Cast: Nicolas Cage (Ben Sanderson), Elisabeth Shue (Sera), Julian Sands (Yuri), Richard Lewis (Peter), Steven Weber (Marc Nussbaum)
For complete cast info, see IMDb's Leaving Las Vegas page.
An alcoholic screenwriter who has lost everything because of his addiction goes to Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets Sera, who he befriends and forms a pact not to interfere in the others' lives. Leaving Las Vegas is a wonderful movie! Definitely not for those who can't handle depressing moments in film, but if you can and you somehow missed this, rent it now. It won one Oscar and was nominated for tons of other awards for a reason. Check it out!
Grade: A-
Labels: 1995, drama, Elisabeth Shue, movie, Nicolas Cage, romance
Reviewed by Kat at the 2:50 PM show | 0 screams
Cast: Mel Gibson (William Wallace), James Robinson (Young William Wallace), Mhairi Calvey (Young Murron MacClannough), Catherine McCormack (Murron MacClannough)
For complete cast info, see IMDb's Braveheart page.
Definitely one of the best movies I've seen. Amazingly well done! I had been told it was a lot like Rob Roy, which I had already seen, so I figured I'd wait to rent Braveheart. Bad decision! I'm so glad I got to see Braveheart in a movie theater. It's much better than Rob Roy!
Braveheart was such a wonderful story aboout a man who dared to defy his king and unite the Scots in battle against the English. This story really touched my heart and even made me cry. I highly recommend it and definitely agree with the Oscar buzz that it was the best movie of 1995!
Grade: A+
Labels: 1995, action, Best Picture, drama, history, Mel Gibson, movie, war
Reviewed by Kat at the 4:20 PM show | 0 screams
Cast (voices): Tom Hanks (Woody), Tim Allen, (Buzz Lightyear) Don Rickles (Mr. Potato Head), Jim Varney (Slinky Dog), Wallace Shawn (Rex), John Ratzenberger (Hamm), Annie Potts (Bo Peep)
For complete cast info, see IMDb's Toy Story page.
I've liked Pixar's animation for years, so I was very excited when they were making a full-length movie. I thought that together with Disney (who have led the feature animation pack) Toy Story could be amazing and - wow! They did a great job! Pixar animation is getting better and better. The humans still need work, but toys were the perfect subject for their first movie.
The story is wonderful, the soundtrack is very good, and it's amazing how much they made me care about the life of toys!
I can't wait for Pixar's next movie.
Grade: A+
Labels: 1995, adventure, animated, comedy, Disney, family, fantasy, John Ratzenberger, movie, musical, Pixar, Tom Hanks
Reviewed by Kat at the 1:50 PM show | 0 screams
Cast: Robin Williams (Alan Parrish), Jonathan Hyde (Samuel Alan Parrish/Hunter Van Pelt), Kirsten Dunst (Judy Shepherd), Bradley Pierce (Peter Shepherd)
For complete cast, see IMDb's Jumanji page.
What an amazing cast! Far from the best Robin Williams movie or family movie out there, but the cast is great and the game the kids find in the house they move into is outrageous. Alan Parrish has been trapped in the game for over 30 years. After the kids free him, they end up releasing all sorts of terrors.
The special effects leave a lot to be desired, but if you can forget that and just enjoy the movie, it's pretty entertaining.
Grade: B
Labels: 1995, action, adventure, comedy, drama, family, fantasy, Kirsten Dunst, movie, Robin Williams
Reviewed by Kat at the 2:40 PM show | 0 screams
Cast: Steve Martin (George Banks), Diane Keaton (Nina Banks), Martin Short (Franck Eggelhoffer), Kimberly Williams (Annie Banks-MacKenzie), George Newbern (Bryan MacKenzie)
For complete info, see IMDb's Father of the Bride Part II page.
Definitely not as good as the first one, but that's to be expected of a sequel. I thought this movie with babies being brought into the world was cute. Definitely worth renting, though probably not worth much more than that.
