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From: owner-movies-digest@lists.xmission.com (movies-digest) To: movies-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: movies-digest V2 #370 Reply-To: movies-digest Sender: owner-movies-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-movies-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk movies-digest Monday, September 23 2002 Volume 02 : Number 370 [MV] feardotcom / ** (R) [MV] SECRET BALLOT / *** (G) [MV] LITTLE SECRETS / *** (PG) [MV] Microsoft Cinemania 96 CD Re: [MV] Microsoft Cinemania 96 CD Re: [MV] Microsoft Cinemania 96 CD - order confirmation [MV] BALLISTIC: ECKS VS. SEVER / 1/2* (R) [MV] IGBY GOES DOWN / ***1/2 (R) [MV] MIYAZAKI'S SPIRITED AWAY / **** (PG) [MV] THE BANGER SISTERS / *** (R) [MV] APOLLO 13: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE / **** (PG) [MV] LAWRENCE OF ARABIA / **** (PG) [MV] Alice & I will always love you [MV] Alice & I will always love you Re: [MV] Alice & I will always love you RE: [MV] Alice & I will always love you ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 06 Sep 2002 16:00:19 GMT From: gregorys@xmission.com Subject: [MV] feardotcom / ** (R) feardotcom / ** (R) August 30, 2002 Mike Reilly: Stephen Dorff Jerry Houston: Natascha McElhone Alistair Pratt: Stephen Rea Warner Bros. presents a film directed by William Malone. Written by Josephine Coyle. Based on a story by Moshe Diamant. Running time: 98 minutes. Rated R (for violence including grisly images of torture, nudity and language). BY ROGER EBERT Strange, how good "feardotcom" is, and how bad. The screenplay is a mess, and yet the visuals are so creative this is one of the rare bad films you might actually want to see. The plot is a bewildering jumble of half-baked ideas, from which we gather just enough of a glimmer about the story to understand how it is shot through with contradictions and paradoxes. And yet I watched in admiration as a self-contained nightmareformed with the visuals. Not many movies know how to do that. I'll get to the plot later, or maybe never. Let me talk about what I liked. The film takes place in a city where it always rains and is nearly always night, where even people with good jobs live in apartments that look hammered together after an air raid. Computers and the Internet exist here, and indeed telephones, televisions and all the other props of the present day, but windows are broken, walls are punctured, lights flicker, streets are deserted, and from time to time a dramatic thunderstorm threatens to sweep everything away. This is like "Dark City" after a hurricane. It is the kind of city where a man can walk down into a subway and be the only person there, except for a little girl bouncing her ball against the third rail. Or .. is the man really alone? Is that his fantasy? Whether it is or not, he gets slammed by the next train, and the cops are startled by the expression on his face. It looks, they agree, as if he has just seen something terrifying. Apparently something even worse than the train. And he is bleeding from the eyes. The film's premise is that a Web site exists that channels negative energy into the mind of the beholder, who self-destructs within 48 hours, a victim of his or her deepest fear. Our first glimpse of this Web site suggests nothing more than a reasonably well-designed horror site, with shock-wave images of dark doorways, screaming lips, rows of knives and so forth. The movie wisely doesn't attempt to develop the site much more than that, relying on the reactions of the victims to imply what other terrors it contains. And it does something else, fairly subtly: It expands the site to encompass the entire movie, so that by the end all of the characters are essentially inside the fatal Web experience, and we are, too. The last 20 minutes are, I might as well say it, brilliant. Not in terms of what happens, but in terms of how it happens, and how it looks as it happens. The movie has tended toward the monochromatic all along, but now it abandons all pretense of admitting the color spectrum, and slides into the kind of tinting used in silent films: Browns alternate with blues, mostly. The images play like homage to the best Grand Guignol traditions, to "Nosferatu" and some of the James Whale and Jacques Tourneur pictures, and the best moments of the Hammer horror films. Squirming victims are displayed on the Internet by the sadistic killer, who prepares to autopsy them while still alive; subscribers to the site, whose crime is that they want to watch, are addressed by name and are soon paying dearly for their voyeurism. The movie is extremely violent; it avoided the NC-17 rating and earned an R, I understand, after multiple trims and appeals, and even now it is one of the most graphic horror films I've seen. (The classification is "for violence including grisly images of torture, nudity and language," the ratings board explains, but you'll be disappointed if you hope to see grisly images of language). Stephen Dorff and Natascha McElhone star, as a cop and a public health inspector, and Stephen Rea, who was so unexpectedly deceived in "The Crying Game," plays the host of the Web site and the torturer. The movie keeps trying to make some kind of connection between Rea and the ghostly little girl, who was his first victim, but if the site is her revenge, why is he running it? And how can what happens to him in the end not have happened before? Never mind. Disregard the logic of the plot. Don't even go there. Don't think to ask how the Internet can channel thoughts and commands into the minds of its users. Disregard the dialogue (sample: "We will provide a lesson that reducing relationships to an anonymous electronic impulse is a perversion"). This is a movie that cannot be taken seriously on the narrative level. But look at it. Just look at it. Wear some of those Bose sound-defeating earphones into the theater, or turn off the sound when you watch the DVD. If the final 20 minutes had been produced by a German impressionist