AMERICAN OUTLAWS
Revisionist look at the legend of Jesse James, with Colin Farrell
playing the infamous outlaw as if he were a Robin Hood of the
West. Returning from the Civil War, the James brothers are
confronted by a railroad robber baron (Harris Yulin) and his
henchman (Timothy Dalton) who kill and maim in their effort to
clear a path for their intercontinental railroad. When the James'
matriarch (Kathy Bates) and farm are blown up, the James boys go
on a rampage, robbing the rich railroads and giving the money to
the poor. There's plenty of action, some weak attempts at humor,
and a perfunctory love story between Jesse and girlfriend Zee
(Ali Larter), but for the most part this misfires on all
chambers.
Director: Les
Mayfield. Stars: Colin Farrell, Gabriel Macht,
Scott Caan, Ali Larter, Will McCormack, Timothy Dalton, Harris
Yulin, Nathaniel Arcand, Gregory Smith, Kathy Bates. CC, (MPAA
rating: PG-13, 94 min.), Western comedy, 2001, Box office
gross: $12.726 million, (Warner), No VHS SRP,
Priced for rental, Available: 12/4, DVD:
Day & Date.
EVOLUTION
A bumbling sci-fi comedy about a trio of scientists attempting to
stop a strange outer space lifeform from taking over the Earth.
When a meteorite slams into the desert one night, two
junior-college scientists/teachers (David Duchovny and Orlando
Jones) are the first on the scene, discovering an alien ooze that
breeds like crazy in the Earth's atmosphere, jumping though
billions of years of evolution in a matter of days. Soon there's
weird prehistoric animals threatening the cities and country side
of Arizona, and a scientist from the Centers for Disease Control
(Julianne Moore) and the Army are sent out to investigate. Only
the two teachers -- and the scientist -- know the real truth --
that the final stage of evolution is a gigantic blob that will
eradicate life as we know it. But to get to this revelation,
we're treated to broad, corny and generally unfunny slapstick,
many cases of bodily-function humor, a lame fireman-apprentice
(Seann William Scott) who joins the trio to stop the monster,
cardboard disbelieving government officials, and boring dialogue
explications. It's all too mangled and goofy to really stick
together and work as a whole, which of course the aliens do when
they get you. Great special effects -- to a point.
Director: Ivan
Reitman. Stars: David Duchovny, Julianne Moore,
Orlando Jones, Seann William Scott, Ted Levine, Dan Aykroyd. CC,
(MPAA rating: PG-13, 101 min.), Science Fiction, 2001, Box
office gross: $38.311 million, (DreamWorks), No VHS
SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 12/26,
DVD: Day & Date.
HEDWIG AND THE
ANGRY INCH
John Cameron Mitchell directs and stars in this film adaptation
of his Broadway rock musical about an "internationally ignored"
rock singer and her search for stardom and love. Hedwig, born a
boy with a life's dream to find a missing part of himself,
submits to a sex change operation to marry an American G.I. and
get over the Berlin Wall to freedom. The operation is botched,
leaving an "angry inch," and Hedwig finds herself alone and
divorced in a Kansas trailer park. She forms a rock band and
meets a lover/protege, who turns around and steals her songs and
becomes a huge rock star. Hedwig forms a pan-Slavic band, the
Angry Inch, and goes on tour in seedy dives in the shadow of her
ex-lover, seeking to make her way in the rock world.
Director: John
Cameron Mitchell. Stars: John Cameron Mitchell,
Miriam Shor, Theodore Liscinski. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 91 min.),
Rock theater, 2001, Box office gross: $4.000 million, (New
Line), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental,
Available: 12/11, DVD: 3.
JOHN
CARPENTER'S GHOSTS OF MARS
Typical John Carpenter outing -- gore and weird special effects
-- here meshing horror with science fiction. Its 2176, and Earth
has populated Mars, mostly with strip miners. At one far-flung
outpost, a contingent of Mars Police has been sent to track down
a wanted criminal (Ice Cube), but instead of finding a populated
work town all they find are -- ghosts. It seems that a
long-dormant, evil Martian force has been set loose during a dig,
and its on the prowl, turning everyone into, well, the walking
dead, with a penchant for decapitation. So the Police, headed up
by Natasha Henstridge, must take on the ghosts in a gruesome
fight to the finish.
