Take Jack Nicholson playing... well... Jack, Helen Hunt playing the single mom waitress, Greg Kinnear playing the gay neighbor next door, and a whole lot of computer effects masquerading as a dog, and what do you get?
Well, I'd imagine that with a real script and some better casting, it could actually be a watchable movie. As it was we were both tempted to turn it off, except that it was reputed to be sooooo good. An hour and fifty. Gone. Forever.
It sucked. No real character development. The script was formula, scene starts up, ends down. Starts down, ends up. No overall story arc. About 4 good lines in the entire piece. Kinnear was convincing, Helen Hunt might have been had someone taken the writers out and clubbed them severely, Cuba Gooding Jr. wasn't, should really have been played by Mr. T or someone willing to put some motivation intto the character, Nicholson kept me thinking of The Shining.
For this they give out Oscarstm?
Monday, June 22nd, 1998 danlyke@flutterby.com