Alice (Woody Allen, 1990)This reminded me a lot of The Purple Rose of Cairo, the last Allen movie I rented, which also starred Mia Farrow as an unfulfilled dreamer in a loveless marriage who encounters the supernatural as a way to break her out of her monotony, and show her what's really important in life, and who falls hard for an unattainable man but learns to be self-sufficient even if she can't be with the guy she loves. Actually, typing it all out makes them sound like they are practically the same movie, although the plot specifics are very different. Both movies are rather slight trifles, although I think I liked this one better because it eventually had a little weight to it after the overly flighty first half. And Farrow, of course, is great - although she'd obviously never be in another Allen film, she really hasn't done anything worthy of her talents since they broke up (their last movie together was Husbands and Wives, in 1992), and that's a shame.
In the Weeds (Michael Rauch, 2000)That is the last time I listen to Richard Roeper. This is (I think) the second movie I've rented based on one of his video picks, and the second one that has been pretty worthless (the first was the Anne Hathaway-takes-off-her-top vehicle Havoc). Now, I know Roeper has never been a particularly serious critic, but he did recommend these movies in ways that made them sound like things I'd want to see. This one is a talky relationship drama about aimless people in their twenties, a.k.a. my favorite genre of movie. But it's so generic and meaningless; how can you have a movie that's all about people talking when they say absolutely nothing? Also features a terrible lead performance from Joshua Leonard and proof that Ellen Pompeo was quite annoying (although at least rather cute and not disturbingly thin) way before Grey's Anatomy.
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