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Volume 2, Issue 26
December 7 -- December 20, 2000 |
Movies
UNPROVEN
Proof of Life is D.O.A.
In Proof of Life, Russell Crowe is taking a break. He gets to relax with his native Australian accent and call other characters ‘mate’ a lot. He is still steely and tough like a gladiator, but there is something missing in this picture, and that something is well-rounded dia-logue, or was it legitimacy?
Peter Bowman (David Morse), an engineer, and his wife Alice (Meg Ryan) are living in South America, where Peter is helping to construct a dam funded by an oil company. When Peter is kidnapped by money-hungry terrorists, Alice is left to her own devices when she learns the oil company where Peter is working is folding, and cannot afford to finance the situation. Terry Thorne (Crowe) is a specialist in getting hostages back, and he com-mits to Alice’s cause with the help of his buddy Dino (David Caruso). Inevitably, the mutual respect between Alice and Terry gets a little doe-eyed, and things take off in various directions from there.
Based loosely on “Adventures in the Ransom Trade,” an article by William Prochnau run in the May 1998 issue of Vanity Fair, this movie is primarily an awkward love story set against the kidnap-ping- as-a-business in a post-cold-war-rebel-group-needs- money-country. By illustration, the love story here is about as awkward as ten hyphens. It’s a Hollywood movie with a budding love between Alice and Terry that the movie half wants you to embrace, but the audience becomes a collective prick for rooting for it. Her husband is a rotting hostage in the mountains of South America! Is he supposed to die so Terry and Alice can hook-up? Or is Terry supposed to die rescuing Peter so Alice’s love for him can grow wings eternal? Preposterous as far as even Hollywood formulas go, it’s simply not a cohesive plot that promotes satisfaction. While it’s true this movie has several other flaws, much of the diatribe between characters is as forced as a cat into a bathtub, and as flat as week-old soda. It’s this dia-logue that weakly links some pretty decent action scenes that aren’t quite enough in themselves to captivate, and hence flesh out the uncomfortable conversations between various characters.
Nonetheless, Crowe is convincing as a strategic-thinking soldier, Meg Ryan is Meg Ryan, and David Caruso is one funny motherfucker.
C
--Josh Tyson
Unbreakable
[PG-13 1h 47m] Bruce Willis is indestructible, as anyone who has sat through the Die Hard trilogy already knows. Starring: Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Robin Wright Penn, Spencer Treat Clark. Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan.
M. Night Shyamalan's follow-up to The Sixth Sense succeeds by plant-ing a fantasy story line smack dab in somber reality. Much like Sixth Sense, Unbreakable keeps the audience guessing from the beginning to the shocking ending. With understated performances from Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, the movie keeps a subtle tension throughout.
Willis plays a mild-mannered security guard whose life is flipped upside down when he becomes the sole survivor of a massive train wreck. Acrippled stranger, Jackson, is the one person who can help Willis come to terms with his amazing ability to walk away unscathed from all disasters. Willis thus comes to realize his potential as an "unbreakable" human being.
The movie laces an eerie atmosphere throughout each scene that grabs the audience's attention. You will find your-self in breathless anticipation of the shock hiding behind the next corner. These teeth-grinding scenes are intertwined with subtle reminders of everyday life, which validate the realistic vision of Shyamalan.
Unbreakable deals with fantastic ideas in a simple and honest way. The movie reminds the viewer that miracles can happen in the real world. It also reminds us of the power within us all. For a smart, shocking, nail-biter, you can't go wrong with Unbreakable. A-
--Elizabeth Beeson
THEN THERE WAS LIGHT
Dark Days illuminates the lives of underground homeless in New York
My friends and I were drinking downtown one night a few years back when we met a member of her Majesty’s Secret Service.
“Sean Connery,” he said (pronounced ‘seen’ Connery), “007.” He must have been deep undercover, however, because he had on some filthy crusty jeans, blown-out sneakers and a dumpster- caked T-shirt. His disguise was even replete with the odor of urine and stale malt liquor.
“I work under the chef,” he informed us.
“Which chef?” we asked.
