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Film Clips
Reviews by Ian Caruth, James DiGiovanna, Linsay Hernon and Jennifer Nichols
BAMBOOZLED. Writer/Director Spike Lee goes over the top in his latest racially charged and highly controversial satirical look at today's prejudiced culture. Damon Wayans stars as the nasally stuffed shirt who creates a TV variety show of caricatured African American stereotypes with the hopes of destroying these very stereotypes. Comedian Tommy Davidson and tap sensation Savion Glover play slumming street performers who help the dreamer with his crusade by portraying to the extreme every African American caricature. Though this film is overlty offensive, Spike Lee becomes the dreamer, himself, who succeeds in his crusade of providing a poignant and powerful wake-up call to our society. --Hernon
BEFORE NIGHT FALLS. In his Oscar-nominated role, Spanish actor Javier Bardem portrays Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas in a powerful performance that exposes Fidel Castro's tyrannical regime. Due to the persecution of homosexuals and artists, the gay writer struggles through false accusations, brutal imprisonment and personal demons to publish acclaimed literary opuses. He is helped by an incarcerated drag queen with a unique talent, and by a self-indulged lieutenant, both played by Johnny Depp. Though sophomore director Julian Schnabel uses flashbacks and flash forwards without warning and intertwines three different languages through the dialogue, a heartfelt and captivating piece still results. --Hernon
BEST IN SHOW. Funnier than watching Strom Thurmond deny his racist past, Best in Show is the long-awaited follow-up to the most hilarious film of the '90s, Waiting For Guffman. The Guffman cast and crew reassemble here to present a mockumentary about a dog show (Best in Show's working title was Dogumentary). Director Christopher Guest, perhaps best known for playing mentally deficient guitarist (or is that redundant?) Nigel Tufnel in Spinal Tap, puts together one of the tightest comedies ever made. Every scene has laughs, and no scene is merely a setup for a later gag. Guest also stars as Harlan Pepper, Southern dog fancier and fishing shop owner. His dead-on performance is matched by Eugene Levy as nerdy suburbanite Gerry Fleck; Catherine O'Hara (the greatest living comedienne) as his wife and erstwhile slattern Cookie Fleck; Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock as a grating yuppie couple; Michael McKean and John Michael Higgins as a gay couple whose love for each other is matched only by their love for Shih Tzus; and scene stealer Fred Willard as the local anchorman who's been horribly misassigned as an announcer at the Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show. And hey, sorry about that guitarist gag. --DiGiovanna
CAST AWAY. Tom Hanks delivers Oscar-worthy work in Robert Zemeckis' latest; the editing and script, unfortunately, do not. Hanks stars as Chuck Noland, a regimented and relentless FedEx supervisor who survives a plane crash and washes onto a deserted island in the South Pacific. There he spends the next four years surviving on a crab and coconut diet, creating modern-day cave paintings, and sharing his candid thoughts with his only companion: Wilson, a volleyball. The film has a hokey book-ended format, many of the vital scenes are either abbreviated or altogether absent, and the script occasionally proves juvenile. However, it is Hanks' captivating presence and his grippingly realistic portrayal that keep this film afloat. --Hernon
CHARLIE'S ANGELS. Like crack cocaine for the soul, Charlie's Angels delivers shameful, addictive, and no doubt tremendously harmful fun. This movie has more explosions, more butt shots and more explosions that feature butt shots than any film since Triumph of the Will. In case you missed the 1970s, Charlie's Angels is based on the TV series that gave the world the terms "jiggle" and "T&A." Three hot young women prance about in low-cut, skintight outfights fighting crime and making what the French call "love." Still, you may ask, is this a good movie? Well, if "good" means "not evil," then, no, this is not a good movie. Rather, it's bad, in exactly the same way that cheap sex, cigarettes and chocolate ice cream are bad. I think you know what I'm talking about. --DiGiovanna
CHOCOLAT. Lasse Hallström directs this simple fable of the chocolate-peddling gypsy Vianne (Juliette Binoche), who spends her life liberalizing the lives of conservative villagers in the French countryside. Daughter in tow, she sets up chocolate shops and single-handedly unlocks the hidden desires of the religious townsfolk with the magic of the cocoa seed. Once her cautious, god-fearing neighbors get a taste of her homemade chocolate confections, the people begin to come alive and abandon their assumption that Vianne is the devil incarnate. Remembering that this is told in the confines of a fairy tale, the tints of magical realism and the fight against mediocrity are charming, if not mouth-wateringly sweet. Lena Olin, Alfred Molina, Judi Dench and Johnny Depp provide caricatures of fear and love that play out as nicely as the indulgent delights cooked up in the Mayan kitchen. --Nichols
