Max Keeble’s Big Move (2001)

 

Watched this on a blind date on an outdoor screen in a park. The humor is geared toward tweens. No action on or off the screen.

Rating: D+

Enemy Of The State (1998)

 

When I watched this in 1998, the tech was all new and sophisticated. Now, I have more capability in my cell phone than everything shown in the movie. It feels painfully outdated when they are using rolodexes, VCRs, pay phones, land lines, and pagers. The video recordings are in freaking black and white for crying out loud. 

Add to that unrealistic plot devices and plot holes, and the film just doesn’t hold up. I still can’t get over Will Smith locking himself in a hotel linen closet, starting a fire, and within seconds, 3 fire trucks arrive to rescue him before he burns alive. 

Rating: C  

Three Kings (1999)

 

David O. Russel delivers both an entertaining Hollywood movie and a message about the absurdity of war. War is about greed. Greed for land, power, and money, and everything that comes with having those things. The antidote is empathy, which is in short supply. The film delivers a somewhat hopeful message of how empathy can occasionally cut through that greed to do some good. 

Rating: B

Malibu’s Most Wanted (2003)

Mindless fun. The outlandish plot doesn't get in the way of the enjoyment.

Rating: C

Heckler (2007)

If there's one thing you can take away from Jamie Kennedy's documentary about hecklers and critics, it's that we should put more thought into our reviews and criticisms. Reviews like "This movie sucked!" or "Jamie Kennedy is a douche-bag" are the lowest common denominator when it comes to providing feedback. I'm sure I've lowered myself to that bar more times than I care to admit. So, in a sense, I feel Jamie succeeded in his pursuit to diminish, or at least improve the level of heckling in society.

Unfortunately, having had the opportunity to look behind the curtain at who Jamie K really is as a person, I found myself losing any respect I might have had for him. He assumes most of his audience, critics especially, are out to get him. That was never the case with me. Sure, he's no Steve Martin or Ben Stiller, but I never considered him an abomination like Bill Maher or John Lovitz.

In this film he confronts many of his harshest critics, which is a brave thing. But it's almost as if he's trying to make a case that critics should not exist at all, that people should feel sorry for disliking his material and then talking about it. I agree, hecklers are a-holes, and some critics go too far with their personal attacks. (Guilty!) But people should always be free to speak their mind. Just as he says that audience members should walk out of his show if they don't like his material, he should practice what he's preaching and not seek out negative reviews to read if he doesn't like what's being said about him.

For me, the best parts of the film are the many interviews by comedians, actors, and other celebrities. It's refreshing to hear them speak off the cuff. The last deleted scene, a story from Fred Willard, is one of the funniest parts, and should have been included in the film.

Rating: B-