Monty-35

Stop me if you've heard this one: take a good scif-fi story and turn it into a horribly made, overdone B-movie adaptation with a Clearasil cast and one or two good actors who should have known better. Yep, it's "Starship Troopers" all over again. The only two good things about this flick were over in the first fifteen minutes: the opening credits and the new "Star Wars" trailer. The credits gave me hope: a creatively done montage with art skills rarely seen in sci-fi. The rest of the movie is like a train wreck. Horrible to watch, but you can't look away. SFX were mediocre at best, acting was terrible at best, dialogue apparently written by a couple of horny seventh-grade boys, plot wandering autistically all over the place. Your money is better spent on one of Will Forschten's paperback treatments of the WC universe. Chris Roberts, you have shamed all of us who ever thought you had talent.

Under anyone else's direction, "Wind" would be mediocre at best. Caroll Ballard of "Never Cry Wolf" helmed this fictional tale of the race for the America's Cup, and it shows. The level of acting is mixed: Modine is wooden, but the supporting cast doesn't get the exposure it deserves, especially Skarsgard. The plot is somewhat sports-movie predictable, and the characters are, for the most part, poorly executed, though most blame for that probably belongs to the dreadfully scripted dialogue. The movie's real strength is in its stunningly beautiful cinematography, full of seemingly impossible camera angles, well-crafted scene composition, and wonderful use of color and shadows; in places, it is as visually appealing as "2001". Ballard's direction is superb, and Poleodorus' score matches the camera work in excellence. Non-sailors will enjoy this film, and will be able to follow the intricacies of high-level yacht racing. Sailors will drool over this glorification of sailing's beauty.

An adaptation of Clancy's debut techno-thriller, "Red October" manages to simultaneously remain true to the novel and improve on it. Clancy's trademark passion for detail shows through, most especially in its depiction of sub warfare. Having done two tours on US submarines, the scenes aboard DALLAS took me back in a hurry. Most of the extras and minor characters were portrayed by actual Navy sailors and officers, and Scott Jones reportedly studied up hard for his role as the sub skipper. There are some bloopers in this film: the "Seaman Jones" fluke (he's a petty officer by his chevrons), for example, but no really glaring inaccuracies, except one: the Red October could have launched his missiles the moment he left dock, not in "three days" (I believe it says this in the novel). All in all, this is one of the most accurate depictions of the Navy on film.