THE POSTMAN (IL POSTINO)
D: Michael Radford; with Massimo Troisi, Philippe Noiret, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Linda Moretti, Renato Scarpa, Anna Bonaiuto.This new film by British director Michael Radford (White Mischief, 1984) is an Italian co-production titled The Postman, a film with a production history as tragically romantic as the poetry of one of its main characters, Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. The movie is loosely based on Antonio Skarmeta’s Burning Patience, a novel about an incident in Neruda’s life when he was befriended by a young postman while living in Italy. Together with Radford, The Postman’s lead actor Massimo Troisi had worked diligently since 1990 to bring the story to the screen; both he and Radford share screenwriting credit with three other writers. Sadly, Troisi passed away from a heart condition the day after principal photography was completed on the film. Set in 1952 during the time of Neruda’s exile from Chile to a small island off the southern coast of Italy, the film recounts the friendship between the aging Communist poet and the shy, directionless son of a fisherman who knows only that he does not want to follow in his father’s footsteps. Troisi plays the uncertain postman Mario with endearing, burning awkwardness. His body language is vaguely reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin’s: With soulful gazes and expressive hands he conveys the frustration and desire trapped within his head and heart. Philippe Noiret (best known to American audiences as the projectionist in Cinema Paradiso) plays Neruda with understated generosity and warmth. The friendship between the two men is truly touching, and the end to their story is that much more compelling because of the understanding Mario seems to share with Neruda. Early in their friendship when Mario asks Neruda how to become a poet, we smile at his ingenuousness. Yet that’s what this film is about: exploring and expressing the poetry of our lives, be it in the simplicity of the local bar or the complexities of a homeland’s government. The Postman also is a love story of the first order, a sweet Cyrano tale in which Mario woos Beatrice (Cucinotta), the niece of the local innkeeper Rosa (Moretti), with a little help from his poet/mentor. With the rapport established between actors Troisi and Noiret, and Radford’s gentle prodding of the narrative, The Postman becomes one of the sweetest stories on film this summer. Slow in parts but appealing overall, The Postman suggests how interwoven the bonds of friendship and love can be. It leaves us feeling much like Mario when he reads one of Neruda’s poems about the demands of being a man: “That happened to me too but I never knew how to say it.” With lyrical beauty and memorable performances, The Postman articulates many feelings that seem to defy explanation.
3.5 stars (A.M.)
Village
New Review
FIRST KNIGHT
D: Jerry Zucker; with Sean Connery, Richard Gere, Julia Ormond, Ben Cross.Coming hot on the heels of both Rob Roy and Braveheart, the clumsily titled First Knight is the third in this summer’s sword-swinging sweepstakes as well as the umpteenth retelling of the legend of Camelot. In the end, this picture seems to have more in common with the ho-hum swashbuckling of Kevin Reynolds’ Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves than the truly mythic feel of, say, John Boorman’s Excalibur. This time out, the story pays particular attention to the relationship between Lancelot and Guinevere and how their forbidden love more or less destroys the legendary King Arthur and almost manages to ruin the city of Camelot. Despite the sweep of the story, First Knight feels like a would-be epic; in other words, it seems small: cramped, crowded, and unsure of itself. Perhaps it’s the cluttered frame compositions or the below-average special effects work that give off this impression but, more likely, it has to do with the fact that former ZAZ (David Zucker/Jim Abrahams/Jerry Zucker) collaborator and Ghost director Zucker may just not have been ready to take on a project of this size and scope, although his ambition is admirable. To be fair, Zucker occasionally shows the right touch – examples include Gere’s playful run through a deadly gauntlet and Ormond’s drink of rainwater that has been filtered down to her by Lancelot through a series of tree leaves – but more often than not, his direction lacks confidence. His actors are equally scattershot: Gere surprisingly displays a fair bit of dashing grace in some of the action scenes (which, unfortunately, look quite primitive when placed next to the aforementioned Braveheart) but has trouble maintaining a consistent accent. Ormond delivers a serviceable, if undistinguished, Guinevere, with some of her reaction shots prompting unintentional laughter. And although putting Connery in the role of King Arthur may seem like “can’t miss” casting, he too disappoints. Personally, I believe that it would be next to impossible for Connery to deliver an out-and-out bad performance (hell, just the very presence of Sean Connery inspires greatness), but I think it is safe to say that he didn’t give this role his all. His performance is a perfect metaphor for the whole film: It’s not that First Knight is a terrible, embarrassing piece of junk; it’s just a film of stunning averageness and not really good or bad enough to make any kind of a lasting impression which, depending on your point of view, may be even worse than a total failure.
2.0 stars (J.O.)
