——Rio Lobo——

(B+)

Although this is just a Rio Bravo remake and an inferior one at that, this is still a pretty entertaining movie. Yeah, the supporting actors couldn’t act their way out of a paper bag, but the Duke is in top form hitting people, drinking and overall just having a great time. The plot kind of bounces all over the place, but then that gives it that nice “Where the hell is this movie going?” quality that doesn’t excuse the reusing of the plot of Rio Bravo, but does do a nice job of making the whole thing pretty interesting. The women of the movie were unfortunately chosen for their looks and not their acting ability, as the leading lady especially managed to make me cringe every time she opened her mouth. It’s not the greatest movie, but it is fun enough and definitely worth a watch.

——Owning Mahowny——

(B+)

This was a pretty high quality production with a pretty interesting story, but I did come to have issues with its dreadfully slow pacing and the lack of any character arc for the main character. What I found odd about this movie is that at the very end of it Mahowny is talking with a psychiatrist and happens to note that the biggest thrill of his life is gambling, and that on a scale of 1 to 100 it’s a 100. And yet, not once in the film do we actually see him enjoy gambling. Not even when he’s up 9 million dollars does he look happy. Instead he always looks like he’s on the brink of having a stroke. It’s an all right movie, but I don’t think I’ll ever see it again.

——Swimming Pool——

(A-)

If you want a really interesting experience, watch this movie and then go watch Peter Pan (like I did). Tinkerbell takes on a completely new meaning. Anyway, Swimming Pool was pretty interesting. I think I know what it all means, but I’m not really sure; it’s one of those things where I’d have to see it again to really see. If you’ve seen it please write me to discuss the ending. But anyway, if you haven’t seen the movie it’s about a prudish Englishwoman who writes detective novels who decides to take up her publishers offer to write her next book at his French villa. There she meets his wild, sexually liberated daughter who at first annoys and distracts her from her novel, but then becomes so interesting to the Englishwoman that she starts writing a new novel based on the girl. (For those who haven’t figured it out yet, the girl is the one who plays Tinkerbell.) There’s a whole hell of a lot of nudity and lots of sexuality, and a twist ending reminiscent of Mulholland Drive. It’s not perfect, but if that isn’t enough to get you to see the movie, I don’t know what will.

——S.W.A.T.——

(C+)

It’s not like the writing of this movie is particularly bad, it’s just really sloppy which is unfortunate because it takes away from what otherwise could have been a really good summer action movie. Where the writing fails is in trying to decide what type of movie this is. It seems more like a hodgepodge of good ideas in first draft form than a tight and focused final draft. There are just inclusions of things that really don’t need to be there to make the movie work. If you aren’t going to focus on how their job in S.W.A.T. affects their personal lives, then why spend so much needless time at home with them? A throwaway line or a glimpse at a photo in a wallet would do just as much as these pointless scenes at home do. Having an ex-S.W.A.T. guy try to break the international criminal out of police custody would have done just as much as having Colin Ferrel’s ex-partner (now evil diabolical genius) pull it off. It’s all sloppy one-dimensional writing that goes nowhere. If you’re going to do it, fine, I’m all for it, but you’ve got to go all the way with it. Otherwise just have it be about being on S.W.A.T., which I think would have been an interesting movie on its own (but Hollywood would never have something like that made if it didn’t have the cheesy cliches too). It’s a shame, because I otherwise I really liked this movie.

——Peter Pan——

(C)

I’m sorry, I tried really hard to like this, but I just couldn’t do it. This movie sucks. It really does. It’s just a way too literal adaptation of the book and it just doesn’t work in parts (especially the spastic beginning, in which the director follows the Hollywood rule that kids won’t follow non-action plot unless its cut together really fast with insane spastic energy). And what the hell’s up with Tinkerbell? She acts like she’s been snorting a little too much pixie dust, if you know what I mean. The movie isn’t all bad though, there is a lot of good stuff crammed in there. Most of it has to do with the subtext of the movie though (which isn’t really a good sign for the movie itself), the whole Peter Pan syndrome thing. I had more fun comparing Hook to Peter and the Pirates to the Lost Boys then I actually did watching the two interact. I liked too the idea that women are ultimately what makes boys grow into men, and if there are no women, no Wendy for your Peter, then you either stay Peter forever or turn into a Hook, pretty much a giant ill-tempered boy. What I really didn’t get though was the decision to cast Wendy’s father and Hook with the same actor. What the hell does THAT mean?

The special effects were competent, but nothing spectacular. Most of the time they looked more like a cartoon than real life though, which makes me wonder why the hell they felt like adapting it anyway if they were just going to remake the Disney cartoon. This isn’t really worth seeing unless you are a hardcore Peter Pan fan.