THE INCREDIBLY TRUE ADVENTURE OF TWO GIRLS IN LOVE
D: Maria Maggenti; with Laurel Holloman, Nicole Parker, Maggie Moore, Kate Stafford, Sabrina Artel, Toby Poser, Nelson Rodriguez, Dale Dickey.At first glance, the plot of Incredibly True Adventure couldn’t be more prosaic; teen love traumas are a film industry staple and our familiarity with their formulas are a given. It’s senior year of high school and two teenagers fall in love. They love in the way that all first-time lovers do – for always and forever. Randy’s skin is white and Evie’s skin is black. Randy likes loud rock music; Evie prefers classical. Randy gets around by skateboard; Evie drives her own Range Rover. And, oh yeah, they’re both 17-year-old girls. Randy is an out-of-the-closet dyke who lives with her lesbian aunt and her aunt’s lover. She’s flunking classes, working a duller-than-dull gas station job, and is quite unpopular at school. Evie lives with her single mom, a wealthy professional who travels frequently. Evie has just broken up with her boyfriend, is a model student, and popular with her peers. She doesn’t know if she’s a lesbian or not but she does know that she’s in love with Randy. Incredibly True Adventure tells the story of the relationship between these two girls and the social, racial, and sexual storm it sets in motion. Yet the tone of the movie remains lighthearted and funny, and even dips into farce before the movie’s ambiguous close. The story is standard teen fare; only the protagonists are new. Yet new protagonists can also generate new narrative conflicts, possibilities, expectations, and resolutions. This is made clear in the film’s opening shots. The first image we see is that of two pairs of feet entwined; one set’s donned in work boots and coveralls, the other set is bare but for high heels and an ankle bracelet. Automatically, we assume this is an image of a man and woman locked in embrace. After a few further shots of the couple’s upper bodies, we can see that these lovers are two women. From the outset, Incredibly True Adventure declares its intention to subvert traditional conventions and expectations. But in the hands of debut feature director Maggenti, subversion becomes the epitome of fun. Furthermore, in terms of feature films containing lesbian thematics, Incredibly True Adventure breaks new ground in comedy. This humor may take the form of a visual punchline as described above or the farcical anarchy that dominates the movie’s last third. But the humor is the spice that makes this Adventure addictive. Maggenti has found a key to inventing film stories that use the familiar structures of the past to chronicle the present and envision the future. Incredibly True Adventure premiered in Austin earlier this year at the SXSW Film Festival.
4.0 stars (M.B.)
Village
New Review
I AM CUBA
D: Mikhail Kalatozov; with Luz Maria Collazo, Jose Gallardo, Raul Garcia.What may turn out to be the film find of the year, I Am Cuba was actually shot in 1964 as an elaborate pro-Castro piece of Soviet propaganda and has since been buried in the Kremlin’s film archives awaiting rediscovery. Finally released under the aegis of both Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, the film is a stylistically brilliant quartet of vignettes set during the waning years of the Batista regime, before Castro actually came to power but during the birth pains of the Cuban revolution. It’s not so much the interconnecting stories that propel the film along (written by, of all people, Russian poet laureate Yevgeny Yevtushenko), but the insanely inventive cinematography of Alexander Calzatti and the hitherto unrealized genius of director Kalatozov. Working with what was surely a modest budget, the two create a vision of pre-Castro Cuba that manages to make the whole decadent place look far more enticing than the Soviet satellite nation the film was supposed to glorify in the first place. Opening in a seedy, American-overrun nightclub, the camera whirls about, taking in the boozy, sexy ambiance of capitalist decadence and setting the tone for what is to come. Calzatti uses everything from huge, extended crane shots to various filters to bizarre and highly experimental camera angles you’ve never seen before; it’s as if everyone in question forgot the propaganda they were supposed to be creating and just went gaga, drunk on the sheer beauty of Cuba and making up new film techniques as they went along. Audacious, thrilling, erotic (and in three languages, no less), I Am Cuba is a lost masterpiece of filmmaking finally seeing the light of day 30 years after its production.
4.0 stars (M.S.)
