Word: machos
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...biochemist (Nicolas Cage) is dispatched to defuse the weapons; a wily hermit (Sean Connery), the only prisoner to escape Alcatraz and live, is to help Cage navigate the Rock1s maze of passageways. It all works very smartly. The Simpson-Bruckheimer production duo run clever variations on their macho obsessions (missiles, car chases, gay-baiting, the Crimson Tide mutiny plot). This ain1t art, exactly. But if you1re at the plex and need to choose between The Rock and a Cruise place, it1s no choice...
...strange mess: Everyone's worst fear (being found out) enacted in a flash tragedy. Why did he wear two V-for-valor pins? Two seems to be piling it on a bit thick. Did the first false-macho decoration demand a twin, a second iteration, to make it convincing...
Nash Bridges. Mac Swift. Like Thomas Magnum and Tony Baretta, these names imply a benighted sense of macho can do-ness. Not surprisingly, perhaps, both shows wallow in an anachronistic treatment of women. For the most part they are portrayed as victims-either of Bridges' noncommittal ways or of nasty evildoers from whom they need Y-chromosome-enhanced protection. Prostitutes in danger turn up on both shows, looking not at all as they do on the streets of the grittiest precincts in urban America, or even as they do on NYPD Blue. Waifish and fresh-faced, they resemble well-educated...
...craft: the integration of special effects and character development of Apollo 13, the mix of animals and robot beasts in Babe, the bloody briskness of the battle sequences in Braveheart, the claustrophobic submarine struggle in Crimson Tide and the jolting impact of Seven. Character study, animal film, martial epic, macho debating, upscale splatter--all genres sizzle or sink depending on the editor's skill...
Broken Arrow, a bomb-ticking chase movie about a daredevil pilot (Travolta) who steals two nuclear weapons, shows how easily the two cinemas can coexist. It flies at the speed of Macho 2 while allowing Woo to unpack his full cinematic arsenal: overhead shots, plenty of steamy atmosphere (Travolta smokes a lot), Cuisinart editing of the action scenes, slow motion to prolong the jitters and, for dialogue scenes that other directors would stand flatfooted and watch, lithe little tracking shots. If film school were fun, Woo would be the nutty professor...