ftp.xmission.com/2014.06.ftp.xmission.com.tar/ftp.xmission.com/pub/lists/movies/archive/v02.n394

Internet Message Format | 2002-12-19 | 54KB

From: [e-mail] (movies-digest)
To: [e-mail]
Subject: movies-digest V2 #394
Reply-To: movies-digest
Sender: [e-mail]
Errors-To: [e-mail]
Precedence: bulk


movies-digest        Friday, December 20 2002        Volume 02 : Number 394



[MV] EMPIRE / **1/2 (R)
[MV] DRUMLINE /*** (PG-13)
[MV] STAR TREK: NEMESIS / ** (PG-13)
[MV] THE HOT CHICK / 1/2* (PG-13)
[MV] MAID IN MANHATTAN / *** (PG-13)
[MV] EVELYN / ***(PG)
[MV] STAR TREK: NEMESIS / ** (PG-13)
[MV] LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS / *** (PG-13)
[MV] GANGS OF NEW YORK / ***1/2 (R)
[MV] TWO WEEKS NOTICE / *** (PG-13)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 06 Dec 2002 17:28:45 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: [MV] EMPIRE / **1/2 (R)

EMPIRE / **1/2 (R)

December 6, 2002

Victor Rosa:    John Leguizamo
Jack:    Peter Sarsgaard
Carmen:    Delilah Cotto
Trish:    Denise Richards
Jimmy:    Vincent Laresca
La Colombiana:    Isabella Rossellini
Iris:    Sonia Braga
Rafael Menendez:    Nestor Serrano
Chedda    :Anthony 'Treach' Criss
Tito:    Fat Joe

Universal Pictures presents a film written and directed by Franc Reyes.
Running time: 100 minutes. Rated R (for strong violence, pervasive language,
drug content and some sexuality).

BY ROGER EBERT

"Empire" comes so close to working that you can see there from here. It has
the right approach and the right opening premise, but it lacks the zest and
it goes for a plot twist instead of trusting the material. I recently saw
"Goodfellas" again, and this film is similar; they're both about the rise
and fall of a gangster, narrated by himself, and complicated by a wife who
walks out when she catches him with another woman. And "Empire" has a story
hook that could have transformed this story into another classic.

The story is told by Victor Rosa (John Leguizamo), a successful drug
distributor of Puerto Rican background who controls a territory in the
Bronx. He describes his world in a rich, fact-packed voice-over. He works
for La Colombiana (Isabella Rossellini), a rich, ruthless suburban woman
with a vicious enforcer. He understands the business inside out; turf wars
are not meaningless when "20 feet of sidewalk means 30 grand a week, easy."
He is in love with Carmen (Delilah Cotto), a college student.

Victor is upwardly mobile. He deals with hard street people and is hard
himself, a killer, yet we sense an inner goodness trying to be born, a
desire to better himself. One day his girlfriend, Carmen, meets Trish
(Denise Richards) at school, and they're invited to a party being given by
Trish's boyfriend, Jack (Peter Sarsgaard). He's a hotshot young Wall Street
wizard who is attracted to Victor's criminal glamor: "We're the same ..." He
offers Victor a chance to invest in a sure thing, an offshore deal that will
double his money, and explains to Trish: "He's a businessman. If he were
born in the suburbs, he'd be running a Fortune 500 company."

Investing with Jack fits in with Victor's plans. Carmen is pregnant, and he
wants to launder his drug money, leave the business to his top lieutenant
and move to Manhattan with her. When Jack offers him the use of a luxury
loft, he grabs it; he sees himself going legit and becoming an investment
wizard like Jack. Carmen isn't so sure. She misses the old neighborhood:
"This loft will never be home for me." Especially not after Victor is
depressed one day, Jack sends the compliant Trish over to cheer him up, and
Carmen walks in on them. Victor is telling the truth when he says "it's not
what it looks like," but tell that to Carmen.

So now we have the setup. I will not reveal the payoff or the twist. For
that, you will need to visit the movie's trailer at apple.com/trailers,
which gives away the surprise with a heedlessness that is astonishing even
in these days of trailers that tell too much.

I will couch my objection to the movie cautiously, to preserve its secrets.
What disappointed me is that the movie didn't follow through with its
original premise and show us a bright, resourceful drug dealer trying to
start all over on Wall Street. Is it possible? Is the high-finance club open
to outsiders? Does Wall Street play even dirtier than drug dealers and have
more vicious criminal types? The possibility exists in a time when CEOs have
led their accountants in the theft of billions from American shareholders.

But no. The movie lacks the ambition or nerve to make the moral critique of
American finance that it seems to be heading for. It settles instead for a
series of developments that will be familiar to students of similar films.
There is poignancy in the situation Victor finds himself in, yes, and real
drama in his relationship with Carmen (both Leguizamo and Cotto give
full-hearted, convincing performances). And his relationship with the
Isabella Rossellini character unfolds with implacable logic, although its
final result could have been handled with more imagination.

But "Empire" fails because it lacked the nerve to really be about its people
and went for the fancy plot gimmick, which no doubt played better at the
pitch meeting. It takes imagination to visualize a movie that sees clearly
how finance and morality have diverged (as Oliver Stone's "Wall Street"
did), but very little imagination to green-light a mechanical plot device
that the audience can see coming long before the characters do. Leaving the
theater, still impressed by the reality of Victor, Carmen and many of the
others, I felt a sense of loss. What would La Colombiana have done if Victor
really had taken over a Fortune 500 company? Now there's a story for you.

Copyright ⌐ Chicago Sun-Times Inc.

[ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ]
[ movies" (without the quotes) to [e-mail]          ]

------------------------------

Date: 13 Dec 2002 13:16:36 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: [MV] DRUMLINE /*** (PG-13)

DRUMLINE /*** (PG-13)

December 13, 2002

Devon:    Nick Cannon
Laila:Zoe Saldana
Dr. Aaron Lee:    Orlando Jones
Sean:    Leonard Roberts
Jayson:    GQ
Ernest:    Jason Weaver
Charles:    Earl Poitier
Diedre:    Candace Carey

20th Century Fox presents a film directed by Charles Stone. Written by Tina
Gordon Chism and Shawn Schepps.Running time: 118 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for
innuendo and language).

