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Last week's announcement of the Academy Award nominations brought several Best Picture nominees back to theaters, with the three that Christian critics liked least bringing in the most business. The box office also picked up this President's Day weekend with a quartet of new releases, even though critics panned them all as mediocre offerings.

Bruce Willis plays a hitman who, on the run from mobsters he testified against, moves in next door to a straight-laced dentist (Matthew Perry). The odd-couple story drew praise from Christian critics for Perry's acting and for his good-guy persona. Perry "recalls the best comedic performances in screwball comedies from Hollywood's Golden Age," according to Movieguide.

Movie Parables was impressed with the dentist's nobility of character: "The Whole Nine Yards retains a certain degree of sweetness because at the center of it all is a genuinely nice guy who is motivated not by greed, not by vengeance, but by love." But even those who found him charming weren't impressed with the film as a whole.

The Movie Reporter acknowledges that the filmmakers "try to make [Perry] the innocent in all of this, but even he commits adultery. … The overall message is one of unfaithfulness, deceit, and murder."

The U.S. Catholic Conference also criticized it for being "off-putting in its breezy treatment of crime." And although the movie has some "ingenious one-liners" ( Childcare Action), critics felt the humor was mediocre overall and only "provides short-term amusement" (John Evans of Preview).

Tying for the number one slot this weekend was Hanging Up, the story of a middle child (Meg Ryan) who takes on the burden of caring for her senile father (Walter Matthau) since her self-obsessed sisters (Diane Keaton and Lisa Kudrow) refuse to help. Despite an interesting premise about family dynamics, the movie has received stinging criticisms from nearly every reviewer. The U.S. Catholic Conference calls the movie "manipulative" and charges that its "approach to familial relationships relies on stereotypes of sibling rivalry." The Movie Reporter's Phil Boatwright said he was "squirming in my seat from the pretentious and often supercilious attempts at humor." Mary Draughon of Preview was annoyed by the ceaseless ringing of cell phones, used as a plot device in the film. "If cell phones annoy you now," she writes, "by the end of the movie you may positively hate them." Christian Spotlight guest reviewer Hillari Hunter was disappointed that "not much … is known about these characters, other than what is seen on the surface. The result is a bland movie." J. Robert Parks of The Phantom Tollbooth was similarly concerned with the one-dimensional character played by Ryan, whose "constant whining" leads the audience to "grow progressively less sympathetic" with her plight.

In this popular family comedy, a heavy snowfall promises to cancel school for the day if only a group of kids can stop the dreaded Snowplow Man (Chris Elliott) from clearing the streets. Several reviewers found the movie inappropriate for families: Preview's Mary Draughon was disturbed by the characters' "tearing down [of] others, particularly authority figures," and Movieguide likewise felt the movie presented "some bad role models for children." But The Movie Reporter says these negative elements are no reason to stay away. "Rather than deem such a film unsuitable for children," he writes, "I think parents should discuss why little ones should show respect not just for people they like, but for everyone." Bob Smithouser of Focus on the Family suggested paying more attention to the movie's positive elements, saying that "even the disrespect shown to certain authority figures is balanced by decent, loving (if somewhat slow to discipline) adults in the home." But most everyone agreed the movie isn't that enthralling. Christian Spotlight guest reviewer Douglas Downs says it's "worth seeing [but] not a great film," and Movie Parables offers the dismissing remark that "there are far better things to be done on a snow day than to watch this."

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February (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44