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Variety magazine used to refer to martial arts movies as "chop socky flicks." Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon would, then, be a really big chop socky flick. It's got all the cheesy, goofball stuff you'd expect from the Taiwanese kung-fu movies of the '70s, but with an enormous budget to back it up. Chow Yun Fat stars as a master of the Wudan school of martial arts. The big bonus to being a Wudan master is that you can fly, which is the kind of thing that looks great on a big screen, especially if the characters are flying over misty Chinese landscapes while fighting with ancient, magical swords. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is big-time fun, but don't go expecting to see Citizen Kane. This is more like a Saturday-morning cartoon raised to the level of Wagnerian opera, with all the amusement and stupidity that are found so abundantly in both of those art forms. --DiGiovanna
DOWN TO EARTH. The old saying "third time's a charm" certainly does not hold true as this remake of Heaven Can Wait, itself a remake of Here Comes Mr. Jordan, knocks into theaters instead of on death's door. From Robert Montgomery portraying a heavyweight prizefighter in the 1941 original to Warren Beatty as a forceful football player in the 1978 remake, we now somehow find ourselves stuck with the nasal loudmouth Chris Rock playing none other than a wannabe comedian. The basics of the story remain the same in this exhausted version: Man dies before his time; man gets a second chance at life; and man comes back in the body of a miserly millionaire whose wife and lover plot to kill him. Throw in endless racial jokes, cheesy and overripe philosophical wit and a lead actor who cannot act, and you're left with Down to Earth, a movie that should be laid to rest. --Hernon
FINDING FORRESTER. An unlikely friendship builds between a Pulitzer Prize-winning Boo Radley of the Bronx and an inner-city punk feigning stupidity in Gus Van Sant's latest drama. Shaggy-haired Sean Connery plays the reclusive William Forrester, whose monotonous routine of window washing and voyeurism is stirred up when he becomes an unsuspecting mentor to a closeted brainiac remarkably played by newcomer Robert Brown. Together the two journey past their fears, insecurities and enemies toward their dreams and true capabilities. It's an inspirational film, despite the recycled premise and two superfluous endings, one of which presents an unnecessary surprise cameo. --Hernon
HANNIBAL. This is sort of like one of those classic Disney films of the '30s and '40s, where magical fairies dance about in glittering landscapes, eating the flesh of their still-living victims. You know, like Snow White and The Seven Horrible, Cannibalistic Dwarves, or Kill, Bambi, Kill! Anthony Hopkins plays Hannibal, an irascible scamp who loves classical music, fine art and evil. Gary Oldman plays his rival, the cute little horribly deformed man who wants only to gambol about and feed Hannibal to the three little pigs. Well, more like two dozen flesh-eating hogs. Julianne Moore plays Clarice Starling, who's kind of like the Good Woodsman who comes to help out when Red Riding Hood is captured by the evil wolf who wants to force her to eat her own brains. Or it could be that the Disney films they showed me in the vicious torture gardens where I was raised were slightly different than those released to the world at large. Anyway, Hannibal shares with those films a glacially slow pace that is only slightly enlivened by the adorable scenes of cute, fluffy, hugable murders and mutilations. --DiGiovanna
THE MEXICAN. Gore Verbinski, the director of Mouse Hunt, leads you on another wild goose chase, but instead of a furry rodent and an obsessed exterminator you are stuck with a cheap-looking gun and boring group therapy sessions. Brad Pitt stars as a bumbling bagman who travels through Mexico in his blue El Camino contending with conspiring henchmen, loyal townspeople and a mangy mutt in order to retrieve a legendary pistol, thus achieving redemption from the Mafia. Meanwhile, girlfriend Samantha (Julia Roberts), a selfish self-help groupie with Vegas dreams, is kidnapped by a closeted criminal (James Gandolfini) who also wants his hands on the sacred firearm, but swaps more relationship tips with his hostage than useful facts for his unlawful pursuit. This never-ending story slowly meanders from dull plot twist to tiresome therapy session in an asinine premise that incorporates half-witted themes of cars, toilets and traffic lights. The only smart thing done for this film was hiring an A-list cast, including Gene Hackman in a cameo role, but acting in this pitiful project was not a smart thing to do on their part.. --Hernon
MONKEYBONE. Director Henry Selick combines stop motion with live action to produce a Tim Burton wannabe world of carnival rides and alien farm animals where those in limbo must face their subconscious fears. After a car accident leaves him in a coma, coy cartoonist Stu Miley (Brendan Fraser) gets trapped in this low-grade land of nightmares where he spends the next one and a half hours preventing Monkeybone, his annoying animated creation with a limitless libido, from obtaining the dreaded "nightmare juice." Whoopi Goldberg, the minister of death with a combustible head, and her grim reaper minions dressed in shredded toilet paper aid the animator by sending him back to the real world in the body of an athletic organ donor. Also to the rescue is Bridget Fonda, the devoted girlfriend, who conveniently works at a sleep institute. However, nothing really could save this weak Beetlejuice imitation, not even Chris Kattan's Olympic-caliber dismounts. --Hernon