BY ROGER EBERT

When the first half is over, the show begins. So "Drumline" advises us, in a
story centered on the marching band of a predominantly black university in
Atlanta. Devon (Nick Cannon), a drummer so good he was personally recruited
by the bandmaster, journeys from Harlem to the middle-class world of Atlanta
A&T, where he is the best drummer in the band, and the most troublesome.

He's a hotshot, cocky, a showboat who adds a solo to the end of his audition
piece and upstages his section leader in front of thousands of fans during a
half-time show. The movie shows him gradually drumming himself out of the
band, and out of favor with Laila (Zoe Saldana), the dance major he's
dating. It also shows him growing up, learning some lessons, and making a
friend out of a former enemy.

The film sets Devon's story against the background of the BET Big Southern
Classic, a (fictional) annual competition between marching bands that's held
in Atlanta. His school's traditional rival is cross-town Morris Brown
University, a real school whose band is famed for its halftime shows. MBU's
band is flashy and high-stepping, doing anything to please the crowd, while
Atlanta A&T's bandmaster, Dr. Aaron Lee (Orlando Jones), has more
serious musical tastes and believes the primary job of a band member is to
learn.

"Drumline," directed by Charles Stone, and written by Tina Gordon Chism and
Shawn Schepps, is entertaining for what it does, and admirable for what it
doesn't do. It gets us involved in band politics and strategy, gives us a
lot of entertaining halftime music, and provides a portrait of a gifted
young man who slowly learns to discipline himself and think of others.
That's what it does.

What it doesn't do is recycle all the tired old cliches in which the Harlem
kid is somehow badder and blacker than the others, provoking confrontations.
Devon makes the nature of his character clear in a heartbreaking early scene
when, after high school graduation, he talks to his father, who abandoned
the family, and tells him he doesn't do drugs, doesn't have a lot of little
kids running around, and has a full scholarship to university. This is a
movie that celebrates black success instead of romanticizing gangsta
defeatism. Nick Cannon plays Devon as a fine balance between a showoff and a
kid who wants to earn admiration.

The key rivalry in the film is between Devon and Sean (Leonard Roberts),
head of the drum section and the band's best drummer--until Devon arrives.
They develop a personal animosity that hurts the band, Dr. Lee believes. He
disciplines Devon for violations of the band rule book, for provoking a
fight with another band member and, most painfully, for keeping a secret
that Sean makes sure is revealed.

Dr. Lee has a problem, too, with the school president, who likes Devon's
showboating and thinks the band needs more pizzazz to please the alums.
Orlando Jones makes his character a thoughtful teacher, a little
old-fashioned, who believes in values. In creating this character, the
writers must have been thinking about real teachers they admired, since they
avoid the usual Mr. Chips/Dead Poets cliches.

The love story between Devon and Laila is sweet and remarkably innocent, for
a contemporary movie. They share one tender kiss, although the eagle-eyed
MPAA rates the film PG-13 for "innuendo." Oh, I forgot: The MPAA also
singles out "language," although this is one of the cleanest-talking urban
movies in history. If this isn't a PG film in today's world, what is?

It is also, in a very sincere way, touching. It pays attention to its
characters, gives them weight and reality, doesn't underline the morals but
certainly has them. "Drumline" joins titles like "love jones," "Soul Food,"
"Barbershop" and "Antwone Fisher" in the slowly growing list of movies about
everyday African-American lives. What a good-hearted film.

Note: The filmmakers filled the Georgia Dome with 50,000 extras for the
rousing marching band showdown, which features the actual bands of Morris
Brown College and Clark Atlanta University, Bethune-Cookman College in
Daytona Beach, and Louisiana's Grambling State. Morris Brown was a good
sport to allow its bandmaster to be portrayed as the villain.

Copyright ⌐ Chicago Sun-Times Inc.

[ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ]
[ movies" (without the quotes) to [e-mail]          ]

------------------------------

Date: 13 Dec 2002 13:16:39 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: [MV] STAR TREK: NEMESIS / ** (PG-13)

STAR TREK: NEMESIS / ** (PG-13)

December 13, 2002

Capt. Picard:    Patrick Stewart
Commander Riker:    Jonathan     Frakes
Data:    Brent Spiner
Geordi La Forge:    LeVar Burton
Worf:    Michael Dorn
Dr.Crusher:    Gates McFadden
Reman Viceroy:    Ron Perlman

Paramount Pictures presents a film directed by Stuart Baird. Written by Gene
Roddenberry, John Logan, Rick Berman and Brent Spiner. Running time: 116
minutes. Rated PG-13 (for sci-fi action violence and peril and a scene of
sexual content). Opening today at local theaters.

BY ROGER EBERT

I'm sitting there during "Star Trek: Nemesis," the 10th "Star Trek" movie,
and I'm smiling like a good sport and trying to get with the dialogue about
the isotronic Ruritronic signature from planet Kolarus III, or whatever the
hell they were saying, maybe it was "positronic," and gradually it occurs to
me that "Star Trek" is over for me. I've been looking at these stories for
half a halftime, and, let's face it, they're out of gas.

There might have been a time when the command deck of Starship Enterprise
looked exciting and futuristic, but these days it looks like a
communications center for security guards. Starships rocket at light speeds
halfway across the universe, but when they get into battles the effect is
roughly the same as on board a World War II bomber. Fearsome death rays
strike the Enterprise, and what happens? Sparks fly out from the ceiling and
the crew gets bounced around in their seats like passengers on the No. 36
bus. This far in the future they wouldn't have sparks because they wouldn't
have electricity, because in a world where you can beam matter--beam it,
mind you--from here to there, power obviously no longer lives in the wall
and travels through wires.