in the 1920s, we'd be calling it a masterpiece. All credit to director William Malone, cinematographer Christian Sebaldt, production designer Jerome Latour and art directors Regime Freise and Markus Wollersheim. Now. Do I recommend the film? Not for the majority of filmgoers, who will listen to the dialogue, and will expect a plot, and will be angered by the film's sins against logic (I do not even mention credibility). But if you have read this far because you are intrigued, because you can understand the kind of paradox I am describing, then you might very well enjoy "feardotcom." I give the total movie two stars, but there are some four-star elements that deserve a better movie. You have to know how to look for them, but they're there. Copyright ⌐ Chicago Sun-Times Inc. [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: 06 Sep 2002 16:00:21 GMT From: gregorys@xmission.com Subject: [MV] SECRET BALLOT / *** (G) SECRET BALLOT / *** (G) August 30, 2002 Woman: Nassim Abdi Soldier: Cyrus Ab Local people: Youssef Habashi, Farrokh Shojaii , Gholbahar Janghali Sony Pictures Classics presents a film written and directed by Babak Payami. Running time: 105 minutes. Rated G. In Farsi with English subtitles. BY ROGER EBERT 'Secret Ballot" is a quixotic new Iranian comedy about a female election agent who is sent to a remote island to collect ballots in a national election. Because we never find out who or what is being elected, there has been much puzzlement among critics about what the election symbolizes. I believe the message is in the messenger: The agent is a woman. "It's election day, don't you know?" the woman tells a bored soldier assigned to drive her around. "There's a letter. You have to guard the ballots." The soldier studies the letter. "It says an agent will come, not a woman." "I'm in charge here, mister. I have orders. You must obey or I'll see to it you remain a soldier forever." Strong words in a culture where the rights of women are limited. I was reminded of "In the Heat of the Night," in which the whole point is that the Sidney Poitier character insists on being treated with respect. This movie could be titled "They Call Me MISS Election Agent." The plot is secondary to the fact of the character's gender, and in Iran this movie must play with a subtext we can only guess. But what else is going on? Is the movie intended to show us (a) that democracy exists in Iran, (b) that it is struggling to be born, or (c) that most people find it irrelevant to their daily lives? There's a little of all three during the long day the soldier and the woman (both unnamed) spend together. Some citizens, asked to choose two of 10 names on the ballot, complain they've never heard of any of them. A fierce old lady shuts her door to the team, but later sends them food, and her courier observes, "Granny Baghoo has her own government here." A man in charge of a solar energy station expresses his opinion with admirable clarity: "I know no one but God almighty, who makes the sun come up. If I vote for anyone, it must be God." If the woman is the Poitier character, the soldier is like the sheriff played by Rod Steiger. He starts out strongly disapproving of a female agent, but during the course of the day begins to find her persuasive, intriguing and sympathetic. By the end of the day, when he casts his ballot, it is for her, and we're reminded of the sheriff's little smile as Mister Tibbs gets back on the train. The director, Babak Payami, has a visual style that is sometimes astonishing, sometimes frustrating, sometimes both. The first shot is of a plane dropping a box by parachute over a dry, empty plain. The camera pans with exquisite subtlety to reveal ... a bed? Can it be a bed, in the middle of this wilderness? We see that it is. In this hot climate, they sleep outdoors. As the soldier drives the agent around the island, events do not build so much as accumulate. Mourners in a cemetery tell her women are not allowed inside. Symbol quandary: (a) The fading patriarchy is buried there, or (b) women cannot even die as equals? In the middle of a deserted, unpopulated plain, the soldier brings the Jeep to a halt before a red traffic light. Symbol quandary: (1) Outmoded laws must be ignored, or (b) in a democracy the law must be respected everywhere? As the woman continues her discouraging attempt to involve indifferent islanders in the vote, we are reminded of Dr. Johnson's famous observation in the 18th century, when women were as much without rights in England as they are today in the Middle East. After hearing a woman deliver a sermon, he told Mr. Boswell: "It is not done well, but one is surprised to find it done at all." Watching the movie, I reflected on a persistent subgenre of Iranian cinema, in which characters drive or walk endlessly through enigmatic landscapes, holding conversations of debatable meaning. Abbas Kiarostami's "The Taste of Cherry" (1997), a Cannes winner much prized by many critics, not by me, follows that pattern. "Secret Ballot" brings to it much more interest and life. Perhaps the lack of cities, names, relationships and plots provides a certain immunity: A film cannot be criticized for being about what it does not contain. Copyright ⌐ Chicago Sun-Times Inc. [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: 06 Sep 2002 16:00:24 GMT From: gregorys@xmission.com Subject: [MV] LITTLE SECRETS / *** (PG) LITTLE SECRETS / *** (PG) August 23, 2002 Emily: Evan Rachel Wood Philip: Michael Angarano David: David Gallagher Pauline: Vivica A. Fox Caroline: Jan Gardner IDP Pictures presents a film directed by Blair Treu. Written by Jessica Bardones. Running time: 107 minutes. Rated PG.