Texas Union
ERMO
D: Zhou Xiaowen; with Alia, Liu Peiqi, Ge Zhijun, Zhang Haiyan.Chinese director Zhou Xiaowen’s Ermo is an intriguing blend of sly irony and occasional outbursts of physical comedy, much like its namesake character, who is deftly played by Alia. Ermo’s story illustrates the universal and timeless struggle of the individual in a consumer society. Living next door to Blindman (Liu Peiqi) and his “slackass” wife complicates Ermo’s life because of their 27-inch color television. Ermo’s son becomes enamored of this ultimate symbol of consumer culture, spending most of his free time at the neighbors’. The television and the family’s apparent disposable income grate on Ermo’s nerves as she daily schleps her twisty noodles to sell at the local market. The sole breadwinner in the household, Ermo has nothing but contempt for her old and weak husband Chief (Ge Zhijun), who was once the titular head of the village. Frustrated by her neighbor’s privileged status as solely a housewife and further aggravated by her son’s frequent visits to watch the neighbors’ television, Ermo becomes obsessed with buying a 29-inch set – a television so big that even the head of the county cannot afford one. When Blindman secures Ermo a high-paying job making noodles in a city restaurant, she begins her quest in earnest. A kitchen accident in which a fellow worker needs blood donations introduces Ermo to the true meaning of blood money, and she sidelines as a daily contributor to the local hospital to supplement her wages. Despite Ermo’s misguided actions and thought processes, Alia’s portrayal of her as a tough but believable character makes her interesting and somehow sympathetic. Her motives for wanting the television are suspect, but her dedication to the cause is admirable. Cinematographer Lu Gengxin’s mix of ordinary domestic scenes and moodily lit shots such as Ermo’s nighttime kneading of noodle dough injects some adrenaline into an occasionally overplotted narrative. Although Ermo is Zhou’s ninth film, it is the only one to be distributed in the United States. With this film we are introduced to a director with a talent for thoughtfully examining weighty cultural issues without taking the characters or their plights too seriously.
3.0 stars (A.M.)
Village
THE LAST HERO IN CHINA
D: Wong Jing; with Jet Li Lien-jie, Sharla Cheung Man, Leung Kar-yan, Gordon Lui Chia-hui.From Wong Jing, the director of the endearingly silly Jackie Chan vehicle City Hunter and the God of Gamblers series, comes this equally ridiculous picture, a goofy send-up of the legend of real-life Chinese patriot Wong Fei-hung. This 1993 film, which was made after chopsocky icon Jet Li Lien-jie angrily left Tsui Hark’s Once Upon a Time in China film series to produce the delightful Legend of Fong Sai-yuk, finds Li quickly returning to his most famous role – this time to poke fun at his own stoic performances as Wong in Hark’s epics. The plot is ludicrous – something to do with a whorehouse opening next to Wong’s martial arts school, a corrupt law enforcer in cahoots with a group of evil monks, a bunch of foreigners selling poisonous medicine to kids, a nasty slavery ring, a rigged lion dance contest, a political assassination, and, well, I think you get the idea. Despite the scattershot design of the script, the picture still manages to be entertaining with its blend of goofy humor and great fight sequences. Other pluses include the numerous references to the Wong Fei-hung films of old: Dreadnaught star Leung Kar-yan returns to the role of Wong’s most famous student, Leung Fu; while Gordon Lui Chia-hui, who starred as Wong in Lui Chia-liang’s classic Martial Club, has an extended cameo as the dastardly head monk. The best however, is saved for last, as Li pays tribute to Jackie Chan’s seminal Wong Fei-hung parody Drunken Master with a wonderful fight sequence that affectionately echoes the “drunken boxing” acrobatic techniques to be found in that 1978 kung-fu classic. Watching Li stumble his way through the various drunken fighting styles, combined with some inventive wire work, makes for a breathtaking climax. All in all, this is an entertainingly stupid action comedy that never takes itself too seriously – as evidenced in the picture’s notorious set-piece in which Wong dresses up as a chicken to do battle with a group of baddies disguised as a centipede – but fails to reach either the same level of excitement as Hark’s Wong Fei-hung series or the easygoing comedy of Li’s two Fong Sai-yuk pictures. The original Chinese title roughly translates to the far more memorable, and appropriate, Iron Rooster Vs. the Centipede.
2.5 stars (J.O.)