“Chef Boyardee.” Smug this time.
It was cold that night, and my friend gave him his hooded sweatshirt. So ended our monthly encounter with a homeless citizen of Denver.
Mark Singer is a very dedicated filmmaker. Not only did he live in a Manhattan train tunnel for several years, after a few months of habitation, he started to film his life in a documentary, called Dark Days. Since he spent all of his time in this tunnel, when he did decide to document this world, he had a cast and crew made up of the tunnel’s inhabitants. They rigged up power supplies, lights and camera mounts and from that point on, the camera was constantly on.
A middle-aged black man is digging through a bag of trash after dark on the corner of a city street. He pulls out a half-eaten, barely wrapped sandwich and declares it fine eating. By this point in Dark Days, it is not such a starkly perverse thing to see. After all, this man and his neighbors live in little shanty shacks inside the tunnel. Some of the shacks are barely shelter; another is a two-story job with electricity and a makeshift kitchen. Another man in the tunnel sleeps on what amounts to a bed of ratsand rubble. The small group are a community; they share things.
The movie is shot in black and white, and the available light in this cav-ernous atmosphere makes it look gritty and oddly inviting. It is impossible not to be dragged right in with this tribe of survivors. The high-contrast appearance also serves to contrast the individuals, their different backgrounds, and their very distinct personalities. For money, they collect recyclables, sell working electronics equipment they find in the trash, and sell various odds and ends: CDs and such. They have agendas, and, although their existence seems squalid and fruitless, you realize that they are still dreamers with ambitions that they would like to realize. Many of them have pets—birds and dogs. The various turns of hard luck that have brought these individuals to the tunnel coalesce into the fact they are living within their means and on their own terms.
Five years in the making, this film has power, strength and very little bullshit. Although the film seems at times to be hurtling towards an inevitable crash with disaster, it picks up at the end and offers a glimmer of distinct hope. Another time a while back, my girlfriend and I were walking downtown when we ended up talking with a homeless chap. At one point he asked me if I thought could survive in his situation. “Probably not,” I said, thinking he might have been offended that a wet-behind-the-ears kid thought he knew what was what.
“Wrong answer,” he told me. “Of course you could, you’ve just got to believe.” To me, that is largely what this movie is about; faith and perseverance in truly dark hours.
A —Josh Tyson
DVD Report
FROM DUSK TO DAWN: COLLECTOR'S SERIES
Hollywood is rife with stories about small, low-budget
pictures which suddenly get some major
talent behind them, undergo a rapid infusion of money,
and begin to bloat alarmingly as more chefs begin to fiddle
with the recipe. Last Action Hero leaps to mind (naturally,
given the metaphor, it leaps through a plate glass
window with a barking machine gun in either hand). But sometimes that doesn’t happen; sometimes the
influx of “name” talent and a higher budget serves to
kick the picture up to a higher level. And such is the case
with From Dusk Till Dawn—kindred souls Quentin
Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez set out to make a kick
ass drive-in movie, and they succeeded. The Gecko Brothers (George Clooney and Tarantino)
are a tag team of bad bongos on the run from the law
after their latest bank robbery (a smirking newswoman
breathlessly reports the score at “five Texas Rangers,
eight police officers, and three civilians”). They need to
get to Mexico somehow, and to that end they take a family
(Juliette Lewis, Ernest Liu and Harvey Keitel in a
surprising performance) hostage and use their RV to
sneak past the border guards. The five settle down in a
Mexican strip bar to await the Brothers’ underworld contact,
unaware that they are about to contact an underworld
of another sort: the bar is a giant roach motel set
up by demonic vampires to trap their next meal. Did I mention the others in this astonishing cast? Tom
Savini, Fred “The Hammer” Williamson, Salma Hayek,
Cheech Marin (doing an odd, Peter Sellers-esque multiple
role turn), John Saxon, Michael “Jean Renault”
Parks, Danny
Trejo... From Dusk Till
Dawn is a constant
surprise, not
only from its sudden
shift in timbre
an hour into
the movie, but in
the quality of
writing, direction,
and acting.
for Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction—and the fact that
these movies made From Dusk TillDawn possible
makes us love them all the more. Included in the package is Full-Tilt Boogie, a feature
length documentary on the making of From Dusk Till
Dawn. Like most documentaries, you probably won’t
find yourself watching this more than once, but it does
an excellent job of conveying the utter grind of making
a movie. The doc is in danger of losing its center when
the camera crew, documenting the Union pressures
brought to bear on the production, suddenly decide they
are Michael Moore and storm a Teamster convention to
interview the IATSE official spearheading the effort. Full-Tilt Boogie is at its best when documenting the disasters,
natural and otherwise, that dogged the filming (“No,
we weren’t supposed to burn up the building’s facade—but
it looks pretty cool.”) and interviewing crew members that
normally don’t get noticed, like drivers, electricians and
grips. Possibly the most telling is the contrast between the
personal assistants of George Clooney and Quentin
Tarantino. Clooney’s assistant has the demeanor of a lady
in a 007 movie, while Tarantino’s seems no less than a
woman mired in the ninth circle of hell. A lot of people are going to moan and complain that the
movie is not anamorphically enhanced; the other 95% of
us who are still watching on 4x3 TVs will simply have
to make do with admiring the widescreen transfer, which
handles the sun-baked landscapes and darkened bar
scenes equally well. In an attempt to seem enveloping,
sound effects do sometimes cause one to strain to hear
dialogue, but rarely to the point of irritation, since the
Foley artists seem to be having such a good time. The box for this two-disc Collector’s Edition is one of
the oddest I’ve come across yet: the first disc is in a
holder, stuck into the keepcase like a page in a loose-leaf
binder. Of course it immediately popped out when I
attempted to release Disc 1, and I had to struggle a bit to
put it back in. The most unfortunate thing about the
packaging, to my thinking, is that the two discs are
labeled merely as Disc 1 or Disc 2, with no indication as
to what lies on which disc. Speaking of all that other bonus material, there’s quite a
bit, besides the aforementioned Full-Tilt Boogie: the
Spanish). The disc includes two music videos, one for
“After Dark” by Tito and the Tarantulas, the other for
“She’s Just Killing Me” by ZZ Top. Both are directed by
Rodriguez, and the latter features new footage of George
Clooney and Salma Hayek. Rounding out the promotional stuff is a Still Gallery
which moves at its own pace, accompanied by an instru-mental
version of “After Dark,” and Cast and Crew bios,
which laudably concern themselves with more than just
the high-profile players. They aren’t quite complete,
though. For example, Salma Hayek’s bio manages to
leave out Roadracers, her first film with Rodriguez. There’s more. Outtakes (more varied and humorous than
is usual) and Deleted Scenes and alternate takes, with
commentary by Rodriguez and makeup head Greg
Nicotero. The deleted scenes include one where Salma
Hayek beheads Nicotero’s with her tongue! “The Art of
Making the Movie” goes in-depth into four major
sequences in the movie, skillfully combining the movie
with behind-the-scenes footage and narration by
Rodriguez and Nicotero. The narration sounds like it
may have been excerpted from a longer track. If Full-Tilt
Boogie whetted your appetite for the mechanics of filmmaking,
this segment goes a long way toward quelling
that hunger. There is also some brief footage of Salma
Hayek lounging around in her bikini outfit. Finally there
is a brief “On the Set” extra that seems to be composed
of footage they couldn’t shoehorn in anywhere else. In contrast, the commentary track by Tarantino and
Rodriguez is helpful mainly for gauging how much of a
picture is formed by the original script, and how much is
added by various personnel throughout the production
process. Tarantino puts his finger on why this movie is
so eminently embraceable when he states that (quoting
from memory here) “Most studio horror movies try to
bring in people that don’t normally go to horror movies,
and that’s why they suck. We made a horror movie for
horror fans, and invited everybody else to come along.” Until the holographic version comes out with a life-sized
Salma Hayek dancing in my living room, this is going to
be the ultimate presentation of this movie. And I say
goodbye to another member of my laserdisc collection. A —Dr. Freex
102 Dalmations [G] We didn't really need
the liveaction update of 101 Dalmations,
so why must we suffer through a sequel?
