Short Subjectives June 13 2001

Opening Friday
?ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE ** (PG). Disney’s change-of-pace animated adventure includes such cool stuff as flying machines designed like sea creatures and gizmos and plot points inspired by the work of Jules Verne. But the character — make that caricature — animation turns on ethnic stereotypes and uncomfortable exaggerations that heighten the script’s lack of inspiration. --CURT HOLMAN

BRIDE OF THE WIND ** (R). Bruce Beresford’s biopic of Alma Mahler (Sarah Wynter), wife of composer Gustav Mahler (Jonathan Pryce), views its subject as the inspiration and obsession of a generation of Viennese artists. Yet Wynter gives only a life-sized performance for this larger-than-life personality, who increasingly seems less like a feminist martyr and icon and more like an early 20th-century groupie. At least the period photography and sound are quite nice. --CH

LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER (PG-13) Based upon the popular videogame, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider continues the adventures of buxom female Indiana Jones, played by Angelina Jolie, as she travels around the world searching for the “Achilles Shield.” From the frozen ruins embedded in a glacier within the Arctic Circle to a forgotten valley filled with supposedly-extinct creatures in South America’s rainforests, Croft’s ventures are one part treasure hunt and one part eye-candy/adrenaline rush. Iain Glen plays the film’s villain, Powell, an adversary Lara inherits from her father, Lord Croft, played by Jolie’s real-life dad Jon Voight.

Duly Noted
?ATLANTA FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL Running through June 16, the festival will feature more than 175 independent, original works from around the world, including 38 films from Georgia. The festival closes with Takeshi “Beat” Kitano’s BROTHER, a brutal look at the rigid codes of honor in Japan’s underworld, June 16 at 8 p.m. at Rich Auditorium, High Museum. Reception follows. For festival information call 404-352-4254 or visit www.imagefv.org.

CAST AWAY (PG-13) *** Director Robert Zemeckis and his Forrest Gump star Tom Hanks have created another crowd-pleaser in what begins as a modern-day Robinson Crusoe story but comes out looking like a “Survivor” spin-off. Dumped in the Pacific, Chuck Noland (Hanks) spends four-plus years on an otherwise uninhabited island, developing survival skills gradually and realistically. The plot eventually gets Hollywood-ized, but it’s amazing how long Zemeckis resists commercial impulses, aside from the whole movie being such a commercial for Chuck’s employer, FedEx, that failing an Oscar, it has a chance to win a Clio. Showing at the Coca-Cola Summer Film Festival at the Fox Theater, June 14 at 8 p.m.-- STEVE WARREN

DRAGSTRIP GIRL/TWO-LANE BLACKTOP Dragstrip Girl features a lovely young lady obsessed with fast cars and the boys, er, MEN who drive them! Fay Spain is simply deadly in her nose-cone bra and platinum-blonde hair as she takes John Ashley, a man whose hair rivals Jack Lord’s, all the way to the finish line! Next up is the 1972 cult favorite, Two-Lane Blacktop a cross-country road race with just enough artsiness and symbolism to warrant its frequent comparison to Easy Rider, yet still reveal that hippie biker-movie to be the hum-drum yawner it really is. You’ve got Driver (James Taylor, believe it or not) and Mechanic (Beach Boy Dennis Wilson, not hard to believe) in their hopped-up, stripped down ‘55 Chevy rod. Mondo Movie Nite Sunday, June 17, Starlight Six Drive-In.

THE MALTESE FALCON Humphrey Bogart is Sam Spade; Mary Astor is trouble. The definitive private detective flick was directed by John Huston. Colorful support is provided by Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. The stuff that dreams are made of, indeed. Screen on the Green, June 13 at Piedmont Park, sunset.

MY STRUGGLE Touring underground film maker JOE CHRIST, best known for his tasteless short movies, will host another Atlanta screening of his newest creation. My Struggle is the story of an inbred Amish man (Andy Miller) who kidnaps a female tourist (Cindy Basden) to use as fresh genetic stock. Joe Christ plays a struggling artist who makes his living burglarizing houses and manufacturing pipe bombs for high school students. After coming across a severely mentally challenged young woman who’s been stranded in a cardboard box, the artist faces some major decisions. If you haven’t already guessed, the film is a comedy. June 14 at the Somber Reptile, 842 Marietta St. Doors open 9 p.m.