Hogg
OPERATION DUMBO DROP
D: Simon Wincer; with Ray Liotta, Danny Glover, Denis Leary, Doug E. Doug, Corin Nemec.Operation Dumbo Drop is a terribly irresponsible picture that seems shamefully patterned after director’s Wincer’s other box office success, Free Willy. The first feel-good family movie set against the backdrop of the Vietnam war, Wincer’s film opens with a number of happy, smiling Vietnamese villagers and their magnificently beautiful elephants being bombed into oblivion by a mortar blast that bathes the screen in a all-encompassing burst of white light. Then, over the course of the opening credits, we see some helicopter stunts, a comic mid-air firefight with the VC, a main character puking his guts out, and a man graphically chowing down on a raw snake. The senseless plot – which the filmmakers insist on telling us is based on a true story – finds hard-headed Captain Doyle (Liotta) teaming up with a more humanitarian, if equally stubborn, soldier named Sam Cahill (Glover) in order to track down and deliver an elephant to a nearby village. Assisted by a trio of stereotypically wacky comic-relief sidekicks (Denis Leary as the lovable but cold-hearted opportunist, Doug E. Doug as the lovable fraidy-cat, and Corin Nemec as the lovable country boy), this motley group heads into the jungle where they “buy” both an elephant and his master – (a lovable, of course) knife-wielding young boy who, following his parents’ death in the war, hates Americans with a passion. Together, this bunch of losers slowly bond together as they travel cross-country with their elephant Bo-Tat, whom director Wincer exploits not for her natural beauty (as he wisely did with the whale in Free Willy), but for the crude laughs provided by her supposedly side-splitting bodily functions. Operation Dumbo Drop is a rotten movie for many reasons – take its illogical scripting, inconsistent performances, sloppy direction, or the unbelievably offensive oversimplification of the atrocities of the Vietnam war. Ultimately, the film fails because it has no audience. The younger viewers are likely to be bored and confused by the historical aspects of the movie (How many 10-year-olds know what the Ho Chi Minh Trail is?) and adults are likely to find the whole affair far too whitewashed and pedestrian to hold their attention. There is one effective sequence – played up with obvious desperation by the movie’s trailers – in which the elephant, thanks to a wide array of fairly convincing special effects, parachutes from a plane. Beyond this genuinely exciting bit of footage, Operation Dumbo Drop is a disastrous miscalculation that leaves the viewer with only one burning thought: “What the hell were they thinking?”
0 stars (J.O.)
Great Hills, Highland, Lake Creek, Movies 12, Northcross, Riverside, Roundrock, Westgate
THE TEARDROP PEARL
D: Tran Vu and Nguyen Huu Phan; with Ha Thu, Thu Ha, Quyen Linh, Hong Son, Trinh Thinh.An unapologetically sappy melodrama from Vietnam, The Teardrop Pearl has a wonderfully teasing atmosphere that, at its best, pulses with the common rhythms of daily life and, at its worst, offers up a sluggish narrative that wastes much precious time before moving to the next angst-filled dip on its emotional roller coaster. Luckily, much of the picture is genuinely affecting, making the slower moments unfortunate, but forgivable, blemishes in an otherwise poignant love story. The movie tells the simple tale of two young lovers – A-Chau (Ha Thu), a woman of Chinese decent, and Quang, a poor Vietnamese fisherman (Quyen Linh) – who are cast out from their respective communities when they decide to marry outside their cultural boundaries. That’s only the beginning of their troubles, as the pair must face a jealous, would-be suitor, adjust to life after being more or less cut off from the outside world, and contend with a border dispute that winds up forcing them apart. Will true love prevail? The Teardrop Pearl is, for the most part, a nicely effective tearjerker – well acted, charming, and directed with both humor and pathos by Tran Vu and Nguyen Huu Phan. Some scenes – like the underwater discovery and subsequent explanation of the titular pearl and its significance – are nothing less than magical, but in a refreshingly everyday kind of way. Some critics have pegged the picture as an Asian Romeo and Juliet, but it’s certainly not a tragedy. And while the several important historical events that are woven into the story do add some dramatic resonance, they don’t necessarily point toward any greater political significance. Nope, The Teardrop Pearl is just a modest little romance that manages to engross without ever getting too manipulative with its heart-tugging, and it’s this dedication to both its drama and its characters that gives the movie its charm. The Teardrop Pearl is a sweet, pleasant, and wholly unpretentious diversion that was named the Best Picture of 1994 by the Vietnam Motion Picture Association.
3.0 stars (J.O.)
Hogg
First Run
CLUELESS
D: Amy Heckerling; with Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy, Paul Rudd, Donald Faison, Breckin Meyer, Jeremy Sisto, Justin Walker, Wallace Shawn, Twink Calan, Dan Hedaya.Rarely do you find a film so aptly titled as this one, though the upcoming Pauly Shore vehicle, Dude, I Suck comes close. Director Heckerling, who scored so well so long ago with the brilliant, seminal Fast Times at Ridgemont High, returns to cloyingly similar territory in what is essentially a mediocre Nineties updating of that previous film. Instead of Jeff Spicoli, though, we have Cher (Silverstone), a dangerously fashion-conscious Beverly Hills teen whose one great joy in life is making-over her friends and maintaining her status as Miss Popularity, USA. Michael Lehmann’s Heathers followed the same sort of story line to much better effect in 1989, and Clueless leaves you itching to race over to the video store in search of just that. Silverstone and the ensemble cast of generic high-schoolers (including a phenomenally ill-used Wallace Shawn replacing the Ray Walston character from Fast Times) tweak their way through a Fox sitcom-quality string of cheap gags and ham-handed teen angst that isn’t so much humorous as it is boring. Perhaps it’s unfair to keep returning to the comparison with Fast Times, but those characters – as portrayed by Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Sean Penn, et al. – seem, in retrospect, to have been achingly more realized. The kids here just mope, pout, and whine to varying degrees until you want to ship them all off to Rock ‘n’ Roll High School so the Ramones can take a crack at ’em (“Teenage Lobotomy” never sounded so accurate). Clueless indeed.
