Word: mattered
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...point where you're squirming in your seat. It's overcooked--almost like the way Barney emphasizes everything a little too much so that the kids will get it. Maybe the kids won't notice the film's problems anyway. And even if they do, does it matter? It's, like, totally Johnny. Totally tacky. Totally Disney. Merry Christmas, kids...
...Monsters, namely Whale's dreams and flashbacks. The former have him in his own movies, playing the Doctor Frankenstein to Boone's Monster and vice versa. Shot in retrospective monochrome, the film here manages to capture the beauty of Whale's movies without distracting the viewer from the matter at hand--Whale and Boone's increasingly complex relationship. Similarly, the flashbacks to the war, and to Whale's wistful memories of "love in the foxholes," are masterfully done. Alas, these all have the ulterior motive of emphasizing the film's already overweighted point: that gods are monsters, monsters are gods...
...pervasive use of technological gadgets is often confusing, but the audience has an ally in the naive Robert Dean. Will Smith plays the role with boyish charisma and power, using his wit, charm and physical strength to elude his pursuers. Despite the subject matter of his last two movies (Independence Day and Men in Black), Smith proves that his appeal lies in his own acting abilities rather than his adorable extra terrestrial counterparts. Enemy of the State demonstrates Smith's range of talents and solidifies his position as a major Hollywood force, not just a rap artist-turned-actor...
...subject matter of Enemy of the State is not complete nonsense, as the threat of constant surveillance is a fear in our modern world in the computer age. With a few PIN numbers and observational satellites, your life could be easily monitored and destroyed by a voyeuristic agency with the right technology and intelligence. The threat of terrorism increased by such atrocities as the Oklahoma City bombing has set some lawmakers into a fearful frenzy over preventive measures. And with cameras sitting on the top of traffic signals at intersections in England, can such surveillance techniques become policy...
...compose a symphony about the banal day of a domestic household. The program notes state that a critic even went so far as to call it a "joke in bad taste." Strauss's reply was "I did not mean to make fun. What can be more serious a matter than married life?" Strauss's domestic life is anything but dull. In the span of 24 hours the composer had to deal with an irate wife whom he also finds ravishingly beautiful, the howling of his infant son, and the pressure to compose...