Arbor, Highland, Lake Creek, Lakehills, Movies 12, Riverside, Roundrock, Village
JUDGE DREDD
D: Danny Cannon; with Sylvester Stallone, Armand Assante, Diane Lane, Rob Schneider, Joan Chen, Jurgen Prochnow, Max Von Sydow.Set in a distant, post-apocalyptic future, this feature debut from director Cannon does a surprisingly adequate job of capturing both the look and feel of Britain’s long-running Judge Dredd/2000 A.D. comic series. As 23rd-century lawman Dredd, Stallone is in fine form, using his perpetual scowl and wisecracking, gravelly voice to good effect: It’s the one recent role I can think of where these natural Stallone traits haven’t acted as a liability. Plotwise, the film sticks closely to the comic book: In the future, the criminal justice system has failed to preserve order, and so the police force of Mega-City 1 has been upgraded to include “the Judges,” who act as judge, jury, and executioners on the spot. When Dredd is framed for murder by a power-hungry rival, he must take the law into his own hands and ferret out his betrayers before the law he loves so much is reduced to anarchy. Cannon’s take on Judge Dredd is essentially a thrill-a-minute joyride, and as such, it contains some of the most glaring plot holes I’ve seen in years. One such foul-up revolves around an army of deadly clones that arrives in the third reel and then vanishes – no explanation given – from the film moments later. There are several others, as well. All trivialities like plot logic aside, though, Judge Dredd comes off much better than anticipated. The set design and effects are genuinely breathtaking, evoking some of the “gosh, wow” sense of wonder not freely elicited since the last LucasFilm shoot-’em-up. As mentioned before, Stallone’s moribund thespian skills actually add to the character of Dredd; anyone familiar with the comic book knows Dredd’s perpetual grimace on sight, and Stallone plays up the more fascistic aspects of the character. Saturday Night Live’s Schneider, as Judge Dredd’s sidekick Fergie, provides a welcome bit of comic relief without going to extremes, and Assante is nicely over the top as Rico, Dredd’s evil twin. All in all a better-than-average adaptation of a way-above-average comic. Now then, where’s Judge Death?
3.0 stars (M.S.)
Great Hills, Lake Creek, Lincoln, Movies 12, Riverside, Roundrock, Westgate
THE MAGIC CRANE
D: Benny Chan Muk-sing; with Tony Leung Chiu-wah, Anita Mui Yim-fong, Rosemund Kwan Chi-lam, Damian Lau.Prolific trendsetter Tsui Hark produced this 1993 period fantasy, directed by comedy ace Benny Chan Muk-sing. The film displays more imagination in a matter of minutes than many can manage in two hours. Starring Hard-Boiled’s Tony Leung Chiu-wah and Heroic Trio’s Anita Mui Yim-fong, Magic Crane’s plot – an epic tale following the exploits of a bumbling martial artist and the heroic, mystical crane rider that helps him bring down a number of convoluted conspiracies and traitorous villains that threaten the so-called “world of martial arts” – is far too complex to fully describe here, but, rest assured, it boasts jaw-dropping set-pieces aplenty. Among the film’s many crazed highlights: a fight with woks to obtain the burning hot gallbladder of the mythical Fire Tortoise; a massive, mind-blowing sword battle between hundreds of opponents; and numerous sonic attacks with magical musical instruments. The budget clearly isn’t big enough to support this kind of mayhem, but the filmmakers compensate with loads of inventive editing, charming miniatures, and nifty computer effects. The style here is pure Hark, but Chan’s knack for silliness adds a healthy sense of camp to the proceedings – crucial to a film like this, where disbelief needs not only to be suspended, but viciously beaten into the dirt.
3.5 stars (J.O)
Hogg
SPECIES
D: Roger Donaldson; with Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen, Alfred Molina, Forest Whitaker, Marg Helgenberger, Natasha Henstridge.From the unlikely team of producer Frank Mancuso, Jr., one of the key players in the long-running Friday the 13th slasher franchise, and director Roger Donaldson, the man behind the recent remake of The Getaway, comes this gory creature feature that, despite a very promising first 15 minutes, proves to be nothing more than another tired rip-off of Alien, with a touch of Tobe Hooper’s Lifeforce thrown in for good measure. The story concerns a desperate manhunt for a young, but rapidly growing, little girl who has taken part in a genetic experiment that has combined alien and human DNA, resulting in a creature (code-named “Sil” and designed by H.R. Giger, the Swiss surrealist artist who is also responsible for the award-winning titular creature in Alien) that often looks sweet and harmless, but can mutate into a pus-dripping beast and tear your spine out. In an attempt to keep this kind of activity at a minimum, Kingsley assembles a group of diverse talents – lethal bounty hunter Madsen, sensitive telepathist Whitaker, and two other tag-along scientists – to track down the monster who, in the meantime, has grown into a pretty, desirable blonde who has gone to L.A. to shop, get credit cards, and cruise clubs looking for a man to father her a mutant baby so she can multiply and (presumably) take over the world. It all leads to a predictable climax in which the heroes venture into the catacombs below a posh California hotel to battle the monster with flame-throwers. Victory is declared and we suffer yet another insulting “shock” epilogue that seems to threaten Species 2. Species is one of those movies in which our hero is always one stupid step behind the villain who, in this picture, doesn’t really seem all that smart to begin with. Sil’s puzzled, bored reactions to the crazy, puny Earthlings might have been parlayed by the filmmakers into some kind of societal resonance or perhaps even a little playful satire, but these concepts have no place in this movie. Instead, the film lapses into embarrassingly heavy-handed dialogue like “She was half-human, half something else… I wonder which was the predatory half?” worthy of Edward D. Wood, Jr. The only thing worth a damn in Species is the talented cast, with Madsen’s deadpan cool and quiet charm providing most of the film’s memorable moments, while the rest of the cast all deliver solid, appealing performances. Horror movie fans are a loyal, supportive audience, and in a dry spell like this, many will be inclined to give Species a chance. Do yourself a favor… don’t. It’s the same old, recycled garbage the studios love to shove down our throats, and trust me, you’ve seen it all before. What else can I say about a movie in which even a brilliant artist like H.R. Giger repeats himself… except that besides a few random moments, Species just doesn’t make the grade and also manages to waste a fine cast along the way.
