Film Screening 25th February, 2000

Poster for Random Hearts

Random Hearts 

8:00 PM, 25th February, 2000

  • M
  • 132 mins
  • 1999
  • Sydney Pollack
  • Darryl Ponicsan
  • Harrison Ford, Kristin Scott Thomas, Charles Dutton, Bonnie Hunt

Dutch Van Den Broeck (Harrison Ford) and Kay Chandler (Kristin Scott Thomas) are respectively an internal affairs investigator and an incumbent congresswoman who discover that their respective spouses have been involved in an illicit relationship when their weekend-getaway flight ends up in the ocean.
Being the Harrison Ford fan that I am, I was anxious to see this movie, but not even Harrison Ford could save it. The chemistry between him and Scott Thomas is lacking. It follows the usual romantic formula - boy meets girl, boy hates girl, boy nearly loses girl, boy realises he loves girl... and ditto for the girl. I found myself not caring about the characters, so I had no interest whether they got together or not.
OK, having said all that, I campaigned for this to be on the program so now I have to try to encourage you all to come along to see it. Think of it this way... it's free, so even if it is bad, you're not really losing anything. It has Harrison Ford in it... that's good. Did I mention that it's free?

Jacinta Nicol

Poster for Big Daddy

Big Daddy 

10:12 PM, 25th February, 2000

  • PG
  • 93 mins
  • 1999
  • Dennis Dugan
  • Steve Franks
  • Adam Sandler, Joey Lauren Adams, Dylan & Cole Sprouse, Leslie Mann

Adam Sandler plays an unemployed guy who "adopts" a 5-year-old boy to impress his girlfriend. As usual, Sandler plays a character who starts off fairly uncouth and has to learn to better himself by the end. If you like Adam Sandler movies, you'll like Big Daddy, just not as much as The Waterboy or Happy Gilmore.
The big mistake that is made is that Big Daddy tries to be too serious. What normally works for Sandler is the ludicrousness of the situations his characters are put into. Audiences enjoy it because they know it's not real and allow themselves to be taken along for the ride. Try to make the movie more real, and that crazy edge is lost. However, silliness IS brought back in the courtroom scene toward the end and had me laughing pretty hard. Steve Buscemi as the homeless guy is excellent as usual. See it if you like Adam Sandler. See it if you like cute kids. See it if you are amused by kids peeing. See it for the computer generated drool!

Brad Hoff