Z/Web

A strange, convoluted mess. It’s a period piece about psychological manipulation in 19th century Paris, sort of a poor man’s Dangerous Liaisons. Cousin Bette is the neglected one of a once-prominent family, and she schemes to find money and love, but her schemes always backfire and don’t turn out the way she intended. Some interesting scenes and situations, but the characters are all unlikable. The acting was also poor, with some making attempts at accents and others not bothering in the slightest (British accents, at least, would been more appropriate than silly American drawls). Elizabeth Shue shows off her negligible singing ability (in addition to other assets), and the luminous Jessica Lange is supposed to be an old hag??? I also found the constant overly bold orchestrated music inappropriate, making every scene into dramatic melodrama.

Director: Sam Peckinpaw

Excellent actioner, with lots of tension and violence. Steve McQueen is awesome as a paroled convict released to do a bank robbery (the parole board was bribed). Of course everything goes wrong, with his friends attempting to do him in, and it’s up to him and his wife (Ali MacGraw) to escape both the bad guys and the cops. I saw the remake a few years ago and though it wasn’t bad, this was way, way better. Why remake such a great film? I’m definitely going to have to check out the original Thomas Crown Affair (also staring McQueen and remade recently).

Both these teams are based in Madrid, but Real Madrid’s a living legend (nearly every player is world famous). They started proving it just nine minutes in on a goal from freshly named European Footballer of the Year Luis Figo when he took a fantastic through-ball from teammate Ivan Helguera and found himself one-on-one with American top goalkeeper Casey Keller. Figo faked out Keller and easily scored. Minutes later, Figo provided the cross and Helguera headed the ball past Keller for goal number two. Keller redeemed himself a bit later with a couple great point-blank saves, but a free kick by Roberto Carlos took help from the post to keep it out. Rayo just really had trouble generating the offense, though late in the half they had a few chances, including a nice free kick attempt. In the second half, things started off rather evenly, with the edge to Madrid, but with 25 to play, Rayo’s Michel put in a great sidefooted volley into the roof of the net, changing the game. But Rayo couldn’t build on their momentum. With 15 minutes left, Raul kicked the ball straight up in the air to evade a diving Keller, then did an unbelievable volley while falling to put the ball into the empty net. Keller managed a good save late in the game, but it wasn’t up to him to score, and failing late, Rayo lost. Final: 3-1 Real Madrid.