1.0 stars (J.O.)
Great Hills, Highland, Lake Creek, Movies 12, Northcross, Riverside, Roundrock, Westgate
First Run
APOLLO 13
D: Ron Howard; with Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris, Kathleen Quinlan, Mary Kate Schellhardt.Ron Howard’s take on the ill-fated 1970 moon shot is a big step forward from his previous two films – Backdraft and The Paper – which seemed to get lost in a variety of non-user-friendly subplots and were generally muddled exercises in how an excellent filmmaker can get lost in his own story. Apollo 13 has no such problems, and as such, it’s a riveting, nail-biting, two-buckets-of-popcorn return to form for Howard, filled with the almost unassailable heroics of the United States space program and the genuine urgency of history. Leads Hanks, Paxton, and Bacon, as astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jim Swigert, respectively, are all excellent, as is Harris as Mission Control leader Gene Kranz. The story, by Texans William Broyles, Jr. and Al Reinert, is equally compelling, playing up the interesting notion that by the time this third moon shot came around, not even the media was very interested in the space race anymore (an estimated three million fewer viewers watched the Cape Canaveral lift-off than the previous moon launch) until something went awry. That something was an explosion in one of the ship’s heating coils that sent the ship into an uncontrolled roll and left the astronauts, who were three-quarters of the way to the moon, with a rapidly dwindling supply of both oxygen and power. Howard pulls out all the stops on this one, pumping up the audience’s emotions with help from James Horner’s well-placed, not-quite-as-over-the-top-as-you’d-think score and the astronauts’ red-white-and-blue courage in the face of danger. It’s almost a valentine to NASA, but without the celestial mythologizing of films like The Right Stuff. From Quinlan’s take as Jim Lovell’s long-suffering and supportive wife to a thoroughly unexpected cameo from B-movie king Roger Corman as a congressman, Apollo 13 is filled with finely nuanced performances. For once, Kevin Bacon’s characterization doesn’t seem to be crying out “Remember me? I was in Footloose!” Oddly, some of the integral special effects in the film – and they are integral – seem less than perfect. One shot of Sinise – as astronaut Ken Mattingly, who was bumped from the Apollo 13 mission just two days before launch – watching the Canaveral blast off from afar seems especially contrived, but these are really minor quibbles. Apollo 13 succeeds on its own merits and may be the only summer adventure blockbuster without bullets or warheads. At the risk of sounding like Michael Medved, that’s a welcome change of pace.
3.5 stars (M.S.)
Arbor, Highland, Lake Creek, Lakehills, Movies 12, Northcross, Riverside, Roundrock
BURNING PARADISE
D: Ringo Lam; with Kwan Tin Sang.Produced by prolific fantasy auteur Tsui Hark (Chinese Ghost Story), this latest film from gritty actionmeister Lam (Full Contact) applies his hard edge to the usually lighthearted period kung fu film, making for a unique entry into the genre. The plot follows the adventures of legendary Chinese heroes Fong Sai Yuk and Hung Sei Kwan, imprisoned in a brutal, trap-laden, underground temple following their capture during the destruction of the famed Shaolin Temple. As usual, Lam dazzles with a combination of violent action, wicked irony, and down-and-dirty script mechanics, while producer Hark provides the generous production values that give the whole affair that extra gloss. Newcomer Kwan Tin Sang’s performance as Fong has made him the hot new action star in Hong Kong, and his stylish acrobatics are sure to keep audiences happy. However, it’s Lam’s bizarre direction that makes this one of the better chopsocky efforts in recent memory. He manages to make the genre’s clich�s seem brand new again, creating a considerably darker and more sinister piece than your typical martial arts picture. Picture Abel Ferrara directing a Jet Li movie and you’ll get the idea. Although the finale is a slight letdown, for the most part, Burning Paradise is a terrific movie that tells an old story with a new attitude.
3.0 stars (J.O.)