I've also had it with the force shield that protects the Enterprise. The
power on this thing is always going down. In movie after movie after movie I
have to sit through sequences during which the captain is tersely informed
that the front shield is down to 60 percent, or the back shield is down to
10 percent, or the side shield is leaking energy, and the captain tersely
orders that power be shifted from the back to the sides or all put in the
front, or whatever, and I'm thinking, life is too short to sit through 10
movies in which the power is shifted around on these shields. The shields
have been losing power for decades now, and here it is the Second Generation
of Star Trek, and they still haven't fixed them. Maybe they should get new
batteries.

I tried to focus on the actors. Patrick Stewart, as Capt. Picard, is a
wonderful actor. I know because I have seen him elsewhere. It is always said
of Stewart that his strength as an actor is his ability to deliver bad
dialogue with utter conviction. I say it is time to stop encouraging him.
Here's an idea: Instead of giving him bad dialogue, why not give him good
dialogue, and see what he can do with that? Here is a man who has played
Shakespeare.

The plot of "Star Trek: Nemesis" involves a couple of strands, one involving
a clone of Data (Brent Spiner), which somehow seems redundant, and another
involving what seems to be a peace feeler from the Romulan empire. In the
course of the movie the Romulan Senate is wiped out by a deadly blue powder
and the sister planet of Remus stages an uprising, or something, against
being made to work as slaves in the mines. Surely slavery is not an
efficient economic system in a world of hyperdrives, but never mind: Turns
out that Picard shares something unexpected with his rival commander,
although once I tell you that you can no doubt guess what it is, since the
movie doesn't work you very hard.

There is a scene in the movie in which one starship rams another one. You
would think this would destroy them both, and there are a lot of sparks and
everybody has to hold onto their seats, but the "Star Trek" world involves
physical laws which reflect only the needs of the plot. If one ship rammed
another and they were both destroyed and everyone died, and the movie ended
with a lot of junk floating around in space, imagine the faces of the people
in the audience.

I think it is time for "Star Trek" to make a mighty leap forward another
1,000 years into the future, to a time when starships do not look like rides
in a 1970s amusement arcade, when aliens do not look like humans with funny
foreheads, and when wonder, astonishment and literacy are permitted back
into the series. Star Trek was kind of terrific once, but now it is a copy
of a copy of a copy.

Copyright ⌐ Chicago Sun-Times Inc.

[ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ]
[ movies" (without the quotes) to [e-mail]          ]

------------------------------

Date: 13 Dec 2002 13:16:49 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: [MV] THE HOT CHICK / 1/2* (PG-13)

THE HOT CHICK / 1/2* (PG-13)

December 13, 2002

Clive:    Rob Schneider
Jessica Spencer:    Rachel     McAdams
April:    Anna Faris
Billy:    Matthew Lawrence
Eden:    Sam Doumit
Weed Guy:    Adam Sandler
Deejay:    Michelle Branch
Robert: Davi    Stan

Buena Vista Pictures presents a film directed by Tom Brady. Written by Tom
Brady and Rob Schneider. Running time: 101 minutes. Rated PG-13 (on appeal
for crude and sexual humor, language and drug references).

BY ROGER EBERT

"The Hot Chick" is about a woman who is magically transported into a man's
body, and takes several days to learn how to urinate correctly with her new
equipment. This despite getting a how-to lecture from a helpful washroom
attendant. Luckily, she finds that passing gas is a skill that ports easily
between the genders. Meanwhile, the former occupant of her male body has
been magically transported into her former female body, and immediately
becomes a hooker and a stripper.

How is this switch possible? It happens because of a pair of magic earrings.
Their history is shown in an introductory scene helpfully subtitled,
"Abyssinia, 50 B.C." The scene is clearly inspired by the Arabian Nights;
the screenplay is by the director, Tom Brady, and the star, Rob Schneider,
have confused Africa with the Middle East, but the prologue is over before
we can grow depressed by its geographical and ethnographic ignorance.

In modern times, we are introduced to a cadre of hot chicks who all go to
the same high school. The Rob Schneider character, named Clive, no doubt
after Clive of India, who would have been a much more interesting character,
mugs one of the hot chicks, and gets one of her earrings. When Clive and the
chick put on the earrings, they are wondrously transported into each other's
bodies. Jessica occupies Clive.

Clive also occupies Jessica, but only gets a couple of scenes, in which he
quickly masters feminine skills, starting with buying tampons and
progressing quickly to stripping. The movie's conviction that we would
rather see the outside of Rob Schneider's body than the outside of Rachel
McAdams' body is not the least of its miscalculations. Rob Schneider's
outside has most of its scenes with Jessica's best friend, played by Anna
Faris, whose resemblance to Britney Spears in the hair and makeup
departments is a complete coincidence.

The way the movie handles the switch is that Rob Schneider, visually
appearing as himself, has Jessica trapped inside. He/she convinces his/her
best girlfriends of this transformation. This is one of the most astonishing
events in the history of mankind, incredibly and miraculous, and so what
inflames the curiosity of the three girlfriends? His penis.

That they are stupid goes without saying. That the filmmakers could think of
nothing more creative to do with their premise is a cause for despair.
Body-switch movies had a brief vogue in the 1980s, when there were some cute
ones ("Big," "Vice Versa"), but Hollywood has so downgraded its respect for
the audience that "The Hot Chick" is now considered acceptable.

The movie resolutely avoids all the comic possibilities of its situation,
and becomes one more dumb high school comedy about sex gags and prom dates.
Jessica, as Clive, becomes the best boy/girlfriend a girl could want, during
a week in which the female Jessica's parents absentmindedly observe that she
has been missing for days. (That a girl looking exactly like the most
popular girl in high school is stripping and hooking escapes the attention
of the local slackwits.)

Lessons are learned, Jessica sees things from a different point of view,
sweetness triumphs, and the movie ends with one of those "deleted" scenes
over the final credits. This particular credit cookie is notable for being
even more boring and pointless than the movie. Through superhuman effort of
the will, I did not walk out of "The Hot Chick," but reader, I confess I
could not sit through the credits.

The MPAA rates this PG-13. It is too vulgar for anyone under 13, and too
dumb for anyone over 13.

