COOKIE'S
FORTUNE
Down-home comedy from Robert Altman about the seemingly placid
Southern town of Holly Springs, shaken by the death of Camille
Dixon's aunt. Things get stirred up when Camille -- to avoid the
stigma of her aunt's suicide -- decides that the death should
look like a murder -- and events in the town soon spin out of
control. Stars Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Liv Tyler, Chris
O'Donnell, Charles S. Dutton and Ned Beatty.
Director: Robert Altman. Stars: Glenn
Close, Julianne Moore, Liv Tyler, Chris O'Donnell, Charles S.
Dutton, Ned Beatty. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 117 min.), Comedy,
1999, Box office gross: $10.799 million, (USA Home
Entertainment), No SRP, Priced for rental,
Available: 9/14, DVD: Day &
Date.
CORRUPTOR, THE
Moody, convoluted actioner set in New York's Chinatown pitting
bad cops against nasty villains. Feeble attempt at mimicking Hong
Kong action flicks, with Mark Wahlberg all too bland and Chow
Yun-Fat wasted. There's plenty of fast and furious action -- albeit so
stereotypical that it all kind of blends together in an amorphous mass that's
unmemorable after the film is over. Add to that characters who are papier-mache
dragons, and the film becomes an uninvolving -- and unsatisfying -- mess.
Director: James
Foley. Stars: Chow Yun-Fat, Mark Wahlberg, Ric Young, Paul
Ben-Victor, Elizabeth Lindsey. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 100 min.),
Action, 1999, Box office gross: $15.156 million, (New Line),
No SRP, Priced for rental, Available:
9/14, DVD: Day & Date.
DOUG'S 1ST
MOVIE
Animated adventures of "Disney's Doug" (originally a Nick
staple) come to the big screen, with Doug Funnie and friend
Skeeter discovering that Bluffington's mythical monster of Lucky
Duck Lake is for real, but is in danger due to pollution.
Naturally the pair try to save him, but things get complicated
when they uncover an elaborate cover-up by the town's leading
citizen, Bill Bluff. And all the while Doug is trying to impress
his girlfriend-to-be, Patty Mayonnaise. For kid fans of the
show.
Director:
Maurice Joyce. Voices of Thomas McHugh, Fred Newman, Chris
Phillips, Constance Shulman. CC, (MPAA rating: G, 84 min.),
Animated, 1999, Box office gross: $18.550 million, (Buena
Vista), $22.99 SRP, Available: 9/21, DVD:
Day & Date.
FOOLISH
Raunchy comedy about brothers -- Miles "Foolish" Waise (funnyman
Eddie Griffin) and Quentin "Fifty Dollah" Waise (hip-hoper
Master P) -- trying to make it big in the comedy business. Both
have their problems: Foolish has a bad temper that costs him his
girlfriend; Fifty gets in trouble with a local gangster. But
they both struggle on in their desire to succeed in the comedy
club scene. Plenty of nudity and rude jokes.
Director: Dave Meyers. Stars: Eddie
Griffin, Master P, Amy Petersen, Frank Sivero, Marla Gibbs. CC,
(MPAA rating: R, 84 min.), Comedy, 1999, Box office gross:
$6.0 million, (Artisan Entertainment), No SRP,
Priced for rental Available: 9/21, DVD: Day
& Date.
FORCES OF
NATURE
Everything seems to be getting in the way of button-down
book-sleeve copy writer Ben Affleck's road to marriage: first
his grandfather suffers a heart attack at the groom's bachelor
party, his airplane flight to the wedding crashes, and then he
gets teamed up with a free-spirited woman (Sandra Bullock),
making his trek to the altar that more difficult. Will their
romance blossom or will he get to the church on time? Pleasant,
if not remarkable, comedy outing.
Director: Bronwen Highes. Stars: Sandra
Bullock, Ben Affleck, Maura Tierney, Blythe Danner, Steve Zahn,
Ronny Cox. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 102 min.), Comedy, 1999,
Box office gross: $ 52.9 million, (DreamWorks), No SRP,
Priced for rental, Available: 9/14, DVD:
Day & Date.
