New Acquisition: Great Expectations (1998)

 

Great Expectations (1998)

On the set: Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow and Alfonso Cuarón

Gwyneth Paltrow

Hush (1998)

A young bride becomes the emotional pawn of her controlling mother-in-law.

A standard and fully predictable plot with an unconvincing ending is hardly redeemed by good performances.  

Not really worth the second viewing...

Halliwell (no star): ""Dire, risible domestic melodrama with action and sex asides, from a rock bottom bestseller. It long outstays its welcome even for unintentinal hilarity."

Maltin *1/2: "Viewers could read a novel watching this "thriller" and still not miss anything. Lange appears to believe doing Blanche Dubois all over again."  

Contagion (2011)

Healthcare professionals, government officials and everyday people find themselves in the midst of a worldwide epidemic as the CDC works to find a cure.

Realistic, grand-scale and star-cast catastrophe movie manages to keep multiple stories and locations  seamlessly in line with the major plot; however, the matter-of-fact approach underplays the doom of a pandemic.

Maltin***: "Pulse-pounding account...Scott Z. Burns' screenplay is scary  because it's all so credible. Soderbergh handles the material in utterly straightforward fashion; there's no poetry here."

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

An estranged family of former child prodigies reunites when their father announces he is terminally ill.

Elaborately produced and obsessed with details, the story itself hardly goes anywhere, and the star cast is treated like pawns in a game of chess.

Halliwell*: "The fun here lies in the details - dalmatian-spotted mice, battered taxicabs, the elegant pages of an imaginary book - rather in the disjointed narrative, which sets the scene deftly and then collapses."

Maltin**1/2: "Rambling comedy has the same likable, eccentric qualities as the filmmakers' BOTTLE ROCKET and RUSHMORE and benefits from Hackman's savvy performance, but strains for effect and essentially has no story."

Gwyneth Paltrow

(ph: Mario Testino)

Bio:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwyneth_Paltrow