From: owner-movies-digest@lists.xmission.com (movies-digest) To: movies-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: movies-digest V2 #394 Reply-To: movies-digest Sender: owner-movies-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-movies-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk movies-digest Friday, December 20 2002 Volume 02 : Number 394 [MV] EMPIRE / **1/2 (R) [MV] DRUMLINE /*** (PG-13) [MV] STAR TREK: NEMESIS / ** (PG-13) [MV] THE HOT CHICK / 1/2* (PG-13) [MV] MAID IN MANHATTAN / *** (PG-13) [MV] EVELYN / ***(PG) [MV] STAR TREK: NEMESIS / ** (PG-13) [MV] LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS / *** (PG-13) [MV] GANGS OF NEW YORK / ***1/2 (R) [MV] TWO WEEKS NOTICE / *** (PG-13) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 06 Dec 2002 17:28:45 GMT From: gregorys@xmission.com Subject: [MV] EMPIRE / **1/2 (R) EMPIRE / **1/2 (R) December 6, 2002 Victor Rosa: John Leguizamo Jack: Peter Sarsgaard Carmen: Delilah Cotto Trish: Denise Richards Jimmy: Vincent Laresca La Colombiana: Isabella Rossellini Iris: Sonia Braga Rafael Menendez: Nestor Serrano Chedda :Anthony 'Treach' Criss Tito: Fat Joe Universal Pictures presents a film written and directed by Franc Reyes. Running time: 100 minutes. Rated R (for strong violence, pervasive language, drug content and some sexuality). BY ROGER EBERT "Empire" comes so close to working that you can see there from here. It has the right approach and the right opening premise, but it lacks the zest and it goes for a plot twist instead of trusting the material. I recently saw "Goodfellas" again, and this film is similar; they're both about the rise and fall of a gangster, narrated by himself, and complicated by a wife who walks out when she catches him with another woman. And "Empire" has a story hook that could have transformed this story into another classic. The story is told by Victor Rosa (John Leguizamo), a successful drug distributor of Puerto Rican background who controls a territory in the Bronx. He describes his world in a rich, fact-packed voice-over. He works for La Colombiana (Isabella Rossellini), a rich, ruthless suburban woman with a vicious enforcer. He understands the business inside out; turf wars are not meaningless when "20 feet of sidewalk means 30 grand a week, easy." He is in love with Carmen (Delilah Cotto), a college student. Victor is upwardly mobile. He deals with hard street people and is hard himself, a killer, yet we sense an inner goodness trying to be born, a desire to better himself. One day his girlfriend, Carmen, meets Trish (Denise Richards) at school, and they're invited to a party being given by Trish's boyfriend, Jack (Peter Sarsgaard). He's a hotshot young Wall Street wizard who is attracted to Victor's criminal glamor: "We're the same ..." He offers Victor a chance to invest in a sure thing, an offshore deal that will double his money, and explains to Trish: "He's a businessman. If he were born in the suburbs, he'd be running a Fortune 500 company." Investing with Jack fits in with Victor's plans. Carmen is pregnant, and he wants to launder his drug money, leave the business to his top lieutenant and move to Manhattan with her. When Jack offers him the use of a luxury loft, he grabs it; he sees himself going legit and becoming an investment wizard like Jack. Carmen isn't so sure. She misses the old neighborhood: "This loft will never be home for me." Especially not after Victor is depressed one day, Jack sends the compliant Trish over to cheer him up, and Carmen walks in on them. Victor is telling the truth when he says "it's not what it looks like," but tell that to Carmen. So now we have the setup. I will not reveal the payoff or the twist. For that, you will need to visit the movie's trailer at apple.com/trailers, which gives away the surprise with a heedlessness that is astonishing even in these days of trailers that tell too much. I will couch my objection to the movie cautiously, to preserve its secrets. What disappointed me is that the movie didn't follow through with its original premise and show us a bright, resourceful drug dealer trying to start all over on Wall Street. Is it possible? Is the high-finance club open to outsiders? Does Wall Street play even dirtier than drug dealers and have more vicious criminal types? The possibility exists in a time when CEOs have led their accountants in the theft of billions from American shareholders. But no. The movie lacks the ambition or nerve to make the moral critique of American finance that it seems to be heading for. It settles instead for a series of developments that will be familiar to students of similar films. There is poignancy in the situation Victor finds himself in, yes, and real drama in his relationship with Carmen (both Leguizamo and Cotto give full-hearted, convincing performances). And his relationship with the Isabella Rossellini character unfolds with implacable logic, although its final result could have been handled with more imagination. But "Empire" fails because it lacked the nerve to really be about its people and went for the fancy plot gimmick, which no doubt played better at the pitch meeting. It takes imagination to visualize a movie that sees clearly how finance and morality have diverged (as Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" did), but very little imagination to green-light a mechanical plot device that the audience can see coming long before the characters do. Leaving the theater, still impressed by the reality of Victor, Carmen and many of the others, I felt a sense of loss. What would La Colombiana have done if Victor really had taken over a Fortune 500 company? Now there's a story for you. Copyright © Chicago Sun-Times Inc. [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: 13 Dec 2002 13:16:36 GMT From: gregorys@xmission.com Subject: [MV] DRUMLINE /*** (PG-13) DRUMLINE /*** (PG-13) December 13, 2002 Devon: Nick Cannon Laila:Zoe Saldana Dr. Aaron Lee: Orlando Jones Sean: Leonard Roberts Jayson: GQ Ernest: Jason Weaver Charles: Earl Poitier Diedre: Candace Carey 20th Century Fox presents a film directed by Charles Stone. Written by Tina Gordon Chism and Shawn Schepps.Running time: 118 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for innuendo and language). BY ROGER EBERT When the first half is over, the show begins. So "Drumline" advises us, in a story centered on the marching band of a predominantly black university in Atlanta. Devon (Nick Cannon), a drummer so good he was personally recruited by the bandmaster, journeys from Harlem to the middle-class world of Atlanta A&T, where he is the best