(for thematic elements). BY ROGER EBERT The biggest surprise in "Little Secrets" is that Ozzie and Harriet don't live next door. The movie takes place in an improbably perfect suburban neighborhood where all the kids wear cute sportswear and have the kinds of harmless problems that seem to exist only so that they can be harmless problems. Then of course there are some Big Problems which are rendered harmless, too. This is a very reassuring film. The heroine of the movie, Emily (Evan Rachel Wood) is a budding young violinist who as a sideline runs a Little Secrets stand in her back yard, where kids can tell her their secrets at 50 cents apiece. The secrets are then written on scraps of paper and locked in a chest. The theological and psychological origins of her practice would be fascinating to research. The neighborhood kids sure take it seriously. When she's a few minutes late in opening her stand, there's a line of impatient kids clamoring to unburden themselves. The 50-cent price tag doesn't discourage them; these are not kids who remember the days when a quarter used to buy something. But what kinds of kids are they, exactly? Consider Philip and David. Philip tells David, "Her name is Emily. Like Emily ..." "... Dickinson?" says David. "And Emily Bronte," says Philip. Heartened as I am to know that the grade school kids in this movie are on first-name terms with these authors, I am nevertheless doubtful that Dickinson and Bronte will ring many bells in the audience. Vivica A. Fox is the only widely known star in the film, playing a violin teacher who is wise and philosophical. Much suspense centers around Emily's audition for the local symphony orchestra (every suburb should have one). The problems of the kids range from a girl who hides kittens in her room to a boy who is digging a hole to China. Larger issues, including adoption, are eventually introduced. I am rating this movie at three stars because it contains absolutely nothing to object to. That in itself may be objectionable, but you will have to decide for yourself. The film is upbeat, wholesome, chirpy, positive, sunny, cheerful, optimistic and squeaky-clean. It bears so little resemblance to the more complicated worlds of many members of its target audience (girls 4 to 11) that it may work as pure escapism. That it has been rated not G but PG (for "thematic elements") is another of the arcane mysteries created by the flywheels of the MPAA. There is not a parent on earth who would believe this film requires "parental guidance." Copyright ⌐ Chicago Sun-Times Inc. [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 20:35:34 -0400 From: Gene Ehrich <gene@ehrich.com> Subject: [MV] Microsoft Cinemania 96 CD I hope this post isn't against the rules but I have 9 copies of Microsoft Cinemania 96 CD for Windows 95 that is still shrinkwrapped. I have nine copies of it and would love to get them out to movie fans here. I can sell them for $4.50 each including media mail shipping. Cash, check, money order or PayPal. It is truly great software for movie fans. It's only up to date through 1996 but it is much better than Internet Movie Data Base for looking up movies from 1996 and back. I use it all the time to look up old movies and stars. [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 05:58:09 -0700 (PDT) From: "Keith H. Poole" <keith_poole@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: [MV] Microsoft Cinemania 96 CD Gene, I would like one of your copies. Reply with your PayPal info, or else I can mail you a personal check. Thanks! Keith - --- Gene Ehrich <gene@ehrich.com> wrote: > I hope this post isn't against the rules but I have 9 copies of > Microsoft > Cinemania 96 CD for Windows 95 that is still shrinkwrapped. I have > nine > copies of it and would love to get them out to movie fans here. I > can sell > them for $4.50 each including media mail shipping. Cash, check, > money order > or PayPal. > > It is truly great software for movie fans. It's only up to date > through > 1996 but it is much better than Internet Movie Data Base for > looking up > movies from 1996 and back. I use it all the time to look up old > movies and > stars. > > > > [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] > [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ===== Please visit http://www.moviekites.com Stage Three of the movie review database is now complete! To recommend MovieKites, click here: http://www.ric2.com/cgr.jsp?576234 keith@moviekites.com __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! News - Today's headlines http://news.yahoo.com [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 21:22:14 -0400 From: Gene Ehrich <gehrich@tampabay.rr.com> Subject: Re: [MV] Microsoft Cinemania 96 CD - order confirmation At 05:58 AM 9/18/02 -0700, you wrote: >Gene, > >I would like one of your copies. Reply with your PayPal info, or >else I can mail you a personal check. > >Thanks! >Keith - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have put it aside for you. My PayPal account is gene@ehrich.com Please be sure to give me your mailing address. Payment Amount: $4.50 Thanx for your order. Gene http://www.voicenet.com/~generic For buying, selling and trading of Computer & Video Games of all kinds. To join just send a blank e-mail to: computer-and-video-games-for-sale-subscribe@yahoogroups.com [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: 20 Sep 2002 20:01:15 GMT From: gregorys@xmission.com Subject: [MV] BALLISTIC: ECKS VS. SEVER / 1/2* (R) BALLISTIC: ECKS VS. SEVER / 1/2* (R) September 20, 2002 Jeremiah Ecks: Antonio Banderas Sever: Lucy Liu Gant/Clark: Gregg Henry Vinn/Rayne: Talisa Soto Zane: Roger R. Cross Ross: Ray Park Warner Bros. Pictures presents a film directed by Kaos. Written by Alan McElroy. Running time: 91 minutes. Rated R (for strong violence). BY ROGER EBERT There is nothing wrong with the title "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever" that renaming it "Ballistic" would not have solved. Strange that they would choose such an ungainly title when, in fact, the movie is not about Ecks versus Sever but about Ecks and Sever working together against a common enemy--although Ecks, Sever and the audience take a long time to figure that out. The movie is a chaotic mess, overloaded with special effects and explosions, light on continuity, sanity and coherence. So short is its memory span that although Sever