Written by DAVID KEYES

September 13, 1998

Cinema has often given its audiences a few surprises in the past, and this summer we were given another. The spring season of movies turned out to be one of the worst ever, implementing the possibility of 1998 being the ultimate year of bad movies. Pictures like "Meet The Deedles" and "Lost In Space" were among these appalling flops. Many more followed, all leading up to the mess of "Godzilla," which was met with unfavorable reviews and disappointing box office numbers--not to mention over-toned hype. But then came summer, and everything changed. Unlike the summer film seasons of the past half decade, the 1998 summer lineup offered us some of the most thrilling pictures of the year, destroying the possibility of 1998 being one of the worst years for the film industry. This time, summer could have made 1998 one of the greatest years for movies.

Reasons? How about "The Truman Show?" Jim Carrey, who, in my opinion, is one of the worst actors known to man, totally changed his image by starring in Peter Weir’s masterpiece about a man whose world is actually a television show, even though its star has no idea about it. The movie is one of the most ingenious ever made, and, released in early June, it offered hints of the successes to come.

"Mulan" was the next great movie. Following the footsteps of last year’s "Hercules," it succeeded in breaking from the traditional animated formula and penetrated its audience into a bold tale of disobedience, family honor and war.

From the beautiful animated sequences to the rousing characters, "Mulan" did more than entertain children: it amused teens, adults and others of all ages, taking in an estimated 115 million dollars.

The best picture of the summer, and the second best of the year, was "The Mask Of Zorro." Starring Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins, this strangely intriguing film told of Don Diego de la Vega (Hopkins), who masqueraded as Zorro for years, only to lost his family, freedom and honor in the end. Years later, after escaping from prison, he met up with Alejandro Murrieta (Banderas), and trained him to carry on in his footsteps. Good thing, too--when de la Vega escaped prison, his mortal enemy returned to the lands of Southern California, in an attempt to secretly buy it away from Mexico using gold found on their land.

The movie must be seen to be believed--it is a well-crafted, sprawling, triumph of a film, photographed with spectacular swooping camera shots and overflowing with colorful characters. What’s even stranger is that I have never once enjoyed a "Zorro" picture in the past. Martin Campbell, the director of this picture, brought us a film that reminded us of the years past, when movies were both stunning to look at and entertaining to watch. For some time, we haven’t seen many movies that are successful in both these areas. But it worked here, and "The Mask Of Zorro" is one of the greatest films of our time.

"Armageddon," which was the summer film I most anticipated, turned out to be one big, loud, confusing and disconnected mess that earned itself the title of being the worst disaster picture ever made. Yes, it was that bad, and what’s even worse is that the film starred some huge (and I mean huge) acting talent. Ben Affleck, Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler--the list goes on and on. These are terrific talents that were wasted in a script so dimwitted and pathetic that it dropped my jaw a few times. In fact, it took nine writers to write the script. How come so many? Probably because each of them had the mental capacity of melted butter. No script like this deserved nine writers, especially when most of the script is shouting repetitive one-liners like "It’s gonna blow!"

The special effects scenes in "Armageddon" are so murky and so fast that they make the "Lost In Space" special effects scenes look like the ones from "Contact."The movie, as a whole, is a waste--nothing could have saved it. I detested ever effect sequence, every one liner and nearly every moment of it. That’s hard to believe, considering that the movie was the most promoted of the year. Perhaps it’s time to realize that big promotion for the movies can be very misleading. But the movie DID succeed, which is even harder to believe.

But nonetheless, summer exceeded its expectations. Thanks to the turnout of such great movies like "The Truman Show," 1998, as it turns out, won’t be the worst year for movies.