Review of The Preacher's Wife (1996) by Jennifer A — 23 Mar 2006

[size=2]I'm beginning the rather lengthy task of entering into the database every film I have seen, at least those I have a decent memory of. Some may have the briefest of reviews while many will just have a number. Those films that I consider personal favorites and/or those that have some historical signficance I will add later when I have time for more lengthy reviews.

[b]The River Wild[/b], directed by Curtis Hanson, is an action adevnture/psychological thriller set in the wilderness (a raging river) starring Meryl Streep as a rafting guide. She is accompanied by her son and husband. Trouble arises when they encounter the evil Wade (Kevin Bacon) who is a fugitive using the river as an escape route. This film is no [i]Deliverance[/i]. It's your pretty standard action flick set, with the usual corny plotlines that mire most action/adventure films. Meryl Streep proves she can handle an action role just as good as most of the male action icons, but that's not meant as a compliment. It's sometimes enertaining (as most action movies are) but ultimately shallow and forgettable.

[b]The Lost World, Jurassic Park[/b] is Steven Spielberg's sequel to the insanely popular [i]Jurassic Park[/i]. The first movie was a shallow, but enertaining "visual experience". It simply wasn't a good enough movie (despite it's blockbuster status) to warrant a sequel, and a director like Spielberg should have moved on instead of putting his stamp on this film. Spielberg is one of the few directors than can basically do anything he wants to do (with any budget) and his major fault is that he sometimes gets wrapped up in these great visual exercises at the expense of telling a good story. He made the same mistake with [i]War of the Worlds[/i]. Anyway the first [i]Jurassic Park [/i]film was okay, this one is just bad.

[b]Apt Pupil[/b], directed by Brian Singer, is yet another Stephen King adaption. Brad Renfro stars as a teenager who discovers that a Nazi war criminal (Ian McKellan) is living in his town. Todd (Renfro) blackmails the man into telling his Holocaust horror stories. Tensions arise as the McKellan character goes deeper into his past. The film disintegrates into an exploitive mess (cats in the oven?) and never handling its very difficult subject matter in a proactive way. It doesn't work as a character examination either. More carefully handled, this could have been a dark, but very provocative film. As is it just kind of makes you sick.

[b]Strange Days[/b], directed by Kathryn Bigelow, is a stylish futuristic thriller in dire need of plot and character development.

[b]The Preacher's Wife[/b], directed by Penny Marshall, is a saccharine story of a struggling inner city church, it's preacher (Courney Vance), his wife (Whitney Houston) and an angel (Denzel Washington) sent down from heaven to save the day.

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