kills, I dunno, maybe 40 Vancouver police officers in an opening battle, by the end, when someone says, "She's a killer," Ecks replies, "She's a mother." The movie stars Lucy Liu as Sever, a former agent for the Defense Intelligence Agency, which according to www.dia.mil/ is a branch of the United States Government. Antonio Banderas is Ecks, a former ace FBI agent who is coaxed back into service. Sever has lost her child in an attack and Ecks believes he has lost his wife, so they have something in common, you see, even though ... But I'll not reveal that plot secret, and will discuss the curious fact that both of these U.S. agencies wage what amounts to warfare in Vancouver, which is actually in a nation named Canada, which has agencies and bureaus of its own and takes a dim view of machineguns, rocket launchers, plastic explosives and the other weapons the American agents and their enemies use to litter the streets of the city with the dead. Both Sever and Ecks, once they discover this, have the same enemy in common: Gant (Gregg Henry), a DIA agent who is married to Talisa Sota and raising her child, although Sever kidnaps the child, who is in fact ... but never mind, I want to discuss Gant's secret weapon. He has obtained a miniaturized robot so small it can float in the bloodstream and cause strokes and heart attacks. At one point in the movie, a man who will remain nameless is injected with one of these devices by a dart gun, and it kills him. All very well, but consider for a moment the problem of cost overruns in these times of economic uncertainty. A miniaturized assassination robot small enough to slip through the bloodstream would cost how much? Millions? And it is delivered by dart? How's this for an idea: use a poison dart, and spend the surplus on school lunches. "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever" is an ungainly mess, submerged in mayhem, occasionally surfacing for cliches. When the FBI goes looking for Ecks, for example, they find him sitting morosely on a bar stool, drinking and smoking. That is of course always where sad former agents are found, but the strange thing is, after years of drinking, he is still in great shape, has all his karate moves, and goes directly into violent action without even a tiny tremor of the DTs. The movie ends in a stock movie location I thought had been retired: A Steam and Flame Factory, where the combatants stalk each other on catwalks and from behind steel pillars, while the otherwise deserted factory supplies vast quantities of flame and steam. Vancouver itself, for that matter, is mostly deserted, and no wonder, if word has gotten around that two U.S. agencies and a freelance killer are holding war games. "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever" was directed by Wych Kaosayananda of Thailand, whose pseudonym, you may not be surprised to learn, is Kaos. Copyright ⌐ Chicago Sun-Times Inc. [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: 20 Sep 2002 20:01:17 GMT From: gregorys@xmission.com Subject: [MV] IGBY GOES DOWN / ***1/2 (R) IGBY GOES DOWN / ***1/2 (R) September 20, 2002 Jason 'Igby' Slocumb Jr.: Kieran Culkin Mimi Slocumb: Susan Sarandon Oliver Slocumb: Ryan Phillippe Jason Slocumb: Bill Pullman D.H. Baines: Jeff Goldblum Sookie Sapperstein: Claire Danes Rachel: Amanda Peet MGM presents a film written and directed by Burr Steers. Running time: 97 minutes. Rated R (for language, sexuality and drug content). Opening today at local theaters. BY ROGER EBERT Holden Caulfield formed the mold and Jason "Igby" Slocumb Jr. fits it perfectly, in "Igby Goes Down," an inspired example of the story in which the adolescent hero discovers that the world sucks, people are phonies, and sex is a consolation. Because the genre is well established, what makes the movie fresh is smart writing, skewed characters, and the title performance by Kieran Culkin, who captures just the right note as an advantaged rich boy who has been raised in discontent. Igby is the child of a malevolently malfunctioning family. His mother, Mimi (Susan Sarandon), is a tart, critical, perfectionist mandarin ("I call her Mimi because Heinous One is a bit cumbersome"). His father, Jason (Bill Pullman), went through meltdown and is in a mental hospital, staring into space. His stepfather, D. H. Baines (Jeff Goldblum), is a slick operator who converts both lofts and the young girls he installs in them. His brother, Oliver (Ryan Phillippe), is a supercilious Columbia student who regards Igby as a species of bug. Igby, like Citizen Kane before him, has been thrown out of all the best schools, and early in the movie he escapes from a military school and hides out in New York City. Of course, a boy with his advantages is fortunate even in hideouts. He has an understanding meeting with his stepfather, finds shelter in one of his lofts, and soon is on very good terms with Rachel (Amanda Peet), his father's mistress, who is an artist in every respect, except producing anything that can be considered art. Through Rachel he meets Sookie Sapperstein (Claire Danes), a Bennington student who likes him because he makes her laugh. Among the lessons every young man should learn is this one: All women who like you because you make them laugh sooner or later stop laughing, and then why do they like you? The movie has a fairly convoluted plot, involving who is sleeping with whom, and why, and who finds out about it, and what happens then. There is also the problem of the older brother, who does not make women laugh, which may be his strong point. The Goldblum character is especially intriguing, as a charmer with unlimited personal style and a hidden vicious streak. Movies like this depend above all on the texture of the performances, and it is easy to imagine "Igby Goes Down" as a sitcom in which the characters don't quite seem to understand the witty things they're saying. All of the actors here have flair and presence, and get the joke, and because they all affect a kind of neo-Wildean irony toward everything, they belong