15 Minutes (R) Robert De Niro and Ed Burns play the pistol-packing good guys on the trail of a pair of mad-dog killers with a mania for videotaping their crimes. Tough, exciting and just off-kilter enough to keep us guessing, 15 Minutes is a thriller that transcends the buddy movie genre and even says a few interesting things along the way about America's mania for celebrity and sordid reality TV. Also stars Kelsey Grammer and Avery Brooks.
All Access (PG) IMAX Channelside's five-story tall screen and 14,000-watt sound system add immeasurably to the pleasures of this hour-long concert film, which features the likes of Sheryl Crow, Sting, Carlos Santana, B.B. King, Trey Anastasio (of Phish), George Clinton, Mary J. Blige, Macy Gray and others.
Along Came a Spider (R) Morgan Freeman returns to the role of Dr. Alex Cross in this follow-up to Kiss the Girls (1997). Both films are based on novels by James Patterson. Cross is a renowned profiler, or psychological detective, chosen by a serial killer who wishes to gain crime-of-the-century status for his kidnapping of a senator's daughter by luring Cross into the case. The movie uses several cop-drama cliches, but most of them effectively increase the tension and the dialogue's vigor. Directed by Lee Tamahori (Mulholland Falls), Along Came a Spider is fun and exciting. But if you dislike feeling duped by slick plot twists, read the Patterson thriller beforehand, then buy a large popcorn and affect a smug grin.
—Cooper Cruz
Amores Perros (NR) The most astonishing film from Mexico in ages, Amores Perros (Love is a Bitch) offers up three dovetailing tales in which characters appear and reappear, and time occasionally doubles back upon itself in order to present its prism-like narrative from what frequently appears to be all angles at once. With its extreme violence, its fascination with society's underbelly and, most of all, its time-bending, multisegmented, Pulp Fiction-like structure, there's every temptation to describe Amores Perros as Tarantino-esque. By the end of this intense and extraordinarily rich film, though, director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu reveals a deeply human, even spiritual dimension to his movie that recalls the more sublime moments in a Kieslowski film more than Reservoir Dogs. Amores Perros has its influences, but that doesn't lessen its impact or ultimate originality. At Tampa Theatre and Main Street Cinemas, Clearwater. Call theater to confirm.
Blow (R) A rise and fall yarn about an ordinary guy who avoids poverty by selling pot in the '60s, graduates to dealing coke and then winds up falling as far as he can fall, while getting screwed by pretty much everyone on the planet. Johnny Depp delivers yet another outstanding performance as our contraband-dealing hero and all-around nice guy, George Jung, a blank, clueless cipher with a bad shag haircut and a broad Boston accent. It's mostly Depp's performance, in fact, that lifts Blow above its rather routine script and competent but uninspired direction. Also stars Penelope Cruz, Franka Potente and Paul Reubens.
Bridget Jones's Diary (R) An English everywoman in the limbo between youth and middle age, Bridget Jones is single (although not by choice), slightly overweight, smokes and drinks too much, doesn't get on that well with her nagging mum, and finds herself constantly falling for the wrong sort of man (like her sexy scoundrel of a boss, impeccably played by Hugh Grant), while soundly rejecting the ones who might just turn out to be Mr. Right. There's an undeniable charm to this pleasantly droll comedy, but for all the humorous winks, nudges, quirks and buffoonery, there's an inescapable blandness to it all, something formulaic and compromised that makes it difficult to completely give ourselves over to Bridget Jones's Diary.
The Brothers (R) Four successful black men ponder life, love and friendship while on the brink of marriage. Sound familiar? It should. This is the third in a string of such films (including The Wood and The Best Man) and is by far the worst of them. Morris Chestnut (The Best Man, Boyz 'N the Hood) plays the compassionate one who thinks he's finally met the right woman — until he discovers that she used to date his father (Oops!). Also stars Bill Bellamy, Shemar Moore and D.L. Hughley.