drummer in the band, and the most troublesome. He's a hotshot, cocky, a showboat who adds a solo to the end of his audition piece and upstages his section leader in front of thousands of fans during a half-time show. The movie shows him gradually drumming himself out of the band, and out of favor with Laila (Zoe Saldana), the dance major he's dating. It also shows him growing up, learning some lessons, and making a friend out of a former enemy. The film sets Devon's story against the background of the BET Big Southern Classic, a (fictional) annual competition between marching bands that's held in Atlanta. His school's traditional rival is cross-town Morris Brown University, a real school whose band is famed for its halftime shows. MBU's band is flashy and high-stepping, doing anything to please the crowd, while Atlanta A&T's bandmaster, Dr. Aaron Lee (Orlando Jones), has more serious musical tastes and believes the primary job of a band member is to learn. "Drumline," directed by Charles Stone, and written by Tina Gordon Chism and Shawn Schepps, is entertaining for what it does, and admirable for what it doesn't do. It gets us involved in band politics and strategy, gives us a lot of entertaining halftime music, and provides a portrait of a gifted young man who slowly learns to discipline himself and think of others. That's what it does. What it doesn't do is recycle all the tired old cliches in which the Harlem kid is somehow badder and blacker than the others, provoking confrontations. Devon makes the nature of his character clear in a heartbreaking early scene when, after high school graduation, he talks to his father, who abandoned the family, and tells him he doesn't do drugs, doesn't have a lot of little kids running around, and has a full scholarship to university. This is a movie that celebrates black success instead of romanticizing gangsta defeatism. Nick Cannon plays Devon as a fine balance between a showoff and a kid who wants to earn admiration. The key rivalry in the film is between Devon and Sean (Leonard Roberts), head of the drum section and the band's best drummer--until Devon arrives. They develop a personal animosity that hurts the band, Dr. Lee believes. He disciplines Devon for violations of the band rule book, for provoking a fight with another band member and, most painfully, for keeping a secret that Sean makes sure is revealed. Dr. Lee has a problem, too, with the school president, who likes Devon's showboating and thinks the band needs more pizzazz to please the alums. Orlando Jones makes his character a thoughtful teacher, a little old-fashioned, who believes in values. In creating this character, the writers must have been thinking about real teachers they admired, since they avoid the usual Mr. Chips/Dead Poets cliches. The love story between Devon and Laila is sweet and remarkably innocent, for a contemporary movie. They share one tender kiss, although the eagle-eyed MPAA rates the film PG-13 for "innuendo." Oh, I forgot: The MPAA also singles out "language," although this is one of the cleanest-talking urban movies in history. If this isn't a PG film in today's world, what is? It is also, in a very sincere way, touching. It pays attention to its characters, gives them weight and reality, doesn't underline the morals but certainly has them. "Drumline" joins titles like "love jones," "Soul Food," "Barbershop" and "Antwone Fisher" in the slowly growing list of movies about everyday African-American lives. What a good-hearted film. Note: The filmmakers filled the Georgia Dome with 50,000 extras for the rousing marching band showdown, which features the actual bands of Morris Brown College and Clark Atlanta University, Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, and Louisiana's Grambling State. Morris Brown was a good sport to allow its bandmaster to be portrayed as the villain. Copyright © Chicago Sun-Times Inc. [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: 13 Dec 2002 13:16:39 GMT From: gregorys@xmission.com Subject: [MV] STAR TREK: NEMESIS / ** (PG-13) STAR TREK: NEMESIS / ** (PG-13) December 13, 2002 Capt. Picard: Patrick Stewart Commander Riker: Jonathan Frakes Data: Brent Spiner Geordi La Forge: LeVar Burton Worf: Michael Dorn Dr.Crusher: Gates McFadden Reman Viceroy: Ron Perlman Paramount Pictures presents a film directed by Stuart Baird. Written by Gene Roddenberry, John Logan, Rick Berman and Brent Spiner. Running time: 116 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for sci-fi action violence and peril and a scene of sexual content). Opening today at local theaters. BY ROGER EBERT I'm sitting there during "Star Trek: Nemesis," the 10th "Star Trek" movie, and I'm smiling like a good sport and trying to get with the dialogue about the isotronic Ruritronic signature from planet Kolarus III, or whatever the hell they were saying, maybe it was "positronic," and gradually it occurs to me that "Star Trek" is over for me. I've been looking at these stories for half a halftime, and, let's face it, they're out of gas. There might have been a time when the command deck of Starship Enterprise looked exciting and futuristic, but these days it looks like a communications center for security guards. Starships rocket at light speeds halfway across the universe, but when they get into battles the effect is roughly the same as on board a World War II bomber. Fearsome death rays strike the Enterprise, and what happens? Sparks fly out from the ceiling and the crew gets bounced around in their seats like passengers on the No. 36 bus. This far in the future they wouldn't have sparks because they wouldn't have electricity, because in a world where you can beam matter--beam it, mind you--from here to there, power obviously no longer lives in the wall and travels through wires. I've also had it with the force shield that protects the Enterprise. The power on this thing is always going down. In movie after movie after movie I have to sit through sequences during which the captain is tersely informed that the front shield is down to 60 percent, or the back shield is down to 10 percent, or the side shield is leaking energy, and the captain tersely orders that power be shifted from the back to the sides or all put in the front, or whatever, and I'm thinking, life is too short to sit through 10 movies in which the power is shifted around on these shields. The shields have been losing power for decades now, and here it is the Second Generation of Star Trek, and they still haven't fixed them. Maybe they should get new batteries. I tried to focus on the actors. Patrick Stewart, as Capt. Picard, is a