Nightwatch ('Nattevagten') (1994)

This, at several key points, very ugly 1994 Danish horror thriller - that restaurant scene! - spawned a sequel and a English-language remake, so is a movie good enough to warrant that and largely, I think, because of the smiley, geek-chic rizz of Nicolaj Coster-Waldau in the lead, whose boyish enthusiasm and jokey disregard and goofy wide-eyed awe - of things like prostitutes, sex, and death - balances nicely with the dark and dread of his new nightshift work at a creepy morgue somehow linked to a spate of serial killings.   

★★★☆☆

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Natural Born Killers (1994)

Just what Oliver Stone intended with this wafer-thin heavy metal video clip - all symbolism, zero realism, and seemingly a grand thesis of one simplistic note - I don't know but it is loud, long and monotonous: a two-hour fight scene that plays out as though everyone is making it up as they go along, with one-dimensional characters screaming their way through one long unlikely situation, with the chaos of mass murderers Mickey and Mallory's "deep love" affair (read occasional "dry humping" and tongue kisses) and violent crime spree spliced meaninglessly with cartoon clips, black and white photography and - in a last-ditch attempt at relevance - media clips of actual celebrated tv crime reports. 

★☆☆☆☆

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Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)

Victor Frankenstein's experiments are given a David Copperfield jazz-magic vibe that I don't think Mary Shelley intended but by far the biggest deviation of this mostly faithful adaptation is the fact the monster is a re-creation, not a creation - Robert De Niro is a resuscitated organ recipient, - scarred but not a hideous daemon - with prior knowledge, not a birthling - probably because it isn't easy to translate to the screen Mary Shelley's caginess regarding Frankenstein's methods of bestowing life upon the inanimate (pretty much in the book a man says the word, 'galvanisation' and then a big yellow eye opens); there's also fewer deaths in a rushed ending: once this movie's grand climax is revealed (an inspired gothic moment that repulses and horrifies and finally hits the right note) the movie decouples from the book, turning into about seven minutes years of Frankenstein's madness and incarceration and anguish, as if everyone has tired of the whole exercise and wants simply to sail prematurely home.

★★★☆☆

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China Moon (1994)

The only thing missing from this unchallenging 93-minute neo-noir escapism about a cop (Ed Harris) who falls for a dame with a cheating husband and a gun (Madeleine Stowe) is the steam - cicadas chirp, fans whirr, and icecubes clink in homemade lemonade, but there isn't a sweaty underarm or beaded brow to be seen, making this more The Big Air-conditioned Studio Cool than The Big Heat.

★★★☆☆

The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert (1994)

A transsexual (a hilariously deadpan Terence Stamp) and two female impersonators (one, Guy Pearce playing Cesar Romero doing The Joker) hit the road in a big lavender bus, taking their drag show from Sydney to Alice Springs via mining towns Broken Hill and Coober Pedy, in this much-loved 1994 comedy drama that downplays or entirely sidesteps points of possible contention and ends up feeling like a disingenuous string of encounters between the performers and outback locals.

★★★☆☆

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Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994)

With Anna Nicole Smith doubling the number of tragic Hollywood elephants-in-the-room, perhaps it is no wonder this third Naked Gun movie is the least funny (and most racist and LGBTI intolerant) of the series with bumbling Police Squad! police officer Frank Drebin experiencing marital problems while investigating a bomb threat against the annual Academy Awards ceremony.

★★☆☆☆

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Stargate (1994)

The most remarkable thing about this sci-fi about a Robert Langton code-breaking Egyptologist who with a military team crosses the universe via an Einstein-Rosen bridge only to experience trouble returning home is that it spawned multiple television series and computer games despite being so dreadfully, dreadfully boring.

★☆☆☆☆

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Beverley Hills Cop III (1994)

While investigating his boss's murder, Detroit cop Axel Foley uncovers criminal goings-on at a themepark, in this third Beverly Hills Cop movie worth watching for its George Lucas cameo and to marvel at the sort of dross that constituted blockbuster entertainment in the early 90s.

★★☆☆☆

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The Next Karate Kid (1994)

With Hilary Swank's angry orphan Julie-san replacing Ralph Macchio's Daniel-san and with the Kobra Kai replaced by a ridiculous American high school martial arts police force of rapey male teens, you'd think things had changed in this fourth Karate Kid movie but the story arc is exactly the same, as is Mr Miyagi's English language competence despite his ten years' experience breaking down rebellious American teenagers and building them up again with Confucian couplets.

★☆☆☆☆

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The Professional (Leon) (1994)

The 12-year-old orphan girl of a family shot to pieces by bad cops seeks refuge with a man from a neighbouring apartment, a hitman who makes the questionable decision of teaching her his trade, in this engaging action thriller that is part American (NY setting, Portman in her Hollywood debut, Oldman, English language), part French (Jean Reno, traditional French accordian music, Luc Besson French cool).

★★★★☆

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Clear And Present Danger (1994)

With Jason Bourne, Ethan Hunt and Napoleon Solo emulating DC and Marvel superheroes in search of box office success, it's a pleasure to revisit this, the third film adaptation of a Tom Clancy novel, with its hero, deeply likeable family man Jack Ryan, getting the audience rallying behind him without superhuman theatrics or bombastic action setpieces, but with cunning, diplomacy and an impossibly righteous moral code, here coming head-to-head with Colombian druglords.

★★★★☆

CINECAL: ONE SENTENCE REVIEWS

Pulp Fiction (1994)

A series of interconnected noir vignettes comes to life under Quentin Tarantino's direction, in this pulp fiction romp as compulsively watchable today as it was upon its release in 1994.

★★★★☆

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