Reviews by Jennifer

• August 13, 2005
• At Home, Horror

Well, here’s one more reason not to have kids: some of them get possessed by the devil. I mean, how crummy would it be if you were just chugging along in your happy life, thinking you were so normal with your little house and your nice family, when one...

• April 19, 2005
• At Home, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

I might as well admit that I don’t usually love the kind of movies that play at film festivals. Even though I have the utmost respect for independent films, I usually find them verbose and visually uninteresting. I’m not proud of this, but I mention it because it informed...

• February 23, 2005
• Action, Adventure, At Home

Wait a minute, nobody around here has reviewed Alexander yet?  Not one of us rushed right out to see Oliver Stone’s epic masterpiece?  No one even wanted to see Colin Farrell’s bits and pieces on the big screen?  Huh.  I guess it’s up to me to explain how Alexander...

• February 4, 2005
• Action, At Home, Fantasy

I actually kind of liked Catwoman, except for the part where Halle Berry turns into a cat. I’m not just being facetious. The movie gets off to a decent start with Halle Berry as Patience Phillips, a nebbish but talented artist with poor fashion sense. She hasn’t quite made...

• November 10, 2004
• Adventure, Animation, At Home, Family

It seems like there was a moment of head scratching when The Polar Express tanked. It was as though all the CG wizards and Hollywood bigwigs just couldn’t believe that no one wanted to look at their baby. Well here’s why: like the baby on Seinfeld, The Polar Express...

• September 30, 2004
• At Home, Drama

Set in New York at the dawn of the AIDS crisis, Angels in America is the story of several very different, but closely intertwined, lives. At the heart of the story is Prior (Justin Kirk), a young gay man who has just been diagnosed with AIDS. He reveals the...

• September 29, 2004
• At Home, Comedy, Romance

There I was, chewing a mouthful of dinner, when I was transported back to the early 80’s. It was the AFI 100 Years 100 Songs special that did it—song #79, “Arthur’s Theme” by Christopher Cross. I whipped my head around and my heart melted: there was my beloved Dudley...

• August 19, 2004
• At Home, Crime, Drama, Mystery

You’d think that if Robert Redford produced a movie and Al Pacino starred in it, the final product would be pretty amazing. People I Know is an intriguing story, but it’s also a real downer. It’s full of unpleasant people lacking in morality and decency, and they all spend...

• August 15, 2004
• At Home, Comedy, Science Fiction, Television

I remember trying to sneak-watch ALF when it first came on TV in 1986. I was endlessly intrigued by this Alien Life Form and his human companions, but my mom was forever rolling her eyes and dismissing the show as stupid. And then she watched it. And I got...

• July 11, 2004
• Books

Well kids, you heard it here first: Cassandra French’s Finishing School for Boys is going to be the next big thing. If you read it now, you will have the pleasure of sitting in the multiplex one day when a trailer with a familiar plot comes blaring across the...

• April 21, 2004
• At Home, Drama, Mystery

Equus is a prime example of what happens when creepy, overprotective parents drum a lot of talk about religion into a kid’s head, then give him a room way up on the third floor. That kid is entirely likely to develop an obsession with the first thing he associates...

• February 12, 2004
• Action, At Home, Crime, Drama

I love guy movies. I love onscreen explosions. What’s not to love about Backdraft? I spent the entire movie working on that question, and finally realized that it has no soul. It’s just a didactic, mechanical rendering of a story that is neither plot-driven nor character-driven. It just flops...