1.0 stars (M.S.)
Arbor, Lake Creek, Lincoln, Movies 12, Riverside, Roundrock, Westgate
FREE WILLY 2: THE ADVENTURE HOME
D: Dwight Little; with Jason James Richter, August Schellenberg, Jayne Atkinson, Jon Tenney, Elizabeth Pe�a, Michael Madsen, Francis Capra, Mary Kate Schellhardt, M. Emmet Walsh.Just as every boy thrives best when he has a family to belong to, so too does every whale. That was the lesson of Free Willy I. But, whereas Willy I was built around one glorious, spectacular visual image – that of the orca leaping bravely and gracefully over the water’s above-sea-level retaining wall – a shot that was the movie’s raison d’�tre, a shot that served the story and summarized the narrative and thrust events into an epic realm… Free Willy 2 has no similar reason to exist. As a-boy-and-his-orca sequel, this one’s pedestrian (and it’s not just due to the lack of sailing through the air shots). Any adult watching Willy 2 should be able to predict events before the tide ever changes. Kids, on the other hand, should be satisfied with the movie’s mix of family drama, playful whale bonding, and impending ecological crisis. Sibling conflict arises when lead Jesse (Richter), an adolescent who has grown to love his adopted parents (Atkinson and Madsen) since Willy I, has to adapt to the arrival of a half-brother Elvis, (Capra), whom he never knew existed. This new family of four travels to the Pacific Northwest on a camping trip where they will see their friend Randolph (Schellenberg) – a holdover from Willy I – and, hopefully, Willy himself. And, of course, Willy doesn’t disappoint; he shows up with his whole pod: his mother, brother, and sister. After much whale cavorting, sibling tension, and puppy love sparked by the presence of Randolph’s goddaughter, some of “the bad guys” cause an oil spill to happen. The whales musts be saved from the effects of the spill and then the kids must be saved from their selfless mission to save the whales. And, somewhere, in the midst of all this, the voice of Michael Jackson turns up to ask the preposterously self-reflexive musical question, “Have you seen my childhood?” Elizabeth Pe�a shows up in the unlikely role of a whale veterinarian; Please, someone, give this subtle talent material to which she’s better suited than poking injections in whale tails and looking generally concerned. Hint: If you really want to see a great and current movie about the interaction between humans, sea mammals, and myth, check out John Sayles’ Secret of Roan Inish.
1.5 stars (M.B.)
Arbor, Highland, Lake Creek, Movies 12, Northcross, Westgate
THE INDIAN IN THE CUPBOARD
D: Frank Oz; with Hal Scardino, Litefoot, Lindsay Crouse, Richard Jenkins, Rishi Bhat, David Keith.From the multi-award-winning children’s book by Lynne Reid Banks comes this above-average fantasy that somehow manages to retain most of the sly wit and style of the source material despite Oz’s sometimes heavy-handed direction. When young Omri (Scardino) is given a small, wooden cabinet, his grandmother’s skeleton key, and a tiny plastic Indian for his ninth birthday, he discovers that the gifts are entirely magical: By putting the Indian (Litefoot) in the cupboard and turning the key, he can bring the tiny warrior to life (as well as any other figures he places inside the slightly worse-for-wear cabinet). Enchanted, both Indian and boy become unlikely friends, with Omri placed in the troubling position of having to take full adult responsibility for the care of his diminutive charge, while the Indian – an Onondaga Iroquois by the name of Little Bear – struggles to make sense of what has happened to him. When Omri’s best friend, Patrick (Bhat), discovers the secret of the cabinet and introduces a tiny cowboy into the picture, the stage is set for both dangerous confrontations and emotional roller coasters. As the old screenwriting maxim goes, “If you introduce a bow and arrow in the first act….” One of the chief draws of The Indian in the Cupboard is the excellent animation – courtesy of George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic – used to portray the aptly named Little Bear. A combination of rear projection, computer graphics, and, I believe, some sparing use of stop-motion animation, bring the character to life wonderfully, though much of the credit here goes to the remarkably well-chosen cast from Litefoot (in his acting debut) on down. Oz and screenwriter Melissa Mathison manage to retain the novel’s solid moral tone without diluting it for the screen, though the director does occasionally wander into unwarranted Spielbergian territory with lingering, golden-lit shots of the Indian and the odd bit of pedantic dialogue (“There are lessons to be learned here, kids,” he seems to be saying, as he hammers home a couple of points with all the subtlety of Hank Aaron). In a young person’s film as charming as this, that remains a minor quibble, though. Surprisingly well-done nearly all the way around, this neither plays down to its target audience nor fumbles the inherent childhood fantasy of the story. And, of course, after the annoying Housesitter, it’s nice to see Oz back in the magical realm he appears to know so well.