O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? (PG-13) ***1/2 George Clooney plays an escaped convict dragging his buddies across the Depression-era Deep South in search of hidden treasure and also trying to stop his wife’s remarriage in this uneven but brilliantly bizarre screwball send-up of ’30s folk history and Homer’s ancient epic, The Odyssey. The film features a number of Coen Brothers alums, including John Goodman (standing in for the Cyclops) and John Turturro (who almost gets turned into a frog). The title comes from Sullivan’s Travels, which you should also see, dammit. Showing at the Coca-Cola Summer Film Festival at the Fox Theater, Monday, June 18 at 8 p.m. — EDDY VON MUELLER

THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (R)The cult classic of cult classics, the 1975 horror spoof follows an all-American couple (Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick) to the castle of Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry), a drag-queen/mad scientist from another galaxy. It’s all fun and games until Meatloaf gets killed. Dress as your favorite character and participate in this musical on acid. Fridays at midnight, Lefont Plaza Theatre, 1049 Ponce De Leon Ave, and at Blackwell Star Cinema, 3378 Canton Road in Marietta.

Continuing
?ALONG CAME A SPIDER (R) *** Morgan Freeman returns in fine form as world-weary forensic psychologist Alex Cross of Kiss the Girls, likewise recommended as entertainment, not art. When a senator’s 12-year-old daughter is kidnapped Alex teams with Secret Service agent Jezzie Flannigan (Monica Potter), who was assigned to protect the girl, to find kidnapper Michael Wincott — and the girl — before it’s too late. After an action-packed opening the film slows down until the final hour, which is packed with twists, some more surprising than others. What matters is the plot holds together while you’re watching it, even if it falls apart in retrospect. — SW

AMORES PERROS *** 1/2 (R) A trio of stories set in a dystopian Mexico City revolve around a life-altering car crash in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s gripping first feature more indebted to the indie free-styling of Tarantino than the art film legacy of Bunuel. --FELICIA FEASTER

ANGEL EYES (R) ** Overexposed media diva Jennifer Lopez delivers an OK performance as Chicago police officer Sharon Pogue, who’s saved from certain death by a soft-spoken stranger (Jim Caviezel) who’s mysteriously drawn to her. The pair fall in love, but his secretive nature puts a strain on their relationship. There’s actually a couple of elements to admire in Gerald DiPego’s ambitious screenplay — most notably a sobering subplot about the cycle of domestic violence that exists in Sharon’s family - but the central romance is so predictable (you can figure it out from the first scene) that, coupled with the stagnant direction by Luis Mandoki (Message In a Bottle), the film never comes close to making us reach for those tissues. -- MATT BRUNSON

THE ANIMAL (PG-13) When a police cadet (Rob Schneider) nearly dies in a car accident while driving through remote mountains, a strange beast rescues him, performing surgery on him in a barn using animal parts as transplants. When he returns to civilization, he discovers that the influences of the animals within himself are causing him to behave oddly.

BLOW *** (R) Ted Demme’s film version of the real-life rise of pot-to-cocaine drug importer George Jung (Johnny Depp) is all surface flash and Scorsese-cribbed effects. A diverting entertainment featuring some so-bad-it’s-good fashion moments, the film is wafer-thin in the originality department, with Demme favoring visual effects over middling details like character development and motivation.--FF

BREAD AND ROSES *1/2 (R) A major disappointment from the respected, talented British political filmmaker Ken Loach, this reality-based story of an invisible workforce of Latino immigrants who struggle to form a janitors’ union is pedantic, simplistic and insulting to Loach’s usual audience’s intelligence.--FF

BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY ** 1/2 (R) Renee Zellweger manages a convincing British accent and remains defiantly appealing as the loveable loser “singleton” Miss Jones despite this bland, conventional, American-targeted re-working of Helen Fielding’s witty, rude best-selling diaries to the screen. — FF

