JCVD

As curriculum vitaes go, Van Damme's is down there with your Seagal's and Lundgren's of the world as one of the worst. Comprising mainly retrofit fight films with futuristic robot movies he barely deviates from DTV territory. I would rather eat glass than watch 90% of his offerings.
JCVD bucks that trend with aplomb. The problem now is that it stands out on his filmography like a sore thumb. Its such a shame "The Mussels from Brussels" wasn't able to capitalize on the success of this film and reinvent himself, instead finding himself in The Expendables 2 and Universal Soldier 3, the same shit he was peddling before we knew he could act.
Make no mistake, JCVD is fantastic with a performance that is better than 90% of performances you will ever see from JCVD himself. Expect big things from this up and coming......wait a minute that's wrong. Expect more of the same rubbish for a few more years now he's gained a bit of credibility.
****

Point Break

What makes Point Break stand out from the crowd of action flicks that seemed to flood cinema in the late eighties and early nineties? The answer is nothing. This is a film so distinctly average in every way you come away feeling like you might as well have not bothered. Time has not served the film well as I couldn't watch it without thinking of 'Hot Fuzz' and the way it perfectly lampoons over the top action scenes and sliding electric guitar scores. The sky dive chase is spectacular, and Patrick Swayze makes Bodhi come to life and really makes a likable a character out of a prick. Lori Petty is so attractive that its distracting but she isn't the most watchable screen presence, probably due to me not listening to a word she said as I was counting down to the obligatory 90's sex scene between the two leads. Keanu Reeves is one who seems to just be taking it all a little too seriously. You can't help but feel that his role would have benefited from somebody playing it tongue in cheek, somebody who might actually generate some chemistry with the Gary Busey character.
An enjoyable film but as soon as the credits roll you know you will never watch this film again. Until 2020 when we have the Back to the Future inspired version with hoverboard instead of surf boards. I look forward to it. ***

Life During Wartime

Todd Solondz isn't afraid to push the boundaries in his movies, focusing on themes such as suicide and paedophilia, with mixed results. Welcome to the Dollhouse was a brilliant portrayal of an outcast trying to fit in during adolescence and Happiness (the precursor to this film) was a ensemble story focusing on three sisters and the pitfalls that blight their lives and their families. Wartime is a semi sequel to Happiness in that all the characters are present although they are played by different actors. This is a rather jarring choice for people to comprehend if they are familiar with these characters already. In some cases such as Shirley Henderson replacing Jane Adams or Paul Reubens replacing Jon Lovitz the change in personnel is less obvious due to the physical similarities of the two parties sharing the roles. In other cases the change of cast is not only distracting but ruins the film. The decision go completely left field and replace Philip Seymour Hoffman with Michael Kenneth Williams strikes as having been made just to add a bit of.controversy to proceedings.
Happiness owes a lot of it's plaudits to the central role of Dr. Maplewood being played by Dylan Baker who turns a character who could have been one of cinemas all time most disgusting villains and adds heart and soul to it that in Wartime Ciaran Hinds cannot match up to, being somewhat underwritten as the part is in the latter.
Overall, although Life During Wartime has its problems you have to given Solondz his props for pushing the envelope and using his films as a vehicle for his own voice rather then compromising his vision, which rarely seems to be the case.
***