Starring: Glenn Close, Gerard Depardieu.
Directed by: Kevin Lima.
The 6th Day [PG-13] Ahnold in da
future as a clone of Ahnold. Starring:
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robert Duvall,
Tony Goldwyn, Michael Rapaport.
Directed by: Roger Spottiswoode.
Almost Famous [R 2h] Instead of going
to summer camp, a young boy goes on
tour with a rock band. Starring: Billy
Crudup, Kate Hudson, Patrick Fugit,
Frances McDormand. Directed by:
Cameron Crowe.
Bait [R 1h 59m] Stupid crook wins
everybody's heart by being stupid.
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Kimberly Elise,
David Morse, Doug Hutchison. Directed
by: Jason Fuchs.
Bamboozled [R 2h 15m] Spike Lee tries
to make blackface funny. Starring:
Damon Wayans, Jada Pinkett Smith,
Savion Glover, Tommy Davidson.
Directed by: Spike Lee.
Bedazzled [PG-13] Remake involving a
sexy devil and dumb geek. Starring:
Elizabeth Hurley, Brenden Fraser.
Directed by: Harold Ramis.
Best In Show [PG-13 1h 30m] Spinal Tap
for dog shows. Starring: Christopher Guest,
Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Fred
Willard. Directed by: Christopher Guest.
Billy Elliot [R 1h 40m] Coal miner's son
takes ballet lessons. Starring: Jamie Bell.
Directed by: Stephen Daldry.
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 [R]
More woods, less shaky camera stuff.
Starring: Erica Leerhsen, Jeff Donovan,
Tristen Skyler, Stephen Turner. Directed
by: Joe Berlinger.
Bounce [PG-13] Is this a movie about
Affleck and Paltrow's life? Starring:
Ben Affleck, Gwyneth Paltrow, Natasha
Henstridge, Jennifer Grey. Directed by:
Don Roos.
Bring It On [PG-13 1h 32m]
Cheerleaders fight to the death in biki-nis!
Only without the death. Starring:
Kirsten Dunst, Gabrielle Union, Jesse
Bradford. Directed by: Peyton Reed.
Broken Hearts Club [R 1h 34m] A
chick flick for gay men. Starring: Dean
Cain, Timothy Olyphant. Directed by:
Greg Berianti.
Charlie's Angels [PG-13] One big tease
-- you mean they can't use guns and
don't get naked? Puh-leeze. Starring:
Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, Lucy
Liu, Bill Murray. Directed by: McG.
Contender [R 2h 6m] A chick wants to
be vice-president, but she's had too much
sex. Starring: Joan Allen, Gary Oldman.
Directed by: Rod Lurie.
Dancer in the Dark [R 2h 20m] Bjork
goes blind and crazy all at once, but she
still sings. Starring: Bjork, Catherine
Deneuve, David Morse, Peter Stormare.
Directed by: Lars von Trier.
Digimon: The Movie [G 1h 30m] Do
they even bother translating these into
English anymore? Starring: Bad
Drawings. Directed by: Bad Cartoonist.
Dr. T & the Women [R 2h 1m] Richard
Gere plays a gynecologist -- insert hamster
joke here. Starring: Richard Gere,
Helen Hunt, Liv Tyler. Directed by:
Robert Altman.
Dude Where's My Car? [PG-13] In the
parking lot at the 7-11, pothead. Starring:
Ashton Kutcher, Seann William Scott,
Jennifer Garner. Directed by: Danny
Leiner.
Dungeons & Dragons [PG] Is there a sav-ing
throw against cheesy movies? Starring:
Thora Birch, Jeremy Irons, Marlon Wayans.
Directed by: Courtney Solomon.
Emperor's New Groove [G] An animat-ed
buddy comedy in South America?
Again? Starring: David Spade, John
Goodman, Eartha Kitt, Patrick
Warburton. Directed by: Mark Dindal.