Copyright ⌐ Chicago Sun-Times Inc.

[ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ]
[ movies" (without the quotes) to [e-mail]          ]

------------------------------

Date: 13 Dec 2002 13:16:38 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: [MV] MAID IN MANHATTAN / *** (PG-13)

MAID IN MANHATTAN / *** (PG-13)

December 13, 2002

Marisa Ventura:    Jennifer Lopez
Chris Marshall:    Ralph Fiennes
Ty :    Tyler Garcia Posey
Jerry Siegel:    Stanley Tucci
Caroline:    Natasha     Richardson
Stephanie Kehoe:    Marissa     Matrone
Lionel Bloch:    Bob Hoskins
Paula Burns:    Frances Conroy
John Bextram:    Chris Eigeman

Columbia Pictures presents a film directed by Wayne Wang. Written by Kevin
Wade. Running time: 105 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for some language/sexual
references). Opening today at local theaters.

BY ROGER EBERT

"Maid in Manhattan" is a skillful, glossy, formula picture, given life by
the appeal of its stars. It has a Meet Cute of stunning audacity, it has a
classic Fish Out of Water, it works the Idiot Plot Syndrome overtime to
avoid solving a simple misunderstanding, and there won't be a person in the
audience who can't guess exactly how it will turn out. Yet it goes through
its paces with such skill and charm that, yes, I enjoyed it.

We go to the movies for many reasons, and one of them is to see attractive
people fall in love. This is not shameful. It is all right to go to a
romantic comedy and not demand it be a searing portrait of the way we live
now. What we ask is that it not be dumb, or at least no dumber than
necessary, and that it involve people who embody star quality.

"Maid in Manhattan" is not dumb; the Kevin Wade screenplay deals with
several story lines and makes them all interesting. And Jennifer Lopez and
Ralph Fiennes make an intriguing couple because their characters have ways
of passing the time other than falling in love. (I grow impatient when movie
characters are so limited they can think of nothing better to do than follow
the plot.)

Lopez plays Marisa Ventura, a maid in a posh Manhattan hotel. She has a
bright grade-schooler named Ty (Tyler Garcia Posey) who for reasons of his
own has become an expert on Richard M. Nixon. Marisa hopes to be promoted to
management one day, but despite the nudging of fellow maid and best friend
Stephanie (Marissa Matrone), is hesitant about applying.

Fiennes plays Christopher Marshall, a Republican candidate for the U.S.
Senate. Camera crews and herds of paparazzi follow him everywhere, perhaps
under the impression that he is Rudolph Giuliani. He has a personal
assistant named Jerry (Stanley Tucci) whose job is to advise him not to do
almost everything that he thinks of doing.

The movie uses the device of a hotel staff briefing to fill us in on various
VIP guests, including an exhibitionist, two sticky-fingered French ladies,
and especially Caroline (Natasha Richardson), a flighty airhead from
Sotheby's who has checked into an expensive suite. Future senator Marshall
has checked into another one.

And then, in a dazzling display of time-honored movie developments, writer
Wade and director Wayne Wang arrange for Marisa to be trying on one of
Caroline's expensive dresses just as her son meets Marshall and talks them
all into walking the senatorial dog in Central Park. Marshall understandably
thinks this impostor is the inhabitant of the other suite (Richardson).
Prince Charming of course falls instantly in love with Cinderella, who must
race back to the hotel and resume her life of scrubbing and bed-making.
Marshall, meanwhile, invites the inhabitant of the expensive suite to lunch,
only to find that it is the real Caroline, not the mistaken one.

And so on. One word by Marisa at any moment could have cleared up the
confusion, but perhaps she fears a Republican candidate would not want to
date a Puerto Rican maid, except under false pretenses. It is the duty of
the screenplay to keep them separated through various misunderstandings and
devices, but the movie makes this process surprisingly interesting by
dealing with Marisa's application to become an assistant manager. A kind
veteran butler (Bob Hoskins, self-effacing but lovable) teaches her the
ropes, even when the two of them are called upon to serve Marshall and the
real Caroline at the luncheon from hell.

Other issues arise. Marisa's mother of course does not think she deserves to
be anything more than a maid (hasn't she learned from the mother in "Real
Women Have Curves"?). Young Ty of course sees clearly that his mom belongs
in the arms of this Republican. And the press turns a series of meetings
into a front-page romance.

There's a little spunk in the movie. Marisa tells Marshall what's wrong with
his ideas about housing and poverty. He's teachable. Marisa attends a
charity benefit looking gorgeous in a dress borrowed by the hotel boutique
and wearing Harry Winston diamonds supplied, no doubt, in return for the
plug. And when she runs away from the ball and he follows her, well, it
worked in "Cinderella" and it works here, too.

Copyright ⌐ Chicago Sun-Times Inc.

[ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ]
[ movies" (without the quotes) to [e-mail]          ]

------------------------------

Date: 13 Dec 2002 13:16:37 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: [MV] EVELYN / ***(PG)

EVELYN / ***(PG)

December 13, 2002

Desmond Doyle:    Pierce Brosnan
Evelyn Doyle:    Sophie Vavasseur
Bernadette Beattie:    Julianna     Margulies
Nick Barron:    Aidan Quinn
Michael Beattie:    Stephen Rea
Thomas Connolly:    Alan Bates
Mr. Wolfe    :John Lynch

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer presents a film directed by Bruce Beresford. Written by
Paul Pender. Running time: 94 minutes. Rated PG (for thematic material and
language).

BY ROGER EBERT

"Evelyn" is set in 1953, and could have been filmed then. Told with the
frank simplicity of a classic well-made picture, it tells its story, nothing
more, nothing less, with no fancy stuff. We relax as if we've found a good
movie on cable. Story is everything here. Even though Pierce Brosnan is a
movie star, he comes across here as an ordinary bloke, working-class Irish,
charming but not all that charming. We hardly need to be told the movie is
"based on a true story."