Director: John
Carpenter. Stars: Ice Cube, Natasha Henstridge,
Jason Statham, Pam Grier, Clea Duvall, Joanna Cassidy, Liam
White. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 98 min.), Science Fiction, 2001,
Box office gross: $8.500 million, (Columbia TriStar), No VHS
SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 12/4,
DVD: Day & Date.
JURASSIC PARK III
The long-awaited second sequel to "Jurassic Park," though not up
to the snuff of its predecessors despite new and nastier
dinosaurs, is still out there gobbling up the box office, having
chomped almost $81 million in its first five days of release. The
film is non-stop thrills and chills, as is to be expected, with
excitingly believable action, at least on the part of the dinos.
This time out, though, one has to double one's suspension of
disbelief to go along with the implausible human antics on
display. Sam Neil returns as Dr. Alan Grant, conned by divorced
husband and wife William H. Macy and Tea Leoni to rescue their
son, who disappeared on the dino island during a parasailing
adventure. And off we go.
Director: Joe
Johnston. Stars: Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Tea
Leoni, Alessandro Nivola, Trevor Morgan, Michael Jeter, John
Diehl, Bruce A. Young. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 91 min.),
Science Fiction, 2001, Box office gross: $180.000 million,
(Universal), $22.98 VHS SRP, Available: 12/11,
DVD: Day & Date.
MOULIN ROUGE
An unconventional dance musical -- to say the least -- by the
director of the genre-bending "Romeo + Juliet." Set in 1899 Paris
the film loosely revolves around a romance between the Moulin
Rouge club's luscious and desirable star Satine (a glowing Nicole
Kidman) and a penniless writer (Ewan McGregor) who falls in love
with her. And that's where the reality stops. This Paris is
created digitally, with post-modern sets and a soundtrack (sung
by the stars) that ranges from the Elton John to "The Sound of
Music" to "Roxanne" (as well as recurring versions of "Diamonds
Are a Girl's Best Friend"). Lurking in the background are an
assortment of seedy characters, including a Duke obsessed with
Satine, the famous Toulouse Lautrec, and the temple of sin's
impresario. Director Baz Luhrmann's flashy, trashy, irreverent
style just barely falls short of creating a true experimental
mixed-multi-media-montage filmic style (he owes a lot, however,
to Bob Fosse's mind-bending juxtapositions of dance, music and
time in "All That Jazz," and perhaps a bit to Monty Python).
Still this is one heck of an eye-mind candy ride ... one that
particularly suffers from being scaled down to the small screen.
Director: Baz
Luhrmann. Stars: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, John
Leguizamo, Jim Broadbent, Richard Roxburgh. CC, (MPAA rating:
PG-13, 126 min.), Drama with Music, 2001, Box office gross:
$56.578 million, (Fox), No VHS SRP, Priced for
rental, Available: 12/18, DVD: Day &
Date.
PEARL HARBOR
Disney's epic recreation of the attack on Pearl Harbor -- with a
price tag of $135 million -- has gotten more press than any film
this year (though Spielberg's "A.I." has come in a close second).
It's been chastised and attacked for political incorrectness, but
hey, its just basically a love story that takes place before,
during and after Pearl Harbor, with great special effects and a
hip, young cast. So just sit back and enjoy three hours of top
moviemaking, eat three bags of popcorn, and ponder this: Disney
spent $50 million (the cost of an entire film in anyone else's
hands) on the premiere of the film in Hawaii.
Director: Michael
Bay. Stars: Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate
Beckinsale, Alec Baldwin, Cuba Gooding Jr., Tom Sizemore, Jon
Voight, William Lee Scott, James King. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13,
183 min.), War drama, 2001, Box office gross: $200.000
million, (Buena Vista), $24.99 VHS SRP,
Available: 12/4, DVD: Day &
Date.
