Reviews by John archive

This page is the Reviews my John archive page. This page contains a list of all the reviews I've done for my movie review service.

Click here for my commentary on the MPAA rating system, "Rating the ratings" (written 2/15/00).

To read the reviews (arranged in alphabetical order by film), click below:

Movie title	Review title	Overall rating	Year of release	MPAA rating	Review date
"American Beauty"	Beautiful film	****	1999	R	10/20/99
"American Pie"	Stale pie	**	1999	R	7/14/99
"Angela's Ashes"	Luck of the Irish	***½	1999	R	2/7/00
"The Art of War"	The Artless War	*	2000	R	9/9/00
"The Astronaut's Wife"	Houston, we have a problem	**	1999	R	9/8/99
"At First Sight"	The eyes have it.	***½	1999	PG-13	1/31/99
"Being John Malkovich"	Being a film critic...	***	1999	R	12/6/99
"The Blair Witch Project"	Bewitching project	***	1999	R	8/1/99
"Blue Streak"	Winning streak	***½	1999	PG-13	9/20/99
"The Bone Collector"	Autopsy report for "The Bone Collector"	***	1999	R	11/11/99
"The Boy Who Could Fly"	An uplifting movie	****½	1986	PG	12/23/98
"Brokedown Palace"	Go for broke	***	1999	PG-13	8/25/99
"Cats" (video)	The "Cats'" meow	***½	1998	N/A	12/23/98
"A Civil Action"	A civil movie	***	1998	PG-13	1/9/99
"A Clockwork Orange"	Horrorshow	****½	1971	R	12/21/99
"The Cocoanuts"	Why "The Cocoanuts?"	****	1929	N/A *	12/21/99
"Desk Set"	Computers take over the world	****	1957	N/A *	12/6/99
"Dr. Strangelove"	How to start a nuclear war in one easy lesson	****½	1964	N/A *	3/4/99
"Dogma"	Divine comedy	****	1999	R	11/14/99
"End of Days"	The end is near--but not near enough	*½	1999	R	11/28/99
"Enemy of the State"	They're reading this review, too.	****	1998	R	11/23/98
"Entrapment"	Theft at the movie theater	***	1999	PG-13	5/2/99
"Erin Brokovich"	Oh, well	**½	2000	R	3/31/00
"Eyes Wide Shut"	Open your eyes to a great film	****½	1999	R	3/20/99
"Fight Club"	Fight of the year	***½	1999	R	10/24/99
"Final Destination"	Lost luggage	**½	2000	R	3/24/00
"The General's Daughter"	Three star general, three star movie	***	1999	R	6/20/99
"Go"	"Go" to the movies	***	1999	R	4/12/99
"Goodbye Lover"	Hello movie review...	***	1999	R	4/18/99
"Gossip"	The rumors are true--"Gossip" is awful.	*½	2000	R	4/26/00
"The Green Mile"	Miles long	***½	1999	R	12/12/99
"Gus"	Mule scores field goal, film scores touchdown	****	1976	G	12/23/98
"The Hurricane"	Category three Hurricane	***½	1999	R	1/19/00
"I Still Know What You Did Last Summer"	Unlike last summer, you won't get hooked.	**	1998	R	11/15/98
"Idle Hands"	The Devil's playground	***½	1999	R	5/2/99
"Inspector Gadget"	A new Gadget	***	1999	PG	7/29/99
"Jakob the Liar"	A good film--no lie	***½	1999	PG-13	9/28/99
"John Carpenter’s Vampires"	Would someone please drive a stake through the projector?	*	1998	R	11/9/98
"Life Is Beautiful"	"Life is Beautiful" and the film is better	*****	1998	PG-13	4/26/99
"The Matrix"	Six impossible things before breakfast	***½	1999	R	4/4/99
"A Midsummer Night's Dream"	Shakespeare's fairy tale	***	1999	PG-13	5/15/99
"Mission: Impossible 2"	Mission: Implausible	***	2000	PG-13	5/28/00
"Mission to Mars"	Mars: A Space Odyssey?	***½	2000	PG	3/17/00
"The Mod Squad"	A bust, but not arresting	*½	1999	R	3/29/99
"The Mummy"	I want my "Mummy."	***½	1999	PG-13	5/7/99
"My Dog Skip"	Don't Skip this one	***	2000	PG	3/9/00
"My Favorite Martian"	Men are from Mars, women are from Venus, and movie critics are from Pluto.	****	1999	PG	2/14/99
"North by Northwest"	Go "North by Northwest"	*****	1959	N/A *	12/23/98
"Notting Hill"	Over the Hill	**½	1999	PG-13	6/5/99
"October Sky"	If you build it, it will fly	****	1999	PG	2/28/99