Hogg
BURNT BY THE SUN
D: Nikita Mikhalkov; with Mikhalkov, Nadia Mikhalkov, Oleg Menchikov, Ingeborga Dapkounaite, Andre Oumansky, Viatcheslav Tikhonov.Set against the backdrop of the Russian countryside under Stalin’s rule, this Oscar-winner for best foreign film is a brilliant, Chekhovian meditation on trust, love, and the intrusive horrors that period of time brought to otherwise normal families. It’s 1936 and retired military hero Serguei Kotov (director Mikhalkov) is enjoying the warm, restless summer with his extended family at their dacha just outside Moscow. Into this postcard-perfect picture of lazy familial bliss steps an outsider: Mitia (Menchikov), a long-lost family friend and, unbeknownst to Kotov, the former lover of his young wife Maroussia (Dapkounaite), who appears in disguise at first, taunting the household with rude and lusty exhortations about their various vices. Once the charade is revealed, though, Mitia is welcomed with open arms, although the purpose for his sudden and entirely unexpected return remains unknown. As Kotov’s relationship with his wife begins to show some strain, he stumbles across the truth of Maroussia’s former relationship with Mitia, which naturally sets off a series of emotional fireworks between all three. Meanwhile, the visitor has become increasingly and unpleasantly close to Kotov’s six-year-old daughter. Family members – not the least of whom is Kotov himself – are beginning to suspect that there is more to Mitia than they suspect. Mikhalov’s film moves in and out of so many different emotional levels so fluidly, that when the worst finally comes, you barely notice it, as though it had been there all along. Mikhalkov’s portrait of a Russian family circa the mid-Thirties is obviously heartfelt and touching in its pleasant ordinariness. Everyday actions take on a shimmering golden glow here; family baths, dinners, and verbal sparring flow so naturally through this film that it’s almost as if someone had taken a home movie of your old-country grandparents. Add to this heady brew Mikhalkov’s surreal (and occasionally mystifying) use of film symbolism, and you have one of the most interesting, and engrossing, Russian films in years, one that runs the gamut from love to hate to fear and back again, all of it presided over by the omniscient shadow of Joseph Stalin.
4.0 stars (M.S.)
Village
CRUMB
D: Terry Zwigoff.R. Crumb: master cartoonist of the underground comix world. Even if you’re not familiar with his name, I guarantee you’re familiar with some of his images. In fact, that’s how this documentary starts out, with Crumb caustically reviewing his most famous creations: the ubiquitous Keep on Truckin’ guy, the ever-randy Fritz the Cat, and the sensational album cover for Janis Joplin’s recording debut, Cheap Thrills. The movie tells us a lot about Crumb’s artwork – about its style, its history, its roots, and its repercussions. Though Crumb is packed with information and telling details, the movie’s objective is hardly art history or a survey of Crumb’s place in the world of comics. The movie aims for broader subject matter, to discover something about the role art plays in the life of the artist, and about how the release of art may, indeed, allow the artist to function as a stable human being. Filmmaker Terry Zwigoff, who has known Crumb for over 25 years and has played music with him as a member of the Cheap Suit Serenaders, shot the film over the course of six years. Zwigoff takes an intimate look at Crumb’s visual output and probes the artist with questions. Other perspectives are also gleaned from interviews with various other personalities: Interviewed are fellow cartoonists Spain Rodriguez, Bill Griffith, and Trina Robbins; art critic Robert Hughes; Crumb’s wife and fellow cartoonist Aline Kaminsky; Crumb’s son from a former marriage, Jesse, who is himself a burgeoning artist; ex-wife Dana Crumb; various old girlfriends; various women who endorse Crumb’s self-exposure of his sexual obsessions in which the only well-rounded women are ones with outsized upper and lower decks; and various women, chief among them former Mother Jones editor Deirdre English, who deplore his depiction of women as convenient docking stations. But even more than all this, Crumb is about the Crumb family, a unit that also includes a mother, vestigial traces of a deceased father, two brothers, Charles and Max, and two sisters, who declined to be interviewed. Much of the interview time is spent with the three brothers, often in the house they lived in as children. This is a necessity for Charles, whose inability to leave the house is one of the manifestations of his schizophrenia. Despite his mental trauma, Charles is quite funny and articulate and was the first of the Crumb kids to start drawing cartoons. He got all his siblings to join him in this endeavor and the results were quite elaborate and well-organized. But then he stopped drawing and, later, stopped going out altogether. Brother Max also grew up to become an artist. In between his painting sessions, he sits on a bed of nails in his threadbare apartment. Max also speaks of his occasionally acted-out desire to molest women. It’s at moments like these that Crumb becomes truly fascinating – when it’s exploring the chicken-and-egg conundrum. Which comes first: the art as a thing unto itself or the essential need to expunge visions from the brain? Can art be a buffer between sanity and the abyss, can it expiate all our ugliness within, can it instigate its own path of madness? In Crumb, we have three brothers whose early art experiences were similar, but who all grew quite differently. For R. Crumb, art-making may be his redemption.
4.0 stars (M.B.)
Dobie
MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS: THE MOVIE
D: Bryan Spicer; with Jason David Frank, Amy Jo Johnson, David Yost, Steve Cardenas, Johnny Yong Bosch, Karan Ashley, Paul Freeman.With absolutely as little time devoted to character or plot development as possible, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie may not be Battleship Potemkin, but it does deliver the cheesy sci-fi goods for fans of the colorful television show, even if it’s not likely to win any new converts. The plot finds the Power Rangers stripped of their powers when old enemy Ivan Ooze (Raiders of the Lost Ark’s Paul Freeman, unrecognizable under a pound of latex) returns to destroy their headquarters and cripple their mentor, Zordon. While Ooze plots to take over the world by turning parents into mindless zombies via little bottle of goo, the Rangers travel to a distant planet in order to obtain “the great power” from Dulcea, a scantily clad Red Sonja wannabe, who also finds time to train them in the art of Ninjetti (read: Ninja), so that our heroes can hop in some cool new robots and save the earth from total destruction. The best thing about Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie is that there is almost always something neat on the screen: If our heroes aren’t kung-fu fighting some slimy monster or piloting giant robots, they’re off Rollerblading or skydiving to pass the time between the action. Speaking of action, it’s in this department that the film offers a marked improvement over its small screen counterpart, with the Hong Kong-influenced fight sequences and computer generated special effects sure to wow the kids – with plenty of abysmal bad jokes uttered along with nearly every single kick, punch, and explosion, which keeps the tone appropriately light and comic bookish. In the acting department, our heroes range from “nice try” to “not trying at all,” but they do manage to keep straight faces throughout the whole affair, and their silly performances only serve to heighten the picture’s camp sensibilities. In short, despite some obvious flaws, this movie is fast-paced fun. A note to concerned parents: While this reviewer has never really bought into the controversy surrounding the Power Rangers, those folks who have should know that there is no shortage of martial arts fighting, robot bashing, and kiddie titillation on display here, so if you believe that such material will negatively influence your youngsters, then do what you must.