O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU? Who doesn't love musical theater? Only mean people, I'm guessing. Thus, in order to prove that you're not a mean person you should rush out and see O Brother Where Art Thou?, the first great musical of the 21st century. O Brother retells the story of Homer's Odyssey, only from the perspective of two guys who have never read the book. George Clooney stars as Ulysses Everett McGill (see, he's Ulysses), an escaped convict who travels across Depression-era Mississippi to get home to his wife Penny (get it?) who's being wooed by a suitor (see, like in the Odyssey). When the Coens aren't referencing The Odyssey they're exploring the culture of the old South or alluding to such classic films as Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels. Actually, they're usually doing all three at once, which makes the fact that they can do it in the midst of a musical number all the more amazing. And what's even more amazing is that most of the people who've seen O Brother don't even realize that they've seen a musical. Which is good, because, as I've found out, most people claim to hate musicals. Because most people are mean. Q.E.D. --DiGiovanna
SAVING SILVERMAN. Boy meets girl. Girl controls boy. Friends try to save boy. An all too familiar story. But throw in bodybuilding nuns, nude yoga, killer raccoons and a trio of Neil Diamond-loving idiots and you get this screwball comedy of moronic proportions. Jason Biggs is the gullible goof entranced by a conniving kitten (Amanda Peet) who must have the home phone number of Jennifer Lopez's tailor on speed dial. Meanwhile, the two other groupies in the trio conjure the only plan their miniscule minds can, which is to kidnap the vicious vixen so the brainwashed bozo can date a circus-performing nun-in-training. But forget it, boys, because no one can save Silverman in this harebrained hogwash, not even Diamond himself with his sultry serenades. --Hernon
SWEET NOVEMBER. Tearjerker movies are a neat encapsulation of America's attitude toward Hollywood, and celebrity in general; i.e. it's fun to watch the lives of people who are far more beautiful and wealthy than me, but it's far more enjoyable if one of them has a terminal disease. In this remake of a long-forgotten 1968 film, Charlize Theron stars as Sara, a life-affirming sexual libertine who takes a new lover each month, helping her charges find self-confidence, a renewed capacity for love and wonder, etc. World-renowned Dogstar bassist Keanu Reeves plays Nelson, a workaholic advertising executive/asshole and Sara's skeptical November appointment. Can they resist falling in love? The appeal of the film isn't its kitchen-sink approach to drama--cute kids, interfamilial tension and fatal illness all complicate Sara and Nelson's relationship--but the surprisingly graceful handling of all the involved elements. Unexpectedly strong performances by the leads and supple direction by Pat O'Connor turn what could have been a painfully manipulative film into a sweetly manipulative one, leaving no heartstring untugged but earning all the emotions it draws. Mainstream Hollywood tearjerkers don't get much better than Sweet November. --Caruth
TRAFFIC. Today's war on drugs is taken to the front lines with a Magnolia storytelling style and a Three Kings look. From the straight-shooting American police officer (Don Cheadle) to the no-holds-barred drug-busting Mexican cop (Benicio del Toro), and from the chic country-club wife of a drug-smuggling thug to the law-enforcing anti-drug czar (Michael Douglas) and his crack-smoking daughter, writer Stephen Gaghan candidly presents all sides to this never-ending battle. --Hernon
Vertical Limit. Once, I dreamed I saw a film about mountain climbing in which no great storm appeared, no strong-headed man forced the climbers to continue through the storm, and no brave but irreverent group of wacky misfits and concerned heroes went to rescue the storm-trapped climbers. In this film, no one uttered ridiculous dialogue like "Up there, you're not dying, you're already dead." No one revealed his dark nature while trapped in the snowstorm. No one faced a test of courage that redeemed him for an error in his past. In short, this film of which I dreamed was not a montage of standard scenes and stock characters. This film was original, surprising, oddly real in its emotional content, oddly compelling in its naturalness. Of course, this film was only a dream. --DiGiovanna
THE WEDDING PLANNER. Even with the four collaborating screenwriters and Jennifer Lopez's luscious looks, there still is no hope in saving this stale romantic comedy that recycles every single cinematic cliché. Singer/actress Lopez stars as Mary, an anal-retentive wedding planner with Secret Service-like tendencies whose social life consists of being a Bay Area Scrabble Club member and alphabetizing her credit cards. Yet the life and love of the loner takes a predictable turn when macho man Matthew McConaughey literally sweeps her off her feet in a heroic Dumpster dodge. To no surprise the Texas wonder boy is already engaged and, in fact, the next client who the wedding wizard must dazzle and delight with her Martha Stewart-like fantasies. This unfortunately kicks off the trail of triteness that you could already see in the preview. Save your money and skip this one. --Hernon
What Women Want. After a drunken rampage of cross-dressing, a Frank Sinatra serenade, and a near-fatal electric shock, one pompous womanizer can hear just what it is that women want. Mel Gibson plays the chauvinistic advertising executive and estranged father who cunningly uses his phenomenal power of hearing women's intimate thoughts to sabotage the fledgling career of Darcy Maguire (Helen Hunt), to revitalize the rocky relationship with his teenage daughter, and to become the ultimate sex god of Chicago. Even though this film has a high reading on the cheese-o-meter, the talented cast, including Alan Alda, Bette Midler and Marisa Tomei, delivers perfect comedic timing and captivating charm that would entice even Howard Stern to learn what women truly want. --Hernon
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