wonderful actor. I know because I have seen him elsewhere. It is always said of Stewart that his strength as an actor is his ability to deliver bad dialogue with utter conviction. I say it is time to stop encouraging him. Here's an idea: Instead of giving him bad dialogue, why not give him good dialogue, and see what he can do with that? Here is a man who has played Shakespeare. The plot of "Star Trek: Nemesis" involves a couple of strands, one involving a clone of Data (Brent Spiner), which somehow seems redundant, and another involving what seems to be a peace feeler from the Romulan empire. In the course of the movie the Romulan Senate is wiped out by a deadly blue powder and the sister planet of Remus stages an uprising, or something, against being made to work as slaves in the mines. Surely slavery is not an efficient economic system in a world of hyperdrives, but never mind: Turns out that Picard shares something unexpected with his rival commander, although once I tell you that you can no doubt guess what it is, since the movie doesn't work you very hard. There is a scene in the movie in which one starship rams another one. You would think this would destroy them both, and there are a lot of sparks and everybody has to hold onto their seats, but the "Star Trek" world involves physical laws which reflect only the needs of the plot. If one ship rammed another and they were both destroyed and everyone died, and the movie ended with a lot of junk floating around in space, imagine the faces of the people in the audience. I think it is time for "Star Trek" to make a mighty leap forward another 1,000 years into the future, to a time when starships do not look like rides in a 1970s amusement arcade, when aliens do not look like humans with funny foreheads, and when wonder, astonishment and literacy are permitted back into the series. Star Trek was kind of terrific once, but now it is a copy of a copy of a copy. Copyright © Chicago Sun-Times Inc. [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: 13 Dec 2002 13:16:49 GMT From: gregorys@xmission.com Subject: [MV] THE HOT CHICK / 1/2* (PG-13) THE HOT CHICK / 1/2* (PG-13) December 13, 2002 Clive: Rob Schneider Jessica Spencer: Rachel McAdams April: Anna Faris Billy: Matthew Lawrence Eden: Sam Doumit Weed Guy: Adam Sandler Deejay: Michelle Branch Robert: Davi Stan Buena Vista Pictures presents a film directed by Tom Brady. Written by Tom Brady and Rob Schneider. Running time: 101 minutes. Rated PG-13 (on appeal for crude and sexual humor, language and drug references). BY ROGER EBERT "The Hot Chick" is about a woman who is magically transported into a man's body, and takes several days to learn how to urinate correctly with her new equipment. This despite getting a how-to lecture from a helpful washroom attendant. Luckily, she finds that passing gas is a skill that ports easily between the genders. Meanwhile, the former occupant of her male body has been magically transported into her former female body, and immediately becomes a hooker and a stripper. How is this switch possible? It happens because of a pair of magic earrings. Their history is shown in an introductory scene helpfully subtitled, "Abyssinia, 50 B.C." The scene is clearly inspired by the Arabian Nights; the screenplay is by the director, Tom Brady, and the star, Rob Schneider, have confused Africa with the Middle East, but the prologue is over before we can grow depressed by its geographical and ethnographic ignorance. In modern times, we are introduced to a cadre of hot chicks who all go to the same high school. The Rob Schneider character, named Clive, no doubt after Clive of India, who would have been a much more interesting character, mugs one of the hot chicks, and gets one of her earrings. When Clive and the chick put on the earrings, they are wondrously transported into each other's bodies. Jessica occupies Clive. Clive also occupies Jessica, but only gets a couple of scenes, in which he quickly masters feminine skills, starting with buying tampons and progressing quickly to stripping. The movie's conviction that we would rather see the outside of Rob Schneider's body than the outside of Rachel McAdams' body is not the least of its miscalculations. Rob Schneider's outside has most of its scenes with Jessica's best friend, played by Anna Faris, whose resemblance to Britney Spears in the hair and makeup departments is a complete coincidence. The way the movie handles the switch is that Rob Schneider, visually appearing as himself, has Jessica trapped inside. He/she convinces his/her best girlfriends of this transformation. This is one of the most astonishing events in the history of mankind, incredibly and miraculous, and so what inflames the curiosity of the three girlfriends? His penis. That they are stupid goes without saying. That the filmmakers could think of nothing more creative to do with their premise is a cause for despair. Body-switch movies had a brief vogue in the 1980s, when there were some cute ones ("Big," "Vice Versa"), but Hollywood has so downgraded its respect for the audience that "The Hot Chick" is now considered acceptable. The movie resolutely avoids all the comic possibilities of its situation, and becomes one more dumb high school comedy about sex gags and prom dates. Jessica, as Clive, becomes the best boy/girlfriend a girl could want, during a week in which the female Jessica's parents absentmindedly observe that she has been missing for days. (That a girl looking exactly like the most popular girl in high school is stripping and hooking escapes the attention of the local slackwits.) Lessons are learned, Jessica sees things from a different point of view, sweetness triumphs, and the movie ends with one of those "deleted" scenes over the final credits. This particular credit cookie is notable for being even more boring and pointless than the movie. Through superhuman effort of the will, I did not walk out of "The Hot Chick," but reader, I confess I could not sit through the credits. The MPAA rates this PG-13. It is too vulgar for anyone under 13, and too dumb for anyone over 13. Copyright © Chicago Sun-Times Inc. [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: 13 Dec 2002 13:16:38 GMT From: gregorys@xmission.com Subject: [MV] MAID IN MANHATTAN / *** (PG-13) MAID IN MANHATTAN / *** (PG-13) December 13, 2002 Marisa Ventura: Jennifer Lopez Chris Marshall: Ralph Fiennes Ty : Tyler Garcia Posey Jerry Siegel: Stanley Tucci Caroline: Natasha Richardson Stephanie Kehoe: Marissa Matrone Lionel Bloch: Bob Hoskins Paula Burns: Frances Conroy John Bextram: Chris Eigeman Columbia Pictures presents a