2.5 stars (J.O.)
Arbor, Lake Creek, Lincoln, Movies 12, Northcross, Riverside, Roundrock, Westgate
POCAHONTAS
D: Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg; with the voices of Irene Bedard, Judy Kuhn, Mel Gibson, David Ogden Stiers, Russell Means, Linda Hunt.Here is a movie that knows its target audience. Pocahontas’ arrow, tipped with tender romance and feathered with spirited folklore, hits the bulls-eye dead on. If you can get past the frenzied hype of a Central Park happening and a liberal license with historical accuracy (and I challenge you to show me a 7-year old who can’t), this latest Disney effort rivals the animated features from the fabled studio’s heyday. Like the best Disney cartoons, Pocahontas is both resplendent and restrained. The rousing action sequences are brief but compelling counterpoints to the beautiful simplicity of the piece. The animation is wonderful. The human characters, especially, are skillfully drawn, full of subtle nuance and graceful movement. Pocahontas is lovely and while the animators have succumbed to the modern day heroine’s seeming requisite – impossible Barbie doll physiology – they have also imbued her with a spirit so innocent and a bearing so noble that it precludes a too-lascivious allure. The characters are nicely vocalized, the studio scoring a magnificent coup with Russell Means’ portrayal of Pocahontas’ father, Chief Powhatan. He and Irene Bednard bring to life the warm relationship of a father and daughter whose mutual love and respect gives them strength and compassion and a great capacity for listening to, and learning from, one another. Mel Gibson (John Smith), as it turns out, can carry a tune, and what tunes he gets to carry! Composer Allen Menken (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast) is back, and his music lifts the movie to lofty heights. Unlike so many film composers of late, Menken knows when to keep quiet and when to let loose his powerful score. That power soars through its centerpiece (and no doubt Oscar-bound) song, “Colors of the Wind,” performed by Judy Kuhn. In that splendid musical sequence, Pocahontas takes Captain Smith on a whirlwind tour of her land, introducing him to her people’s way of living in harmony with nature. As she sings, she becomes part of the wind, a pastel image at once ethereal and earthbound. And, at the final refrain of the song, a soft, reedy chorus rose up around me – a theatreful of equally ethereal voices. Voices of little girls who, on this Saturday morning, were rapt passengers on a magical voyage painted with all the colors of the wind.
3.5 stars (H.C.)
Great Hills, Lake Creek, Lakehills, Lincoln, Movies 12, Northcross, Riverside, Roundrock
SMOKE
D: Wayne Wang and Paul Auster; with William Hurt, Harvey Keitel, Stockard Channing, Harold Perrineau, Jr., Forest Whitaker, Giancarlo Esposito, Ashley Judd, Victor Argo.As beguiling and as ephemeral as its titular namesake, Smoke is a movie that draws you in and lingers a while in your bloodstream. It’s certainly not harmful to your system but like those darned cigarettes, Smoke leaves you wanting another not long after the last one has been extinguished. Knockout ensemble performances like these don’t come around all that often, though, and when they do they ought to be savored. The performances here are smokin’. On the other hand, the story that connects all these characters is a bit wan. The movie is structured as a series of converging vignettes; however, these story lines never converge as completely as one might like. Smoke’s anchor is the Brooklyn tobacco shop run by affable but no-nonsense Auggie Wren (Keitel). Everyone comes into the shop sooner or later. Down-on-his-luck writer Paul Benjamin (Hurt) is one of the regulars. And in the flick of an eye, into Paul’s life comes Rashid (Perrineau). Rashid’s on his own journey but hangs around long enough to become family and work for Auggie in the tobacco shop, but his path also takes him upstate to check in with Cyrus Cole (Whitaker), who is a story unto himself. Ruby McNutt (Channing), Auggie’s old flame, also comes to the tobacco shop on a mission. So many of these people have been damaged by life: Ruby wears an eye patch to cover her missing eye; Cyrus wears a prosthetic arm that reminds him of his misdeeds; Paul has been so shocked by life that he moves with the grace of the walking dead; and from a blind old woman who is introduced near the movie’s end, Auggie discovers the true spirit of Christmas. It is this closing story that Auggie relates in a long monologue, that was the genesis for this movie: it was a Christmas story that writer Paul Auster published on the op-ed page of the New York Times on Christmas Day, 1990. The story is a good one but it fails to bring the movie full circle. In a slice-of-life story like this, well-rounded smoke rings may not be necessary. Yet, obviously there were more stories to tell here since while Smoke was being shot, director Wang (The Joy Luck Club) and Auster spun off another film, Blue in the Face, that shot in the three days following the completion of Smoke. The improvised Blue in the Face is said to feature players like Roseanne, Lily Tomlin, Michael J. Fox, Madonna, Jim Jarmusch, Lou Reed, and, of course, Harvey Keitel. Can’t wait: even if it never all comes together, the fumes are quite intoxicating.