Brosnan plays Desmond Doyle, a drunk and a carpenter, more or less in that
order. He has two sons and a daughter. When his wife abandons the family,
the government social workers come around, size up the situation, and
advise, "send in the nuns." The children are sent to orphanages, on the
grounds, then sanctified in Irish law, that a father cannot raise children
by himself.

Desmond is devastated. At first that translates into drinking, but
eventually he meets an understanding woman (a barmaid, of course, since
where else would he meet a woman?). She is Bernadette Beattie (Julianna
Margulies), who advises Desmond to get his act together if he ever hopes to
have his children back again. With her encouragement he meets her brother,
an attorney named Michael Beattie (Stephen Rea), who holds out little hope
of a successful court case. For one thing, Desmond will need the consent of
his wife, which is conspicuously unavailable.

Before settling into the rhythms of a courtroom drama, the movie takes a
look at the conditions in the orphanage where Evelyn (the fetching Sophie
Vavasseur) is being cared for. It apparently contains only two staff
members: the fearsome, strict and cruel Sister Brigid (Andrea Irvine), and
the sweet, gentle Sister Felicity (Karen Ardiff). The orphanage itself is
one step up from the conditions shown in "The Magdalene Sisters," another
current film which shows how many Irish women were incarcerated for life for
sexual misdeeds, stripped of their identities, and used as cheap labor in
church-owned laundries.

In 1953 there was no daylight between the Catholic Church and the Irish
government, and Doyle's chances in court are poor. He is trying not merely
to regain custody of his children, but to overturn Irish law. The case has
great symbolic value, and soon Beattie finds himself joined by an
Irish-American lawyer named Nick Barron (Aidan Quinn), and finally by a
retired Irish legal legend named Thomas Connolly (Alan Bates).

Courtroom scenes in movies are often somewhat similar, and yet almost always
gripping. The format fascinates us. There is great suspense here as Evelyn
herself takes the stand to denounce Sister Brigid, and Sophie Vavasseur is a
good actress, able to convincingly make us fear she won't choose the right
words, before she does.

"Evelyn" depicts Irish society of 50 years ago with a low-key cheerfulness
that shows how humor cut through the fog of poverty. The Irish in those days
got much of their entertainment in pubs, which often had a lounge bar with a
piano and an array of ready singers, and it is a true touch that Desmond
Doyle takes a turn with a song (Brosnan does his own singing, no better but
no worse than a competent pub singer). The movie also enjoys the Irish humor
based on paradox and logic, as when one of Desmond's sons, told Joseph was a
carpenter, asks "Did Joseph ever do a bit of painting and decoration like my
dad?"

"Evelyn" is directed by Bruce Beresford ("Driving Miss Daisy," "Crimes of
the Heart"), who may have chosen the straightforward classic style as a
deliberate decision: It signals us that the movie will not be tarted up with
modern touches, spring any illogical surprises, or ask for other than
genuine emotions. Brosnan, at the center, is convincing as a man who sobers
up and becomes, not a saint, but at least the dependable person he was meant
to be. And Irish law is changed forever.

Copyright ⌐ Chicago Sun-Times Inc.

[ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ]
[ movies" (without the quotes) to [e-mail]          ]

------------------------------

Date: 14 Dec 2002 00:02:42 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: [MV] STAR TREK: NEMESIS / ** (PG-13)

STAR TREK: NEMESIS / ** (PG-13)

December 13, 2002

Capt. Picard:    Patrick Stewart
Commander Riker:    Jonathan     Frakes
Data:    Brent Spiner
Geordi La Forge:    LeVar Burton
Worf:    Michael Dorn
Dr.Crusher:    Gates McFadden
Reman Viceroy:    Ron Perlman

Paramount Pictures presents a film directed by Stuart Baird. Written by Gene
Roddenberry, John Logan, Rick Berman and Brent Spiner. Running time: 116
minutes. Rated PG-13 (for sci-fi action violence and peril and a scene of
sexual content). Opening today at local theaters.

BY ROGER EBERT

I'm sitting there during "Star Trek: Nemesis," the 10th "Star Trek" movie,
and I'm smiling like a good sport and trying to get with the dialogue about
the isotronic Ruritronic signature from planet Kolarus III, or whatever the
hell they were saying, maybe it was "positronic," and gradually it occurs to
me that "Star Trek" is over for me. I've been looking at these stories for
half a halftime, and, let's face it, they're out of gas.

There might have been a time when the command deck of Starship Enterprise
looked exciting and futuristic, but these days it looks like a
communications center for security guards. Starships rocket at light speeds
halfway across the universe, but when they get into battles the effect is
roughly the same as on board a World War II bomber. Fearsome death rays
strike the Enterprise, and what happens? Sparks fly out from the ceiling and
the crew gets bounced around in their seats like passengers on the No. 36
bus. This far in the future they wouldn't have sparks because they wouldn't
have electricity, because in a world where you can beam matter--beam it,
mind you--from here to there, power obviously no longer lives in the wall
and travels through wires.

I've also had it with the force shield that protects the Enterprise. The
power on this thing is always going down. In movie after movie after movie I
have to sit through sequences during which the captain is tersely informed
that the front shield is down to 60 percent, or the back shield is down to
10 percent, or the side shield is leaking energy, and the captain tersely
orders that power be shifted from the back to the sides or all put in the
front, or whatever, and I'm thinking, life is too short to sit through 10
movies in which the power is shifted around on these shields. The shields
have been losing power for decades now, and here it is the Second Generation
of Star Trek, and they still haven't fixed them. Maybe they should get new
batteries.

I tried to focus on the actors. Patrick Stewart, as Capt. Picard, is a
wonderful actor. I know because I have seen him elsewhere. It is always said
of Stewart that his strength as an actor is his ability to deliver bad
dialogue with utter conviction. I say it is time to stop encouraging him.
Here's an idea: Instead of giving him bad dialogue, why not give him good
dialogue, and see what he can do with that? Here is a man who has played
Shakespeare.