CROCODILE DUNDEE IN LOS ANGELES (PG) *1/2 Paul Hogan makes a shameless, witless attempt to revive a worn-out franchise with a thin, underdeveloped premise stringing together tired jokes and stretched beyond the breaking point by an unsuspenseful climax that goes on for nearly a third of the movie. With decent material Hogan (who has aged better than his wife, Linda Kozlowski, who plays his still-unmarried partner) might have been able to pull off another culture-clash comedy, but this one’s as pathetic as Lethal Agent 3, the bad movie it makes fun of. — SW

DRIVEN *1/2 More like Drivel. With rare exception, the mini-genre of race car flicks has always been a disreputable one. But if there’s anyone who could make a racing movie that at least qualifies as a guilty pleasure, it would be director Renny Harlin, since even his trashy films are presented with a certain degree of style and chutzpah. But Harlin hits the wall with Driven, which is so banal and preposterous that not even his constantly roving camera can disguise the bankruptcy of the project. Sylvester Stallone, who wrote the original story handles the tried & true “veteran” role: He’s cast as Joe Tanto, a former racing star who’s coaxed out of retirement by crotchety car owner Carl Henry (Burt Reynolds) to provide guidance to Jimmy Bly (Kip Pardue), a rookie sensation who’s in a dead-heat battle for the season championship with ice-cold defending champ Beau Brandenburg (Til Schweiger). The story itself is packed with too many needless characters, fetid dialogue and ludicrous developments. --MB

EVOLUTION * 1/2 (PG-13) Ivan Reitman may have made some amusing pictures in the distant past (Ghostbusters, Stripes), but more recently, he’s attached his name (as producer and/or director) to such desperate affairs as Space Jam, Fathers’ Day and Road Trip. Evolution, in which alien life forms crashland in Arizona and begin to take over, follows in this lamentable line of duds: It’s obviously Reitman’s attempt to duplicate the success of Ghostbusters, but it’s so bereft of wit and charm that it’s not even a worthy rip-off. Several of the otherworldly critters are fun to watch, and they perk up the proceedings from time to time; the human players (including David Duchovny, whose casting would seem to be a sly nod in the direction of The X-Files except for the fact that nothing’s made of it) are burdened with nondescript roles. This comedy’s greatest problem, obviously, is the fact that the screenplay by Don Jakoby, David Diamond and David Weissman simply isn’t funny. Lord knows, everyone tries hard - a scene doesn’t go by without somebody making a wisecrack or falling over the furniture — but the end result is like a bad TV sit-com with a lot of bathroom humor added to lure the teens (typical line: “Give my friend back, you big sphincter!”). In fact, it’s like Galaxy Quest all over again — except that film at least had the sense to toss a few knowing winks at fans of the sci-fi genre it was sending up. By comparison, the makers of Evolution act as if they’re barely aware that such a genre even exists --MB

THE GOLDEN BOWL ** 1/2 (R). The Merchant-Ivory filmmaking team has less success with Henry James’ novels than they do with the work of E.M. Forster. Regarding a pair of penniless lovers (Uma Thurman and Jeremy Northam) who marry a wealthy father and daughter (Nick Nolte and Kate Beckinsale), the film’s limited performances and heavy-handed symbolism keeps you from empathizing with the characters. --CH

IMAX Journey Into Amazing Caves (R) *** Nancy Aulenbach of Norcross, a cave rescue specialist, and Dr. Hazel Barton, a British microbiologist, explore caves in Arizona, Greenland and the Yucatan in search of extremophiles, “microbes which thrive in the harshest of conditions.” This Journey is filled with visual excitement for sedentary types, visceral excitement for the Xtreme crowd and a bit of information it won’t hurt any of us to know. Plays through Sept. 3. Ocean Oasis Experience the unbreakable bonds between a parched land, a rich sea and the plants and animals that thrive within, as you travel to Baja California. Swim with the huge schools of mysids, and follow jellyfish, jacks and tuna as they flourish beneath a rich sea. Through Jan. 1, 2002. Fernbank Museum of Natural History IMAX Theater.