The Exorcist-- The Version You've
Never Seen [R] Don't be fooled by the
long title-- it's just the original with
eleven more minutes added on. Starring:
Linda Blair. Directed by: William
Friedkin.
Fantasia 2000 [G 1h 15m] Dancing
flamingos, Noah's duck, flying whales, and
other fun things to watch on acid. Starring:
James Earl Jones, Quincy Jones and Angela
Lansbury. Directed by: James Algar.
George Washington [NR 1h 30m] Kids in
North Carolina deal with their dead friend.
Starring: Donald Holden, Candace Evanofski.
Directed by: David Gordon Green.
Girl Next Door [NR 1h 22m] Everything
you wanted to know about a porn star if
you're afraid to ask. Starring: Stacy Baker.
Directed by: Christine Fugate.
Hard Day's Night [NR 1h 25m] Fresh
print on an old classic. Starring: The
Beatles. Directed by: Richard Lester.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas [PG
1h 42m] I wouldn't touch it with a 39 1/ 2
foot pole. Starring: Jim Carrey, Molly
Shannon, Christine Baranski, Jeffrey
Tambor. Directed by: Ron Howard.
Into the Arms of Strangers [PG 2h 2m]
Yet another documentary about the
Holocaust. Starring: Judi Dench.
Directed by: Mark Harris.
The Kid [PG 1h 44m] Bruce Willis has
an inner child that's fat and annoying.
Starring: Bruce Willis, Lily Tomlin and
Spencer Breslin. Directed by: Jon
Turteltaub.
Kippur [PG] A peek inside the Yom
Kippur War. Starring: Tomer Russo,
Liron Levo. Directed by: Amos Gitai.
La Buche [NR 1h 47m] Starring: Sabine
Azema, Emmanuelle Beart. Directed by:
Daniele Thompson.
Ladies Man [R] I repeat, there should be
a law against big-screen adaptations of
"Saturday Night Live" skits. Starring:
Tim Meadows, Will Ferrell, Tiffani-Amber
Theissen, Billy Dee Williams.
Directed by: Reginald Hudlin.
The Legend of Bagger Vance [PG-13]
Supernatural golf caddie-- every
Republican's wet dream (except he's
black). Starring: Matt Damon, Will
Smith, Charlize Theron, Bruce McGill.
Directed by: Robert Redford.
Directed by: Reginald Hudlin.
Legend of Drunken Master [R 1h 42m]
Yet another Jackie Chan import.
Starring: Jackie Chan, Ti Lung. Directed
by: Lau Ka Leung.
Little Vampire [PG] Kids can suck
blood too. Starring: Jonathan Lipnicki,
Richard E. Grant. Directed by: Uli Edel.
Lucky Numbers [R 1h 48m] Who knew
the state lottery could be rigged?
Starring: John Travolta, Lisa Kudrow.
Directed by: Nora Ephron.
Meet the Parents [PG-13 1h 47m]
Never marry a woman whose father is
Robert DeNiro. Starring: Robert DeNiro,
Ben Stiller, Teri Polo, Blythe Danner.
Directed by: Jay Roach.
Men of Honor [R 2h 9m] The Navy's
first black master diver has to put up
with DeNiro. Starring: Robert DeNiro,
Cuba Gooding Jr., Charlize Theron,
Aunjanue Ellis. Directed by: George
Tillman Jr.
MVP: Most Valuable Primate [PG 1h
33m] A chimp that plays hockey.
Starring: Kevin Zegers, Jaimee Renee
Smith, Hairy Primate. Directed by:
Robert Vince.
Non-Stop [NR 1h 22m] Three losers are
running from the yakuza. Starring: Tomoro
Taguchi, Diamond Yukai, Shinichi
Tsutsumi, Sabu. Directed by: Sabu.
Nurse Betty [R 1h 40m] Woman takes her
soap opera obsession to a new level by
landing a role. Starring: Renee Zellweger,
Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock, Greg
Kinnear. Directed by: Neil LaBute.
Pay it Forward [PG-13 2h 4m] A whole
slew of Oscar winners learn to love.
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt,
Haley Joel Osment, Jay Mohr. Directed
by: Mimi Leder.
