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Mystery Men	RANK=565
Category : Comedy Description : Highly original. Pleasant enough, but not stellar. Funny. A bunch of guys that don't actually have any super powers gang together to be superheroes. Captain Power is a superhero with corporate sponsorship, which is the kind of T.I.C. humour that I like.	Viewing Status #viewings=1 First seen in 2/2000

The Naked Gun	RANK=409
Category : Comedy Description : The first and best Naked Gun movie, based on the original Police Squad TV series. This is the one where there is a plot to asassinate the queen of England at a baseball game, and where Nordberg suffers all sorts of hurt in the boat at the harbour. Funny funny stuff. _ _ _ _ Yeah, I remembered some oldies that really should be in this database.	Viewing Status #viewings=3 First seen in /1989

The Naked Gun 2½	RANK=391
The Smell of Fear Category : Comedy Description : Very nearly as good as the first one. In this one, Frank Drebin has to expose a shady deal between corrupt politicians and greedy oil tycoons hellbent on destroying a formula for efficient solar cells. I think this is the one where Nordberg catches a baby and nearly spikes the kid on the ground like it was a football.	Viewing Status #viewings=2 First seen in /1993

The Naked Gun 33 1/3	RANK=287
The Final Insult Category : Comedy Description : Not nearly as good as the first two. I totally forget what happens in this one.	Viewing Status #viewings=1 First seen in /1995

Never Been Kissed	RANK=178
Category : Comedy Description : Drew Barrymore plays a 23yo newspaper journalist tasked with going "under cover" in a high school to find a big story for her boss. It's got some funny moments, and also a lot of jokes that just fall a bit flat. It's mostly about trying to redo what you failed to do the first time. An actress by the name of Katie Lansdale is most memorable as the cute young blond who sidles up to Josie's brother Rob and says: "Hi. I'm Tracy. I'm sixteen. I'm a gymnast. I don't have a boyfriend." Holy smoke!	Viewing Status #viewings=1 First seen in 1/2001

Nikita	RANK=774
Category : Not Sure Description : Interesting French film from our old buddy Luc Besson, who went on to make a somewhat similar film called "Leon" for Disney. (This was marketed in the West as "The Professional", as I'm sure you are already aware.) Apparently Nikita is supposed to be a cult film, potentially a classic. I suspect I may not be fully appreciating its understated qualities because the movie didn't quite meet my expectations. Basically, a punk street gang girl called Nikita kills a cop during a failed drug burglary, and faced with the threat of State execution, she is coerced into joining a secret CIA-like division of the government. (Perhaps the counter-intelligence branch of the GIGN? More research needed.) This story was copied, badly, by the Americans, twice. First there was "The Assassin" with Bridget Fonda. Passable at best. There's also a series called "La Femme Nikita", which I have had the pleasure of never watching. Certainly the original is better than Fonda's attempt. The actress who plays Nikita is also cuter than Fonda. There's lots of nice little moments in this. Also, the understated, calm manner in which it is acted is an interesting, perhaps even pleasing change to the exaggerated acting style of Yanks. Particularly noticeable is when a joke is made and no-one laughs, even though the joke is recognised. You'd never see that happen in Hollywood. The way Jean Reno disposes of the first Embassy guard near the end is sooo cool. He is "The Cleaner" in this movie, showing further parallels to The Professional. Also, the opening scene is very similar to the opening scene of The Fifth Element, which Luc also directed. Maybe it's his calling card? This movie predates Terminator 2, so it's possible that the pen-in-hand routine was copied from Nikita. But maybe it's just a co-incedance.	Viewing Status #viewings=1 First seen in 1/2001

Ocean's Eleven	RANK=761
Category : Adventure Description : Excellent robbery movie with a highly original plan, straightforward and funny dialogue, and very likeable characters. The robbery plan is so twisted that at one point it's not even clear if things are going awry or going exactly to plan. Well worth seeing.	Viewing Status #viewings=1 First seen in 2/2002

The One	RANK=152
Category : Action Description : Existence is a multiverse comprised of all possible universes with every possible history. So far this is the stock-standard many-worlds interpretation of quantum theory. But here's where the movie bends the theory for the sake of drama; apparently the universes aren't separate. There are energy links between the different copies of the same person in the different universes, and when one of them dies their "life energy" is distributed among the survivors. Jet Li plays a man who wants to kill all the other copies of himself so that he keeps all the energy for himself - and becomes stronger and faster in the process. This movie was directed by the same 2 guys that used to direct episodes of The X-Files and later made their own excellent space combat TV series "Space:Above and Beyond". Glen Morgan and James Wong are usually fairly good at adding depth and impact to stock-standard plots. By jingo they failed miserably this time. The problem with The One is that no matter which way you look at it, no matter what genre you frame it in, this movie is just plain bad. In terms of Science Fiction, it gets the science fundamentally wrong, as I've already shown. In terms of Action movies, it isn't even a particularly spectacular action movie. In terms of Drama - there isn't any! There is absolutely no conflict resolution in the movie! The initial conflict of interests established at the beginning is unchanged by the end. I mean seriously, how can a script writer and director omit something as basic as conflict resolution?? I think its fairly clear that Glen and James can't do action flicks. They should stick to what they're good at: Drama. I can't believe I paid A$13 to see this loud, muddled, very disappointing flick. Jet Li had better take better scripts than this before he earns the odius title of sell-out.	Viewing Status #viewings=1 First seen in 1/2002

One Perfect Day	RANK=383
Category : Not Sure Description : Although pitched as a Go-style, Human Traffic-esque rave scene movie, the flashing and pounding is applied with appropriate restraint. Not the best Australian movie I've ever seen, but not the worst by far. Thankfully not visually obsessed with Melbourne or falling over its feet in eagerness to trot out aussie colloquialisms. Not a wicked drop of decadence in the place. Sydneysiders should take note! If you had to watch only 30 minutes of this 1h45min film, definitely the last half hour is more than ample reward for persisting through the preceding stretch of unconvincing acting and cheesy script. Sure there's some tension and some anguish. The plot is not lacking in relationships - at least six by my reckoning - but not so impressive when three of those are resolved by death. No, the best aspects of this movie are the acting by the leading lady, and the music in the finale. And in the credits just below the Best Boy is a member of crew who worked as a "Very Good Boy", so earning this flick some aussie humour bonus points - even if only after the curtain had already fallen.	Viewing Status #viewings=1 First seen in 3/2004

Payback	RANK=39
Category : Not Sure Description : Mel Gibson playing a bad guy in a movie. He smokes a lot in this movie. He hurts people. Somone bashes his fingers into a bloody pulp with a hammer during an interrogation, which is something that is not particualry pleasant to watch. Indeed, this is an altogether unpleasant movie. I really didn't like it.	Viewing Status #viewings=1 First seen in 3/1999

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