The plot of "Star Trek: Nemesis" involves a couple of strands, one involving
a clone of Data (Brent Spiner), which somehow seems redundant, and another
involving what seems to be a peace feeler from the Romulan empire. In the
course of the movie the Romulan Senate is wiped out by a deadly blue powder
and the sister planet of Remus stages an uprising, or something, against
being made to work as slaves in the mines. Surely slavery is not an
efficient economic system in a world of hyperdrives, but never mind: Turns
out that Picard shares something unexpected with his rival commander,
although once I tell you that you can no doubt guess what it is, since the
movie doesn't work you very hard.

There is a scene in the movie in which one starship rams another one. You
would think this would destroy them both, and there are a lot of sparks and
everybody has to hold onto their seats, but the "Star Trek" world involves
physical laws which reflect only the needs of the plot. If one ship rammed
another and they were both destroyed and everyone died, and the movie ended
with a lot of junk floating around in space, imagine the faces of the people
in the audience.

I think it is time for "Star Trek" to make a mighty leap forward another
1,000 years into the future, to a time when starships do not look like rides
in a 1970s amusement arcade, when aliens do not look like humans with funny
foreheads, and when wonder, astonishment and literacy are permitted back
into the series. Star Trek was kind of terrific once, but now it is a copy
of a copy of a copy.

Copyright ⌐ Chicago Sun-Times Inc.

[ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ]
[ movies" (without the quotes) to [e-mail]          ]

------------------------------

Date: 19 Dec 2002 07:13:30 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: [MV] LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS / *** (PG-13)

LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS / *** (PG-13)

December 18, 2002

Frodo      Elijah Wood
Gandalf      Ian McKellen
Aragorn Viggo Mortensen
Sam Gamgee     Sean Astin
Pippin Took      Billy Boyd
Arwen Undomiel Liv Tyler
Saruman Christopher Lee
Grima Wormtongue Brad Dourif
Galadriel Cate Blanchett

New Line Cinema presents a film directed by Peter Jackson. Written by
Frances Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair and Peter Jackson. Based on
the novel by J.R.R. Tolkien. Running time: 179 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for
epic battle sequences and scary images).

BY ROGER EBERT

With "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," it's clear that director Peter
Jackson has tilted the balance decisively against the hobbits and in favor
of the traditional action heroes of the Tolkien trilogy. The star is now
clearly Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), and the hobbits spend much of the movie
away from the action. The last third of the movie is dominated by an epic
battle scene that would no doubt startle the gentle medievalist J.R.R.
Tolkien.

The task of the critic is to decide whether this shift damages the movie. It
does not. "The Two Towers" is one of the most spectacular swashbucklers ever
made, and, given current audience tastes in violence, may well be more
popular than the first installment, "The Fellowship of the Ring." It is not
faithful to the spirit of Tolkien and misplaces much of the charm and whimsy
of the books, but it stands on its own as a visionary thriller. I complained
in my review of the first film that the hobbits had been short-changed, but
with this second film I must accept that as a given, and go on from there.

"The Two Towers" is a rousing adventure, a skillful marriage of special
effects and computer animation, and it contains sequences of breathtaking
beauty. It also gives us, in a character named the Gollum, one of the most
engaging and convincing CGI creatures I've seen. The Gollum was long in
possession of the Ring, now entrusted to Frodo, and misses it ("my
precious") most painfully; but he has a split personality and (in between
spells when his dark side takes over) serves as a guide and companion for
Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin). His body language is a
choreography of ingratiation and distortion.

The film introduces another computer-generated character, Treebeard, a
member of the most ancient race in Middle-Earth, a tree that walks and talks
and takes a very long time to make up its mind, explaining to Merry and
Pippin that slowness is a virtue. I would have guessed that a walking,
talking tree would look silly and break the spell of the movie, but no,
there is a certain majesty in this mossy old creature.

The film opens with a brief reprise of the great battle between Gandalf (Ian
McKellen) and Balrog, the monster made of fire and smoke, and is faithful to
the ancient tradition of movie serials by showing us that victory is
snatched from certain death, as Gandalf extinguishes the creature and
becomes in the process Gandalf the White.

To compress the labyrinthine story into a sentence or two, the enemy is
Saruman (Christopher Lee), who commands a vast army of Uruk-Hai warriors
against the fortress of Theoden (Bernard Hill). Aragorn joins bravely in the
fray, but the real heroes are the computer effects, which create the castle,
landscape, armies and most of the action.

There are long stretches of "The Two Towers" in which we are looking at
mostly animation on the screen. When Aragorn and his comrades launch an
attack down a narrow fortress bridge, we know that the figures toppling to
their doom are computer-generated, along with everything else on the screen,
and yet the impact of the action is undeniable. Peter Jackson, like some of
the great silent directors, is unafraid to use his entire screen, to present
images of wide scope and great complexity. He paints in the corners.

What one misses in the thrills of these epic splendors is much depth in the
characters. All of the major figures are sketched with an attribute or two,
and then defined by their actions. Frodo, the nominal hero, spends much of
his time peering over and around things, watching others decide his fate,
and occasionally gazing significantly upon the Ring. Sam is his loyal
sidekick on the sidelines. Merry and Pippin spend a climactic stretch of the
movie riding in Treebeard's branches and looking goggle-eyed at everything,
like children carried on their father's shoulders. The Fellowship of the
first movie has been divided into three during this one, and most of the
action centers on Aragorn, who operates within the tradition of Viking
swordsmen and medieval knights.

The details of the story--who is who, and why, and what their histories and
attributes are--still remains somewhat murky to me. I know the general
outlines and I boned up by rewatching the first film on DVD the night before
seeing the second, and yet I am in awe of the true students of the Ring. For
the amateur viewer, which is to say for most of us, the appeal of the movies
is in the visuals. Here there be vast caverns and mighty towers, dwarves and
elves and Orcs and the aforementioned Uruk-Hai (who look like distant
cousins of the aliens in "Battlefield Earth"). And all are set within
Jackson's ambitious canvas and backdropped by spectacular New Zealand
scenery.