3.0 stars (M.S.)
Arbor, Lake Creek, Lincoln, Movies 12, Westgate
LITTLE ODESSA
D: James Gray; with Tim Roth, Edward Furlong, Moira Kelly, Vanessa Redgrave, Maximilian Schell.So austerely realized that it seems cold to the touch, Little Odessa fittingly harks back to the great themes in Russian literature, to familiar stories of fathers and sons and to tales of unhappy families. A hit man, estranged from his Russian-Jewish �migr� family, returns home to Brooklyn to settle a score and, in the course of things, destroys all that he cherishes the most. It’s a compelling story, one that’s without any discernible humor or levity; indeed, its bleak prospects for hope and redemption may have you gasping for air before the end. First-time screenwriter and director Gray makes an impressive debut in Little Odessa. His precise compositions and the eerie stillness he evokes in many of the film’s scenes, even during moments of violence, evidence the talent of a director who may be going places. Obviously, the stellar cast – almost unheard of in an independent film from a novice director – had faith in Gray’s ability to fashion Little Odessa into an estimable work. As the triumvirate of men in the Russian-American family whose center cannot hold, Roth, Furlong, and Schell give finely modulated performances. Of the three, the most affecting is Furlong, whose open, sweet face reflects a man-child grappling with the harsh realities of adulthood. In the small but memorable role of the cancer-ridden matriarch whose agony over her undone family is as great as the pain she suffers from her illness, Redgrave gives one of those riveting performances that only she can give: You simply cannot take your eyes off her. (A scene in which she wails in unendurable anguish is like a nightmare come to life.) Although the barren landscapes in Little Odessa, both urban and emotional, may not be everyone’s cup of vodka, few can argue that it is a film to be dismissed easily. Like something by Tolstoy or Dostoyevski, but – of course – on a much smaller, less ambitious scale, it is a work that weighs on your mind long after you leave it.
3.5 stars (S.D.)
Village
NINE MONTHS
D: Chris Columbus; with Hugh Grant, Julianne Moore, Tom Arnold, Joan Cusack, Jeff Goldblum, Robin Williams.No matter how long writer/director Chris Columbus (Mrs. Doubtfire, Home Alone 1 and 2) labored over Nine Months, even a C-section couldn’t rescue the shallow script and overplayed performances by Hugh Grant and Tom Arnold. Columbus’ romantic comedy, based on the French film Neuf Mois, is all crazy sight gags and no story. Grant stars as Samuel Faulkner, a children’s psychotherapist living with Rebecca Taylor (Moore), his ballet teacher-girlfriend of many years. Their relationship is perfect, or so we are told in the opening scene in which they celebrate their commitment to each other with a champagne toast on the beach. However, problems with this film arise immediately due, in large part, to the lack of chemistry between Grant and Moore. They may be celebrating five wonderful years together, but Columbus (and the actors, for that matter) does very little to show the bonds that keep these two people in love. Aside from endless cooing (again hard to believe because of the lack of spark between the actors), there are few indications that this relationship goes deeper than a French kiss. When Rebecca discovers that she’s pregnant and announces it to the definitely unsupportive Samuel, the characters quickly square off against each other. He’s obsessed with how their perfect relationship will be ruined, and she’s frantic about getting married and having the baby. As a neighboring couple who are also expecting a child, supporting actors Arnold and Cusack define the phrase baby machine, offering some entertaining moments but an equal number of tasteless and downright dumb exchanges. Robin Williams plays a Russian obstetrician recently promoted from delivering simians to birthing human beings. Williams basically plays himself with a Russian accent; he’s fast becoming the Meryl Streep of comedic actors. No one would argue that this film tries to be anything more than a sweet and lighthearted look at one man’s fear and trauma over impending fatherhood and marital commitment. But there are successful ways to pull this off, and Nine Months is one extended shtick that ends long after the last laugh is heard. The labor scene toward the end of the film offers a fine example of over-the-top antics that just aren’t funny; in fact, some of the gags are even offensive. All of this isn’t to say that Grant’s a one-trick actor, but perhaps the success of Four Weddings and a Funeral was due, in large measure, to the timing and abilities of that film’s ensemble cast and the strength of a smartly written script. Nine Months has neither of these. And if the scene in which a theatre marquee announces Home Alone VI is any indication of Columbus’ future directing plans, a sequel to Nine Months unfortunately may not be far behind.
1.5 stars (A.M.)