3.5 stars (M.B.)
Village
Still Playing
BATMAN FOREVER
D: Joel Schumacher; with Val Kilmer, Jim Carrey, Tommy Lee Jones, Nicole Kidman, Chris O’Donnell, Michael Gough, Drew Barrymore.Batman forever… and ever… and – yawn – ever. This third installment in what, previously, was a deliciously gothic take on the Dark Knight drags on interminably, filled to bursting with all kinds of spectacular, violet-hued explosions, pithily cumbersome one-liners, and enough ham-handed psychotherapeutic explanations for Batman’s noblesse oblige – from Nicole Kidman, no less – to choke Freud for days. There’s so much and so little going on here simultaneously that you’re not sure whether to squirm or doze. Kilmer has little of the manic, psychologically warped gleam that his predecessor, Michael Keaton, brought to the role of the caped crusader. Screenwriters Lee and Janet Batchler forsake the more adult-oriented aspects of the first two films (not to mention the story itself, if you’re in the mood to quibble about trivialities), and instead head directly into territory staked out by the campy Batman television show of the mid-Sixties: All that’s missing is the cartoony “Pow!” after every well-connected punch. Jones and Carrey – as Two-Face and the Riddler, respectively – are the film’s saving graces, as villains are wont to be in this sort of adolescent exercise. Carrey positively thrives in this sort of role. Jones does his best to keep up, but it’s Carrey’s show all the way. When he’s off the screen, the film bogs down in Kilmer’s bland, surfer-boy good looks, Kidman’s preposterous (and marginally offensive) sexual high jinks, or O’Donnell’s “Origin of Robin, the Boy Wonder” subplottings. Holy story line gone awry, Batdude!
2.0 stars (M.S.)
Arbor, Highland, Lake Creek, Movies 12, Northcross, Riverside, Roundrock, Westgate
BRAVEHEART
D: Mel Gibson; with Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan, Catherine McCormack, Angus McFadyen, Brenden Gleeson.In the late 13th century, there was a historical person named William Wallace. Then there is this splendid, rousing adventure by Mel Gibson, a deliberate heroic myth-making tale that combines history with fantasy. Gibson, who starred, produced, and directed, audaciously presents this as a classic adventure, without apology. Although it presents complex political relationships, these are mostly entanglements designed to complicate and enhance the plot rather than pose real ideological or historical relationships. Gibson plays fast and free with history, but Braveheart is a film of romance, of legend, of possibility, and of freedom. Deftly, Gibson directs this epic along; with most of the story racing to reach the screen, the almost three-hour film rarely drags until just before the end, and even then, redeems itself. This is a movie of warfare, of smoke, of blood, and of fire. Although Gibson occasionally overuses slow motion, the whole film is beautiful, and the battle scenes are splendid. Outside of celebrating violence, freedom, liberty, and the rights of the people against the uncaring nobles – all as extremely broad and nonspecific concepts – Braveheart offers no real vision. But it is a most thrilling epic.
4.0 stars (L.B.)
Arbor, Lincoln, Movies 12, Roundrock, Westgate
THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY
D: Clint Eastwood; with Eastwood, Meryl Streep, Annie Corley, Victor Slezak, Jim Haynie.Of all people, who would have thought Clint Eastwood would be the one to breathe fresh life into the stagnant genre of women’s film melodrama? Clearly, Bridges is a movie Eastwood very much wanted to make; not only does he co-star, he also directs and co-produces. Eastwood has always been one to flex his screen persona, so it’s not that unusual that he chose to play the role of the sensitive photographer and lover, Robert Kincaid. His real stroke of genius, though, was casting Meryl Streep as Francesca Johnson, the story’s Italian-born, Iowa housewife. It’s one of Streep’s truly great performances. Bridges is punctuated by awkward scenes of Francesca’s grown children discovering the existence of her long-ago affair. But, for the most part, Richard LaGravenese’s script strips the best-selling novel of its purple prose, while retaining the drama at the heart of the story. Bridges is another example of Eastwood’s remarkable economy of style as both a director and an actor. It is neither his best work nor his worst, though it is a fascinating exploration.
3.5 stars (M.B.)
Great Hills, Lakehills, Lincoln, Movies 12, Roundrock
CASPER
D: Brad Silberling; Christina Ricci, Bill Pullman, Cathy Moriarty, Eric Idle, Malachi Pearson as the voice of Casper.At its best, which is when it’s exploiting both its eye-popping special effects and delicious production design (the interior of the haunted mansion is truly awe-inspiring), Casper proves itself to be passable, if mindless, kiddie fare. At its worst, Casper continually resorts to desperate star cameos to get a rise out of the audience, lame and phony heart-tugging to get them emotionally involved (and there is more of this nonsense than you might expect), and ridiculous, coincidental plotting to make sure this thing runs at least 90 minutes. Casper is a movie that’s constantly busy… but never really going anywhere. The cast is appealing, but let’s cut to the chase, shall we? The only real reason anyone is going to see Casper is for its special effects sequences, which, thankfully, are both spectacular and frequent, though lacking a jaw-dropping sense of wonder.
