Mirror Mirror

Mirror Mirror; Take Tarsem Singh's exquisite visuals & shove into a studio fairy tale = a fantastic looking disjointed cloying bore; C+

Conspiracy Theory

Directed by:  Richard Donner
Starring:  Mel Gibson, Julia Roberts, Patrick Stewart, Cylk Cozart
Running Time:  2h 15min

Gibson gives a solid performance as the nut job who finds himself involved in a real conspiracy.  Right from the start he has the audience and unfortunately things fall out of his hands and the audience is forced to endure way too much.  As the film grows in length so too does the need to seriously suspend disbelief or else give up hope on the film.  Roberts and Stewart are fine in their roles but the film drags and the extremely obvious attempts at humour come off lame.  It's as if the writer had stored up some jokes he thought were funny and decided to drop them in the script periodically, just to destroy all packing and timing.  This film could have gone somewhere, and almost did, but it eventually bent to Hollywood chase scenes and romance.

Grade: C

Everyone Says I Love You

Directed by:  Woody Allen
Starring:  Woody Allen, Julia Roberts, Edward Norton, Drew Barrymore
Running Time:  1h 37min

Woody once again surrounds himself with beautiful women and tries to make us believe that one of them (Roberts) will fall in love with him.  At least this time there's a funny explanation, as his daughter has knowledge of everything Roberts tells her shrink  Having the narration of his daughter is very effective and allows other characters to play in the film, without a direct connection to the irritating Woody.  The set pieces of singing and dancing are hilarious.  Classic spoofing of the musical genre, at its finest.  Allen knows exactly what's sweet and romantic about musicals, and what's just plain cheese and onions.  It's a fine parody film, and musical comedy in its own right.  Once again, Allen finds the perfect line to walk and executes again.

Grade:  B