Arbor, Lake Creek, Lakehills, Lincoln, Movies 12, Riverside, Roundrock
TEMPTATION OF A MONK
D: Clara Law; with Wu Hsin-kuo, Joan Chen, Zhang Fengyi.A masterful period drama with a touch of violent action, Temptation of a Monk is terrific, hypnotic entertainment, directed with uncompromising patience and skill by one of Hong Kong’s few “arthouse” filmmakers – Clara Law (Autumn Moon, Farewell China). Made during the height of 1994’s seemingly endless string of lousy period-piece, martial-arts adventures, Law’s film, along with Wong Kar-wei’s Ashes of Time (although Law’s work is far more accessible), manages to “intellectualize” the genre at the same time it manages to avoid pretension. Mainland actor Wu Hsin-kuo (who has, under the name Ng Hing-kwok, gone on to seek his fame in a number of great Hong Kong films, like the recent Rock and Roll Cop and What Price, Survival?) stars as Shi, a stoic warrior who, after being betrayed by an ambitious government official and duped into helping him take over the current regime, decides to hide up in a monastery with his comrades-in-arms, posing as a monk while secretly plotting their revenge. However, when he witnesses the deaths of his friends and his on-again, off-again love interest (Joan Chen) at the hands of government soldiers, Wu begins to truly long for a life of peace and becomes a member of an old, run-down monastery managed by an eccentric 100-year-old monk who has let his hair grow out and thinks reciting prayers makes too much racket. For a while, he finds peace there; that is, until an old enemy from his past shows up (Farewell My Concubine’s Zhang Fengyi) demanding a duel. Temptation of a Monk is a powerful movie, filled to the bursting point with sensuous atmosphere and populated with haunting images that linger in the imagination long after the picture has ended. Law’s film is also aided greatly by Wu’s carefully measured, virtuosic performance, which perfectly captures all the rage, inner turmoil, and genuine desire for change of his complex, ever-evolving character. Although the other performers don’t have nearly as much to work with (Wu’s performance more or less pulls the emotional weight of the entire show), the rest all manage solid turns, with Chen’s free-spirited love interest being quite possibly the best of her (for the most part) undistinguished career. However, this is clearly Law’s show, and her touch here is amazingly confident, deftly handling both quiet moments of understated dialogue and ultra-violent action sequences with equal ability. The latter comes off as a particular revelation, with both the large-scale battle sequences and small-scale kung-fu fights – usually driven almost purely by Tals Lau’s savage score – showcasing an unusual mixture of brutal bloodletting and elegant, graceful movement.
4.0 stars (J.O.)
Hogg
UNDER SIEGE 2: DARK TERRITORY
D: Geoff Murphy; with Steven Seagal, Eric Bogosian, Katherine Heigl, Morris Chestnut, Everett McGill.By what justice can Steven Seagal, an absolute unknown until just a few years ago, claim to be a major movie star? As a screen persona, he’s a no-talent, badass bully. In his directing debut last year with On Deadly Ground, he proved he was about as longwinded and pointless as that relation who’s always avoided at every family gathering. His success is our doing. His action movies make gobs of money and only we can cause that to change. Under Siege 2 provides helpful incentive; it is so bad and illogical that even devoted loyalists should find their faith tested. The subtitle Dark Territory doesn’t even begin to describe how inchoate and blemished this storytelling is. All activity is fashioned with one objective in mind: how to introduce Seagal into the scene so he can kick, whump, stomp, detonate, and, basically, humiliate every bad guy in the hemisphere before eradicating him forthwith. In Under Siege 2, Seagal reprises his character of Casey Ryback, a cook and an ex-Navy SEAL. The mere mention of his name is enough to get heads at the Pentagon and NASA nodding with confidence. Why not? Ryback’s a one-man show. Typical of his bravura style, he, literally, takes on a whole trainload of bad guys this time when (and I don’t think I’m being nitpicky here) it would have been so much more effective to hop off the train and gather the cavalry. What he’s doing on the train in the first place is a pitifully thin story line which leads to further moments of illogic rather than clarity. In one of the year’s most unlikely bits of casting, Eric Bogosian, the noted monologist, plays the deranged villain who commandeers the train as a post from which to kidnap the satellite he once invented. Bogosian has turned into a look-alike for Elliott Gould and appears to have the ability to berserkly chew scenery while Seagal darts about doing his bully-boy thing. At times, you suspect the whole project has taken a few tips from the Leni Riefenstahl school of filmmaking, a style that venerates spectacle regardless of substance. I could go on asking questions like why there’s a woman in the bathroom fixing her lipstick while she’s being held hostage… but in this direction lies certain madness. However, there are two further things I must mention: Ryback’s new sidekick and comic relief character Bobby (Chestnut) plays into some of the most deplorable black stereotyping I’ve seen in a while. He’s a shuffling fraidy cat who jokes his way through the crisis and can’t keep his mind on the task at hand. Something tricky is also going on with the film’s print ad campaign which poses Ryback in his Navy whites, an image we see only in the film’s closing shot. The rest of the time, he’s the man in black, all black: black shirt, black jacket, black pants. Never mussed, never bloodied – not starched Navy whites. What, exactly, are they trying to sell with this ad campaign? Do we care? Just say no.
