Wild Wild West - 7
Summer of Sam - 3
Drop Dead Gorgeous - 9
Scale 1(Awful)- 10(Absolutely Brillant)

Wild Wild West - 7

Wild Wild West isn’t anywhere near the disastrous flop the critics heralded it. Yes, Will Smith is playing his typically studly good guy, but he does it so well. The gadgetry in this movie is sheer eye candy, but it’s entertaining eye candy. Admittedly I never saw the television show that this movie was based on so maybe I’m just not seeing the butchery.

One thing in this movie I have to gloat over is the outstanding performance of Kenneth Branagh. Branagh makes this movie. His stylize over-the-top style of acting was perfect for the legless, heartless Loveless. Most critics call Branagh’s hammy performance the biggest fault of the movie—they completely miss the point of it. The character was poorly written, but with Branagh behind him he stood up and actually appeared to be notably bad.

Will Smith reenacts his character from Men In Black, except in a different time period. Kevin Kline, however, is also brilliant. Kline’s character has wit and charisma—it’s a wonder the heroines aren’t swooning over him. Then again he is kinda nerdy and not to mention weird. Both Smith and Kline do brief stints of this movie in drag and I’m sorry to me that alone is worth the price of admission.

Wild Wild West isn’t my highest recommendation of things to see but it you have nothing better to do and you want to see a good movie go see it. Small things like the bad pun of "No more Mister Knife guy," and the pseudo-predictability of Wild Wild West give it a rating of 7.

Summer of Sam - 3

It’s a Spike Lee flim it’s bound to be at least worth the price of admission, right? WRONG!!!! The movie is despite what the critics say and utter and total waste of film. The concept was good, some of the ideas presented in the movie were good they were just so wholly underdeveloped or in most cases ignored.

I went to see this movie in a big group and unlike the rest of the group I don’t think the movies fault was that it had too much sex and drugs. No I understood the purpose of those within the movie-- to show the hypocrisy of the people calling David Berkowitz a pervert. I wouldn't have minded that at all if it had fulfilled its purpose or even had an ounce of tension or humor that the trailers promised.

The movie focuses on the falling apart relationship of John Leguizamo and Mira Sorvino's characters Vinny and Dionna. and the paranoid surrounding Ritchie (Adrian Brody) who was into the punk scene as opposed to the disco scene like everyone else. The first concept was just pointless. Sam's murders only created unfulfilled cries of "I'll be faithful this time God is giving me a message" from Leguizamo-- ZZZZZZZZ. Pul-lease. The dialogue is stilted and not to mention unentertaining. The second focus had potential, but they used it at the very end of the movie when it was too late and the plot was too boring to save the movie.

In the trailers the witch-hunt for The Son of Sam played upon the sheer randomness and paranoia that the people of New York were speculating on. The trailer even goes as far as to say" Reggie Jackson‘s number is 44. So, Reggie Jackson is the .44 Caliber Killer." Sadly, this scene was edited from the movie. Probably the most amusing part of the movie is when the dog is shown talking. The appearance elicited huge laughter from the whole theater (For those of you unfamiliar with the history of the .44 Caliber Killer, when they caught him, he told the police the dog had told him to commit the murders). The scene with the dog telling Berkowitz to kill was supposed to be chilling and bizarre, but due to the slow pace of the movie it just strikes everyone as funny.

The movie did have a few redeeming qualities. The cinematography was brilliant. Lee shot the murder scenes from one constant angle, the passenger’s side window. So you could only see the people inside the car and a man walk up and shot them. No high dramatics like most films play up in murders. Dionna’s really long ‘Get out of my car" speech is brilliant.

Despite minor highlights this movie is really a clunker. You shouldn’t waste your money or time on it.

Drop Dead Gorgeous - 9

Drop Dead Gorgeous is not the rip roaring comedy the commercials promote it as. It is a wonderful and witty social commentary about beauty pageants. It skewers everything from eating disorders, poor and rich trailer trash mothers who push their daughters into beauty pageants so that they can live vicariously through them, the winning is everything mentality, and last but not least the false pretenses of Christianity and patriotism that these idiot things are based upon.

Kirsten Dunst is absolutely brilliant as a poor trailer trash girl, who puts make up on corpses at the local funeral parlor with the high ambitions of becoming like Diana Sawyer. She affects the Minnesota accent so wonderfully and completely. You find yourself undoubtedly cheering for her and praying she wins so she can get out of this godforsaken own she just does not belong in. Denise Richardson is perfectly evil, perfectly. Richardson has certainly found her niche playing bimbos who are true bitches. When she smiles you know something is up. Her character Becky Leeman is the richest girl in town and her mother Gloria Leeman played by Kristy Alley was the winner 17 years from when the movie takes play. Gloria has always pushed Becky toward winning at all costs. Becky gives all the "right" answers-- you know the "wholesome Christian answers" and she just sounds so phony. Oh yes, did I mention Gloria is the head of the pageant in the town? Can we just SMELL the evil?

This movie is absolutely wonderful, not aspect of the pageantry is safe. The talent segment is absolutely hilarious. Trust me though you never really wanted to hear Denise Richardson sing, but her waltz across the stage with a stuffed Jesus makes wholly up for it. The talents range from tap dancing (Dunst) and cheerleading to acting and dog calls. And the dance sequence with wet chairs is absolutely to die for.

I believe almost everyone can find some humor within some of the ironies of this movie. It is definitely worth the time and effort to haul yourself to the movie theater. I give it a 9, because I don’t fully agree with their decision to play completely off of stereotypes.