film directed by Wayne Wang. Written by Kevin Wade. Running time: 105 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for some language/sexual references). Opening today at local theaters. BY ROGER EBERT "Maid in Manhattan" is a skillful, glossy, formula picture, given life by the appeal of its stars. It has a Meet Cute of stunning audacity, it has a classic Fish Out of Water, it works the Idiot Plot Syndrome overtime to avoid solving a simple misunderstanding, and there won't be a person in the audience who can't guess exactly how it will turn out. Yet it goes through its paces with such skill and charm that, yes, I enjoyed it. We go to the movies for many reasons, and one of them is to see attractive people fall in love. This is not shameful. It is all right to go to a romantic comedy and not demand it be a searing portrait of the way we live now. What we ask is that it not be dumb, or at least no dumber than necessary, and that it involve people who embody star quality. "Maid in Manhattan" is not dumb; the Kevin Wade screenplay deals with several story lines and makes them all interesting. And Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes make an intriguing couple because their characters have ways of passing the time other than falling in love. (I grow impatient when movie characters are so limited they can think of nothing better to do than follow the plot.) Lopez plays Marisa Ventura, a maid in a posh Manhattan hotel. She has a bright grade-schooler named Ty (Tyler Garcia Posey) who for reasons of his own has become an expert on Richard M. Nixon. Marisa hopes to be promoted to management one day, but despite the nudging of fellow maid and best friend Stephanie (Marissa Matrone), is hesitant about applying. Fiennes plays Christopher Marshall, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate. Camera crews and herds of paparazzi follow him everywhere, perhaps under the impression that he is Rudolph Giuliani. He has a personal assistant named Jerry (Stanley Tucci) whose job is to advise him not to do almost everything that he thinks of doing. The movie uses the device of a hotel staff briefing to fill us in on various VIP guests, including an exhibitionist, two sticky-fingered French ladies, and especially Caroline (Natasha Richardson), a flighty airhead from Sotheby's who has checked into an expensive suite. Future senator Marshall has checked into another one. And then, in a dazzling display of time-honored movie developments, writer Wade and director Wayne Wang arrange for Marisa to be trying on one of Caroline's expensive dresses just as her son meets Marshall and talks them all into walking the senatorial dog in Central Park. Marshall understandably thinks this impostor is the inhabitant of the other suite (Richardson). Prince Charming of course falls instantly in love with Cinderella, who must race back to the hotel and resume her life of scrubbing and bed-making. Marshall, meanwhile, invites the inhabitant of the expensive suite to lunch, only to find that it is the real Caroline, not the mistaken one. And so on. One word by Marisa at any moment could have cleared up the confusion, but perhaps she fears a Republican candidate would not want to date a Puerto Rican maid, except under false pretenses. It is the duty of the screenplay to keep them separated through various misunderstandings and devices, but the movie makes this process surprisingly interesting by dealing with Marisa's application to become an assistant manager. A kind veteran butler (Bob Hoskins, self-effacing but lovable) teaches her the ropes, even when the two of them are called upon to serve Marshall and the real Caroline at the luncheon from hell. Other issues arise. Marisa's mother of course does not think she deserves to be anything more than a maid (hasn't she learned from the mother in "Real Women Have Curves"?). Young Ty of course sees clearly that his mom belongs in the arms of this Republican. And the press turns a series of meetings into a front-page romance. There's a little spunk in the movie. Marisa tells Marshall what's wrong with his ideas about housing and poverty. He's teachable. Marisa attends a charity benefit looking gorgeous in a dress borrowed by the hotel boutique and wearing Harry Winston diamonds supplied, no doubt, in return for the plug. And when she runs away from the ball and he follows her, well, it worked in "Cinderella" and it works here, too. Copyright © Chicago Sun-Times Inc. [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: 13 Dec 2002 13:16:37 GMT From: gregorys@xmission.com Subject: [MV] EVELYN / ***(PG) EVELYN / ***(PG) December 13, 2002 Desmond Doyle: Pierce Brosnan Evelyn Doyle: Sophie Vavasseur Bernadette Beattie: Julianna Margulies Nick Barron: Aidan Quinn Michael Beattie: Stephen Rea Thomas Connolly: Alan Bates Mr. Wolfe :John Lynch Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer presents a film directed by Bruce Beresford. Written by Paul Pender. Running time: 94 minutes. Rated PG (for thematic material and language). BY ROGER EBERT "Evelyn" is set in 1953, and could have been filmed then. Told with the frank simplicity of a classic well-made picture, it tells its story, nothing more, nothing less, with no fancy stuff. We relax as if we've found a good movie on cable. Story is everything here. Even though Pierce Brosnan is a movie star, he comes across here as an ordinary bloke, working-class Irish, charming but not all that charming. We hardly need to be told the movie is "based on a true story." Brosnan plays Desmond Doyle, a drunk and a carpenter, more or less in that order. He has two sons and a daughter. When his wife abandons the family, the government social workers come around, size up the situation, and advise, "send in the nuns." The children are sent to orphanages, on the grounds, then sanctified in Irish law, that a father cannot raise children by himself. Desmond is devastated. At first that translates into drinking, but eventually he meets an understanding woman (a barmaid, of course, since where else would he meet a woman?). She is Bernadette Beattie (Julianna Margulies), who advises Desmond to get his act together if he ever hopes to have his children back again. With her encouragement he meets her brother, an attorney named Michael Beattie (Stephen Rea), who holds out little hope of a successful court case. For one thing, Desmond will need the consent of his wife, which is conspicuously unavailable. Before settling into the rhythms of a courtroom drama, the movie takes a look at the conditions in the orphanage where Evelyn (the fetching Sophie Vavasseur) is being cared