KINGDOM COME (PG) *** Soul Food was just an appetizer for this African-American family comedy that brings a dysfunctional brood together to bury their patriarch. Whoopi Goldberg plays it almost straight as the widow while Loretta Devine takes comic honors as her ever-praying sister-in-law. Goldberg’s sons, LL Cool J and Anthony Anderson, are in troubled marriages (to Vivica A. Fox and Jada Pinkett Smith) but no problems are too big to be resolved neatly for a feel-good ending. The actors and most of the script make up for technical shortcomings in the funniest funeral since Chuckles bit the dust. — SW

A KNIGHT’S TALE ** (PG-13). Medieval knights joust to contemporary pop songs (“We Will Rock You,” “Takin’ Care of Business,” etc.) in Brian Helgeland’s period action film. If you can accept the quirky soundtrack, you can enjoy the film’s anachronistic sense of humor for about an hour (Chaucer is a supporting character), but the mechanics of its predictable plot get the better of it, and eventually all the jousting scenes look alike. --CH

THE LUZHIN DEFENCE ** 1/2 (PG-13). Emily Watson finds herself drawn to an eccentric grandmaster (John Turturro) at an Italian chess tournament in an intriguing but unsatisfying adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s novel. Turturro’s unpredictability makes the film oddly compelling, but its melodramatic villain and emphasis on mental illness put its thematic ambitions in check. --CH

MEMENTO *** 1/2 (R) An investigator (Guy Pearce) suffering from short term memory loss tries to track down his wife’s killer in Christopher Nolan’s ingenious thriller. As in Harold Pinter’s Betrayal the scenes unfold in reverse order, so both the audience and the forgetful hero are constantly thrust into the unknown. Complicated, exhilarating and dark, Memento’s ending leaves your head spinning — counterclockwise. --CH

MOULIN ROUGE **1/2 (PG-13) Romeo + Juliet director Baz Luhrman whips into a fabulous frenzy this stylishly spastic post-modern musical about an impoverished writer (Ewan McGregor) in love with a consumptive courtesan (Nicole Kidman) in a bizarre rock’n’roll version of late 19th century Paris. Dazzling design and dizzying technique more or less compensate for an unsatisfying story and far too many smugly hip in-jokes. And feel free to sing along; 95 percent of the lyrics are lifted from songs you already know.--EDDY VON MUELLER

MUMMY RETURNS (PG-13) *1/2 Even more so than the OK 1999 blockbuster The Mummy, this Raiders of the Lost Ark rip-off is pure adrenaline overkill, a nonstop barrage of movement and noise. Yeah, I realize the breathless preview makes this look like the greatest show on earth, but, truth be told, I was actually bored by many of the frenzied activities taking place on the screen. The original cast, including Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz as the good guys and Arnold Vosloo as the title terror, returns largely unchanged, and the murky story line (marked by its share of inconsistencies and lapses in logic) has something to do with the resurrected Imhotep (Vosloo) fighting a resurrected warrior known as the Scorpion King (pro wrestler The Rock) for global domination. Reportedly, plans are already underway for a third Mummy movie, a development that makes me want to confront Sommers and utter a line from this sorry sequel: “You began a chain reaction that could trigger the next apocalypse!” — MB

PANIC *** (R). William H. Macy plays a hit man seeking therapy and escape from the family business in Henry Bromell’s quiet character study that’s not really a thriller nor a black comedy. Macy’s indelible portrait of mid-life crisis gets fine support from Donald Sutherland, Neve Campbell and especially Tracey Ullman and child actor David Dorfman. --CH

PEARL HARBOR *1/2 (PG-13). It’s not that this is an awful movie; it’s just an awfully impersonal one, with plenty of spectacular effects hardly justifying the cardboard characters, insipid dialogue and stone-cold direction. The film obviously hopes to be another Titanic, but the love triangle comprised of pilots Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett and nurse Kate Beckinsale couldn’t possibly be duller. — MB

