Word: smarted
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Advertised as an alternative to summer blockbusters, the movie lets you feel smart for having laughed at something weighty by poking fun at the problems of class in Austen's England. In choosing his material, McGrath obviously revels in mocking the characters' indulgences, and nowhere does he have more of a field day than with the picture-book world he believes the characters inhabit: endlessly decorated lawns, trees, countrysides, even the people themselves. Characters seem absurd just walking by such a background...
Sandra Bullock provides a couple of surprises: first, that we don't see her character so much as her top billing would indicate; and second, when we do, we wish we wouldn't. Trying through rushed, distracted delivery to evoke the smart-aleck single-mindedness of her law student character, she rapidly becomes irritating and uninteresting. Not helping is the romantic story line between her character and Jake that fizzles yet remains referred to later...
...lethal. "There's a great danger in looking for the most sophisticated plan," says Harry Brandon, the FBI's former deputy assistant director in charge of international terrorism and a supervisor of the Pan Am 103 case. "We tend to think terrorists are invincible, that they're smart as hell, and often they're not." Just lucky. "All you need is a clock and an explosive that's powerful enough," says Ronay. On Pan Am Flight 103, the bomb was the size of a coffee cup, but it happened to be placed near the skin of the plane, where...
They are all smart, yes, but they are also efficient managers of time who can maintain intense concentration and energy for long periods. In some cases, they need a helping hand. When Leslie Marx is asked how she is able to juggle her position as an assistant professor at the Simon school of business at the University of Rochester with her standing as the top U.S. epee fencer, she responds with a laugh, "A forgiving employer...
...really believe that. In the words of that very smart screenwriter William Goldman, "Stars will not play weak, and they will not play blemished"--especially stars who are playing potential feminist paragons. Indeed, we're pretty sure Patrick Sheane Duncan's script will also find some circumstances to extenuate Serling's initial screw-up, since he's played by a star...