Review of City of Ghosts (2002) by Jerome W — 20 Mar 2005

So now that Miramax is down for the count, all the movies they've been keeping off the shelf in the last few years are going to come out. If "Prozac Nation" is any indication of the overall quality of what they've been afraid to show, those fools deserved to go out of business.

"Prozac Nation" is a great movie. It has the best acting I've ever seen Christina Ricci do and by the way, she looks more attractive than she ever has before. It must be the reddish-blonde hair. Her performance as a college student who's perpetually falling apart is really powerful and Jessica Lange is very good as her mother, although with her blonde hair and Nordic features, she looks about as Jewish as Robert Redford. I'm flabbergasted the Weinsteins didn't have the cojones to at least give this picture a chance in theatres.

Other than that, Matt Dillon's "City Of Ghosts" was impressive. The basic story was familiar but with the exotic Cambodia-Thailand setting, all around good performances and Dillon's moody direction, it worked fine.

As for "The Big Bounce", gawd! If the title hadn't already been taken, they could have called this movie "The Big Sleep" it was so boring. And who in their right mind thinks Owen Wilson is leading man material? He looks like he grew up worshiping Sean Penn's Jeff Spicoli character from "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" and his voice is an irritating monotone mumble I can barely stand listining to. There should be a law that this goof can't be on screen for longer than five minutes at a time.