for. It apparently contains only two staff members: the fearsome, strict and cruel Sister Brigid (Andrea Irvine), and the sweet, gentle Sister Felicity (Karen Ardiff). The orphanage itself is one step up from the conditions shown in "The Magdalene Sisters," another current film which shows how many Irish women were incarcerated for life for sexual misdeeds, stripped of their identities, and used as cheap labor in church-owned laundries. In 1953 there was no daylight between the Catholic Church and the Irish government, and Doyle's chances in court are poor. He is trying not merely to regain custody of his children, but to overturn Irish law. The case has great symbolic value, and soon Beattie finds himself joined by an Irish-American lawyer named Nick Barron (Aidan Quinn), and finally by a retired Irish legal legend named Thomas Connolly (Alan Bates). Courtroom scenes in movies are often somewhat similar, and yet almost always gripping. The format fascinates us. There is great suspense here as Evelyn herself takes the stand to denounce Sister Brigid, and Sophie Vavasseur is a good actress, able to convincingly make us fear she won't choose the right words, before she does. "Evelyn" depicts Irish society of 50 years ago with a low-key cheerfulness that shows how humor cut through the fog of poverty. The Irish in those days got much of their entertainment in pubs, which often had a lounge bar with a piano and an array of ready singers, and it is a true touch that Desmond Doyle takes a turn with a song (Brosnan does his own singing, no better but no worse than a competent pub singer). The movie also enjoys the Irish humor based on paradox and logic, as when one of Desmond's sons, told Joseph was a carpenter, asks "Did Joseph ever do a bit of painting and decoration like my dad?" "Evelyn" is directed by Bruce Beresford ("Driving Miss Daisy," "Crimes of the Heart"), who may have chosen the straightforward classic style as a deliberate decision: It signals us that the movie will not be tarted up with modern touches, spring any illogical surprises, or ask for other than genuine emotions. Brosnan, at the center, is convincing as a man who sobers up and becomes, not a saint, but at least the dependable person he was meant to be. And Irish law is changed forever. Copyright © Chicago Sun-Times Inc. [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: 14 Dec 2002 00:02:42 GMT From: gregorys@xmission.com Subject: [MV] STAR TREK: NEMESIS / ** (PG-13) STAR TREK: NEMESIS / ** (PG-13) December 13, 2002 Capt. Picard: Patrick Stewart Commander Riker: Jonathan Frakes Data: Brent Spiner Geordi La Forge: LeVar Burton Worf: Michael Dorn Dr.Crusher: Gates McFadden Reman Viceroy: Ron Perlman Paramount Pictures presents a film directed by Stuart Baird. Written by Gene Roddenberry, John Logan, Rick Berman and Brent Spiner. Running time: 116 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for sci-fi action violence and peril and a scene of sexual content). Opening today at local theaters. BY ROGER EBERT I'm sitting there during "Star Trek: Nemesis," the 10th "Star Trek" movie, and I'm smiling like a good sport and trying to get with the dialogue about the isotronic Ruritronic signature from planet Kolarus III, or whatever the hell they were saying, maybe it was "positronic," and gradually it occurs to me that "Star Trek" is over for me. I've been looking at these stories for half a halftime, and, let's face it, they're out of gas. There might have been a time when the command deck of Starship Enterprise looked exciting and futuristic, but these days it looks like a communications center for security guards. Starships rocket at light speeds halfway across the universe, but when they get into battles the effect is roughly the same as on board a World War II bomber. Fearsome death rays strike the Enterprise, and what happens? Sparks fly out from the ceiling and the crew gets bounced around in their seats like passengers on the No. 36 bus. This far in the future they wouldn't have sparks because they wouldn't have electricity, because in a world where you can beam matter--beam it, mind you--from here to there, power obviously no longer lives in the wall and travels through wires. I've also had it with the force shield that protects the Enterprise. The power on this thing is always going down. In movie after movie after movie I have to sit through sequences during which the captain is tersely informed that the front shield is down to 60 percent, or the back shield is down to 10 percent, or the side shield is leaking energy, and the captain tersely orders that power be shifted from the back to the sides or all put in the front, or whatever, and I'm thinking, life is too short to sit through 10 movies in which the power is shifted around on these shields. The shields have been losing power for decades now, and here it is the Second Generation of Star Trek, and they still haven't fixed them. Maybe they should get new batteries. I tried to focus on the actors. Patrick Stewart, as Capt. Picard, is a wonderful actor. I know because I have seen him elsewhere. It is always said of Stewart that his strength as an actor is his ability to deliver bad dialogue with utter conviction. I say it is time to stop encouraging him. Here's an idea: Instead of giving him bad dialogue, why not give him good dialogue, and see what he can do with that? Here is a man who has played Shakespeare. The plot of "Star Trek: Nemesis" involves a couple of strands, one involving a clone of Data (Brent Spiner), which somehow seems redundant, and another involving what seems to be a peace feeler from the Romulan empire. In the course of the movie the Romulan Senate is wiped out by a deadly blue powder and the sister planet of Remus stages an uprising, or something, against being made to work as slaves in the mines. Surely slavery is not an efficient economic system in a world of hyperdrives, but never mind: Turns out that Picard shares something unexpected with his rival commander, although once I tell you that you can no doubt guess what it is, since the movie doesn't work you very hard. There is a scene in the movie in which one starship rams another one. You would think this would destroy them both, and there are a lot of sparks and everybody has to hold onto their seats, but the "Star Trek" world involves physical laws which reflect only the needs of the plot. If one ship rammed another and they were both destroyed and everyone died, and the movie ended with a lot of junk floating around in space, imagine the faces of the people in the audience. I think it is time for "Star Trek" to make a mighty