in the same world. It is refreshing to hear Igby refer to his "Razor's Edge experience" without the movie feeling it is necessary to have him explain what he is talking about. The Culkins are approaching brand-name status, but the thing is, the kids can act. Kieran emerges here as an accomplished, secure comic actor with poise and timing, and there is still another younger brother, Rory, who appears as a younger Igby. Kieran's role is not an easy one. He is not simply a rebellious, misfit teenager with a con man's verbal skills, but also a wounded survivor of a family that has left him emotionally scarred. One of the movie's touching scenes has him visiting his father in the mental hospital, where his father's total incomprehension suggests a scary message: I don't understand my family or anything else, and I've given up thinking about it. Sarandon, as Mimi the Heinous One, treats her boys as if they're straight men in the ongoing sitcom of her life. That there are tragic secrets involved, which I will not reveal, makes her all the more frightening: Is nothing entirely sincere with this woman? Goldblum's sense of possession is the scariest thing about him, since Igby finds out it's bad to be considered his property and worse not to be. And Phillippe is pitch-perfect as the affected college student, whose elevated style and mannered speech seem designed to hide the same wounds that Igby bears. There is a lot of sex in the movie, but it is sane sex, which is to say sex performed by people who seem to have heard of sex and even experienced it before the present moment. Sex is seen here as part of the process of life, rather than as the subject of a heightened scene of cinematic mountain-climbing. Everyone except Igby is fairly casual about it, which is kind of sad, and among the things Igby has been deprived of in life, one is an early romance with a sincere girl of about the same age who takes him seriously. Perhaps the sad inherited family trait among the Slocumbs is premature sophistication. The movie was written and directed by Burr Steers (who acted in "Pulp Fiction" and "The Last Days of Disco," among others). It is an astonishing filmmaking debut, balancing so many different notes and story elements. What Steers has not lost sight of, in all the emotional chaos, is heart. The film opens and closes on different kinds of pain, and by the end Igby has discovered truths that Holden Caulfield, we feel, could not have handled. Copyright ⌐ Chicago Sun-Times Inc. [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: 20 Sep 2002 20:01:23 GMT From: gregorys@xmission.com Subject: [MV] MIYAZAKI'S SPIRITED AWAY / **** (PG) MIYAZAKI'S SPIRITED AWAY / **** (PG) September 20, 2002 With the voices of:Chihiro: Daveigh Chase Yubaba, Zeniba: Suzanne : Pleshette Haku: Jason Marsden Kamaji: David Ogden Stiers Chirhiro's mother: Lauren Holly Assistant Manager: John Ratzenberger Walt Disney Studios presents a film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. U.S. production directed by Kirk Wise. Running time: 124 minutes. Rated PG.(for some scary moments). Opening today at Landmark Century, McClurg Court and Evanston CineArts 6. BY ROGER EBERT "Miyazaki's Spirited Away" has been compared to "Alice in Wonderland," and indeed it tells of a 10-year-old girl who wanders into a world of strange creatures and illogical rules. But it's enchanting and delightful in its own way, and has a good heart. It is the best animated film of recent years, the latest work by Hayao Miyazaki, the Japanese master who is a god to the Disney animators. Because many adults have an irrational reluctance to see an animated film from Japan (or anywhere else), I begin with reassurances: It has been flawlessly dubbed into English by John Lasseter ("Toy Story"), it was co-winner of this year's Berlin Film Festival against "regular" movies, it passed "Titanic" to become the top-grossing film in Japanese history, and it is the first film ever to make more than $200 million before opening in America. I feel like I'm giving a pitch on an infomercial, but I make these points because I come bearing news: This is a wonderful film. Don't avoid it because of what you think you know about animation from Japan. And if you only go to Disney animation--well, this is being released by Disney. Miyazaki's works ("My Neighbor Totoro," "Kiki's Delivery Service," "Princess Mononoke") have a depth and complexity often missing in American animation. Not fond of computers, he draws thousand of frames himself, and there is a painterly richness in his work. He's famous for throwaway details at the edges of the screen (animation is so painstaking that few animators draw more than is necessary). And he permits himself silences and contemplation, providing punctuation for the exuberant action and the lovable or sometimes grotesque characters. "Spirited Away" is told through the eyes of Chihiro (voice by Daveigh Chase), a 10-year-old girl, and is more personal, less epic, than "Princess Mononoke." As the story opens, she's on a trip with her parents, and her father unwisely takes the family to explore a mysterious tunnel in the woods. On the other side is what he speculates is an old theme park; but the food stalls still seem to be functioning, and as Chihiro's parents settle down for a free meal, she wanders away and comes upon the film's version of wonderland, which is a towering bathhouse. A boy named Haku appears as her guide, and warns her that the sorceress who runs the bathhouse, named Yubaba, will try to steal her name and thus her identity. Yubaba (Suzanne Pleshette) is an old crone with a huge face; she looks a little like a Toby mug, and dotes on a grotesquely huge baby named Boh. Ominously, she renames Chihiro, who wanders through the structure, which is populated, like "Totoro," with little balls of dust that scurry and scamper underfoot. In the innards of the structure, Chihiro comes upon the boiler room, operated by a man named Kamaji (David Ogden Stiers), who is dressed in a formal coat and has eight