly sleek and ofien enjoyably escapist, the film's sensibilities have devolved from the blackly humorous, sci-fi action of its predecessor to "Beavis and Butthead"-level satire. And let's not forget the just plain over-the-top silliness of Snake catching up to a guy fleeing in a car by surfing on a tsunami. The film's finale, which posits cancer sticks as life-affirming symbols, is just oxymoronic. —-Written by Frank Lovece STARRING: Kurt Russell - Snake Plissken ‘AJ Langer - Utopia Steve Buscemi - "Map to the Stars" Eddie George Corraface - Cuervo Jones Stacy Keach - Malloy Michelle Forbes - Brazen Pam Grier - Hershe Jeff Imada - Saigon Shadow Cliff Robertson - President Valeria Golino - Taslima Peter Fonda - Pipeline DIRECTOR: John Carpenter U.S. DISTRIBUTOR: Paramount Pictures RUNNING TIME: 100 mins. MPAA RATING: R RATING: a & 3 © Copyright 1998 by Baseline Il, Inc. All rights reserved.