2.0 stars (J.O.)
Great Hills, Highland, Movies 12, Roundrock, Westgate
CONGO
D: Frank Marshall; with Dylan Walsh, Laura Linney, Tim Curry, Ernie Hudson, Joe Don Baker.Congo has everything – civil war, exploding airplanes, deranged hippos, rumbling volcanoes, murderous gorillas – and that’s its trouble: It suffocates you with one faux thrill after another. Jawdroppingly bad, this adaptation of Michael Crichton’s 1980 novel about a talking ape named Amy and a fabled lost city deep in the jungles of central Africa is as sophisticated in execution as a Jungle Jim movie. The clich�s abound, while the multi-million-dollar special effects look cheesy. Furthermore, with Spielberg prot�g� Marshall behind the camera, you’re painfully aware of every ridiculous moment. Equal fault must lie with fallen-from-grace screenwriter John Patrick Shanley (Moonstruck), whose script either uses a sledgehammer to communicate exposition or spits out critical explanations with the clarity of static. The actors in this misfire resort to affecting strange accents to compensate for the absence of dimension in their characters. Most embarrassingly, Linney is called upon to be the film’s �ber-gal, a telecommunications genius with a Ph.D., a former CIA operative and chic dresser who always looks well-heeled on safari. Only Amy, the precocious gorilla who communicates through sign language, comes off looking good in Congo, probably because she has the least amount of dialogue.
0 stars (S.D.)
Arbor, Lake Creek, Lincoln, Movies 12, Northcross, Riverside, Roundrock, Westgate
CRIMSON TIDE
D: Tony Scott; with Denzel Washington, Gene Hackman, George Dzundza, Viggo Mortensen, James Gandolfini, Matt Craven, Jason Robards.Submarines hold a near-mythic place in the pantheon of Great American Male Film Fantasies, and this juggernaut of a movie plays right into these childlike fantasies. Scott’s film posits a sudden takeover by rebel Russian soldiers of various strategic nuclear arsenals and the West’s alarm over such an occurrence. Sent in to “give the rebels pause” are Captain Ramsey (Hackman) and Executive Officer Hunter (Washington). Once on board the sub, the two men find themselves not only in close quarters but also in constant conflict, as the complex, Harvard- and Annapolis-educated Hunter and the crusty, combat-hungry Ramsey engage in their own verbal and psychological war while the real thing waits just around the corner. Scott is a master of slick action films, and Crimson Tide is beautiful to look at. The central conflict between Hackman and Washington, though, quickly becomes bogged down in unintentional war movie clich�s as the two act and react to each other (especially in Hackman’s overwrought, bombastic performance) like a pair of noisy schoolchildren. Their conflict has all the subtlety of a torpedo. Go see it, get the adrenaline rush; it’s noisy and fun, but that’s all it is.
3.0 stars (M.S.)
Arbor, Highland, Movies 12, Westgate
DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE
D: John McTiernan; with Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Irons, Graham Greene, Colleen Camp.Continuing the unlikely adventures of beleaguered NYPD cop John McClane (Willis), this third installment unfortunately forsakes much of the occasionally clever, somewhat wry dialogue and situations of its predecessors in favor of a more generic action-adventure approach that piles on stunt after stunt, explosion atop explosion, and leaves you with nothing so much as a headache and the notion that the Die Hard franchise is indeed dead. McTiernan is an old hand at actioners and, like the pro he is, keeps the film rushing along from fiery stunt to stunt. But after an hour or so you find yourself wishing for fewer big bangs and more pithy extemporizing from Willis, one of the few humanistic – albeit contrived – aspects from the series’ previous outings. Thankfully, Irons keeps the film from sinking too far into dismal self-mockery with a bravura, nicely twisted performance.
2.0 stars (M.S.)
Movies 12, Westgate
THE ENGLISHMAN WHO WENT UP A HILL BUT CAME DOWN A MOUNTAIN
D: Christopher Monger; with Hugh Grant, Colm Meany, Tara Fitzgerald, Ian McNeice, Kenneth Griffith.Perhaps it is because in a country as small as Wales, with such tiny villages where so many share the same surname and where nearly everyone knows everything about one another, local events are reduced to a nearly microscopic level. That trait, combined with a fierce patriotism for a country which has struggled to maintain its own cultural identity, requires that the inhabitants of the village Ffynnon Garw make a mountain out of a hill. Which, of course, is the subject of The Englishman Who Went up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain, a gentle comedy based on a true story passed down to the film’s director and writer by his grandfather. Rich in lush Welsh landscape and eccentric characters, Monger’s Englishman provides a look, both sweet and sly, at a place most people only know of through Dylan Thomas or Richard Burton. Hugh Grant shines as the reluctant hero. The picture’s deadpan humor and quiet romance is marred by a too-loud, overly dramatic score and some serious pacing problems, but nearly redeems itself with a hilarious ending.
2.0 stars (H.C.)