The Perfect Storm [PG13 2h 12m] My
first reaction to the movie was, "you
dopes, just move and stop fishing before
you die." Starring: George Clooney,
John C. Reilly and Mark Wahlberg.
Directed by: Wolfgang Petersen.
Proof of Life [R] Pesky hostages are
always needing someone to come along
and rescue them. Starring: Russell
Crowe, Meg Ryan, David Morse.
Directed by: Taylor Hackford.
Quills [R 2h 3m] The Marquis de Sade's
final days in the looney bin. Starring:
Geoffrey Rush, Joaquin Phoenix, Kate
Winslet, Michael Caine. Directed by:
Philip Kaufman.
Solas [NR 1h 38m] The Spanish equivalent
of American Beauty. Starring: Paco
De Osca, Antonio Dechent. Directed by:
Benito Zambrano.
Solomon and Gaenor [R 1h 41m] Forbidden
love in Wales. Starring: Ioan Gruffudd, Nia
Roberts. Directed by: Paul Morrison.
Tigerland [R 1h 41m] Nothing says love
story like Louisiana boot camp. Starring:
Collin Farrell, Clifton Collins Jr. Directed
by: Joel Schumacher.
Time fo Drunken Horses [NR 1h 20m]
Sick kid screws up the plans of Iranian
smugglers. Starring: Ayoub Ahmadi, Rojin
Younessi. Directed by: Bahman Ghobadi.
Two Family House [R 1h 44m] A how-to
guide for those who want the cabaret in the
privacy of their own home. Starring:
Michael Rispoli, Kelly MacDonald.
Directed by: Raymond De Felitta.
Venus Beauty Institute [NR 1h 45m]
French beauticians don't take kindly to turn-ing
40. Starring: Nathalie Baye, Bulle
Ogier. Directed by: Tonie Marshall.
Vertical Limit [PG-13] When will
famous actors stop getting stuck up on K-2?
Starring: Chris O'Donnell, Robin
Tunney, Scott Glenn, Bill Paxton.
Directed by: Martin Campbell.
The Watcher [R 1h 33m] Will cops and
serial killers ever learn to get along?
Starring: James Spader, Keanu Reeves,
Marisa Tomei. Directed by: Joe Charbanic.
Weekend [NR 1h 37m] Things go crazy
in the south when a houseguest comes to
town. Starring: D. B. Sweeney, Deborah
Unger, Gena Rowlands, Jared Harris.
Directed by: Brian Skeet
What Lies Beneath [PG-13 2h 6m]
Your partner is guaranteed to jump into
your lap at least four or five times.
Starring: Harrison Ford, Michelle
Pfeiffer. Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
What Women Want [PG-13] Women
want Mel Gibson? And all this time men
thought it was Brad Pitt. Starring: Mel
Gibson, Helen Hunt, Marisa Tomei, Mark
Feuerstein. Directed by: Nancy Meyers.
What's Cooking? [PG-13 1h 46m] Guns,
lesbians, adultery, and Thanksgiving.
Starring: Kyra Sedgwick, Julianna
Margulies. Directed by: Gurinder Chadha.
Woman On Top [R 1h 33m] That's right
boys, she cooks, and that title means what
you think it does. Starring: Penelope
Cruz. Directed by: Fina Torres.
Wonder Boys [R 1h 52m] That Michael
Douglas movie about a professor is coming
back. Starring: Michael Douglas, Robert
Downey Jr., Tobey Maguire, Frances
McDormand. Directed by: Curtis Hanson.
The Yards [R 1h 45m] Double-crossing
and intrigue in the subways. Starring: Mark
Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, James Caan,
Faye Dunaway. Directed by: James Gray.
Yi Yi [NR 2h 53m] Three hours of com-puter
geek life. Starring: Elaine Jin, Wu
Nianzhen. Directed by: Edward Yang.
You Can Count On Me [R 1h 49m]
Unexpected houseguest makes worlds go
crazy. Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Laura
Linney, Rory Culkin, Matthew Broderick.
Directed by: Kenneth Lonergan.