SHREK ** 1/2 (PG). DreamWorks’ fractured fairy tale both soars and suffers from its own subversive humor, as a crude, wisecracking ogre (voiced by Mike Meyers) makes a reluctant knight errant in a quest to rescue an enchanted princess (Cameron Diaz). Shrek’s computer-animated charms get hexed by too much outhouse comedy, too many pop references and far too much of Eddie Murphy as a talking donkey. --CH

SPY KIDS (PG) *** Here’s Willy Wonka: The Next Generation, full of warmth, imagination and surrealism combined with the action today’s youngsters demand (though less violence than they might prefer). Robert Rodriguez’s creation is about the children of retired spies Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino going into the family business to rescue their kidnapped parents. The story, action and visuals rate higher than the inconsistent acting. The heroes are fine, but the villains (Alan Cumming, Tony Shalhoub, Robert Patrick and Teri Hatcher) are all over the map instead of uniformly over the top. — SW

SWORDFISH * 1/2 (R) If nothing else, this thriller at least contains a handful of the most exciting, edge-of-your-seat sequences ever to grace a motion picture. In these nail-biting moments, legendary hacker Stanley Jobson (Hugh Jackman) sits in front of a computer, typing away at a reckless speed usually seen only on the NASCAR circuit. The tension is so great, it’s almost unbearable. Will Stanley accidentally hit a wrong key, disrupting his momentum and forcing him to mess with that pesky “Backspace” button to correct his error? Will a half-dozen pop-ups suddenly appear on his screen, breaking his concentration as he peruses banners for on-line lotteries, credit history reports, or lusty Japanese models? Or, worst of all, will his computer suddenly, mysteriously,frustratingly crash, filling him with the urge to obliterate the infernal contraption with a sledgehammer? Obviously, the makers of Swordfish didn’t get the message that cyber-thrillers have largely proven to be an audience-incompatible movie subject over the years. Yet for all its techno-toys, this picture about a hacker (Jackman) who’s forced to help a criminal mastermind (John Travolta) steal billions of dollars via the computer fails for a number of other reasons, most notably the shameless way it panders to yahoos with its attention to loud explosions, senseless deaths and Halle Berry’s bare breasts. Jackman and Don Cheadle (as a persistent cop) are both solid, but they can’t prevent this from being anything more than a hack job about hackers. --MB

THE TAILOR OF PANAMA *** Pierce Brosnan wickedly sullies his 007 image as a sleazy, womanizing intelligence agent who enlists a fraudulent tailor (Geoffrey Rush) to spy on Panama’s ruling elites. The adaptation of John LeCarre’s novel weaves a complicated pattern of broad satire, serious political commentary and knotty character study, but director John Boorman loses his grip on the different threads, offering a weak, unconvincing ending that undercuts the film’s otherwise provocative originality. — CH

TRAFFIC (R) ***1/2 A well-crafted, engrossing story of the drug war as it touches characters from Tijuana to Washington, D.C., from cops and politicians to teenagers and suburban wives, Steven Soderbergh’s drama moves along at a ferocious clip. Even with its large cast of newcomers and Hollywood old-guarders, this psychological action film affirms Soderbergh’s talent for making good, populist dramas that exceed the usual Hollywood standards. — FF

WHAT’S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN? ** 1/2 (PG-13) It’s all too easy to take a potshot at a film that sets itself up with a bull’s-eye title like this one, but folks, the truth is that it could have been a lot, lot worse. This loose adaptation of Donald E. Westlake’s novel finds both Martin Lawrence and Danny DeVito doing their patented schtick — yet both doing it well. Lawrence stars as Kevin Caffey, a thief whose new girlfriend (Carmen Ejogo) presents him with a good-luck ring; DeVito plays Max Fairbanks, a slimy billionaire who strips Kevin of the ring after Kevin breaks into his house and gets nabbed by the cops. The rest of the picture deals almost exclusively with Kevin’s efforts to retrieve the ring (in the process ruining Max’s life), and screenwriter Matthew Chapman frequently finds clever ways to build on this one-note notion.