Great Hills
FORGET PARIS
D: Billy Crystal; with Crystal, Debra Winger, Joe Mantegna, Cynthia Stevenson, Richard Masur, Julie Kavner, William Hickey, Robert Constanzo, John Spencer, Cathy Moriarty.Forget Paris is not a total bust: It does have a few very funny scenes and gags. Billy Crystal can be a genuinely funny guy. But why does he insist on having all the marbles? Not simply a star, Crystal is now his own producer and writer, as well as his own leading man. Crystal’s self-inflation factor is exactly what is wrong with Forget Paris: too much Crystal and not enough substance. The movie recounts the bumpy path of romance traveled by Mickey (Crystal) and Ellen (Winger) told in continuing segments by a slow-gathering ensemble of old friends of the couple. The better we get to know Mickey and Ellen, the less appealing the two steadily become. Neither is there any “chemistry” or believable passion in the pairing of Crystal and Winger. This is only made more painful by the awareness that all the other assembled couples are infinitely more interesting than Mickey and Ellen. Only William Hickey emerges unscathed in his on-target portrayal of a just-this-side-of-senile father-in-law.
1.5 stars (M.B.)
Great Hills
FRIDAY
D: F. Gary Gray; with Ice Cube, Chris Tucker, Nia Long, Anna Maria Horsford, Regina King, Bernie Mac, John Witherspoon.Friday is a refreshingly lighthearted look at day-to-day life in the inner city. It suffers from a few problems in the scripting and directing departments, but entertains nonetheless, thanks mainly to the easygoing style of its talented cast. Rich in lowbrow laughs, Friday’s most obvious strength is its energetic cast, led by rap superstar Ice Cube and stand-up comedian Chris Tucker. The downside? Well, F. Gary Gray’s direction is painfully flat, and curiously – especially for a popular music video director like Gray – lacking any interesting visual style. Another drawback is the scattershot script by Ice Cube and fellow rap star D.J. Pooh, which runs out of ideas about halfway through and sets up a bizarre finale. Despite its faults, Friday is lively entertainment, full of personable actors and cheerfully served up with nary a trace of cynicism.
2.5 stars (J.O)
Highland
THE SECRET OF ROAN INISH
D: John Sayles; with Jeni Courtney, Eileen Colgan, Mick Lally, Richard Sheridan, John Lynch, Gerard Rooney, Susan Lynch, Cillian Byrne.Sayles’ new film is a swirl of mystery and enchantment, of romance between men and mystical creatures, of a baby abducted by animals, of his sister who resolves to win him back and in so doing restore her family’s place on Roan Inish. It’s a tale of old ties that we’ve set aside but which are still important and for which we still yearn, and Sayles tells it in a remarkable way, in a swirl of history, nature, and folklore that speaks to all ages. He doesn’t so much “capture” the rhythm and spirit of Irish coastal life as ride alongside them, matching their pace and rising and falling with them, like a seal through the tide. The atmosphere of this world is thick and pungent; it washes over us in the lyrical language, in the lovely performances, in the sounds of Uillean pipes and penny whistles on Mason Daring’s Celtic score, in the crisp cinematography of Haskell Wexler. Roan Inish conjures magic, but does so without relying on technical wizardry. Instead, it creates wonder in the unexpected.
4.0 stars (R.F.)
Dobie
SHALLOW GRAVE
D: Danny Boyle; with Kerry Fox, Christopher Eccleston, Ewan McGregor, Keith Allen, Ken Stott, Colin McRedie.From its opening titles, you know you’re in for something different, something wild. First-time director Boyle scores impressively with this Scottish tale of greed, murder, and the quest for a perfect flatmate that echoes everything from Alan Parker’s The Commitments to The Treasure of Sierra Madre, and never feels anything but wholly original. Boyle keeps the proceedings quick and humorous, despite the gravity of the story. It’s as much a comedy about the modern foibles of roommates as it is a psychological suspense drama, and his camerawork is top-shelf, heightening both the panicky tension that rises as the film moves forward and the desperate comic air the film maintains throughout. For their parts, all three leads are mini-masterpieces of audacious, thoroughly believable acting. Shallow Grave is a bracing, beautifully filmed black comedy-cum-horror show that grabs hold of you in the first few minutes and then refuses to let you go until the bitter, shocking end. Brilliant.
4.0 stars (M.S.)
Dobie
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING
D: Jon Turtletaub; with Sandra Bullock, Bill Pullman, Peter Gallagher, Peter Boyle, Jack Warden, Glynis Johns, Micole Mercurio.From the man who brought us the bizarre Disney hit Cool Runnings and – ouch! – 3 Ninjas, comes this love story: lite, a frothy bit of fluff that goes down as easily as cotton candy and almost as nutritiously. It’s charming, in its own little way, but really, this film has as much substance as a Cirrus cloud, despite fine turns from Boyle as the family patriarch and Warden as Godfather Saul. Bullock, as always, is so goonily charming, it’s all you can do not to leap up and try to hug her. In essence, While You Were Sleeping is a swell date movie: romantic, sweet without being cloying, and light on its feet. But that’s all it is.
2.5 stars (M.S.)
Arbor, Highland, Westgate
Previews
This article appears in July 7 • 1995 and July 7 • 1995 (Cover).