Racing Stripes

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Bill Murray and Harold Lloyd head this up as recruits into the Army. They get involved in one wacky situation after another and hilarity ensues! Oh, wait a minute. My wife informed me that it was Harold Ramis not Harold Lloyd. I guess Harold Lloyd was a silent movie comic. Nonetheless, it is comedy gold as the two make their way through basic training. A classic line in the movie is when John Candy says, "My doctor says I swallow a lot of aggression, along with a lot of pizzas". Um. Now my wife is telling me that the name of the movie I'm thinking of is Stripes not Racing Stripes. I guess Racing Stripes is about a talking zebra and I haven't seen it so never mind.

Star Wars: Episode II

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Great special effects! You can barely see the wires holding the little ships up. Plus the light saber battles are great. It's amazing what the puppeteer does with Yoda. He almost looks real.

But what is it about this film that bugs me? It could be because it's confusing that in Star Wars the Federation is bad but in Star Trek the Federation is good. But maybe it's that there is zero chemistry between Padme Armadillo and Anny Skywalker. Some say it's because of bad casting. I disagree. It was bad writing. I mean Hayden Christiensen is no Cary Grant but I think he would have performed better if his character wasn't such a needy whiney mess. He spends most of the time with Padme begging her to love him. What a wimp. With that script, they may as well have cast Leonardo DiCaprio as Anny. He looks more like the boy from Episode I anyway.

Samuel L. Jackson's performance is decent but it would have been nice to see Windu with more of the elements of Shaft. That Windu is a bad Jedi--shut your mouth!

It will be interesting to see Episode III. Obviously, Padme will die. Boo hoo. Plus we should see the beginnings for Luke Skywalker and Princess Lea. I suppose they will have to do quite a makeup job on Mark Hammil and Carrie Fischer to make them look younger.

National Treasure

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Nicolas Cage stars as Benjamin Franklin Gates, treasure hunter. While this movie doesn’t rise to the level of An Affair to Remember, it is mildly amusing. There is much more to be found in the way of special effects but Cage is hardly in the same league as Cary Grant. Anyway, Cage goes through this movie seeking the greatest treasure the world has ever known thinking discovery is imminent only to find that he has been led to yet another clue he has to figure out. Along the way, he steals the Declaration of Independence (there’s a clue on the back) to prevent it from being stolen. Yes, that’s right. He steals it to prevent it from being stolen. Is that brilliant writing or what?

Jon Voight delivers his best performance since playng Noah in the NBC miniseries, Noah’s Ark. In case you were wondering, Mary Steenburgen is not in this film.

Warning: Eat before seeing this movie. I went on an empty stomach and ate a huge bag of popcorn. I felt sick.

Mrs. Doubtfire

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I give this one eyeball because I saw this movie at the theater and felt ripped off. Robin Williams' character was strange. When he was dressed as a woman doing a children's show, I thought he was creepy. I can't imagine any of my kids watching a show like that. It made Mr. Rogers look riveting. I think comedies should make you laugh out loud at least once. I didn't. Also, this movie is targeted at kids but is rightfully rated PG-13. It's not kid friendly and my kids will not see it. Whatever happened to Mork from Ork? And why isn't Jonathan Winters in this movie. He was on an episode of Scooby Doo I saw recently. You ever notice that Ed Bradley on 60 minutes looks like one of those 1970's G.I. Joe's with life like hair and Kung Fu grip?

Top Gun

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It was okay. I liked Iron Eagles with Louis Gosset better. It had more realism. But neither was very funny. Save your money and watch it on late night free TV.