General confusion

The General's Daughter (MA)
Director: Simon West
Bug rating out of 5: Three.

As director of photography Peter Menzies' lens floats menacingly over the still, mysterious waters of a Georgian swampland at dusk at the very outset of this military murder mystery caper, you know danger lurks not far from the surface.
Will the danger come from the southern rednecks who populate the backward towns around the military base of Fort McCallum, where the murder of the General's Daughter takes place? Or will the danger come from the reptiles that inhabit the inky waters themselves?
Wrong on both counts! Before you can whistle dixie, the danger rears its ugly head: John Travolta in full drawl doing that southern accent he does from time to time to showcase his acting ability.
Travolta plays warrant officer Paul Brenner, a methodical, top-shelf investigator with the army's criminal investigation division.
Luckily for his legion of fans who are growing at a rate only slightly greater than Travolta's waistline, Brenner doesn't stay in southern drawl mode for long, leaving an undercover alias to rush to Fort McCallum where the general's daughter has been pegged out naked, apparently raped and strangled in a bizarre sex crime.
Her daddy is retiring General "Fighting Joe" Campbell (James Cromwell) who naturally enough wants his babe's perpetrator brought to justice quickly and quietly so he can get on with his upcoming tilt at the vice-presidency.
But he makes it clear he wants Brenner's investigation to be handled the Army way. Starting to get an idea where this sucker's heading? I hope so, because quite frankly some movie fans just can't handle the truth when it comes to the military way of doing things.
Brenner and his co-investigator, another CID veteran Sarah Sunhill (Madeleine Stowe), who just happens to be Brenner's ex-lover (ho-hum), start to uncover that the general's daughter (Leslie Stefanson) was not quite the sweet young thing she first appeared to Brenner in a chance encounter not long before her death.
It seems daddy's little girl loved a little S and M, and we're not talking sergeant major here. Worse still, it seems that like a good RSM, she was drilling quite a few of the base's senior troops regularly - and proving a tough disciplinarian at that!
Was it to get at daddy in some way? And what about her own CO and self-confessed mentor, Colonel Moore (the show-stealing James Woods) who seems to have more to hide than just a pathetic crush on his subordinate. And what about the General's adjutant, who seems rather sinister too, generally speaking.
As the investigation unfolds and the conspiracies and cover-ups emerge, the plot of The General's Daughter just gets thicker and thicker.
Like a good thickshake, it ends up being ultimately satisfying but hard to get through at times.

- Don Gordon-Brown

Crocodile fears

Lake Placid (M)
Director: Steve miner
Bug rating out of 5: 3

I mean, really! Look at the poster (above) from Lake Placid and you've got to question Bridget Fonda's availability for up-coming projects.
Fonda plays paleontologist Kelly Scott in this enjoyable monster romp that is everything that Deep Blue Sea tried to be and failed dismally at - an enjoyable time-waster with a few thrills, some reasonable FX and at least one eccentric role that's got some teeth to it (sorry) for old hand, Betty White.
The wishy-washy Bill Pullman and the wild-eyed Oliver Platt go along for the ride, but its the giant mobile handbag that makes this an enjoyable tail.

- Don Gordon-Brown

Rockets in the head

October Sky (M)
Director: Joe Johnston
Bug rating out of 5: 4.5

Your humble fillum reviewer has always had a soft spot for movies about very ordinary people who achieve extraordinary things.
I'm not exactly sure of the reason for this, but it's probably got something to do with a fervent belief that there's still hope for me yet.
That's why I remain a sucker for Forrest Gump, the fairy tale of a less than ordinary soldier boy who flukes an extraordinary life for himself.
Heck, I even loved Accidental Hero, where Dustin Hoffman's pathetic Bernard Le Plant rises above his small-time criminality to reluctantly become a person just a little bit better in, if not his own eyes, then the eyes of his son and those of the society around him, or to be more specific, Geena Davis.
I'm even looking foward to the upcoming The John Howard Story, about a very ordinary man who reaches an extraordinary position in life and then manages to do very ordinary things with it. I can't wait to see how Rick Moranis and Ronnie Corbett handle the challenging role of the younger and older Howard respectively, as he makes his way against all odds and capability to the top of the tree.
I'm sure it's going to leave a tear in my eye.
So it comes as no surprise, then, to find me lauding October Sky, a gentle little tale about four young men from a struggling mining community in West Virginia in the late 50s who aim for the stars and, in the process, avoid being mine-shafted for life.
Based on a true story, October Sky centres on Homer Hickman (Jake Gyllenhaal), the son of the mine superintendent (Chris Cooper) who expects his son to follow him down the mine and a premature death through accident or lung disease.
Well, Homer's no rocket scientist - his school grades tell you that - but he watches the Russian sputnik fly overhead, gets stars in his eyes and tells his dad: this life's coaldust!
Inspired by their teacher (no-one plays Laura Dern better than Laura herself), Homer and his three mates go into the rocket building business. Can they win the state science fair and escape the drudgery of small-town minesville? Will they kill themselves or some of the other good folk of Coalwood in the process? Will Homer's father finally relent and be proud of his boy's ambitions, even if he can't begin to understand them?
October Sky choked me up like no movie has managed in recent years. It's corny and predictable and pulls unashamedly at the heart strings and I loved it.
But a word of caution. If you don't think that the little people can ever rise above their alloted station in life - except on the silver screen in Hollywood fairytales, of course - then kindly snip at least two bugs off our rating.
Do it now, you cold, clinical, cynical bastard!

- Don Gordon-Brown

The Sixth Sense (M)
Director/writer: M Night Shyamalan
Bug rating out of 5: Four.

Dead set, you'll just about die when the twist at the end of The Sixth Sense is revealed.
You'll wonder how the filmmakers managed to lure you so gently into the spirit of this clever little tale about a boy (Haley Joel Osment, above) who talks to ghosts that you completely miss the bleeding obvious.
For those still to see The Sixth Sense - and the box office takings Australia wide suggest there aren't too many of you out there - please avert your eyes now because I'm about to disclose the film's punchline.
Bruce Willis should stick to action films.

- Don Gordon-Brown