"The Two Towers" will possibly be more popular than the first film, more of
an audience-pleaser, but hasn't Jackson lost the original purpose of the
story somewhere along the way? He has taken an enchanting and unique work of
literature and retold it in the terms of the modern action picture. If
Tolkien had wanted to write about a race of supermen, he would have written
a Middle-Earth version of "Conan the Barbarian." But no. He told a tale in
which modest little hobbits were the heroes. And now Jackson has steered the
story into the action mainstream. To do what he has done in this film must
have been awesomely difficult, and he deserves applause, but to remain true
to Tolkien would have been more difficult, and braver.

Copyright ⌐ Chicago Sun-Times Inc.

[ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ]
[ movies" (without the quotes) to [e-mail]          ]

------------------------------

Date: 20 Dec 2002 22:21:40 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: [MV] GANGS OF NEW YORK / ***1/2 (R)

GANGS OF NEW YORK / ***1/2 (R)

December 20, 2002

Amsterdam Vallon:    Leonardo DiCaprio
Bill the Butcher:    Daniel Day-Lewis
Jenny Everdeane:    Cameron Diaz
Priest Vallon:    Liam Neeson
"Boss" Tweed:    Jim Broadbent
Happy Jack:    John C. Reilly
Johnny:    Henry Thomas
Monk:    Brendan Gleeson
P.T. Barnum:    Roger Ashton-Griffiths

Miramax Films presents a film directed by Martin Scorsese. Written by Jay
Cocks, Steven Zaillian and Kenneth Lonergan. Running time: 165 minutes.
Rated R (for intense strong violence, sexuality/nudity and language).
Opening today at local theaters.

BY ROGER EBERT

Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York" rips up the postcards of American
history and reassembles them into a violent, blood-soaked story of our
bare-knuckled past. The New York it portrays in the years between the 1840s
and the Civil War is, as a character observes, "the forge of hell," in which
groups clear space by killing their rivals. Competing fire brigades and
police forces fight in the streets, audiences throw rotten fruit at an actor
portraying Abraham Lincoln, blacks and Irish are chased by mobs, and Navy
ships fire on the city as the poor riot against the draft.

The film opens with an extraordinary scene set beneath tenements, in
catacombs carved out of the Manhattan rock. An Irish-American leader named
Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson) prepares for battle almost as if preparing for
the Mass--indeed, as he puts on a collar to protect his neck, we think for a
moment he might be a priest. With his young son Amsterdam trailing behind,
he walks through the labyrinth of this torchlit Hades, gathering his forces,
the Dead Rabbits, before stalking out into daylight to fight the forces of a
rival American-born gang, the Nativists.

Men use knives, swords, bayonets, cleavers, cudgels. The ferocity of their
battle is animalistic. At the end, the field is littered with
bodies--including that of Vallon, slain by his enemy William Cutting, aka
Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis). This was the famous gang fight of Five
Points on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, recorded in American history but
not underlined. When it is over, Amsterdam disappears into an orphanage, the
ominously named Hellgate House of Reform. He emerges in his early 20s (now
played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and returns to Five Points, still ruled by
Bill, and begins a scheme to avenge his father.

The vivid achievement of Scorsese's film is to visualize this history and
people it with characters of Dickensian grotesquerie. Bill the Butcher is
one of the great characters in modern movies, with his strangely elaborate
diction, his choked accent, his odd way of combining ruthlessness with
philosophy. The canvas is filled with many other colorful characters,
including a pickpocket named Jenny Everdeane (Cameron Diaz), a hired club
named Monk (Brendan Gleeson), the shopkeeper Happy Jack (John C. Reilly),
and historical figures such as William "Boss" Tweed (Jim Broadbent), ruler
of corrupt Tammany Hall, and P.T. Barnum (Roger Ashton-Griffiths), whose
museum of curiosities scarcely rivals the daily displays on the streets.

Scorsese's hero, Amsterdam, plays much the same role as a Dickens hero like
David Copperfield or Oliver Twist: He is the eyes through which we see the
others but is not the most colorful person on the canvas. Amsterdam is not
as wild, as vicious or as eccentric as the people around him, and may not be
any tougher than his eventual girlfriend Jenny, who like Nancy in Oliver
Twist is a hellcat with a fierce loyalty to her man. DiCaprio's character,
more focused and centered, is a useful contrast to the wild men around him.

Certainly, Day-Lewis is inspired by an intense ferocity, laced with humor
and a certain analytical detachment, as Bill the Butcher. He is a fearsome
man, fond of using his knife to tap his glass eye, and he uses a pig carcass
to show Amsterdam the various ways to kill a man with a knife. Bill is a
skilled knife artist, and terrifies Jenny, his target for a knife-throwing
act, not only by coming close to killing her but also by his ornate and
ominous word choices.

Diaz plays Jenny as a woman who at first insists on her own independence; as
a pickpocket, she ranks high in the criminal hierarchy, and even dresses up
to prey on the rich people uptown. But when she finally caves in to
Amsterdam's love, she proves tender and loyal, in one love scene where they
compare their scars, and another where she nurses him back to health.

The movie is straightforward in its cynicism about democracy at that time.
Tammany Hall buys and sells votes, ethnic groups are delivered by their
leaders, and when the wrong man is elected sheriff he does not serve for
long. That American democracy emerged from this cauldron is miraculous. We
put the Founding Fathers on our money, but these Founding Crooks for a long
time held sway.

Scorsese is probably our greatest active American director (Robert Altman is
another candidate), and he has given us so many masterpieces that this film,
which from another director would be a triumph, arrives as a more measured
accomplishment. It was a difficult film to make, as we know from the reports
that drifted back from the vast and expensive sets constructed at Cinecitta
in Rome. The budget was enormous, the running time was problematical.

The result is a considerable achievement, a revisionist history linking the
birth of American democracy and American crime. It brings us astonishing
sights, as in a scene that shows us the inside of a tenement, with families
stacked on top of one another in rooms like shelves. Or in the ferocity of
the Draft Riots, which all but destroyed the city. It is instructive to be
reminded that modern America was forged not in quiet rooms by great men in
wigs, but in the streets, in the clash of immigrant groups, in a bloody
Darwinian struggle.

