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Film Clips
AUGUST 24, 1998:
 THE AVENGERS. I was only 7 years old the last time I saw
The Avengers TV series, but I don't remember it sucking
in quite this fashion. The most striking thing about this super-spy
story is that there's nothing striking about it--it has absolutely
no salient characteristics. From the initial meeting of secret
agents John Steed (Ralph Fiennes) and Mrs. Emma Peel (Uma Thurman,
in a double role), through their encounters with super-villian
Sean Connery, through Connery's attempts to control the world
by controlling the weather, up to the final confrontation, every
moment has exactly the same sense of force. It's like listening
to a metronome while watching special effects: There's no more
excitement or suspense in the explosions than in the expository
dialogue. I can't say whether this movie was bad or good; it was
so consistently the same, and so full of distracting if unorginal
visuals, and slack but not painful dialogue, that seeing it was
like having no experience whatsoever. After its mercifully brief
90 minutes were over, I almost completely forgot what it was about.
--DiGiovanna
HOW STELLA GOT HER GROOVE BACK. Stella (Angela Bassett)
may have gotten her groove back, but in the process she took mine
away. After two hours and 20 minutes of ridiculous dialogue and
clichéd situations, the only boogying I wanted to do was
out to my car and far, far away from Whoopi Goldberg commenting
on the Jamaican surf by saying "God is here," and six-figure
Stella moaning about her mortgage amidst numerous Tommy Hilfiger
product placements. This is a made-for-TV movie on the big screen,
with the choppy editing and poor lighting to prove it. The semi-autobiographical
story by Terry McMillan (Waiting to Exhale) is about 40-year-old
Stella, who goes to Jamaica and enlists 20-year-old Winston (Taye
Diggs) to pull her out of a sexual, emotional and creative dry
spell. The majority of the film attempts to convince us that the
two are in love, but Stella is so neurotic and Winston so accommodating
that the requisite coupling at the end elicits screams rather
than tears. --Higgins
THE NEGOTIATOR. Less gunplay! More wordplay! At least,
that's the intention behind this talkative action picture starring
Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey. Jackson plays a hostage negotiator
who, framed after his buddy discovers a police embezzlement ring,
takes his own hostages in hopes they'll buy him time to prove
his innocence. Spacey plays a negotiator from another district,
chosen by Jackson because he's unlikely to be corrupt. Needless
to say, there's a lot of negotiating going on, and at times the
theme is pushed so hard that the film feels strained; the uncleverly
clever climax, in particular, begs for a rewrite. The law-enforcement
clichés pile up, too, and director F. Gary Gray doles them
out with no sense of irony--we're even subjected to close-ups
of Jackson's badge. But Jackson and Spacey can brighten up the
dimmest of screenplays, and they're well-supported by some of
the bit players--especially a comic-relieving criminal played
by Paul Giamatti, who looks like Rob Schneider after a holiday
eating binge. The late J.T. Walsh supplies his trademark sad-eyed
villainy, which leads to some very uncomfortable moments when
art imitates death. --Woodruff
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