Movie Review: The Crush (1993)

Genre: Suspense  

Director: Alan Shapiro  

Starring: Cary Elwes, Alicia Silverstone, Kurtwood Smith  
Running Time: 89 minutes  

Synopsis: Investigative reporter Nick (Cary Elwes) accepts a new position working for a magazine in Seattle (but filmed in Vancouver, Canada). In a tony neighbourhood, he rents the guest house of wealthy couple Cliff and Liv (Kurtwood Smith and Gwynyth Walsh). Their precocious 14-year-old daughter Adrian (Alicia Silverstone) is frequently left home alone, and develops a serious crush on Nick. His initial ineptitude encourages her behavior, but when Nick befriends work colleague Amy (Jennifer Rubin), Adrian's obsessive malevolence is triggered.

What Works Well: Adrian is smart beyond her years, manipulative, and emerges as a psychopath. Alicia Silverstone (making her debut) just marginally overemotes as she captivates the screen with a combination of seductive flirtation and evil narcissism.

What Does Not Work As Well: The rest of the movie does not match the antagonist's potential. The mishaps become increasingly outlandish as Adrian develops far-fetched abilities to unleash wickedness on all her foes. Worse still is Nick's penchant for self-destruction by choosing the worst possible option at every turn (including skulking around Adrian's bedroom and voyeuristically hiding in her closet), and his inability to extricate himself from a clearly worsening situation (like, for example, by moving).

Key Quote:

Adrian (sarcastically): God, Amy... When I grow up I hope I can be just as smart as you.

Amy: Adrian, go play.

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Movie Review: The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)

Genre: War Action  

Director: Guy Ritchie  

Starring: Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Alex Pettyfer, Cary Elwes, Henry Golding  

Running Time: 122 minutes  

Synopsis: In 1941, Nazi Germany's U-boats control the Atlantic Ocean and the United Kingdom stands alone in Europe. Winston Churchill (Rory Kinnear) authorizes a secret commando raid to blow up an Italian U-boat supply ship anchored off the East African coast. Hardened criminal Gus March-Phillipps (Henry Cavill) and Denmark's Anders Lassen (Alan Ritchson) lead the mission, approaching their target by sea. Meanwhile, intelligence agents Marjorie Stewart (Eiza González) and Richard Heron (Babs Olusanmokun) are tasked with distracting the on-shore Nazi commander Heinrich Luhr (Til Schweiger).

What Works Well: Loosely based on the actual World War Two Operation Postmaster, this jovial romp is part throwback to mission-focused war movies, and part just-kill-all-the-Nazis video game style nonsense. Humour is never far from the surface, with the best laughs generated by insatiable killing machine Lassen. The quite brilliant Christopher Benstead music score is a most respectful salute to Ennio Morricone.

What Does Not Work As Well: The mindless entertainment sails dangerously close to a tick-box exercise, with most scenes soullessly borrowed from other movies. The characterizations are thin enough to disappear into the ocean, too much of the muddled action takes place at night, and the plot twists are simultaneously sketched-in and over-complicated. The sequences featuring Marjorie Stewart's seduction of Heinrich Luhr are a bad combination of prolonged and unconvincing.

Key Quote:

Anders Lassen: I'm not leaving until I have a barrel full of Nazi hearts.



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Movie Review: The Princess Bride (1987)

A fantasy romance comedy, The Princes Bride rides a wave of seductive cheekiness and delivers for both adults and their kids.

Grandpa (Peter Falk) visits his sick grandson (Fred Savage) and reads to him The Princess Bride. The story is set in medieval times, in a land ruled over by the evil Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon) and his brutal head henchman Count Tyrone Rugen (Christopher Guest). Buttercup (Robin Wright) is a beautiful young woman who loves to ride her horse. She falls deeply in love with her farm boy Westley (Cary Elwes), but they are separated when he goes off to find his fortune. Word arrives that Westley has been captured and likely killed by the Dread Pirate Roberts.

Humperdinck chooses Buttercup to be his bride, but his real intent is to start a war for personal gain. Humperdinck hires master criminal Vizzini (Wallace Shawn) and his gang, consisting of the giant Fezzik (Andre the Giant) and master swordsman Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin), to kidnap Buttercup, kill her and blame the death on a neighbouring kingdom. A mysterious masked man in black gives chase, eventually disposing of Vizzini, rescuing Buttercup and escaping into the scary Fire Swamp. The masked man turns out to be Westley, coming back to reclaim his true love. But Humperdinck will not give up easily, and the lovers will need to overcome captivity and torture to seal their destiny.

Directed by Rob Reiner and breezily written by William Goldman, The Princess Bride is part romance adventure, part swashbuckler, and all clever satire. The package could not be any more perfect, as the film delivers action, thrills, laughs and pure first love for younger audience members, while maintaining a glint-in-the-eye edge of evil wit for their parents.

The overarching theme of true-love-will-conquer-all hovers over the film like an exquisite rainbow, and at the heart of the movie Robin Wright and Cary Elwes deliver honest performances full of heroism underpinned by the conviction that no matter what, they belong together. But The Princess Bride shines because of the diversity of interesting characters and sub-stories, and Goldman excels in creating a world of colourful scoundrels and side kicks. The charismatic Inigo Montoya carries a major revenge sub-plot of his own, and Mandy Patinkin has rarely been better as Inigo forces his way into a co-lead role with Buttercup and Westley. The transformation of Inigo and the giant Fezzik from bad guys to good allies is another strong anchor theme in the film, and the two also provide a steady stream of humour.

And our heroes have not one, not two, but three villains to contend with. Humperdinck may be the head antagonist, and he emerges as a paper tiger, a man equal parts unearned power and distasteful cowardice. More potent is the darkly menacing Count Tyrone, a heartless torturer with a well-earned reputation for ruthlessness. Meanwhile, in a relatively brief but unforgettable role, Wallace Shawn creates in Vizzini an inconceivably irritating criminal, a short man ruling over his gang with smarts until he outsmarts himself in a cerebral confrontation with the masked man in black. Billy Crystal and Carol Kane show up in small and campy comic relief parts.

Reiner respects the setting of his story and does not shy away from some mildly disturbing scenes of torture, and adds blood when necessary to emphasize the outcome of key sword battles. As a counterbalance and to relieve any mounting tension, a large part of the film's charm resides in the frequent returns to the grandson's bedroom, as he starts out full of skepticism but gradually warms up to all the thrills and yes, smoochy romance that the story being read by grandpa has to offer. For the young and old alike, The Princess Bride casts an immaculate magical spell.

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