All of this is a triumph for Scorsese, and yet I do not think this film is
in the first rank of his masterpieces. It is very good but not great. I
wrote recently of "GoodFellas" that "the film has the headlong momentum of a
storyteller who knows he has a good one to share." I didn't feel that here.
Scorsese's films usually leap joyfully onto the screen, the work of a master
in command of his craft. Here there seems more struggle, more weight to
overcome, more darkness. It is a story that Scorsese has filmed without
entirely internalizing. The gangsters in his earlier films are motivated by
greed, ego and power; they like nice cars, shoes, suits, dinners, women.
They murder as a cost of doing business. The characters in "Gangs of New
York" kill because they like to and want to. They are bloodthirsty, and
motivated by hate. I think Scorsese liked the heroes of "GoodFellas,"
"Casino" and "Mean Streets," but I'm not sure he likes this crowd.

Copyright ⌐ Chicago Sun-Times Inc.

[ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ]
[ movies" (without the quotes) to [e-mail]          ]

------------------------------

Date: 20 Dec 2002 22:21:43 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: [MV] TWO WEEKS NOTICE / *** (PG-13)

TWO WEEKS NOTICE / *** (PG-13)

December 20, 2002

Lucy Kelson:    Sandra Bullock
George Wade:    Hugh Grant
June Carter:    Alicia Witt
Tony:    Dorian Missick

Warner Bros. Pictures presents a film written and directed by Marc Lawrence.
Running time: 100 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for sex-related humor).

BY ROGER EBERT

If I tell you "Two Weeks Notice" is a romantic comedy and it stars Sandra
Bullock and Hugh Grant, what do you already know, and what do you need to
know?

You already know: That when they meet the first time, they don't like each
other. That circumstances bring them together. That they get along fine, but
are sometimes scared by that and back off a little. That they are falling in
love without knowing it. That just when they're about to know it,
circumstances force them apart. That they seem doomed to live separately,
their love never realized. That circumstances bring them back together
again. That they finally cave in and admit they're in love.

You need to know: What her job is. What his job is. What they disagree
about. What their personality flaws are. And whether, just when their eyes
are about to meet, it is a woman who seems to lure him away, or a man who
seems to lure her away? You also need to know certain plug-in details of the
movie, such as which ethnic groups and ethnic foods it will assign, and what
fantasy dreams it will realize.

I have not, by making these observations, spoiled the plot of the movie. I
have spoiled the plot of every romantic comedy. Just last week I saw "Maid
in Manhattan," and with that one you also know the same things and don't
know the same things. The thing is, it doesn't matter that you know. If the
actors are charming and the dialogue makes an effort to be witty and smart,
the movie will work even though it faithfully follows the ancient formulas.

Romantic comedies are the comfort food of the movies. There are nights when
you don't feel like a chef who thinks he's more important than the food.
When you feel like sliding into a booth at some Formica joint where the
waitress calls you "Hon" and writes your order on a green and white Guest
Check. Walking into "Two Weeks Notice" at the end of a hectic day, week,
month and year, I wanted it to be a typical romantic comedy starring those
two lovable people, Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant. And it was. And some of
the dialogue has a real zing to it. There were wicked little one-liners that
slipped in under the radar and nudged the audience in the ribs.

She plays a Harvard Law graduate who devotes her life to liberal causes,
such as saving the environment and preserving landmarks. He plays a
billionaire land developer who devotes his life to despoiling the
environment and tearing down landmarks. They disagree about politics and
everything else. He is an insufferable egotist, superficial and
supercilious, amazed by his own charm and good looks. She is phobic about
germs, has a boyfriend she never sees, and thinks anybody who wants to hire
her wants to sleep with her.

He is also impulsive, and after she assaults him with a demand to save her
favorite landmark, he hires her on the spot, promises he will not offend her
sensibilities, and gives her a big salary. He does this, of course, because
he plans to violate all of his promises, and because he wants to sleep with
her. He may not know that, but we do.

The first half of the movie is just about perfect, of its kind, and I found
myself laughing more than I expected to, and even grinning at a colleague
who was one seat over, because we were both appreciating how much better the
movie was than it had to be. Then a funny thing happens. The movie sort of
loses its way.

This happens at about the time the billionaire, whose name is George Wade,
agrees to let the lawyer, whose name is Lucy Kelson, quit and go back to her
pro bono work. Her replacement is June Carter (Alicia Witt), a dazzling
redhead with great legs and flattery skills. We think we know that she is
going to be a rat, and seduce George, and all the usual stuff. But no. She
does make moves in that direction, but from instinct, not design. The fact
is, she's essentially a sweet and decent person. At one point, I thought I
even heard her say she was married, but I must have misheard, as no romantic
comedy would ever make the Other Woman technically unavailable.

Anyway, what goes wrong is not Alicia Witt's fault. She plays the role as
written. It's just that, by not making her a villain, writer-director Marc
Lawrence loses the momentum the formula could have supplied him. The last
half of the movie basically involves the key characters being nicer than we
expect them to be, more decent than we thought and less cranked-up into
emotional overdrive. The result is a certain loss of energy.

I liked the movie, anyway. I like the way the characters talk. I like the
way they slip in political punchlines, and how some of the dialogue actually
makes points about rich and poor, left and right, male and female,
Democratic and Republican. The characters are not entirely governed by their
genitals.

Sandra Bullock, who produced the film, knew just what she was doing, and how
to do it. Hugh Grant knew just what he was getting into. Some critics will
claim they play their "usual roles," but Grant in particular finds a new
note, a little more abrupt, a little more daffy, than usual. And they bring
to the movie what it must have: two people who we want to see kissing each
other, and amusing ways to frustrate us until, of course, they finally do.

Copyright ⌐ Chicago Sun-Times Inc.

[ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ]
[ movies" (without the quotes) to [e-mail]          ]

------------------------------

End of movies-digest V2 #394
****************************

[ To quit the movies-digest mailing list (big mistake), send the message     ]
[ "unsubscribe movies-digest" (without the quotes) to [e-mail] ]