Steve Martin plays the nervous father perfectly again.
Grade: B-
Labels: 1995, comedy, family, movie, Steve Martin
Reviewed by Kat at the 4:50 PM show | 0 screams
Cast: Jeff McCarthy (Beast), Christianne Tisdale (Belle, understudy), Stephen Bishop (Gaston, understudy), and a great supporting cast
I was really hoping to see Chuck Wagner as the Beast, but Jeff McCarthy did a great job. The cast was very good.
The music is good, as it was in the movie, and the sets and costumes are wonderful. I think that some things they changed from the movie could have been done on stage and were presented in a way that seemed like they wanted to save money rather than give the audience the best result, but I know that happens a lot on Broadway.
The best thing about Beauty and the Beast is that it gets a lot of parents to take their children to a Broadway theatre to see a show and I think this introduction to musical theatre is important.
If you have children, take them to see this show - they'll probably love it and you'll enjoy it. If not, there might be a better show to see, but if you want a fun night without heavy theatre, this is a very enjoyable show.
Grade: B-
Reviewed by Kat at the 2:00 PM show | 0 screams
Cast: Michael Douglas (President Andrew Shepherd), Annette Bening (Sydney Ellen Wade), Martin Sheen (A.J. MacInerney), Michael J. Fox (Lewis Rothschild)
For complete cast info, see IMDb's The American President page.
I can't explain why this is one of my favorite movies (perhaps my favorite - even a decade later), but something about The American President really made me laugh and touched my heart - two things I love in a movie.
The cast of The American President is absolutely amazing. There's not a single actor in this movie who isn't wonderful. As I watched it, I kept being surprised by everyone I saw in the movie. This movie is so quirky and funny and treats the the president like a normal guy, which you rarely see in movies. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to go through a campaign like this in real life, but I think The American President did a good job of showing what it might be like.
Grade: A
Labels: 1995, Annette Bening, comedy, drama, Martin Sheen, Michael Douglas, Michael J. Fox, movie, romance
Reviewed by Kat at the 2:20 PM show | 0 screams
Cast: Julia Roberts (Grace King Bichon), Dennis Quaid (Eddie Bichon), Robert Duvall (Wyly King), Gena Rowlands (Georgia King), Kyra Sedgwick (Emma Rae King)
For complete cast, see IMDb's Something to Talk About page.
This movie had much more of a serious side than I realized from the ads and it was refreshing to see a comedy that had so much drama and real life in it. Something to Talk About shows the extremes some people go to when they're hurting. It's about fighting through the pain and seeing how things end up when all the dust settles.
I think the tagline for the movie was very appropriate and the perfect description of Something to Talk About. It is: "A story about husbands, wives, parents, children and other natural disasters." That's exactly what you get. It's very well executed with a wonderful cast.
Grade: B
Labels: 1995, comedy, Dennis Quaid, drama, Julia Roberts, movie, romance
Reviewed by Kat at the 6:50 PM show | 0 screams
Cast: Tom Hanks (Jim Lovell), Bill Paxton (Fred Haise), Kevin Bacon (Jack Swigert), Gary Sinise (Ken Mattingly), Ed Harris (Gene Kranz)
For complete info, see IMDb's Apollo 13 page.
Apollo 13 is definitely a very good real-life drama directed by Ron Howard. Somehow, it didn't quite live up to my expectations. I can't really put my finger on the reason for this. The cast is great, the drama was well done, it's a great story based on real events... Perhaps it's just that Tom Hanks has been in a big movie for the last two years running and I would have rather seen someone else or something.
Either way, Apollo 13 is a very well done movie about events that really happened to the astronauts on their way to the moon.
Grade: B
Labels: 1995, adventure, drama, Ed Harris, history, Kevin Bacon, movie, Tom Hanks
Reviewed by Kat at the 1:50 PM show | 0 screams
Cast: Irene Bedard, Judy Kuhn, Mel Gibson, David Ogden Stiers
For complete cast info, see IMDb's Pocahontas page.