0 stars (M.B.)
Great Hills, Lincoln, Movies 12, Northcross, Riverside, Roundrock, Westgate
WIGSTOCK: THE MOVIE
D: Barry Shils; with The Lady Bunny, RuPaul, Joey Arias, Misstress Formika, Lypsinka, Flloyd. Alexis Arquette, Jackie Beat.Love beads… a string of pearls. A tie-dye T-shirt… a beaded blouse. Janis Joplin… RuPaul. Of course! Woodstock… Wigstock. According to the gals in Wigstock: The Movie, the drag queens of today are just like the hippies of yesterday, except they’re better coifed. A celebration of love and harmony from the lofty perspective of a pair of high heels, the Wigstock festival, held every year since 1984 in New York City on Labor Day weekend, is a scene to be believed, a happening that has become so popular that it recently relocated from cozy Tompkins Square Park in the East Village to the more spacious Christopher Street piers. Wigstock: The Movie chronicles the 1993 and 1994 events in home-movie fashion, featuring interviews with such luminaries as the festival’s co-founder and perennial hostess, The Lady Bunny (whose blonde wig looks like it exploded on her head), and performance clips that are in lip-synch with the ridiculous and not-so-sublime. (The Dueling Bankheads, singing “Born to Be Wild” with handbags flailing, would have had Tallulah hoarse with laughter.) There’s no real thematic structure or import here. Gravitating toward the serious only when noting how AIDS has thinned the ranks, this sunny, upbeat movie has no agenda but to expound upon the joys of a fabulous wig. To attempt to do otherwise would subvert the movie’s simple pleasures. In the words of one of the divas in Wigstock: The Movie, it doesn’t matter whether you look like a real woman when doing drag – it’s all in the attitude, honey. You go, girl!
3.0 stars (S.D.)
Dobie
Still Playing
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 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 U.S. space program and the genuine urgency of history. 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 until something went awry. Howard pulls out all the stops on this one and the performances are uniformly wonderful: It’s almost a valentine to NASA, but without the celestial mythologizing of films like The Right Stuff. Oddly, some of the integral special effects in the film – and they are integral – seem less than perfect but, overall, Apollo 13 succeeds and may be the only summer adventure blockbuster without bullets or warheads.
3.5 stars (M.S.)
Arbor, Highland, Lake Creek, Lakehills, Movies 12, Northcross, Riverside, Roundrock
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. 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. 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, Movies 12, Northcross, 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. Although Gibson occasionally overuses slow motion, the whole film is beautiful, and the battle scenes are splendid.
4.0 stars (L.B.)
Northcross, 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, Highland
CRUMB
D: Terry Zwigoff.Though Crumb is packed with information and telling details about the artist, the movie’s objective is hardly art history or a survey of R. 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, shot this intimate film over the course of six years. Crumb is also about the Crumb family, a unit that, in addition to his wife and children, includes Crumb’s mother, vestigial traces of a deceased father, two brothers, Charles and Max, and two sisters, who declined to be interviewed. Crumb is most 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 a disturbing portrait of 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
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. 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. Gere surprisingly displays a fair bit of dashing grace in some of the action scenes 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. His performance is a perfect metaphor for the whole film: It’s 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, Movies 12, Westgate
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 American 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, but 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. 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. 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.
3.0 stars (M.S.)
Lincoln
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 and a liberal license with historical accuracy (and I challenge you to show me a seven-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. 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. Composer Allen Menken is back, and his music lifts the movie to lofty heights.
3.5 stars (H.C.)
Great Hills, Lakehills, Lincoln, Movies 12, Roundrock
THE POSTMAN (IL POSTINO)
D: Michael Radford; with Massimo Troisi, Philippe Noiret, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Linda Moretti, Renato Scarpa, Anna Bonaiuto.The Postman is an Italian co-production whose history is as tragically romantic as the poetry of one of its main characters, Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. It is loosely based on 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. The Postman also is a love story of the first order, a sweet Cyrano tale and, in fact, 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. With lyrical beauty and memorable performances, The Postman articulates many feelings that seem to defy explanation.
3.5 stars (A.M.)
Village
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. 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
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 title, 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, 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, the story lines never converge as completely as one might like. 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 was shot in the three days following the completion of Smoke. Can’t wait: Even if it never all comes together, the fumes are quite intoxicating.
3.5 stars (M.B.)
Village
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. 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. 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.
1.0 stars (J.O.)