limbs, which he employs in a bewildering variety of ways. At first he seems as fearsome as the world he occupies, but he has a good side, is no friend of Yubaba, and perceives Chihiro's goodness. If Yubaba is the scariest of the characters and Kamaji the most intriguing, Okutaresama is the one with the most urgent message. He is the spirit of the river, and his body has absorbed the junk, waste and sludge that has been thrown into it over the years. At one point, he actually yields up a discarded bicycle. I was reminded of a throwaway detail in "My Neighbor Totoro," where a child looks into a bubbling brook, and there is a discarded bottle at the bottom. No point is made; none needs to be made. Japanese myths often use shape-shifting, in which bodies reveal themselves as facades concealing a deeper reality. It's as if animation was invented for shape-shifting, and Miyazaki does wondrous things with the characters here. Most alarming for Chihiro, she finds that her parents have turned into pigs after gobbling up the free lunch. Okutaresama reveals its true nature after being freed of decades of sludge and discarded household items. Haku is much more than he seems. Indeed the entire bathhouse seems to be under spells affected the appearance and nature of its inhabitants. Miyazaki's drawing style, which descends from the classical Japanese graphic artists, is a pleasure to regard, with its subtle use of colors, clear lines, rich detail and its realistic depiction of fantastical elements. He suggests not just the appearances of his characters, but their natures. Apart from the stories and dialogue, "Spirited Away" is a pleasure to regard just for itself. This is one of the year's best films. Copyright ⌐ Chicago Sun-Times Inc. [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: 20 Sep 2002 20:01:25 GMT From: gregorys@xmission.com Subject: [MV] THE BANGER SISTERS / *** (R) THE BANGER SISTERS / *** (R) September 20, 2002 Lavinia: Susan Sarandon Suzette: Goldie Hawn Harry: Geoffrey Rush Raymond: Robin Thomas Hannah: Erika Christensen Ginger: Eva Amurri Fox Searchlight Pictures presents a film written and directed by Bob Dolman. Running time: 97 minutes. Rated R (for language, sexual content and some drug use.) Opening today at local theaters. BY ROGER EBERT When you get right down to it, "The Banger Sisters" is pretty thin, but you grin while you're watching it. Later you reflect that it has an obvious story arc, sketchy minor characters, and awkwardly tries to get down and provide uplift at the same time. The screenplay could have used an overhaul before production, but I'm glad I saw it. I'm glad primarily because of Goldie Hawn. She's infectious and likable in this movie, but not in that ditzy way we remember. Although she plays a legendary groupie who, in her day, "rattled" most of the rock stars ("and roadies") in the business, she plays a woman who has taken her youthful sense of freedom and combined it with a certain amount of common sense. Hawn is Suzette. Her co-star, Susan Sarandon, is Lavinia. Together, some (cough) years ago, they were such legendary groupies that Frank Zappa named them the Banger Sisters. Hawn has stayed true to her school, and as we meet her she's bartending in a West Hollywood club where she is more beloved by the customers than by the owner, who fires her. (She thinks that's not fair: "See that toilet? Jim Morrison passed out in there one night with me underneath him.") Broke and without plans, she points her pickup toward Phoenix for a reunion with Lavinia, whom she hasn't seen in years. Along the way, in need of gas money, she picks up a lost soul named Harry (Geoffrey Rush), a screenwriter whose dreams have not come true, and who is traveling to Phoenix with one bullet in his gun, to shoot his father. Harry is one of those finicky weirdos who doesn't want anyone upsetting his routine. The very sight of Suzette, with her silicone treasures, is disturbing in more ways than he can bear to think of. In Phoenix, Lavinia lives with her lawyer husband Raymond, (Robin Thomas), and her two spoiled teenagers, Hannah (Erika Christensen) and Ginger (Eva Amurri). She is so respectable she doesn't even want to think about her former life, which her husband knows nothing about. Are you counting the formulas? And so here we have not one but two Fish Out of Water (Harry and Suzette), plus two examples (Lavinia and Harry) of that other reliable element, the repressed sad sack who needs a taste of freedom. Give the movie a moment's thought, and you see the screenplay's gears turning. This is a movie that could have been a term paper. But Hawn and Sarandon hit the ground running, and are so funny and goofy that they distract and delight us. Lavinia at first resists Suzette's appeal, but then she realizes, "I'm the same color as the Department of Motor Vehicles--and you're like a flower." The girls go out for a wild night on the town, and Suzette brings much-needed reality into the cocooned existence of the two daughters. The most underwritten character is Lavinia's husband, Raymond. The movie doesn't know what to do with him. They let him be a little surprised, a little shocked, a little too straight, but mostly he just stands there waiting for dialogue that is never supplied. Comic opportunities were lost here. And the Geoffrey Rush character, while more filled in, also seems oddly unnecessary. I can easily imagine the movie without him, and with more about the family in Phoenix. He is not and never will be a workable life partner for Suzette, no matter how the movie tries to sentimentalize him. What Goldie Hawn does is to play Suzette sincerely--as if she really were a groupie who still holds true to her partying past. Her daughter, Kate Hudson, of course, played the groupie Penny Lane in "Almost Famous," and Suzette could be the same character, or her friend, in 2002. The movie's buried joke is that Suzette, the wild girl from West Hollywood, has more common sense knowledge about life than the movie's conventional types. Listen to how she talks to Harry on the phone. I guess you learn something about human nature after (cough) years as a bartender. Copyright ⌐ Chicago Sun-Times Inc. [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: 20 Sep 2002 20:01:14 GMT From: gregorys@xmission.com Subject: [MV] APOLLO 13: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE / **** (PG) APOLLO 13: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE / *** (PG) September 20, 2002 Jim Lovell: Tom Hanks Fred Haise: Bill Paxton Jack Swigert: Kevin Bacon Ken Mattingly: Gary Sinise Gene Kranz: Ed Harris Marilyn Lovell: Kathleen Quinlin Universal Pictures presents a film directed by Ron Howard. Written by William Broyles Jr. and Al Reinert. Based on the book Lost Moon by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger. Running time: 135 minutes. Rated PG.