LULU ON THE BRIDGE
Off-beat thriller about hip jazz saxophonist
Izzy Maurer (Harvey Keitel) and the weird world he enters when he's hit by a
stray bullet, ending his musical career. After he recovers, Izzy
stumbles upon a murdered man in an ally, picking up a briefcase
and finding a strange stone that glows in the dark and which
brings intense pleasure to whomever holds it. A phone number on
a napkin leads him to Celia (Mira Sorvino), who becomes his true
love. Soon events get more bizarre as a group of ruthless
murderers come after the pair, demanding the stone back. What
could have been a first-rate spiritual adventure in the vein of
last year's "Pi" gets bogged down with too much talk --
over-philosophized, over-intellectualized boring passages that
alienate the viewer from the characters. The action moves in
fits and starts, and the direction has Keitel sleepwalking when
he should be be-bopping. Still, an ambitious effort for novice
director Paul Auster, and worth a peek.
Director: Paul Auster. Stars Harvey
Keitel, Mira Sorvino, Willem Dafoe, Gina Gershon, Mandy Patinkin, Vanessa
Redgrave. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 103 min.), Thriller, 1999, (Trimark), No
SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 9/21,
DVD: Day & Date.
MATRIX, THE
Bizarre and totally absorbing virtual reality thriller about
humans being manipulated by a future machine-intelligence to
believe they are living in the late-20th century -- when they
are in fact bred in vats as "batteries" to fuel the energy of
the Matrix, the computer net that strings the world together.
Story revolves around a group of revolutionaries who choose
computer geek Neo (Keanu Reeves) as the "one" to overthrow the
machines and break down the veil of the Matrix's virtual
reality. Astounding special effects and believable story line
make this one of the most original sci-fi films to come down the
pike in years (despite Reeves' acting). In widescreen and pan-and-scan. Sell-
through edition available December 7 for $14.98. Director: The Wachowski Brothers. Stars:
Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe
Pantoliano. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 136 min.), Science Fiction,
1999, Box office gross: $170.00 million, (Warner), No
SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 9/21, DVD: Day &
Date.
MUMMY, THE
Delightfully entertaining horror-adventure-thriller (with great
touches of comedy/whimsy) about a beautiful librarian (radiant
Rachel Weisz) who searches for the Egyptian City of the Dead
with her loopy brother and a reluctant hero of an ex-Legionnaire
(Brendan Fraser), inadvertently setting loose on the world the
3,000 year-old mummy of evil high priest Imhotep, whose
resurrected power will destroy the world. It's up to the
threesome to stop the invincible menace. Great special effects,
a thrill-every-minute. This one is our family favorite of the
year: it can be viewed over and over again with no loss of
pleasure (my six and a half-year-old daughter has seen it four
times now). In widescreen and pan-and-scan. Also stars Arnold Vosloo, John
Hannah and Kevin J. O'Connor.
Director: Stephen Sommers. Stars: Brendan
Fraser, Rachel Weisz, Arnold Vosloo, John Hannah, Kevin J.
O'Connor. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 125 min.), Horror, 1999,
Box office gross: $154.00 million, (Universal), $22.98
SRP, Available: 9/28, DVD: Day &
Date.
MY FAVORITE
MARTIAN
Weak remake of the 1960s TV series about a Martian who crash
lands on Earth and befriends a young man, posing as his uncle
until he can fix his spaceship. When a television reporter (Jeff
Daniels) stumbles upon the Martian (Christopher Lloyd), he
thinks that he's got the scoop of the century. But the reporter
ends up becoming pals with the misplaced alien, and the pair
eventually team up to fend off a host of snoops. Co-stars
Elizabeth Hurley and Daryl Hannah. Plenty of terrific special
effects here but the film lacks a punchy script.
Director: Donald
Petri. Stars: Jeff Daniels, Christopher Lloyd, Daryl Hannah,
Elizabeth Hurley. CC, (MPAA rating: PG, 93 min.), Comedy,
1999, Box office gross: $35.389 million, (Disney), $22.99
SRP, Available: 9/28, DVD: Day &
Date.
OTHER SISTER,
THE
A somewhat mentally challenged 24-year-old young woman (Juliette
Lewis) comes home from a special boarding school, where she
successfully exceeded many of her limitations, except one -- her
mother (Diane Keaton). She's determined to assert herself in the
face of the overly protective older woman, along the way falling
for a similarly challenged young man (Giovanni Ribisi) and
setting out to experience life and its great adventures.
Co-stars Tom Skerritt.
Director: Garry Marshall. Stars: Juliette
Lewis, Diane Keaton, Tom Skerritt, Giovanni Ribisi. CC, (MPAA
rating: PG-13, 124 min.), Romantic Comedy, 1999, Box office
gross: $27.316 million, (Buena Vista), No SRP,
Priced for rental, Available: 9/7, DVD:
Day & Date.
OUT-OF-TOWNERS,
THE
Bland remake of 1970 Jack Lemmon-Sandy Dennis comedy about
visitors to New York set upon by the wilds of the city, here
with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn in the lead roles. Martin is a
recently fired Ohio ad executive who treks to the Big Apple for
a job interview; Hawn accompanies him on the trip. The adventure
immediately goes awry -- with lost luggage -- and accelerates
with a mugging and an overdrawn credit card account that leaves
them penniless and hotel-less -- until all manner of discomfort
beset them. It's too painfully self-conscious, though, to elicit
much in the way of laughs.
Director: Sam Weisman. Stars: Steve
Martin, Goldie Hawn, Mark McKinney, John Cleese. CC, (MPAA
rating: PG, 91 min.), Comedy, 1999, Box office gross: $28.400
million, (Paramount), No SRP, Priced for
rental Available: 9/21, DVD: Day &
Date.
THE PRINCE OF
EGYPT
Beautifully animated story of Moses and his ascension to the
leadership of the Hebrews. Based on the Book of Exodus, with a
nod to Cecile B. De Mille, this DreamWorks version of Moses'
struggle to save his people from the oppression of his brother,
Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses, is an energetic visual romp that,
although taking some liberties with the Bible for the sake of
exposition, comes up a winner. With the voices of Val Kilmer,
Ralph Fiennes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Goldblum,
Danny Glover, Patrick Stewart, Helen Mirren, Steve Martin and
Martin Short.
Director: Brenda
Chapman, Steven Hickner, Simon Wells. Voices of Val Kilmer, Ralph
Fiennes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Goldblum, Danny
Glover. CC, (MPAA rating: PG, 96 min.), Animated, 1998, Box
office gross: $101.105 million, (DreamWorks), $26.99
SRP, Available: 9/14, DVD: Day &
Date.
RAZOR BLADE
SMILE
150-year-old Lilith Silver is part seductress, part La Femme
Nikita, and all vampire in this delightful send-up and homage to
the bloodsucking genre. Lilith should have died in 1850, but the sinister Sir
Sethane Blake grants her eternal life and the freedom to wander through time as
a vampire. Flash forward to England in the 1990s: Lilith, a la the female
vampire in "Innocent Blood," feasts on the blood of the people she kills as part
of her job as a contract killer. She's sexy, strong-willed, and a bit of a rake.
Hired to knock off the members of an underground sect, Lilith stays one step
ahead of a British detective, with buckets of blood overflowing as she plows her
way to the film's denouement. A fanciful farce, with wry commentary (by Lilith
in voiceover) on the foibles and myths of vampire hunters. It's kind of a " 'The
Avengers' meets Roger Corman."
Director: Jake West.
Stars: Eileen Daly, Christopher Adamson, Jonathon Coote, Kevin
Howarth, David Warbeck. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 101 min.), Horror,
1999, (A-Pix), No SRP, Priced for rental,
Available: 9/21, DVD: Day &
Date.
THREE SEASONS
This 1999 Sundance Film Festival winner weaves together four
absorbing tales about life in modern-day Vietnam, following the
day-to-day lives of a cyclo driver, a prostitute, a young man
hustling trinkets on the street, and a girl hired to be the
assistant to a reclusive spiritual master. The film buoyantly
captures a people -- and a country -- torn between the past and
the future.
Director: Tony Bui. Stars: Don Duong, Ngoc
Hiep, Tran Manh Cuong, Harvey Keitel, Zoe Bui. CC, (MPAA rating:
PG-13, 113 min.), Drama, 1999, Box office gross: $1.957
million, (USA Home Entertainment), No SRP, Priced
for rental, Available: 9/28, DVD:
No.
TWIN DRAGONS
Jackie Chan does double duty in this Hong Kong martial arts
actioner, playing identical twins separated at birth and raised
in two different worlds -- one as a concert pianist in New York,
the other on the streets of Hong Kong. When the musician arrives
in Hong Kong to lead a symphony orchestra, he's mistaken for his
petty hoodlum brother -- now in trouble with a local gangster --
and the worlds of sophistication and riffraff collide -- in
typical Chan fashion.
Director: Ringo Lam and Hark Tsui. Stars:
Jackie Chan, Maggie Cheung, Nina Li Chi. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13,
100 min.), Action, 1992, Box office gross: $7.758 million,
(Miramax), No SRP, Priced for rental,
Available: 9/7, DVD: Day & Date.
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