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Reviews (4)
Apr 18, 2010
Decent but not great effort
Well, it has a pretty good cast, anyway: Forest Whitaker, Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning, Jackie Earle Haley, and Kate Beckinsale. The premise is, similar to Traffic or Crash, that people’s lives entwine in unusual ways. Here the plotlines are connected by a random shooting in a diner, which affects the lives of the characters in different ways.
Pearce plays a doctor who just missed the shooting, but his inability to save one of the victims leads him to start doubting himself and his abilities. Whitaker plays a driving school instructor whose injury is not fatal and who believes both that luck is on his side and that he must somehow atone for surviving where others died; Fanning plays a young girl whose father is shot and killed in the robbery and who turns, perhaps overly so, to God and religion to help her deal with the tragedy. And Beckinsale plays a waitress saddled with a baby she neither wants nor takes proper care of, but which she uses as a tool to try and get closer to Pearce’s doctor.
It’s not a particularly pretty film. Most of the characters are weak and ultimately self-destructive. It’s hard to root for any of them as their lives after the accident unfold (Pearce alternately sickens and cures his wife so he can appear to be her savior; Fanning drives a friend who was with her to near-suicide and total isolation with her religious zeal; Whitaker gambles away his savings and then an additional sum from a nasty loan shark; Beckinsale endangers her infant with neglect because she’s selfishly interested in her own pleasure), and at times the film can be downright unpleasant to watch because, well, all of these people are jerks. I’m all for reality in films, and that was obviously important to those who wrote and directed this movie, but I’m also interested in having someone I can empathize with, and, despite some pretty strong performances, there’s simply no one here I could find myself caring about. In a character-based movie, that’s death.
Whitaker I felt stood out; his character wasn’t very sympathetic but he gave an excellent performance. Ditto Fanning's performance is solid and sharp. If she merely stays this good as she ages, we’re already looking at the actress of her generation. The rest of the players are pretty good, but none of them bring the strength and depth that these two do. Pearce is good, but any one of a dozen other actors could have filled his role; ditto Jackie Earle Haley and Beckinsale. Everyone does fine with their roles, but most of the cast doesn’t imbue the characters with anything special, which all of them are capable of.
If you’ve seen Crash or Traffic (or even Babel, which I didn’t care for as much), you’ve seen this type of movie, done better. Unless you really dig one of the leads, you could probably skip this film and not miss much (heck, it wasn’t even theatrically released and isn’t even known by this title on the IMDB, which tells you something).
Jun 15, 2009
The superior version of this soundtrack
There are several versions of the Oliver! soundtrack available but this, the motion picture soundtrack, blows the rest of them out of the water. From Ron Moody's inimitable portrayal of Fagin to the Artful Dodger to each of Nancy's songs, this soundtrack captures the magic of the film and its music. Particularly well done are "Boy for Sale" and the best track on the album, "Who Will Buy?" This disc is worth every penny you'll pay for it, and you'll listen to it over and over. I first discovered it more than thirty years ago, and I keep coming back to it; you will too.
Oct 06, 2006
Older game but still fun
The graphics seem a bit old by today's standards, but Galactic Battlegrounds is still a great deal of fun, and play value trumps pretty appearances any day. I bought this set for my nephew, who, after playing my copy on my laptop, simply had to have his own. The game is complex enough to come back to again and again, but simple enough for beginners to succeed at. One of the only shortcomings is that the AI isn't always the brightest opponent, especially when you move outside the scenarios to the 'standard' game. But the scenarios are well-crafted and add some nice flavor to the Star Wars universe. Overall one of the better efforts from LucasArts. Make sure you get the 'Saga' edition because the Episode 2 expansion is the best part of the game.