Movie Rental Recommendations -- AP-AZ
The Apostle
This is one freaky movie. Robert Duvall plays Sonny, a southern Christian minister who will beat up anybody who looks at him cross-eyed while immediately asking for the Lord's forgiveness. Sonny's temper finally gets the best of him when his cheatin' wife, played by a gaunt Farrah Fawcett, convinces the church to kick him out of the pulpit. While Sonny the man is flawed (to say the least), Sonny the evangelist truly seems to have a gift from God. Just watch out for his right hook. A good movie that provokes equal amounts of thought and feelings.
IMDb | Other Reviews Denise Felder
Can you give him a hallelujah? Jack-of-all-trades Robert Duvall (he wrote, directed and put up the dough for this labor of love) is simply astounding in this exuberant passion play. As a self-proclaimed holy man on the run after a moment of tragic pique (a masterfully staged scene), Duvall creates a character embodying enormous contradictions and infuses the entire film with an energy that's impossible to resist. The result is all too rare: a feel-good film that won't make a more cynical viewer feel bad. Also starring Miranda Richardson, Farrah Fawcett and Billy Bob Thornton.
Andrew Wright
Apt Pupil
A tense game of intellectual cat-and-mouse develops when a high school student discovers that his neighbor was a Nazi concentration camp guard. His fascination with the elderly man and his past escalates out of control when the two try to blackmail each other. The thriller takes a few surprising twists that will leave you guessing until the end, but Brad Renfro is terribly mismatched against a masterful Ian McKellen.
IMDb | Other Reviews Erik Nelson
Armageddon
Bruce Willis plays a myopic oil driller who is tapped to save the world. There are only two women in the movie: Willis' daughter, played by Liv Tyler, and one of the NASA astronauts. All in all, the movie seems fairly mysoginistic, but if you want to cool off in the theater during the summer heatwave, "Armageddon" makes for two hours of good entertainment. The special effects are good enough to warrant seeing this movie while it's in the theater, but you may want to save a few dollars and check it out during a matinee. The plot is relatively consistent, but the tone of the movie jumps around a lot from comedic to dramatic to just plain sappy.
IMDb | Other Reviews Al Macey
There really wasn't that much to this movie. I won't even tell you that it's a must for the big screen. Actually, it's very predictable and, thus, a bit boring. A renegade oil driller is needed to blow up an asteroid destined to destroy Earth in a couple of weeks. He's so good that he's allowed to pick his own ragtag crew, including a young man who reminds him of himself in earlier days: a young man who's also sleeping with his daughter. The misfits are trained and sent to the asteroid where ... well, you can guess what happens. A slight surpise at the end, but still. It's a weekend afternoon feature.
Parker Hodges
Predictable plot. Mediocre acting. Nothing-you-haven't-seen-before special effects. So incredibly awful I don't want to waste any more energy writing about it.
Erik Nelson
As Good As It Gets
Jack Nicholson has some of the funniest lines in this movie. He offends basically everyone, and it's a riot. Greg Kinnear does a great job playing the gay neighbor, and I really liked Cuba Gooding Jr. Helen Hunt is possibly the only person who can change Nicholson's character, who no one likes, and it's great to see what happens. Perfect for a Saturday afternoon or evening.
IMDb | Other Reviews Jon Errickson
I didn't like this movie all that well. I found it quite predictable. Helen Hunt makes this movie. Wait for it to hit cable, but certainly don't pay "new release" price to rent.
Kelly Peterson
This is as good a role as Jack Nicholson's ever had, and he plays it extremely well. The plot moves along a bit slowly, but the interaction between the characters it so engaging that you don't really notice. Intriguing movie about the differences in human nature, and how they can sometimes bring people together. "As Good As It Gets" walks the fine line between comedy and drama -- and actually manages to reach the other side.
Erik Nelson
Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery
Yeah, baby! The first in what creator and star Mike Myers hopes to be a long line of "Austin Powers" movies is totally shagadelic. It's a great satire on James Bond-type spy movies and '60s culture. There are parts that are so funny, with the punch lines coming so fast and furiously, I had to rewind the tape to catch all the gags. An original and clever comedy.
IMDb | Other Reviews Denise Felder
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
A worthy sequel to the original, but not quite as good. There are still many priceless scenes, but the potty-humor factor is pushed way up. I'm sure many 13-year-old boys will consider this to be the greatest movie of all time. See the first one, then see this one, then see the first one again.
IMDb | Other Reviews Denise Felder
The Avengers
I've never seen "The Avengers" TV series, but I highly doubt that it would have shed any light on what the heck was going on in this movie. What was this movie about? For the first 10, no, 15 minutes, I couldn't have told you. If I had to guess what was happening in the first portion of the movie, I would say that it centered around villains getting their kicks dressing up as oversized Beanie Babies and really thirsty people who spent a lot of time drinking tea. And talk about frivolous dialogue among the characters ... Sean, Sean, Sean. What was Sean Connery thinking?
IMDb | Other Reviews Garmen Shiu
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