PRINCESS DIARIES, THE
Second surprise hit of the summer revolving around the trials and
tribulations of young women trying to find their way in the world
(the other being "Legally Blonde") that shows that there is
always a large audience for innocuous comedy sans explicit sex
and bathroom humor. This typical Disney comedy (a throwback to
the 1960s/1970s) stars Anne Hathaway as a clumsy 10th-grader in
San Francisco who discovers she is in fact the heir to the throne
of the small country of Genovia. With the aid of her grandmother
Queen Clarisse (Julie Andrews) the ugly duckling is turned into a
lovely, poised princess. A delightful film for young girls that
has found a much wider family audience.
Director: Garry
Marshall. Stars: Julie Andrews, Anne Hathaway,
Hector Elizondo, Heather Matarazzo, Caroline Goodall, Robert
Schwartzman, Kathleen Marshall, Sandra Oh. CC, (MPAA rating: G,
115 min.), Comedy, 2001, Box office gross: $105.000 million,
(Buena Vista), $22.99 VHS SRP, Available: 12/18, DVD: Day
&
Date.
RUSH HOUR 2
The boys are back in town -- or rather the modern-day crime
fighting Abbott and Costello of police enforcement are back on
screen for more of the same that made "Rush Hour" a $250 million
smash hit. Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker return as hapless heroes
who use fist and mouth (respectively) to disarm their enemies.
This time around motor-mouth LAPD cop Tucker travels to Hong
Kong, where he's squired around as a tourist by Chan's Inspector
Lee. But the fun and games in massage parlors, yachts and
nightclubs eventually take a back seat to crime, as the duo begin
a rogue cop investigation into the deaths of two U.S. Customs
agents involving counterfeit money, taking them to L.A. and Las
Vegas and getting involved with a triad leader (John Lone), a
nasty henchwoman (Ziyi Zhang), a casino boss (Alan King) and a
possibly corrupt secret agent (Roselyn Sanchez). The patented
Chan martial arts and Tucker motor mouth mesh well again for two
hours of sheer entertainment.
Director: Brett
Ratner. Stars: Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, John
Lone, Ziyi Zhang, Roselyn Sanchez, Harris Yulin, Alan King,
Kenneth Tsang, Don Cheadle, Saul Rubinek. CC, (MPAA rating:
PG-13, 90 min.), Comedy, 2001, Box office gross: $220.000
million, (New Line), $22.94 VHS SRP, Available:
12/11, DVD: Day & Date.
SCARY MOVIE 2
More of the same horror-spoof shenanigans that made "Scary Movie"
a teen-college audience smash hit. This time around the surviving
cast members of "SM" (now in college) are invited by a nasty
professor (Tim Curry) to spend the weekend in a haunted house,
giving the filmmakers the opportunity to spoof "The House on
Haunted Hill," "The Exorcist," "The Changling" and even
"Charlie's Angels." And there's the usual soft-core sex added in,
with enough prurient ghostly sex scenes to definitely give this
one a strong R-rating.
Director: Keenen
Ivory Wayans. Stars: Marlon Wayans, Shawn
Wayans, Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Chris Masterson, Tim Curry, Tori
Spelling, James Woods, Natasha Lyonne, Andy Richter, Kathleen
Robertson, Chris Elliott, David Cross. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 82
min.), Horror spoof, 2001, Box office gross: $71.277 million,
(Buena Vista), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental,
Available: 12/18, DVD: Day &
Date.
