Sunday, April 03, 2005

Memphis Belle (1990)

The film really starts falling apart when the talking dog starts flying the plane...

Genre: Action War Drama

Starring: Matthew Modine (Full Metal Jacket; And The Band Played On), Eric Stoltz (The Fly II; Killing Zoe)

Directed By: Michael Caton-Jones (Rob Roy; Basic Instinct 2)

Overview: The story of the final mission of the historic WWII bomber plane "Memphis Belle".

Acting: The acting is done by a cast that's still famous today. Almost all those people are recognizable television faces. Sort of a now B class bunch if you ask me. Nothing exceptional, not like there really could be.
Rating: 6

Cinematography:
The plain and uninspired cinematography was professional and not distracting. So it makes it over the hump.
Rating: 6

Script:
The poor and trite clichéd dialogue and flashbacks made me try and remember back to 1990, wondering if we were ever this gullible.
Rating: 4

Plot:
The plot is too flag wavey for me thank you. The speeches and the barely passable character development - oh this one's a virgin, this one's a stud, this one is Irish. Lame. The only saving grace to this movie is the actual mission they flew, minus all the rest.
Rating: 4

Mood:
The mood ruined itself for me. Right when they were in the thick of things, and it was getting interesting, they cut back to one of 'em reading that dumb ass poem. How sickly sweet it that? And the music was so, "We are America, and we shall overcome!" No. Nice try, but you can't brainwash me so easily.
Rating: 4

Do yourself a favour, and just go to the museum. Look for something like this and say, "Yeah I saw 'Memphis Belle'."

Overall Rating: 48% (Belle? No, Ugly)

Aftertaste: Saccharine is too nice a word to describe this movie. I sort of forgot that these flag waving propaganda films were still around, all glory and inspirational music. This movie will fade like a bad Biloxi Blues. Ugh, does Harry Connick Jr ever make a "real" movie?