Word: plot
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...reflection will the true meaning sink in, the object of derision be spotted and the author's point be made. In Oliver Stone's new release, "Natural Born Killers," none of the qualifications for satire are met. Instead, Stone pummels the viewer with a series of images, linking the plot together as if he, not just the two main characters, is suffering through a bad trip. He tries arrogantly to throw the movie at you and sneeringly demands that you acknowledge the Art he thinks he has created. But in fact, with his disjointed plot structure and blatantly flexing, self...
...disjointed, erratic plot follows two star-crossed, gun-toting lovers who spend two weeks killing more 5than 50 people across the country. While the original screenplay comes from the masterful Quentin Tarantino, writer and director of the tight, punchy stunner of a film, "Reservoir Dogs," apparently Stone changed the script so much that Tarantino only wanted to be credited with the original idea, not the script itself. I don't blame him for wanting to be as far removed from this fiasco as possible...
...frequently entertaining mix of Ben Casey melodrama (should an operation be performed to separate two Siamese twins, even though both may die?) and St. Elsewhere-style modernism (the surgeons sing Midnight Train to Georgia around the operating table). Kelley tries to bring the format into the '90s: one early plot line involves a woman whose hmo won't allow her brain-tumor operation to be performed by the more experienced surgeons at Chicago Hope. Yet these doctors are self-righteous heroes of the old TV school. Hospital executive, arguing against performing the dangerous Siamese-twin operation...
...perhaps shouldering for space on the shelf, perhaps simply from inexperience -- Quindlen writes a New York Times column, but this is only her second novel -- she has given her story a cumbersome plot frame, involving a grand jury investigation of a mercy killing and a melodramatic double misunderstanding underlying an estrangement between Ellen and her father. This elaboration clutters the novel but does not spoil it. Nor does the sense that beyond its last page, Ellen still has a living parent whom she understands only as a collection of flawed character traits...
...federal investigation into the blaze on a Colorado mountain in July that claimed the lives of 14 firefighters concluded that they and their supervisors committed crucial mistakes and ignored standard safety procedures. Among the errors in judgment cited were failures to plot an escape route and to guard against extremely dry vegetation and volatile winds...