A Complete Review of Amy Heckerling's work

Cast : Alicia Silverstone, Krysten Ritter, Sigourney Weaver, Malcolm McDowell, Dan Stevens, Kristen Johnston

What was it about?
Two female vampires in modern-day New York City are faced with daunting romantic possibilities.

My two cents:
Eventually, it turned out to be a rather tedious vampire comedy. Indeed, Amy Heckerling, whose last hit was already 20 years ago with ‘Clueless’ also starring Alicia Silverstone, tried to give a new modern twist to our familiar vampire legends but it was basically a huge failure. Indeed, the whole thing was a long succession of tedious jokes. I mean, I understand that she tried to switch the gothic and gloomy mood usually displayed to a rather frivolous and whimsical setting and while the idea was not half-bad, the execution was rather disappointing. Seriously, who cares that vampires are not very good at handling smartphones and computers? Of course, it is pretty stupid that when you go out in a restaurant or in a bar that everyone is busy on their smartphone instead of talking to each other but what has it do with vampirism and the fact that they are immortal? At least, Krysten Ritter was quite charming and Sigourney Weaver had some fun with her role but they could have dropped Alicia Silverstone who is such an underwhelming actress in my opinion.

My rating: 05/10

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Cast : Michelle Pfeiffer, Paul Rudd, Saoirse Ronan, Stacey Dash

What was it about?
A mother falls for a younger man while her daughter falls in love for the first time. Mother Nature messes with their fates.

My two cents:
At some point, at the beginning of the 2000’s, for 5 long years, Michelle Pfeiffer didn’t make any movie which was quite a pity. Anyway, in 2007, she finally made a come-back with this movie which was unfortunately released straight to DVD. Basically, it is a rather obscure movie but, in my opinion, it actually had some potential to be a good romantic comedy. Indeed, I always had a weak spot for such love stories involving a younger man with an older woman since my wife is 10 years old than me and I thought that the characters and their feelings were fairly accurate. On top of that, Michelle Pfeiffer and Paul Rudd had some nice chemistry together. Unfortunately, pretty much everything else was rather underwhelming and, eventually, it was not bad but still rather forgettable. The main issue was that, as usual with this kind of stories, they made a whole fuss that such relationships are always doomed which is completely stupid and rather annoying. Still, even though it was nothing really amazing, I have to admit that I actually have a weak spot for the damned thing.

My rating: 06/10

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Cast : Jason Biggs, Mena Suvari, Greg Kinnear, Dan Aykroyd

What was it about?
A college student, branded a loser by his roommates and booted from the dorm, falls in love with a coed who has eyes for their condescending professor.

My two cents:
Eventually, to enjoy this movie, it all depends if you can stand Jason Biggs or not. Back in those days, he was still surfing on his new fame (which is pretty much gone by now) and, for this movie, he basically did about the same thing he did in all those 'American Pie' flicks. In my opinion, the whole thing was not really funny and not really bad either but pretty much right there in middle. I always had a weak spot for Greg Kinnear and he can't do anything bad in my opinion and thanks to him, the movie was not a total pain to watch but it would be great if he could pick some slightly more interesting projects. There was still one scene which seriously didn’t work for me. Indeed, the scene that most bothered me was when a couple of characters planned to drug some girls to take advantage of her. I mean, it seems that the makers tried to make us believe that it was funny but it in fact was actually really cringe-inducing. Anyway, basically, it is a rather average romantic comedy and pretty much the beginning of the end for Amy Heckerling's once promising career.

My rating: 05/10

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Cast : Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd, Donald Faison, Jeremy Sisto

What was it about?
A rich high school student tries to boost a new pupil's popularity, but reckons without affairs of the heart getting in the way.

My two cents:
Back in those days, Alicia Silverstone was not really well known, she was basically ‘that chick’ who showed up in a few Aerosmith video clips. Thanks to this flick which was a surprising success, she became a star overnight and even signed a 3-movie deal worth $10,000,000 with Sony which was a huge gamble. Eventually, she made some huge flops, ‘Batman & Robin’ among them, and since then she is pretty much forgotten nowadays. Anyway, how was her breakthrough feature? Well, it was not bad, a rather decent high-school comedy but, in my opinion, it was only slightly better than the average movie in this genre but not much more I'm afraid. I mean, it was entertaining enough but it was still too stereotypical and they didn’t add enough interesting elements to the formula to make it truly stand out from the rest. Furthermore, even though Alicia Silverstone who was just 19 years old at the time, did a decent job, her character was actually more obnoxious than really funny or interesting. Still, even though I think it is actually rather overrated, I have to admit that it i still a decent flick and it is worth a look.

My rating: 06/10

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Cast : John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Bruce Willis, Roseanne Barr, Elias Koteas

What was it about?
This time, a new baby is on the way, and it's a girl. Wrapped together with the standard conflict between mother and father, Mikey engages in a bit of sibling rivalry with his new sister.