Great Hills, Highland, Lake Creek, Movies 12, Riverside, Westgate
Previews
THE CHINESE FEAST
D: Tsui Hark; with Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing, Anita Yuen Wing-yee, Kenny Bee, Cheu Man-check, Xin Xin-xiong.Hong Kong director Tsui Hark’s first modern-day film since 1992’s The Master is also his loosest, most improvisational picture in years. It forsakes the tightly bound and symmetrical plot structures of his previous Green Snake and The Lovers for an easygoing style that makes for a charming movie. Chinese Ghost Story alumnus Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing stars as a reckless young chef in training who, with the help of master cook Cheu Man-check (Wong Fei-hung in the last two installments of the Once Upon a Time in China series), is granted a menial position at the prestigious Qing Han restaurant where he causes trouble to no end and also manages to start up a relationship with a quirky co-worker (He Is a Man, She Is a Woman superstar Anita Yuen Wing-yee). But when rival chef Xin Xin-xiong (better known as “Club Foot,” yet another Once Upon A Time in China regular) challenges Qing Han to a test of cookery skills that culminates in a re-staging of the legendary “Qing and Han Imperial Feast,” Cheung and Yuen must track a masterful chef-turned-scummy recluse (Kenny Bee) in mainland China in order to win the contest. “Kung Food” might be a silly, if somewhat accurate, description of The Chinese Feast since all the challenges, duels, and training sequences on display here occasionally parallel those in Hark’s martial arts films. The casting of his regular kung-fu actors only serves to reinforce this idea. However, this is a light, sporadically goofy comedy that may have a couple of moments that seem a little off-target, but are always redeemed by Hark’s enthusiastic direction and the fine comic performances of the talented cast. There are many hilarious set-pieces, like Yuen’s unforgettable karaoke performance or the shameless slapstick of Cheung wrestling with a giant fish, and the scenes of food preparation are nothing less than fascinating. Far less ambitious than Hark’s last couple of films, The Chinese Feast is, nevertheless, driven by an infectious sense of manic silliness (e.g., the scene in which the crew wanders out from behind the cameras to join the cast in a drink) that helps make this a genuinely fun bit of zany nonsense.
3.0 stars (J.O.)
THE NET
D: Irwin Winkler; with Sandra Bullock, Jeremy Northam, Dennis Miller.Producer-director Irwin Winkler has staked a claim in cyberspace but one suspects that he was lured more by the hot topic than by any real affinity for the subject matter. He’s described The Net as “cyber-Hitchcock.” He should be so lucky. But, Sandra Bullock is also hot, hot, hot these days, so this silly sounding idea for a movie – about an individual’s identity being erased by the nefarious powers of the Internet – may just find an audience.
stars (M.B.)
Arbor, Highland, Lake Creek, Lakehills, Movies 12, Riverside, Roundrock
REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE
D: Nicholas Ray; James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus.I know you’ve all probably seen Rebel Without a Cause at least once (and, if not, here’s your opportunity to correct that situation). But if you haven’t ever seen this Nicholas Ray/James Dean classic in widescreen… trust me, you’ve never really seen it. It’s been 40 years since James Dean essayed his quintessential role in as a troubled American teen and, along with co-stars Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo, established an iconography of adolescence whose potency extends into the present. For the occasion, a new print of the film is in release in CinemaScope and stereo. Nick Ray, who told stories that were “bigger than life” and pulsing with “hot blood,” was one of the most dynamic directors of the American screen and his capacity to tell a widescreen story was as articulate as his ability to pinpoint an individual stuck “in a lonely place.”
stars (M.B.)
Paramount
WATERWORLD
D: Kevin Reynolds; with Kevin Costner, Dennis Hopper, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Tina Majorino, Michael Jeter.I think it’s so unfair when a movie, sight unseen, is condemned by the press even before it’s out of the gate. This usually comes about as a result of our puritanical responses to wildly over-budgeted movies. We savor our guilty pleasures, but seek absolution for our movie lust. Virtually all movies are over-budgeted. Thus, a big-budgeted fantasy film shot entirely on the water requires an even bigger-than-ordinary budget. Is Waterworld going to be a washout? Financially… probably, at least in the short run. It’s almost impossible for a movie to earn back that kind of money – at least not until years from now when all the residuals and ancillary rights and whatnot come home to roost. But all the advance word has focused on the movie’s troubled and lengthy production, the cost overruns, the “creative differences” between the key Kevins that caused director Reynolds to become disassociated with the project, and even psychological profiles of superstar Costner. Of course, all of this commentary is soaked in rivers of “watery metaphors.” This rush to judgment ignores post-viewing questions of the movie’s aesthetic worth and, instead, turns Waterworld into a contest of prognostication that bets on whether it’s headed for a splash or a dive.
stars (M.B.)
Great Hills, Lake Creek, Lincoln, Movies 12, Northcross, Riverside, Roundrock, Westgate
This article appears in July 28 • 1995 and July 28 • 1995 (Cover).