leap forward another 1,000 years into the future, to a time when starships do not look like rides in a 1970s amusement arcade, when aliens do not look like humans with funny foreheads, and when wonder, astonishment and literacy are permitted back into the series. Star Trek was kind of terrific once, but now it is a copy of a copy of a copy. Copyright © Chicago Sun-Times Inc. [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: 19 Dec 2002 07:13:30 GMT From: gregorys@xmission.com Subject: [MV] LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS / *** (PG-13) LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS / *** (PG-13) December 18, 2002 Frodo Elijah Wood Gandalf Ian McKellen Aragorn Viggo Mortensen Sam Gamgee Sean Astin Pippin Took Billy Boyd Arwen Undomiel Liv Tyler Saruman Christopher Lee Grima Wormtongue Brad Dourif Galadriel Cate Blanchett New Line Cinema presents a film directed by Peter Jackson. Written by Frances Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair and Peter Jackson. Based on the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien. Running time: 179 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for epic battle sequences and scary images). BY ROGER EBERT With "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," it's clear that director Peter Jackson has tilted the balance decisively against the hobbits and in favor of the traditional action heroes of the Tolkien trilogy. The star is now clearly Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), and the hobbits spend much of the movie away from the action. The last third of the movie is dominated by an epic battle scene that would no doubt startle the gentle medievalist J.R.R. Tolkien. The task of the critic is to decide whether this shift damages the movie. It does not. "The Two Towers" is one of the most spectacular swashbucklers ever made, and, given current audience tastes in violence, may well be more popular than the first installment, "The Fellowship of the Ring." It is not faithful to the spirit of Tolkien and misplaces much of the charm and whimsy of the books, but it stands on its own as a visionary thriller. I complained in my review of the first film that the hobbits had been short-changed, but with this second film I must accept that as a given, and go on from there. "The Two Towers" is a rousing adventure, a skillful marriage of special effects and computer animation, and it contains sequences of breathtaking beauty. It also gives us, in a character named the Gollum, one of the most engaging and convincing CGI creatures I've seen. The Gollum was long in possession of the Ring, now entrusted to Frodo, and misses it ("my precious") most painfully; but he has a split personality and (in between spells when his dark side takes over) serves as a guide and companion for Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin). His body language is a choreography of ingratiation and distortion. The film introduces another computer-generated character, Treebeard, a member of the most ancient race in Middle-Earth, a tree that walks and talks and takes a very long time to make up its mind, explaining to Merry and Pippin that slowness is a virtue. I would have guessed that a walking, talking tree would look silly and break the spell of the movie, but no, there is a certain majesty in this mossy old creature. The film opens with a brief reprise of the great battle between Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and Balrog, the monster made of fire and smoke, and is faithful to the ancient tradition of movie serials by showing us that victory is snatched from certain death, as Gandalf extinguishes the creature and becomes in the process Gandalf the White. To compress the labyrinthine story into a sentence or two, the enemy is Saruman (Christopher Lee), who commands a vast army of Uruk-Hai warriors against the fortress of Theoden (Bernard Hill). Aragorn joins bravely in the fray, but the real heroes are the computer effects, which create the castle, landscape, armies and most of the action. There are long stretches of "The Two Towers" in which we are looking at mostly animation on the screen. When Aragorn and his comrades launch an attack down a narrow fortress bridge, we know that the figures toppling to their doom are computer-generated, along with everything else on the screen, and yet the impact of the action is undeniable. Peter Jackson, like some of the great silent directors, is unafraid to use his entire screen, to present images of wide scope and great complexity. He paints in the corners. What one misses in the thrills of these epic splendors is much depth in the characters. All of the major figures are sketched with an attribute or two, and then defined by their actions. Frodo, the nominal hero, spends much of his time peering over and around things, watching others decide his fate, and occasionally gazing significantly upon the Ring. Sam is his loyal sidekick on the sidelines. Merry and Pippin spend a climactic stretch of the movie riding in Treebeard's branches and looking goggle-eyed at everything, like children carried on their father's shoulders. The Fellowship of the first movie has been divided into three during this one, and most of the action centers on Aragorn, who operates within the tradition of Viking swordsmen and medieval knights. The details of the story--who is who, and why, and what their histories and attributes are--still remains somewhat murky to me. I know the general outlines and I boned up by rewatching the first film on DVD the night before seeing the second, and yet I am in awe of the true students of the Ring. For the amateur viewer, which is to say for most of us, the appeal of the movies is in the visuals. Here there be vast caverns and mighty towers, dwarves and elves and Orcs and the aforementioned Uruk-Hai (who look like distant cousins of the aliens in "Battlefield Earth"). And all are set within Jackson's ambitious canvas and backdropped by spectacular New Zealand scenery. "The Two Towers" will possibly be more popular than the first film, more of an audience-pleaser, but hasn't Jackson lost the original purpose of the story somewhere along the way? He has taken an enchanting and unique work of literature and retold it in the terms of the modern action picture. If Tolkien had wanted to write about a race of supermen, he would have written a Middle-Earth version of "Conan the Barbarian." But no. He told a tale in which modest little hobbits were the heroes. And now Jackson has steered the story into the action mainstream. To do what he has done in this film must have been