Universal Pictures Freddie Prinze Jr.
and Monica Potter star in "Head over Heels."
“Head Over Heels” Starring Monica Potter and
Freddie Prinze, Jr. Directed by Mark Waters
Picket lines and boycotts often form scenes outside theaters
playing movies with gratuitous violence. Unfortunately, there are
no organized protests against movies with appallingly poor
dialogue. In violent films, at least you can shut your eyes. With
movies like “Head Over Heels,” you wish it were
possible to shut your ears. To add insult to the moviegoer’s
injury, “Head Over Heels” suffers from running jokes
that aren’t funny, flat characters and an awkwardly placed
plot twist (if that’s what you’d call it) that creates
more questions than it provides answers. The plot revolves around
Amanda (Monica Potter), a single woman who lives with four models
in New York City. She falls for Jim (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), the guy
across the street. When she then thinks she sees him murder a
woman, Amanda tries to investigate, fails miserably, and decides to
date him anyway. Audiences anticipate romantic comedies to overflow
with funny dialogue. With “Head Over Heels,” however,
bathroom humor in addition to contrived, overused Freudian slips
dominate the conversations of the two main characters, making
viewers writhe in their seats, wishing it would stop. The
characters themselves lack very little depth, especially the four
models who are so formless that they seem to be only a collection
of stereotypes. The worst of the model characters is Candi, a dumb
blonde who falls down in every scene while perpetually sporting
bandages from a new plastic surgery. All the main characters,
including the models, become involved in a complicated scheme,
which no one understands until the plot twist. The problem with the
twist ending is that, rather than placing it at the end, the
screenwriter placed it about two-thirds of the way into the film.
And rather than revealing it visually, the revelation is described
by Jim to Amanda as part of a rather obvious device to bring the
audience up to speed. Once we understand what has been going on,
other questions arise, which must be dealt with in the remainder of
the film. This film might have had a chance at being bearable if it
weren’t for the poor dialogue, shallow characters, and lack
of plot and decent comedic devices. As it is, the film isn’t
worth the 90 minutes of your life that could be spent playing
computer solitaire.
Mary Williams Rating: 2
“Left Behind: The Movie” Starring Kirk
Cameron, Brad Johnson and Chelsea Noble Directed by Vic
Sarin
“Left Behind: The Movie” is the screen adaptation of
the novel by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. It’s the end of
the world, but unlike the famous R.E.M. song, people don’t
feel fine. Imagine being a pilot (Brad Johnson) en route to London
when suddenly your flight attendant (Chelsea Noble) tells you she
has witnessed the mass disappearance of many of your passengers
while 37,000 feet above the ground. Their clothes, glasses, shoes,
and jewelry remain in a pile, yet their bodies are no longer there.
However, they aren’t the only ones missing. Elsewhere in the
world millions of people are disappearing left and right. People
who were walking their dogs, driving their cars or sleeping in bed
have suddenly ceased to exist. The world is filled with chaos, yet
one man, Nicolae Carpathia (Gordon Currie) has a plan to bring
peace to the world, along with ceasing world hunger. But are his
intentions really good? It turns out that Carpathia is really
plotting to take over the world once he gets rid of a few
roadblocks (i.e., people). However, all of this goes unnoticed by
everyone except one man, Buck Williams (Kirk Cameron), a journalist
for GNN. Yes, GNN ““ quite corny. As the movie continues, it
turns out that the millions of people missing had one thing in
common: their faith and belief in God. As people like Rayford
Steele (Johnson) attempt to find answers to where his family has
gone, Williams tries to get answers from anyone or anything,
including the Bible. The movie is a modern-day interpretation of
the book of Revelation. The acting is quite unreal at times and the
movie seems to look more like something aired on cable’s USA
channel rather than something showing in the theaters. The
producers of the movie claim it is an action-thriller. However,
there is not much action; most of the movie consists of people
struggling with their inner faith and trying to find answers to
life’s questions. Therefore, some moviegoers may be confused
and led the wrong way, taking the message differently than what the
authors may have intended. Much of the events seem to occur without
steps. If this was done on purpose to increase suspense, it fails.
Although the book may have been a run-away best seller, it is quite
unlikely that the movie will produce the same outcome.
Laura Morgan Rating: 5