SCORE, THE
Robert De Niro has paid his dues. From "Greetings" to "Mean
Streets" to "The Godfather II" to "Taxi Driver" to "The Last
Tycoon" to "Raging Bull" through later work in "Cape Fear," "Wag
the Dog" and "Ronin," De Niro has created some of the 20th
Century's greatest characters. But in his last several outings --
"15 Minutes" and this by-the-numbers thriller, he's just been
wiring home his parts (though he did again step out in "Meeting
the Parents"). A departure for comedy director Frank Oz, "The
Score" is a throwback to the days before heist films were laden
with blood and explosions. That's laudable, but unfortunately
this I'm-out-for-one-last-score thriller is a bit too routine and
predictable. De Niro plays an expert heist man Jazz club owner
drawn into the robbery of a priceless golden French scepter by
puffy fence Marlon Brando. Though no job seems too tough for De
Niro, this one has a major catch: its stored in the basement of
the Customs House in Montreal. With the aid of a rather nasty
apprentice crook with a giant chip on his shoulder, played by
Edward Norton, who happens to have gotten a job at the Customs
House in the guise of a mentally-challenged janitor, and with $4
million dangled in front of him, De Niro takes on the job. De
Niro is a the consummate pro while Norton is out to screw anyone
he thinks is better than him. The film's plotting of the
preparation for the crime and its twists and turns are elaborate
but, in the long run, lacks the impact of true heist gambits (By
contrast, check out the December 11 DVD release of Jules Dassin's
1964 "Topkapi," a classic of the genre starring Melina Mercouri,
Maximilian Schell, Robert Morley, Akim Tamiroff, and Peter
Ustinov). This is definitely a boy's film -- Angela Bassett
appears briefly as De Niro's wallpaper love interest.
Director: Frank Oz.
Stars: Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, Angela
Bassett, Marlon Brando, Gary Farmer, Paul Soles. CC, (MPAA
rating: R, 123 min.), Thriller, 2001, Box office
gross: $70.307 million, (Paramount), No VHS SRP,
Priced for rental, Available: 12/11, DVD:
Day & Date.
SUMMER CATCH
Post-WWII sentimental drama with a baseball background. Set in
small New England towns in the innocence after the second World
War, the film revolves around the Cape Cod Baseball League, a
kind of farm team where college all-stars battle it out to
impress pro baseball scouts. Into the picture comes Ryan, the
first local boy (from the wrong side of the tracks) to make it on
the Cape Cod lineup. Throw in a love affair with a rich girl
(Jessica Biel), her "villainous" father (Bruce Davison), rival
ballplayers, a tough-guy coach, a loser of a brother (Jason
Gedrick), plenty of barroom and baseball scenes, and you have an
old-fashioned soap opera that, unfortunately, belongs on the
small screen.
Director: Mike
Tollin. Stars: Freddie Prinze Jr., Jessica Biel,
Matthew Lillard, Brian Dennehy, Fred Ward, Jason Gedrick,
Brittany Murphy, Bruce Davison, Corey Pearson, Beverly D'Angelo.
CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 106 min.), Baseball drama, 2001, Box
office gross: $19.037 million, (Warner), No VHS SRP,
Priced for rental, Available: 12/4, DVD:
Day & Date.
TWO CAN PLAY THAT
GAME
Failed romantic comedy about a self-assured, self-made female
advertising executive (Vivica A. Fox) who discovers that her
boyfriend (Morris Chestnut) has been playing around with her
rival (Gabrielle Union). To get even -- and teach her ex a
lesson, she decides that two can play that game -- and undertakes
a 10-day plan that she's certain will make him come running back
to her. But she soon finds out that playing the field isn't as
easy as she thought. In typical sitcom fashion, the writers bring
in a bevy of girlfriends and their beaus for comic support, but
the main underpinnings of the romp are way too weak.
Director: Mark
Brown. Stars: Vivica A. Fox, Morris Chestnut,
Anthony Anderson, Mo'Nique, Tamala Jones, Raquel Robinson,
Gabrielle Union, Bobby Brown. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 90 min.),
Romantic Comedy, 2001, Box office gross: $20.000
million, (Columbia TriStar), No VHS SRP, Priced for
rental, Available: 12/26, DVD: Day &
Date.
All DVDs are screened on a reference system consisting of a
Rotel RDV-1080 DVD Audio/Video Player, a
Rotel RSX-972 Surround Sound Receiver, and Phase Technology 1.1 (front), 33.1 (center),
and 50 (rear) speakers and Power 10 subwoofer.
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