awesomely difficult, and he deserves applause, but to remain true to Tolkien would have been more difficult, and braver. Copyright © Chicago Sun-Times Inc. [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: 20 Dec 2002 22:21:40 GMT From: gregorys@xmission.com Subject: [MV] GANGS OF NEW YORK / ***1/2 (R) GANGS OF NEW YORK / ***1/2 (R) December 20, 2002 Amsterdam Vallon: Leonardo DiCaprio Bill the Butcher: Daniel Day-Lewis Jenny Everdeane: Cameron Diaz Priest Vallon: Liam Neeson "Boss" Tweed: Jim Broadbent Happy Jack: John C. Reilly Johnny: Henry Thomas Monk: Brendan Gleeson P.T. Barnum: Roger Ashton-Griffiths Miramax Films presents a film directed by Martin Scorsese. Written by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian and Kenneth Lonergan. Running time: 165 minutes. Rated R (for intense strong violence, sexuality/nudity and language). Opening today at local theaters. BY ROGER EBERT Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York" rips up the postcards of American history and reassembles them into a violent, blood-soaked story of our bare-knuckled past. The New York it portrays in the years between the 1840s and the Civil War is, as a character observes, "the forge of hell," in which groups clear space by killing their rivals. Competing fire brigades and police forces fight in the streets, audiences throw rotten fruit at an actor portraying Abraham Lincoln, blacks and Irish are chased by mobs, and Navy ships fire on the city as the poor riot against the draft. The film opens with an extraordinary scene set beneath tenements, in catacombs carved out of the Manhattan rock. An Irish-American leader named Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson) prepares for battle almost as if preparing for the Mass--indeed, as he puts on a collar to protect his neck, we think for a moment he might be a priest. With his young son Amsterdam trailing behind, he walks through the labyrinth of this torchlit Hades, gathering his forces, the Dead Rabbits, before stalking out into daylight to fight the forces of a rival American-born gang, the Nativists. Men use knives, swords, bayonets, cleavers, cudgels. The ferocity of their battle is animalistic. At the end, the field is littered with bodies--including that of Vallon, slain by his enemy William Cutting, aka Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis). This was the famous gang fight of Five Points on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, recorded in American history but not underlined. When it is over, Amsterdam disappears into an orphanage, the ominously named Hellgate House of Reform. He emerges in his early 20s (now played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and returns to Five Points, still ruled by Bill, and begins a scheme to avenge his father. The vivid achievement of Scorsese's film is to visualize this history and people it with characters of Dickensian grotesquerie. Bill the Butcher is one of the great characters in modern movies, with his strangely elaborate diction, his choked accent, his odd way of combining ruthlessness with philosophy. The canvas is filled with many other colorful characters, including a pickpocket named Jenny Everdeane (Cameron Diaz), a hired club named Monk (Brendan Gleeson), the shopkeeper Happy Jack (John C. Reilly), and historical figures such as William "Boss" Tweed (Jim Broadbent), ruler of corrupt Tammany Hall, and P.T. Barnum (Roger Ashton-Griffiths), whose museum of curiosities scarcely rivals the daily displays on the streets. Scorsese's hero, Amsterdam, plays much the same role as a Dickens hero like David Copperfield or Oliver Twist: He is the eyes through which we see the others but is not the most colorful person on the canvas. Amsterdam is not as wild, as vicious or as eccentric as the people around him, and may not be any tougher than his eventual girlfriend Jenny, who like Nancy in Oliver Twist is a hellcat with a fierce loyalty to her man. DiCaprio's character, more focused and centered, is a useful contrast to the wild men around him. Certainly, Day-Lewis is inspired by an intense ferocity, laced with humor and a certain analytical detachment, as Bill the Butcher. He is a fearsome man, fond of using his knife to tap his glass eye, and he uses a pig carcass to show Amsterdam the various ways to kill a man with a knife. Bill is a skilled knife artist, and terrifies Jenny, his target for a knife-throwing act, not only by coming close to killing her but also by his ornate and ominous word choices. Diaz plays Jenny as a woman who at first insists on her own independence; as a pickpocket, she ranks high in the criminal hierarchy, and even dresses up to prey on the rich people uptown. But when she finally caves in to Amsterdam's love, she proves tender and loyal, in one love scene where they compare their scars, and another where she nurses him back to health. The movie is straightforward in its cynicism about democracy at that time. Tammany Hall buys and sells votes, ethnic groups are delivered by their leaders, and when the wrong man is elected sheriff he does not serve for long. That American democracy emerged from this cauldron is miraculous. We put the Founding Fathers on our money, but these Founding Crooks for a long time held sway. Scorsese is probably our greatest active American director (Robert Altman is another candidate), and he has given us so many masterpieces that this film, which from another director would be a triumph, arrives as a more measured accomplishment. It was a difficult film to make, as we know from the reports that drifted back from the vast and expensive sets constructed at Cinecitta in Rome. The budget was enormous, the running time was problematical. The result is a considerable achievement, a revisionist history linking the birth of American democracy and American crime. It brings us astonishing sights, as in a scene that shows us the inside of a tenement, with families stacked on top of one another in rooms like shelves. Or in the ferocity of the Draft Riots, which all but destroyed the city. It is instructive to be reminded that modern America was forged not in quiet rooms by great men in wigs, but in the streets, in the clash of immigrant groups, in a bloody Darwinian struggle. All of this is a triumph for Scorsese, and yet I do not think this film is in the first rank of his masterpieces. It is very good but not great. I wrote recently of "GoodFellas" that "the film has the headlong momentum of a storyteller who knows he has a good one to share." I didn't feel that here. Scorsese's films usually leap joyfully onto the screen, the work of a master