Definitely not the best Disney animated picture out there (or even in the top 10), but the animation is pretty good, the songs are decent, and the story could have been worse. The main problem with this is that the original story of Pocahontas includes so much violence that the story had to be cut drastically to fit with a Disney animated movie.
What's really sad is that parents still complain that Pocahontas makes the "white man" look bad. Working for Disney makes it difficult to respond. What I'd like to say is, "Hello! Do you know ANYTHING about history? We came in and murdered tons of people! Disney was KIND and really made us look a lot better than we were in real life." But, what I say is entirely different... ("I'm so sorry that you feel that way," etc.) Worth renting for the music. Alan Menken did a great job with that as he has in almost everything he's done.
Grade: C+
Labels: 1995, animated, Disney, family, Mel Gibson, movie, musical
Reviewed by Kat at the 2:50 PM show | 0 screams
Cast: Val Kilmer (Batman/Bruce Wayne), Tommy Lee Jones (Two-Face/Harvey Dent), Jim Carrey (Riddler/Edward Nygma), Nicole Kidman (Dr. Chase Meridian), Chris O'Donnell (Robin/Dick Grayson), Michael Gough (Alfred Pennyworth)
For complete cast info, see IMDb's Batman Forever page.
I loved Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne, but I thought there could have been someone better for Batman himself. In spite of my disappointment in Batman Forever, I do think that Val Kilmer was a better Batman. The down side of the new lead is that he didn't make a very convincing Bruce Wayne.
How is it possible for such an amazing cast to make such a horrible Batman movie? I think the casting was the main thing Joel Schumacher did wrong (other than not leaving it as dark as Tim Burton's Gotham). I'm not saying that he didn't pick an amazing cast, but just that there were too many of them. He introduced too many villains at once and brought Robin (never a character I liked) into the picture, too. I don't think a single movie can handle all of that and still have a coherent story. So, there wasn't really much of a story...
Here's hoping that Tim Burton gets the reigns back for the next movie!
Grade: C-
Labels: 1995, action, crime, fantasy, movie, Nicole Kidman, Tommy Lee Jones, Val Kilmer
Reviewed by Kat at the 4:00 PM show | 0 screams
Cast: Bruce Willis (John McClane), Jeremy Irons (Simon Gruber), Samuel L. Jackson (Zeus Carver), Graham Greene (Joe Lambert)
For complete info, see IMDb's Die Hard: With a Vengeance page.
If you liked the other Die Hard movies, don't miss this one! I know that every time there is a new sequel you have to worry about how good it is, but they did a good job with this one. If you like action movies, you'll find a ton of action here! The movie starts off with an explosion almost right away, so there is no doubt that you know what you're going to see during the movie. Great action!
Grade: B
Labels: 1995, action, Bruce Willis, crime, movie, Samuel L. Jackson, thriller
Reviewed by Kat at the 7:00 PM show | 0 screams
Cast: Liam Neeson (Robert Roy MacGregor), Jessica Lange (Mary MacGregor)
For complete cast info, see IMDb's Rob Roy page.
The story of Rob Roy is wonderful. It was so well done that it almost made me not want to see Braveheart in a theater, since it seemed like I'd already been there and done that. Of course, that wasn't the case at all. Though they are similar in theme, they are completely different stories. If you missed Rob Roy, since you were anticipating the release of Braveheart check it out.
Robert Roy MacGregor fights for a better future for those in his town and all of Scotland. It's a very well done and romantic tale with a lot of bumps along the way. The cast is amazing and the story is wonderful. This story is sad at times and makes you laugh at others. It really shows how difficult life was in the 1600s. This is a very well done period piece and I recommend it.
Grade: B+
Labels: 1995, action, drama, Liam Neeson, movie, romance, war
Reviewed by Kat at the 7:20 PM show | 0 screams