—Dustin Dwyer
Chocolat (PG-13) Free-spirited Juliette Binoche opens a chocolate shop in a repressed village, setting up a didactic conflict of indulgence vs. denial. The French locales, food and faces are lovingly photographed (the disarming ensemble includes Judi Dench, Johnny Depp and Alfred Molina), but the film cannot equal the comparably themed but richer Babette's Feast. Chocolat melts in your hands, not in your heart.
—Curt Holman
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (PG) Ang Lee's poetic reinvention of the martial arts genre takes place in China in the early 19th century (although the look and feel is as magically timeless as the film's characters are eternal), where recently retired master warrior Li Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat) has agreed to take on one final mission to retrieve a prized sword and avenge the death of his master. The other crucial elements to Crouching Tiger's deliriously romantic human schema are Mu Bai's fellow warrior, Yu Shu Lien (Michele Yeoh) — who is deeply in love with him, as is he with her, although each has found it impossible to openly express love — and Jen (Zhang Ziyi), an independent young noblewoman who may not be quite who she appears to be. Crouching Tiger is filled with marvelous archetypes, charismatic performances and, perhaps best of all, some of the most astonishing and lyrical action scenes ever filmed.
Driven (PG-13) Having apparently graduated (for lack of a better word) from directing popcorn movies to making feature-length music videos, Renny Harlin offers up this annoying little time-waster about the lives and loves of some very boring race car drivers. Sylvester Stallone (who plays one of the drivers) wrote the script, and it's sheer idiocy, as are the uniformly one-dimensional characters populating the story. Some of the racing scenes, shot from the drivers' POVs, are exciting, and there's a spectacular, bloodless crash every few scenes just to keep us awake, but on the whole, the movie's a simplistic bore. Most of the performances are absurdly wooden, and Burt Reynolds shows up looking so stiff, leathery and unnaturally colored, you'll swear someone just airlifted him in from Madame Tussaud's. Also stars Kip Pardue, Til Schweiger and Gina Gershon.
Enemy at the Gates (R) As the Russian and German armies face off during World War II's decisive battle of Stalingrad, director Jean-Jacques Annaud's engaging new film zeroes in on the personal and very intense war of nerves between two dueling snipers. Jude Law plays the Soviet sharpshooter Vissili Zaitsev, a simple lad who becomes something of a folk hero and a major morale booster to the besieged Russian populace. Ed Harris delivers yet another outstanding performance as Konig, the Nazi marksman called in to eliminate Zaitsev, an act designed to break the spirit of the Russian army. The film is engrossing from beginning to end, effectively balanced between the massive, ugly sprawl of the war and the intimate push and pull between its individual characters.
Exit Wounds (R) Steven Seagal, cops and corruption. And Tom Arnold. What more do you need to know? Also starring DMX, Isaiah Washington.
(Not Reviewed)
Fantasia 2000 (G) A perfect choice for the new Channelside IMAX, Fantasia 2000 was designed for that format. The seven animated segments here are basically all over the stylistic map. Amid several attractive but somewhat disposable segments are the movie's two, unmitigated success stories: a depression-era fantasy set to Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and peopled with wonderfully stylized Al Hirschfield drawings; and a reprise of the original Fantasia's Sorcerer's Apprentice segment.
The Forsaken (R) A guy driving cross country to his sister's wedding picks up a hitchhiker, and all hell breaks loose, involving vampires, bloodletting, a blood disease and all manner of other unpleasantness.
(Not Reviewed)
Freddy Got Fingered (R) Within the first few scenes of this desperately in-your-face project, we're treated to the charming sight of bug-eyed writer/director/star Tom Green tugging, for absolutely no reason, on a real, live horse penis (firmly attached to a real, live horse). It's all downhill from there, as we're presented with what amounts to a series of visual non sequiturs featuring Green disemboweling a deer, biting off an umbilical chord, caning a girl in a wheelchair and, for a grand finale, masturbating an elephant. Green's particular brand of humor (which is, in fact, more like performance art — really bad performance art) is designed for maximum shock value, and it's the only thing that really sets Freddy Got Fingered apart from your typical, tepid Pauly Shore or Adam Sandler vehicle. Also stars Rip Torn.
George Washington (NR) See Film column.
Heartbreakers (PG-13) Heartbreakers is one of those cheerfully idiotic flicks that sticks to a rigid, easily digestible formula where nothing really makes sense and where almost everybody behaves like a moron simply to move the story along. Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt star as a mother-daughter grifter team who support themselves by defrauding rich, gullible men. The women are repeatedly referred to as clever and even brilliant, but never once rise above being seen as a collective assortment of boobs, butts and legs — a celebration of the female form that comes off as tired, prurient and as hopelessly retarded as something you'd find on an old episode of Three's Company. Also stars Gene Hackman, Jason Lee and Ray Liotta.
Hit and Runway (NR) The synopsis may sound like someone's tired idea for a sitcom — Italian Catholic straight boy and neurotic urban Jewish queen team up to write a big, Hollywood script — but this film turned out to be one of the funniest and most solidly crafted offerings of the entire 1999 Tampa Bay Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. The movie, which returns this week for something resembling a regular engagement, is acutely aware that it's trading in dodgy territory, but it runs with it, exaggerating ethnic cliche gags and then pulling the rug out from under us when we least expect it. Against all odds, Hit and Runway is a hoot. Opens May 4 at Channelside Cinemas. Call theater to confirm.
Into the Arms of Strangers (PG) Writer/director Mark Jonathan Harris' documentary chronicles the extraordinary British rescue operation of 10,000 at-risk children from the Nazi regime in Germany. Known as Kindertransport, the effort happened nine months prior to World War II. The children were harbored in foster homes and hostels, expecting to be reunited with their families. Most of them were not. At Channelside Cinemas. Call theater to confirm.(Not reviewed)
Into the Deep (G) If your eyes have already darted down to the extravagant number of planets awarded this film, bear in mind that the rating owes as much to the phenomenal IMAX 3-D experience as it does to the movie itself. Into the Deep is an extremely well-made 40-minute documentary on underwater creatures, but in 3-D, it becomes an absolutely breathtaking experience. At Channelside IMAX.
Josie and the Pussycats (PG-13) Based on the vintage Saturday morning cartoon about an all-girl rock band who fight crime in their spare time, this silly little ditty stars Rachel Leigh Cook (guitarist), Rosario Dawson (bassist) and Tara Reid (drummer) as the movie's pop-rockin' heroines. Scattered gags are funny (two or three are actually downright clever), but much of the humor falls flat, and, worse, the filmmakers show very little sense of pacing or style — two crucial elements in a cartoony project like this. It's all about as exciting — and not unlike — a Scooby Doo adventure. Also stars Alan Cumming and Parker Posey.
Joe Dirt (PG-13) Another typical, basically forgettable David Spade project in which the ex-SNL cast member stars as the ultimate white trash trailer park denizen — who, naturally, also turns out to be so gosh-darned lovable that all of American winds up taking him to heart. The movie is loosely structured around the story of Joe Dirt (Spade) searching for his long-lost parents. It's a tale J.D. relates to a radio shock jock (Dennis Miller) that amounts to a series of Farrelly Brothers-lite sketches. Outside of the big joke of Spade's hair (a bad mullet that looks suspiciously like, as one character notes, Jane Fonda's 'do in Klute), the rest is pretty slow going. Also stars Brittany Daniel, Adam Beach and Christopher Walken.
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.
—Steve Warren
Memento(R) A haunting film about a man who can't trust his own memory. Our hero, Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce), has a bizarre condition that makes it impossible for him to remember anything more recent than the night of his wife's brutal murder. Consequently, he travels from place to place searching for her killer, tattooing upon his own body the clues that he uncovers, clues that he would instantly forget if not for the fact that they were indelibly imprinted on his skin. Memento actually tells its story in reverse, but the movie isn't so much a radical experiment as it is a crime thriller in the classic film noir vein — all brooding atmosphere, paranoia and treachery (the most treacherous character being the protagonist's own double-crossing memory). As with most successful noirs and neo-noirs, it's all in the telling: The real pleasure of the puzzle isn't the solution, but the puzzle itself. Also stars Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano. Playing at Channelside Cinemas, Tampa and Main Street Cinema, Clearwater. Call theater to confirm.
The Mexican (R) Another one of those discombobulated, self-consciously quirky comedies in which the humor hinges almost entirely on the premise that the gangsters in the film are just regular, slightly neurotic, middle-class guys. Brad Pitt plays a baby-faced, slightly klutzy bagman for the mob. He's got a nagging, psychobabbling girlfriend (Julia Roberts) who wants him to quit his job, but that doesn't stop him from heading down to Mexico to retrieve a valuable antique pistol for his bosses. The Mexican is a handsomely produced film with some oddly engaging little bits scattered throughout, although the whole is too shapeless to probably be remembered a few months from now.
The Mummy Returns (PG-13) More is more in this relentlessly bombastic sequel to the 1999 blockbuster. Returns basically recycles all the main selling points of the original, minus any vestigial attempts at humor or pacing. Brendan Fraser returns as our erstwhile hero, this time married to his main squeeze from the first film (Rachel Weisz) and with a precocious tyke in tow. Fraser's character is almost totally blanded-out this time, though, with precious little of the campy klutziness that brightened the first movie. There's little for him to do, in fact, but to merely bounce from one spectacular (and spectacularly artificial) computer generated effect to the next, an Indy Jones-lite in an all-consuming digital sea. The movie's sole objective seems to be Maximum Overkill, and it consistently achieves it. The film rams one busy, frenetic sequence after another, not leaving us a moment to breathe or time for anything to sink in — but that's OK because there really isn't anything to sink in. Pared down, and in a kinder, gentler time, The Mummy Returns might have made a nifty Ray Harryhausen flick. As is, it's at least as fatiguing as it is entertaining. Also stars Arnold Vosloo and Oded Fehr. Opens May 4 at local theaters.
O Brother Where Art Thou? (PG-13) The Coen Brothers' latest foray into the lunatic fringe is a much-mutated take on Homer's Odyssey by way of vintage Preston Sturges screwball comedy, liberally sprinkled with Three Stooges bonk-and-splat. George Clooney, John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson star as a dim-witted trio of escaped convicts taking the long route home while seeking some sort of treasure that may or may not exist. Also stars Charles Durning and Holly Hunter.
Ocean Oasis (G) A fascinating exploration of the richly diverse life forms inhabiting the Baja, Calif., peninsula, the brand new IMAX production Ocean Oasis spends most of its time under water before giving us a brief contrasting look at the curious plants and animals doing their thing above the surface. The narration is informative without being too intrusive and often illuminates intriguing nuances of the on-screen mating, birthing, feeding and dying.
One Night at McCool's (R) An unemployed bartender (Matt Dillon), an obnoxious lawyer (Paul Reiser) and a God-fearing, jumbo-size detective (John Goodman) are all fatally attracted to the same woman. She's Jewel (Liv Tyler), a long-legged, baby-faced sexpot, who makes the bartender turn to a life of crime and entangles the lawyer, the cop and one or two other hapless males in the same sticky web. The movie's supposed to be a quirky comedy, by the way, although it's not a particularly funny or original one. Despite some outrageous 11th-hour slapstick, most of One Night at McCool's is cute but bland and forgettable stuff. Also stars Michael Douglas.
Pokemon 3 (PG) The Pokemon return in a beautifully written and stunningly animated homage to the golden age of Japanese cinema, in which the oddly shaped creatures perform their own anime version of the multi-leveled tale of Rashomon. Just kidding.
(Not Reviewed)
Someone Like You (PG-13) Ashley Judd stars as Jane Goodale, an attractive young professional who just can't find the right guy. When her latest Mr. Right (Greg Kinnear) jilts her, Jane spends the rest of the movie moping, whining, yelling and, eventually, writing an article on her half-baked notions of male sexuality (something to do with equating humans with cows; don't ask). To its credit, Someone Like You attempts to establish its own identity by doing something a little different than most romantic comedies, but the movie's a mess. The awkwardly paced story moves in fits and jerks, filled with extended periods of dead air, and zig-zagging all over the place for no discernible reason.
Spy Kids (PG-13) Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino (Nic Cage's gal-pal from Snake Eyes) play a couple of married-with-children ex-spies who come out of retirement and join forces with their adorable offspring to save the world from an army of multicolored mutants and pint-size androids. Robert Rodriguez's thoroughly kid-friendly project makes up for a fairly forgettable storyline by offering lots of crowd-pleasing eye-candy, some clever gags, a couple of highly watchable performances (Banderas is fine, although not on screen enough, and Alan Cumming, as the villainous Fegan Floop, is excellent) and sheer momentum. It doesn't mean a whole heck of a lot, but Rodriguez milks Spy Kids for all the fun its worth. Also stars Teri Hatcher, Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara.
The Tailor of Panama (R) Based on a novel by John Le Carre, John Boorman's perversely entertaining new film is a sly, impeccably cynical little tale about a world where very little is as it seems and everything and everyone is for sale. Pierce Brosnan stars as a morally dubious secret agent stationed in Panama, who blackmails a transplanted English tailor (Geoffrey Rush) into helping him with a nasty little get-rich scheme — a master plan that plays on everyone's greed, paranoia and unblinking jingoism, culminating in a fiasco of monumental proportions. Brosnan's character is the dark and greasy side of James Bond, a 007 without the charm, mystery, class or basic common decency. He's also a wonderfully compelling antihero. Boorman's casting of Brosnan (the first credible post-Connery Bond) takes the piss out of the myth in a way that is nothing short of brilliant. Also stars Jamie Lee Curtis. Playing at Channelside Cinemas. Call theater to confirm.
Town and Country (R) If this long-delayed and problem-plagued Warren Beatty project isn't quite the disaster we might have expected, it's not for lack of trying. Beatty stars as a New York architect coping with life and love, and the movie is all over the map. It starts off as a typical Woody Allen knock-off, complete with well-to-do middle-aged New Yorkers not quite knowing how to deal with their own too-colorful families (or with the silly Third World stereotypes all around them). By its second act, Town and Country begins to resemble Bulworth without the brains or wit, as Beatty's aging character appears to snap (it's never quite clear) and goes into freefall. The film just rambles on and on, until by the third act, when Beatty's cheating on his wife with every female in sight, Town and Country's become little more than a routine sex farce of the most tiresome sort. The movie's worst problem may just be Beatty himself, who is now way too long in the tooth to be playing this sort of charming golden-boy role. For what it's worth, the supporting cast is good (Diane Keaton, Andie MacDowell, Garry Shandling and Goldie Hawn) and best of all is the too-brief cameo by Charlton Heston, proudly spoofing his own NRA credentials.
Traffic (R) Director Steven Soderbergh's magnum opus uses an economical but instantly identifiable style, raw emotion and a surplus of tough, jittery intelligence to transform itself into a vast, modern epic built upon some crucial and very difficult ideas. Traffic is a movie about drugs — one of the best you'll see — but it's not a drug movie in the sense of something like Trainspotting or Requiem for a Dream. Soderbergh's film isn't so much concerned with the allure of drugs, or with individual pain and the process of addiction as it is about the business of drugs that, often in the most subtle or inscrutable of ways, ties so much of the world together. Stars Michael Douglas, Don Cheadle, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Benicio Del Toro, Luis Guzman and Dennis Quaid.
West Side Story (NR) Great choreography, splashy Technicolor sets and a ridiculously hummable score are among the highlights of Robert Wise's big screen musical, in which Romeo and Juliet time-travel to the gangland dreamscape of New York in the 1950s. One of the last fully successful mergers of Broadway and Hollywood. Starring Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, George Chakiris and Rita Moreno. Plays Friday, May 4, and Monday through Thursday (May 7-10) at Main Street Cinema, Clearwater. Call theater to confirm.
—Reviewed entries by Lance Goldenberg unless otherwise noted
This article appears in May 3-9, 2001.