in command of his craft. Here there seems more struggle, more weight to overcome, more darkness. It is a story that Scorsese has filmed without entirely internalizing. The gangsters in his earlier films are motivated by greed, ego and power; they like nice cars, shoes, suits, dinners, women. They murder as a cost of doing business. The characters in "Gangs of New York" kill because they like to and want to. They are bloodthirsty, and motivated by hate. I think Scorsese liked the heroes of "GoodFellas," "Casino" and "Mean Streets," but I'm not sure he likes this crowd. Copyright © Chicago Sun-Times Inc. [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: 20 Dec 2002 22:21:43 GMT From: gregorys@xmission.com Subject: [MV] TWO WEEKS NOTICE / *** (PG-13) TWO WEEKS NOTICE / *** (PG-13) December 20, 2002 Lucy Kelson: Sandra Bullock George Wade: Hugh Grant June Carter: Alicia Witt Tony: Dorian Missick Warner Bros. Pictures presents a film written and directed by Marc Lawrence. Running time: 100 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for sex-related humor). BY ROGER EBERT If I tell you "Two Weeks Notice" is a romantic comedy and it stars Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant, what do you already know, and what do you need to know? You already know: That when they meet the first time, they don't like each other. That circumstances bring them together. That they get along fine, but are sometimes scared by that and back off a little. That they are falling in love without knowing it. That just when they're about to know it, circumstances force them apart. That they seem doomed to live separately, their love never realized. That circumstances bring them back together again. That they finally cave in and admit they're in love. You need to know: What her job is. What his job is. What they disagree about. What their personality flaws are. And whether, just when their eyes are about to meet, it is a woman who seems to lure him away, or a man who seems to lure her away? You also need to know certain plug-in details of the movie, such as which ethnic groups and ethnic foods it will assign, and what fantasy dreams it will realize. I have not, by making these observations, spoiled the plot of the movie. I have spoiled the plot of every romantic comedy. Just last week I saw "Maid in Manhattan," and with that one you also know the same things and don't know the same things. The thing is, it doesn't matter that you know. If the actors are charming and the dialogue makes an effort to be witty and smart, the movie will work even though it faithfully follows the ancient formulas. Romantic comedies are the comfort food of the movies. There are nights when you don't feel like a chef who thinks he's more important than the food. When you feel like sliding into a booth at some Formica joint where the waitress calls you "Hon" and writes your order on a green and white Guest Check. Walking into "Two Weeks Notice" at the end of a hectic day, week, month and year, I wanted it to be a typical romantic comedy starring those two lovable people, Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant. And it was. And some of the dialogue has a real zing to it. There were wicked little one-liners that slipped in under the radar and nudged the audience in the ribs. She plays a Harvard Law graduate who devotes her life to liberal causes, such as saving the environment and preserving landmarks. He plays a billionaire land developer who devotes his life to despoiling the environment and tearing down landmarks. They disagree about politics and everything else. He is an insufferable egotist, superficial and supercilious, amazed by his own charm and good looks. She is phobic about germs, has a boyfriend she never sees, and thinks anybody who wants to hire her wants to sleep with her. He is also impulsive, and after she assaults him with a demand to save her favorite landmark, he hires her on the spot, promises he will not offend her sensibilities, and gives her a big salary. He does this, of course, because he plans to violate all of his promises, and because he wants to sleep with her. He may not know that, but we do. The first half of the movie is just about perfect, of its kind, and I found myself laughing more than I expected to, and even grinning at a colleague who was one seat over, because we were both appreciating how much better the movie was than it had to be. Then a funny thing happens. The movie sort of loses its way. This happens at about the time the billionaire, whose name is George Wade, agrees to let the lawyer, whose name is Lucy Kelson, quit and go back to her pro bono work. Her replacement is June Carter (Alicia Witt), a dazzling redhead with great legs and flattery skills. We think we know that she is going to be a rat, and seduce George, and all the usual stuff. But no. She does make moves in that direction, but from instinct, not design. The fact is, she's essentially a sweet and decent person. At one point, I thought I even heard her say she was married, but I must have misheard, as no romantic comedy would ever make the Other Woman technically unavailable. Anyway, what goes wrong is not Alicia Witt's fault. She plays the role as written. It's just that, by not making her a villain, writer-director Marc Lawrence loses the momentum the formula could have supplied him. The last half of the movie basically involves the key characters being nicer than we expect them to be, more decent than we thought and less cranked-up into emotional overdrive. The result is a certain loss of energy. I liked the movie, anyway. I like the way the characters talk. I like the way they slip in political punchlines, and how some of the dialogue actually makes points about rich and poor, left and right, male and female, Democratic and Republican. The characters are not entirely governed by their genitals. Sandra Bullock, who produced the film, knew just what she was doing, and how to do it. Hugh Grant knew just what he was getting into. Some critics will claim they play their "usual roles," but Grant in particular finds a new note, a little more abrupt, a little more daffy, than usual. And they bring to the movie what it must have: two people who we want to see kissing each other, and amusing ways to frustrate us until, of course, they finally do. Copyright © Chicago Sun-Times Inc. [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ End of movies-digest V2 #394 **************************** [ To quit the movies-digest mailing list (big mistake), send the message ] [ "unsubscribe movies-digest" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ]