Search
Search results
David McK (3162 KP) rated Jingle All the Way (1997) in Movies
Dec 10, 2022
Mid 90s family friendly Christmas action comedy with Arnie Schwarzenegger as a workaholic dad who keeps breaking promises to his kid (a young Jake Lloyd. Yes, that Jake Lloyd who would later play kid Anakin Skywalker, who grows up to become Darth Vader) and ends up hunting all over town on Christmas Eve for this seasons must-have Christmas present: a turbo-man action doll.
Amusing enough, but not one of Arnie's better kid-friendly offerings IMO.
Amusing enough, but not one of Arnie's better kid-friendly offerings IMO.
David McK (3162 KP) rated Sharpe's Battle (1995) in Movies
Sep 18, 2022 (Updated Sep 18, 2022)
Mid-90s TV Sean Bean starring TV movie, loosely based on the Bernard Cornwell novel of the same name.
I say loosely based, but as not as loosely as the previous (Sharpe's Gold): here, the rough outline is pretty much the same as in the novel - sure, there are liberties taken and subplots left out and/or changed, but this *is* recognizably the same story, complete with Brigadier Guy Loup, the spanish Real Compania Irelande (sp?) et al
I say loosely based, but as not as loosely as the previous (Sharpe's Gold): here, the rough outline is pretty much the same as in the novel - sure, there are liberties taken and subplots left out and/or changed, but this *is* recognizably the same story, complete with Brigadier Guy Loup, the spanish Real Compania Irelande (sp?) et al
David McK (3162 KP) rated The Day of the Jackal (40th anniversary edition) in Books
Apr 23, 2019
I think I first read this book in the mid 90s when I was in my mid teens, pre-GCSEs.
Flash forward about 20 years, and I think I picked it up again when it was on offer on Kindle. As I didn't really remember all that much about it - save that it detailed a plot to kill Charles de Gaulle, and that there's a film starring Bruce Willis based on it - I thought I would give it a re-read.
While there's no doubting the technical proficiency in it, and the (almost) insane amount of detail, if I'm honest I actually found this to be rather plodding; rather pedestrian. I get it: most police work is such, but (IMO) that doesn't really make an engaging read.
Flash forward about 20 years, and I think I picked it up again when it was on offer on Kindle. As I didn't really remember all that much about it - save that it detailed a plot to kill Charles de Gaulle, and that there's a film starring Bruce Willis based on it - I thought I would give it a re-read.
While there's no doubting the technical proficiency in it, and the (almost) insane amount of detail, if I'm honest I actually found this to be rather plodding; rather pedestrian. I get it: most police work is such, but (IMO) that doesn't really make an engaging read.
David McK (3162 KP) rated The Mask (1994) in Movies
Sep 23, 2020
"S.. S... Smokin'!"
Mid 90s mix of CGI and live action, that is perfectly suited to it's main star (Jim Carrey, then just coming off his success in Ace Ventura) rubber faced antics, and that also had an acting credit 'introducing Cameron Diaz' in what was her breakout role as Tina Carlyle, the club singer who bored bank clerk Stanley Ipkiss (Jim Carrey) falls for at roughly the same time he discovers the Mask, that transforms him into - basically - a 'real life' Tex Avery cartoon character!
Mid 90s mix of CGI and live action, that is perfectly suited to it's main star (Jim Carrey, then just coming off his success in Ace Ventura) rubber faced antics, and that also had an acting credit 'introducing Cameron Diaz' in what was her breakout role as Tina Carlyle, the club singer who bored bank clerk Stanley Ipkiss (Jim Carrey) falls for at roughly the same time he discovers the Mask, that transforms him into - basically - a 'real life' Tex Avery cartoon character!
David McK (3162 KP) rated Ransom (1996) in Movies
Nov 7, 2021
Mid-90s thriller, starring Mel Gibson (back when he was still at the height of his career, before going completely loco IRL and getting himself into all sorts of trouble) as a wealthy airline owner whose son is kidnapped, and who must pay a ransom in order to get the kid back.
However, for 'reasons', and following a botched attempt to do so which the FBI crash, he decides instead to offer the ransom as a bounty on the kidnappers instead - kidnappers which the film has no qualms whatsoever about revealing from pretty much the get go.
That would have been a great twist (offering the ransom as a bounty, I mean) had the marketing for the movie not relied so heavily on it.
There's also surprisingly little made of it in the movie proper, save for one or two throwaway lines by interviewed citizens on the street.
As such, the film really relies on the 'star power' of Gibson himself and his co-star Rene Russo, alongside a strong turn by FBI agent Delroy Lindo and Gary Sinise.
The result is one of Gibson's more forgettable mid-90s thrillers, I feel.
However, for 'reasons', and following a botched attempt to do so which the FBI crash, he decides instead to offer the ransom as a bounty on the kidnappers instead - kidnappers which the film has no qualms whatsoever about revealing from pretty much the get go.
That would have been a great twist (offering the ransom as a bounty, I mean) had the marketing for the movie not relied so heavily on it.
There's also surprisingly little made of it in the movie proper, save for one or two throwaway lines by interviewed citizens on the street.
As such, the film really relies on the 'star power' of Gibson himself and his co-star Rene Russo, alongside a strong turn by FBI agent Delroy Lindo and Gary Sinise.
The result is one of Gibson's more forgettable mid-90s thrillers, I feel.
David McK (3162 KP) rated Sharpe's Eagle (1993) in Movies
Jul 31, 2021 (Updated Jul 31, 2021)
The second of the early-to-mid 90s TV adaptations of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series, based on the first published of those novels and starring Sean Bean in the title role.