My two cents:
To be honest, it has been a while since I have seen this flick and there is a possibility that, if I would re-watch it nowadays, that my rating would drastically drop. Basically, when I was a kid, I thought that 'Look who's talking' was pretty awesome. Obviously, since it turned out to be a box-office success, they decided to quickly release a sequel which I was also quite eager to see (give me a break... I was just a kid back in those days!). Eventually, I thought it was actually a decent watch but there was no denying that the whole thing was rather misguided. I mean sure, it was pretty obvious that they would give little Mikey a sister, that was fine. In fact, the biggest problem was that, since Mikey was growing up, the whole concept seemed rather ineffective. Indeed, the idea was to hear the thoughts of someone who was not supposed to be able to talk but since Mikey, at that point, was already starting to talk on his own, then, what was the point of hearing his thoughts? Anyway, I guess I'm being rather generous with my rating here.

My rating: 06/10

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Cast : John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Bruce Willis

What was it about?
After a single, career-minded woman is left on her own to give birth to the child of a married man, she finds a new romantic chance in a cab driver. Meanwhile, the point-of-view of the newborn boy is narrated through voice-over.

My two cents:
Even though the whole concept was actually rather lame, even more after all these years, I have to admit that I always had a weak spot for this flick. Indeed, in my case, it is pretty much a guilty pleasure and definitely a childhood favorite. Basically, I must have been 9 or 10 years old the first time I saw it, I even watched the damned thing in the movie theater when it was released and, back then, I thought the whole thing was just really hilarious. I still believe it was a pretty cool idea to have a baby voiced by Bruce Willis and the kid was just really funny. However, pretty much everything else in the movie was rather underwhelming. Indeed, even if John Travolta and Kirstie Alley were quite charismatic and had some nice chemistry, I didn't care much about what they were going through and that was basically the problem with this flick. Indeed, if you would remove the whole gimmick about the talking baby, this flick had seriously nothing to offer. Anyway, for Travolta, this movie would be his first and only hit during the 80's but he would have to wait a few more years to make his real come-back with 'Pulp Fiction'.

My rating: 07/10

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Cast : Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Eric Idle

What was it about?
The Griswolds win a vacation tour across Europe where the usual havoc ensues.

My two cents:
To be honest, since I had been hardly impressed by 'Vacation', I wasn't really expecting much from this sequel. Well, it turned out to be seriously weak, I'm afraid. Indeed, even though it made sense that the Griswolds would go to Europe with this sequel, the whole thing turned out to be the usual awful comedy about US tourists visiting various European countries. Seriously, while watching this movie, you might wonder who is actually more stupid: the people loving this garbage or the people who made this garbage. I mean, the first scene involved a TV-show host kissing and touching a teenage girl was just so cringe-inducing. The rest was not much better, I'm afraid, as it was just a succession of awful boring and sometimes bordeline offensive jokes about people living in Europe. At least, Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo had once again a pretty good chemistry but that's probably the only positive thing I could find about this movie. At least, if they would have kept the same actors to play their kids, it could have been nice to see them grow up through the different sequels but they were unfortunately recast. Anyway, the damned thing is just seriously weak.

My rating: 05/10

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Cast : Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito

What was it about?
Set in the 1930s, an honest, goodhearted man is forced to turn to a life of crime to finance his neurotic mother's skyrocketing medical bills.

My two cents:
This movie was Amy Heckerling’s 2nd directing effort, following her successful debut with 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High' so there was definitely some potential for something really neat. Well, basically, it turned out to be some kind of parody of those gangsters flicks from the 30's and 40's. Unfortunately, even though it seemed to be an interesting idea and even though there was a nice cast involved, I didn't like the damned thing much. First of all, I have never been a big fan of parodies in general and this one, except for a few nice ideas, wasn't really funny at all. There was one thing that I enjoyed though and it was Mickael Keaton's performance. I was rather surprised when I discovered that it was only his 3rd movie. Indeed, the guy was really funny and charismatic and he channeled a little bit the same energy he would eventually give for Beetlejuice, another part he would land a few years later. Anyway, I have seen worse parodies but this one was still rather tedious, in spite of Keaton's effort.

My rating: 05/10

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Cast : Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Phoebe Cates, Forest Whitaker, Eric Stoltz, Nicolas Cage, Anthony Edwards

What was it about?
A group of Southern California high school students are enjoying their most important subjects: sex, drugs, and rock n' roll.

My two cents:
Since this movie is a huge classic, I was really eager to check it out and I had some really high expectations before watching it. Eventually, even though I did enjoy it, it was not good as I expected it to be. I mean, it is a decent flick, entertaining and funny but I didn't see anything great about it and I was definitely not blown away by the whole thing. Still, it was quite awesome to see Sean Penn at the beginning of his career playing a stoner but, thank god, he managed to escape typecasting. It was also fun to see a whole bunch of actors at the beginning of their career. I guess, it is basically a matter of taste, and if you are into this kind of comedies, you will probably love it but otherwise, you won't see what so awesome about it (for example, Roger Ebert really despised it). Anyway, I don't think it is a masterpiece but it is still a good movie.

My rating: 07/10

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