"Office Space"	Cubicle squared	***	1999	R	2/22/99
"The Omega Code"	Holy Terror	**	1999	PG-13	11/4/99
"The Out-of-Towners"	Ship this one out of town	**½	1999	PG-13	4/26/99
"Patch Adams"	Just what the doctor ordered	****	1998	PG-13	12/27/98
"The Patriot"	See it--it's the patriotic thing to do.	****½	2000	R	9/9/00
"Payback"	"Payback" owes you a better movie.	**½	1999	R	2/7/99
"The Prince of Egypt"	Don't let this movie go.	***½	1998	PG	12/20/98
"Psycho" (Alfred Hitchcock version)	Not crazy about "Psycho"	***	1960	R *	12/5/98
"Psycho" (Gus Van Sant version)	One they couldn't quite pull off without a Hitch.	**	1998	R	12/5/98
"Random Hearts"	Ford makes lemon	*	1999	R	10/10/99
"Ringmaster" (Jerry Springer)	Tonight's topic: bad movies and the critics who see them…	*½	1998	R	11/30/98
"Sabotage"	Nothing sabotages a Hitchcock classic	****	1936	N/A (*?)	8/16/99
"Shakespeare in Love"	"…'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide [in appeal] as a church-door; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve"	***	1998	R	1/4/99
"The Siege"	"The Siege" will hold you captive	****½	1998	R	11/9/98
"A Simple Plan"	If you find four million dollars, is it bad luck to pick it up if it's face down?	***	1998	R	1/24/99
"The Sixth Sense"	A sensible choice	****	1999	PG-13	8/8/99
"The Skulls"	Not completely boneheaded	***	2000	PG-13	4/6/00
"Soldier"	Old movies never die—but they sometimes fade out.	**½	1998	R	11/15/98
"South Park"	Beavis and Butthead: the Next Degeneration	***½	1999	R	7/4/99
"Stargate"	Out of this world	****½	1994	PG-13	12/21/99
"Star Trek: Insurrection"	May "Star Trek" live long and prosper	***½	1998	PG	12/13/98
"Star Wars: Episode 1"	Darth Vader's baby pictures	****	1999	PG	5/19/99
"Steel Magnolias"	Golden magnolias	****	1989	PG	12/21/99
"Stigmata"	It's a miracle: a courageous movie.	***½	1999	R	9/13/99
"Strangers on a Train"	Don't miss the train	****	1951	N/A *	8/13/99
"Supernova"	When is a Nightingale a turkey?	*½	2000	PG-13	1/24/00
"Tarzan"	Going ape	***	1999	G	6/28/99
"The Thin Red Line"	War is Hell--but this movie is no picnic, either.	*½	1999	R	1/17/99
"The Thirteenth Floor"	Lucky 13	***½	1999	R	5/29/99
"The 13th Warrior"	Arab meets Viking	***	1999	R	9/1/99
"Three Kings"	Dethroning "Three Kings"	**½	1999	R	10/4/99
"The Trouble with Harry"	Wild about Harry	****	1955	PG *	12/21/99
"True Crime"	True Eastwood	****½	1999	R	3/22/99
"True Lies"	Spies, lies, and atomic bombs	****	1994	R	3/4/99
"Vampires"	Would someone please drive a stake through the projector?	*	1998	R	11/9/98
"La Vita è Bella"	"Life is Beautiful" and the film is better	*****	1997	PG-13	4/26/99
"White Christmas"	Schmaltz, but nice schmaltz	****	1954	N/A *	12/21/99
"The Whole Nine Yards"	The hitman next door is a miss	**	2000	R	2/20/00
"Wing Commander"	Flying off half-cocked	**	1999	PG-13	3/15/99
"The Wizard of Oz"	We're off to see the Wizard…	*****	1939	G *	11/9/98
"Wonder Boys"	One to wonder about	****	2000	R	3/9/00
"The World Is Not Enough"	20 is not enough	****	1999	PG-13	11/22/99

MPAA rating notes:

N/A — This movie is not MPAA rated.

* — This movie was released under the Hays Code. Unrated films under the Hays Code would generally be rated "G" or "PG."

For an explanation of overall ratings, click here.

Thank you for visiting the Reviews by John website.

Reviews by John Homepage			Reviews by John Archive
Comments	Subscribe	Ratings	Disclaimer	Links	About me
E-mail John Haywood with your comments or questions about Reviews by John.

This page was originally created May 4, 1999. Updated regularly.