And, already, the restrictions of a TV budget are beginning to show somewhat: The Battle of Talavera, for instance (which occurs at the end of both the novel and this made-for-TV movie) is a decidedly small-scale affair, for instance!
Still, for all that, this is still an enjoyable enough adaptation of the source material.
And, already, the restrictions of a TV budget are beginning to show somewhat: The Battle of Talavera, for instance (which occurs at the end of both the novel and this made-for-TV movie) is a decidedly small-scale affair, for instance!
Still, for all that, this is still an enjoyable enough adaptation of the source material.
David McK (3162 KP) rated Only You Can Save Mankind (Johnny Maxwell #1) in Books
Feb 20, 2022
"After all, joysticks don't have 'Don't Fire' buttons on them ..."
Only You Can Save Mankind!
Why me?
If not you, who else?
I first read this not long after it was published, back in the early-to-mid 1990s, at which time I was exactly it's target audience being in my mid teens myself.
By that point, I had already discovered Terry Pratchett's wonderful Discworld novels, but hadn't read many - any? - of his non-Discworld books.
That changed when I read this, which would go on to become the first in his so-called Johnny Maxwell series (comprising this, Johnny and the Dead and Johnny and the Bomb).
Reading this now (in the early 2020s), it still holds up remarkably well, even if it is noticeable how much society has changed: mobile phones weren't really a thing back in the 90s, personal computers were relatively new, the Gulf War was still ongoing ...
Why me?
If not you, who else?
I first read this not long after it was published, back in the early-to-mid 1990s, at which time I was exactly it's target audience being in my mid teens myself.
By that point, I had already discovered Terry Pratchett's wonderful Discworld novels, but hadn't read many - any? - of his non-Discworld books.
That changed when I read this, which would go on to become the first in his so-called Johnny Maxwell series (comprising this, Johnny and the Dead and Johnny and the Bomb).
Reading this now (in the early 2020s), it still holds up remarkably well, even if it is noticeable how much society has changed: mobile phones weren't really a thing back in the 90s, personal computers were relatively new, the Gulf War was still ongoing ...
LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated Independence Day (1996) in Movies
Feb 12, 2022
It easy to forget how jaw dropping Independence Day was when it first landed in the mid 90s, thanks to the plethora of sub-par disaster films that followed in its wake, thanks in no small part to this very films director, but the fact remains that it's is still blockbuster gold to this day.
It's cheesy, it's loud, it's dumb, but it has an incredibly likable cast, effects that still hold up, and absolutely shit loads of general destruction.
It also has possibly THE best speech ever commited to film. If you don't get all riled up during that speech, then you are dead inside, I don't make the rules.
It's cheesy, it's loud, it's dumb, but it has an incredibly likable cast, effects that still hold up, and absolutely shit loads of general destruction.
It also has possibly THE best speech ever commited to film. If you don't get all riled up during that speech, then you are dead inside, I don't make the rules.
David McK (3162 KP) rated Moonfall (2022) in Movies
Aug 16, 2022
Peter Capaldi, Dr Who, 'Kill the moon'
Arthur C Clarke, 'Rendezvous with Rama'
2001: A Space Odyssey.
Any number of Roland Emmerich's own disaster movies.
It might seem odd talking about all those, bit throw them in a blender and the result might be something like this!
I was expecting a traditional end of the world disaster movie - like 2012, say, or Deep Impact, or something along that vein - which the movie does start as, with the moon mysteriously knocked out of it orbit and hence causing all kinds of chaos on good old planet Earth. Roughly about 2/3rds of the way in, though, it completely changes tack, becoming more of a sci-fi spectacle than anything, and closer - perhaps - to one of Emmerich's own most successful films of the mid 90s ...
Arthur C Clarke, 'Rendezvous with Rama'
2001: A Space Odyssey.
Any number of Roland Emmerich's own disaster movies.
It might seem odd talking about all those, bit throw them in a blender and the result might be something like this!
I was expecting a traditional end of the world disaster movie - like 2012, say, or Deep Impact, or something along that vein - which the movie does start as, with the moon mysteriously knocked out of it orbit and hence causing all kinds of chaos on good old planet Earth. Roughly about 2/3rds of the way in, though, it completely changes tack, becoming more of a sci-fi spectacle than anything, and closer - perhaps - to one of Emmerich's own most successful films of the mid 90s ...
David McK (3162 KP) rated Men in Black (1997) in Movies
Dec 23, 2019
"Protecting the earth from the scum of the universe"
The second of the mid-to-late 90s of Will Smit's one-two rapid ascension to movie super stardom (following Independence Day), which sees him recruited by Tommy Lee Jones to join the Men in Black: a top-secret government organisation set up to monitor alien presence on earth.
While we're now up to four entries in the series as a whole following this summer's (2019) by-all-account-disappointing Men in Black: International, it's easy to forget just how well this movie still holds together, alongside some classic exchanges such as:
"Why the big secret? People are smart"
"A person is smart. People are dumb panicky dangerous animals and you know it"
"You do know Elvis is dead, right?"
"No, Elvis is not dead. He just went home"
The second of the mid-to-late 90s of Will Smit's one-two rapid ascension to movie super stardom (following Independence Day), which sees him recruited by Tommy Lee Jones to join the Men in Black: a top-secret government organisation set up to monitor alien presence on earth.
While we're now up to four entries in the series as a whole following this summer's (2019) by-all-account-disappointing Men in Black: International, it's easy to forget just how well this movie still holds together, alongside some classic exchanges such as:
"Why the big secret? People are smart"
"A person is smart. People are dumb panicky dangerous animals and you know it"
"You do know Elvis is dead, right?"
"No, Elvis is not dead. He just went home"