(intense situations). Opening today at Navy Pier IMAX. BY ROGER EBERT At a time when screens and theaters grow smaller and movie palaces are a thing of the past, the new practice of re-releasing films in the IMAX format is a thrilling step in the opposite direction. Ron Howard's "Apollo 13," which opens today at the IMAX theater at Navy Pier, looks bold and crisp on the big screen, and the sound has never sounded better--perhaps couldn't have ever sounded better, because IMAX uses some 70 speakers. Although it takes place largely in outer space, "Apollo 13" isn't the kind of adventure saga that needs the bigger screen so its effects play better. "Star Wars," which is headed for IMAX theaters, fits that definition. "Apollo 13" is a thrilling drama that plays mostly within enclosed spaces: The space capsule, mission control and the homes of those waiting in suspense on Earth. The film re-creates the saga of the Apollo 13 mission, which was aborted after an onboard explosion crippled the craft on its way to the moon. In a desperate exercise of improvisation, crew members and the ground support staff figure out how to return the craft safely to Earth, cannibalize life-support from both the mother capsule and the lunar landing module, and navigate into a terrifyingly narrow angle between too steep (the craft would burn up in the atmosphere) and too shallow (it would skip off and fly forever into space). Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton and Kevin Bacon play astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert, respectively. On Earth, the key roles are by Gary Sinise, as the left-behind astronaut Ken Mattingly, who uses a flight simulator to help improvise a solution; Ed Harris, who is cool-headed flight director Gene Kranz, and Kathleen Quinlan, as Lovell's wife, Marilyn, who tries to explain to their children that "something broke on Daddy's spaceship." The movie has been trimmed by about 20 minutes for the IMAX release. Filmed in widescreen, it has been cropped from the sides to fit the IMAX format. Neither change bothered me. Although I am an opponent of pan-and-scan in general, I understand when it is used to maximize a different projection format. The detail and impact of the IMAX screen essentially creates a new way of looking at the film. Copyright ⌐ Chicago Sun-Times Inc. [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: 20 Sep 2002 20:01:21 GMT From: gregorys@xmission.com Subject: [MV] LAWRENCE OF ARABIA / **** (PG) LAWRENCE OF ARABIA / **** (PG) September 20, 2002 Lawrence: Peter O'Toole Prince Feisal: Alec Guinness Auda Abu Tayi: Anthony Quinn Gen. Allenby: Jack Hawkins Turkish Bey: Jose Ferrer Sherif Ali: Omar Sharif Col. Brighton: Anthony Quayle Mr. Dryden: Claude Rains Jackson Bentley: Arthur Kennedy Columbia Pictures presents a film directed by David Lean Screenplay by Robert Bolt and Michael Wilson, inspired by the writings of T.E. Lawrence. Running time: 216 minutes. Rated PG. Opening today at the Music Box Theatre. BY ROGER EBERT W hat a bold, mad act of genius it was, to make "Lawrence of Arabia," or even think that it could be made. In the words years later of one of its stars, Omar Sharif: "If you are the man with the money and somebody comes to you and says he wants to make a film that's four hours long, with no stars, and no women, and no love story, and not much action, either, and he wants to spend a huge amount of money to go film it in the desert--what would you say?" But producers took big chances in the early 1960s, and Sam Spiegel went ahead with David Lean's masterpiece, even though Lean was able to cast Peter O'Toole in the lead only over Spiegel's fierce protests. O'Toole went on to win the first of his seven Oscar nominations; the film totaled 10 nominations and won seven Oscars, including Best Picture. After being treated with shocking neglect for years, the movie has gone through several restorations and opens Friday at the Music Box looking as bright and clear as the day it was released. I remember how Robert Harris, one of the ranking experts on film preservation, who restored the film in 1989, mailed me a rusty, crumpled film can with a note that said, "This is how we found the print had been treated when we went into the vault." "Lawrence of Arabia" was shot in 70mm, a format that offers four times as much detail as 35mm. That makes possible the famous shot where a speck in the desert eventually draws close enough to be recognized. To see it in this way, as it was shown recently at the Telluride Film Festival, is to understand it entirely differently than any impression you could get from television or video. For Roger Ebert's full-length review of "Lawrence of Arabia" in the Great Movies series, go to www.suntimes.com/ebert/greatmovies. Copyright ⌐ Chicago Sun-Times Inc. [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2002 13:53:33 -0400 From: Gene Ehrich <gene@ehrich.com> Subject: [MV] Alice & I will always love you We were watching the original movie of Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore which was made in 1974 and in the background was the song I Will Always Love You and it sounded like the Whitney Houston version but that was recorded in 1992. Can anybody tell me anything about the recording in Alice? Click below to see & join my Yahoo Groups http://www.users.voicenet.com/~generic/groups.html [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2002 13:59:47 -0400 From: Gene Ehrich <gehrich@tampabay.rr.com> Subject: [MV] Alice & I will always love you We were watching the original movie of Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore which was made in 1974 and in the background was the song I Will Always Love You and it sounded like the Whitney Houston version but that was recorded in 1992. Can anybody tell me anything about the recording in Alice? Click below to see & join my Yahoo Groups http://www.users.voicenet.com/~generic/groups.html [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2002 14:05:34 -0500 From: "Diane Christy" <dchristy10@earthlink.net> Subject: Re: [MV] Alice & I will always love you On Sat, 21 Sep 2002 13:59:47 -0400, Gene Ehrich so aptly wrote: >We were watching the original movie of Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore >which was made in 1974 and in the background was the song I Will Always >Love You and it sounded like the Whitney Houston version but that was >recorded in 1992. Can anybody tell me anything about the recording in Alice? That song was made popular first by Dolly Parton. I think she may have written it also. I don't know who sang it in "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" but it's not a "new" song. - -- Diane Christy, Homemaker Rockford, IL (N'Awlins native!) Mom to Sammie and Josh dchristy10@earthlink.net http://www.geocities.com/diane507 [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2002 08:22:38 -0500 From: Wade Snider <wsnider@brazoselectric.com> Subject: RE: [MV] Alice & I will always love you This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand this format, some or all of this message may not be legible. - ------_=_NextPart_001_01C26304.4956F0EE Content-Type: text/plain You are right. Dolly Parton wrote it. I had always thought she basically wrote it for Best Little Whorehouse in Texas in the early 80s, but I didn't realize it was in "Alice" (a movie I haven't seen in a very long time) so I checked and Dolly first recorded the song in 1974 for an album, "Jolene". According to the site I checked, she was the only country artist to have a hit with same song twice, once in 74 and again in the early 80s (82 I think?). And thats not even counting Whitney's cover. I checked the IMDB and it was Dolly's original version in the movie. > -----Original Message----- > From: Diane Christy [SMTP:dchristy10@earthlink.net] > Sent: Saturday, September 21, 2002 2:06 PM > To: movies@lists.xmission.com > Subject: Re: [MV] Alice & I will always love you > > On Sat, 21 Sep 2002 13:59:47 -0400, Gene Ehrich so aptly wrote: > > > >We were watching the original movie of Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore > >which was made in 1974 and in the background was the song I Will Always > >Love You and it sounded like the Whitney Houston version but that was > >recorded in 1992. Can anybody tell me anything about the recording in > Alice? > That song was made popular first by Dolly Parton. I think she may have > written it also. I don't know who sang it in "Alice > Doesn't Live Here Anymore" but it's not a "new" song. > -- > > Diane Christy, Homemaker > Rockford, IL (N'Awlins native!) > Mom to Sammie and Josh > dchristy10@earthlink.net > http://www.geocities.com/diane507 > > > > [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] > [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] - ------_=_NextPart_001_01C26304.4956F0EE Content-Type: text/html Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <META HTTP-EQUIV=3D"Content-Type" CONTENT=3D"text/html; = charset=3DUS-ASCII"> <META NAME=3D"Generator" CONTENT=3D"MS Exchange Server version = 5.5.2653.12"> <TITLE>RE: [MV] Alice & I will always love you</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> You are right. Dolly = Parton wrote it. I had always thought she basically wrote it for Best = Little Whorehouse in Texas in the early 80s, but I didn't realize it = was in "Alice" (a movie I haven't seen in a very long time) = so I checked and Dolly first recorded the song in 1974 for an album, = "Jolene". According to the site I checked, she was the only = country artist to have a hit with same song twice, once in 74 and again = in the early 80s (82 I think?). And thats not even counting Whitney's = cover. I checked the IMDB and it was Dolly's original version in the = movie. <UL> -----Original Message----- From: Diane Christy = [SMTP:dchristy10@earthlink.net] Sent: Saturday, September 21, 2002 2:06 PM To: movies@lists.xmission.com Subject: = Re: [MV] Alice & I will always = love you On Sat, 21 Sep 2002 13:59:47 -0400, = Gene Ehrich so aptly wrote: >We were watching the original = movie of Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore >which was made in 1974 and in the = background was the song I Will Always >Love You and it sounded like the = Whitney Houston version but that was >recorded in 1992. Can anybody = tell me anything about the recording in Alice? That song was made popular first by = Dolly Parton. I think she may have written it also. I don't know = who sang it in "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" but = it's not a "new" song. -- Diane Christy, Homemaker Rockford, IL (N'Awlins = native!) Mom to Sammie and Josh dchristy10@earthlink.net <A = HREF=3D"http://www.geocities.com/diane507" = TARGET=3D"_blank">http://www.geocities.com/diane507</A> [ To leave the movies mailing list, = send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) = to = majordomo@xmission.com &n= bsp; ] </UL> </BODY> </HTML> - ------_=_NextPart_001_01C26304.4956F0EE-- [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ End of movies-digest V2 #370 **************************** [ To quit the movies-digest mailing list (big mistake), send the message ] [ "unsubscribe movies-digest" (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ]