Film Clips

NEW RELEASES

MR. 3000 / WIMBLEDON These comedies may be set in the worlds of, respectively, baseball and tennis, yet they both bring to mind the sport of auto racing in that they’re strictly Formula One. Yet besides showcasing lots of balls (come to think of it, so does A Dirty Shame), these movies are also similar in that they both manage to transcend their utterly generic storylines thanks to some deft casting. Mr. 3000 is especially tired, reminiscent of all those soggy comedies that Disney’s Touchstone arm (which also released this film) used to churn out during the 90s — the ones that typically starred Jim Belushi. Yet through sheer force of personality, Bernie Mac manages to elevate it to the middle of the standings — he’s clearly enjoying himself in this film, playing a vain baseball player who, nine years after his retirement, discovers that three of his 3,000 hits have been rendered void, thus forcing him to again don the uniform in an attempt to make up the difference. Naturally, the egotist softens in time for the finale, but Mac holds onto the character’s prickly qualities longer than expected, thereby adding some spice to this otherwise bland porridge. Likewise, Wimbledon is all been-there-done-that, a romantic comedy in which a struggling British player falls for an American tennis star and finds his game improving as their relationship deepens. Coming from the same outfit that brought us Notting Hill, we expect to see Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts huffing on the court and off; instead, it’s Paul Bettany and Kirsten Dunst, and this unlikely match (not to mention the actors’ natural charm) provides the necessary bounce to this undemanding trifle. Both movies: 1/2

CURRENT RELEASES

CELLULAR After being kidnapped for reasons unknown, a teacher (Kim Basinger) is able to jerry-rig a busted telephone so that it’s able to make one random call. She ends up dialing the cell phone number of an aimless kid (Chris Evans) who believes her pleas for help; after a failed attempt to notify the authorities, he decides he’s the woman’s only hope, though a conscientious police officer (William H. Macy) soon realizes something’s up and begins his own investigation. This nifty thriller employs a full-speed-ahead approach that suits the material at hand, even if it never quite conceals the sheer improbability of the piece.

COLLATERAL The notion of matinee idol Tom Cruise playing a hardened assassin may sound like a gimmick, but his performance in director Michael Mann’s drama is a fine one, nicely seasoned with just the right touch of piquantness. Sporting salt-and-pepper hair that suits him well, Cruise stars as Vincent, a contract killer who forces a cab driver named Max (solid Jamie Foxx) to ferry him around nocturnal Los Angeles so he can carry out his hits. Scripter Stuart Beattie creates some interesting give-and-take dynamics between Vincent and Max, yet he and Mann (Heat) seem to be equally interested in the peripheral elements, a decision that gives the film added resonance.

GARDEN STATE With his first endeavor as writer-director-star, actor Zach Braff (TV’s Scrubs) does more than knock it out of the park — this one reaches all the way to the county line. Braff plays Andrew “Large” Largeman, a struggling LA actor who returns to his New Jersey hometown to attend his mother’s funeral. While in town, Large hooks up with his old high school acquaintances, yet his most significant relationship turns out to be with someone new to his circle: Sam (Natalie Portman), a vibrant life force who’s the perfect remedy for an emotionally bottled-up guy trying to make some sense out of his muddied existence. Braff drastically switches gears from providing laughs to imparting poignant life lessons; it’s a gamble that pays off, resulting in a film that gives our emotions a vigorous workout. The performances are uniformly fine, with Portman nothing short of sensational. 1/2

HERO A 2002 Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, this Chinese epic should satisfy anyone who couldn’t get enough of the visual splendors exhibited in Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern) has assembled an all-star cast for this opulent tale centering on a warrior (Jet Li) who claims to have single-handedly vanquished the legendary assassins Broken Sword (Tony Leung), Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) and Sky (Donnie Yen). Yet is the hero telling the truth, or are there some Rashomon dynamics at play here? The performers punch across the importance of the story’s themes of solidarity and self-sacrifice, and the different color schemes employed throughout are breathtaking — it’s unlikely that many other movies this year will match this one’s ravishing visuals.

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE Granted, this isn’t a masterpiece like the ’62 edition, which still reigns as one of the finest thrillers ever made. Yet in most other respects, this is that rare remake that paves its own way without exploiting or cheapening its predecessor. No longer a Cold War product, this finds the action updated, with Denzel Washington as an army officer who realizes that a former comrade (Liev Schreiber), now a politician running for his party’s Vice Presidential slot, might be the unwitting pawn of a major corporation (Manchurian Global) that’s trying to seize control of the country. The film’s topicality can’t hurt — this could easily have been called The Halliburton Candidate — yet director Jonathan Demme’s principal goal is to produce a taut, efficient thriller. On that score, he succeeds.

MARIA FULL OF GRACE A different kind of drug movie — one that dives straight into the trenches — this one isn’t about the cops, the kingpins or the clients; instead, it focuses on the mules, the (usually) impoverished folks who agree to smuggle the contraband material across borders, risking arrest or even death along the way. Newcomer Catalina Sandeno Moreno delivers a memorable performance as the 17-year-old Colombian girl who agrees to swallow dozens of heroin pellets and deliver them to a pair of pushers in New York City. Maria Full of Grace is an eye-opening experience that sidesteps any political or moral rhetoric in an effort to paint a grim portrait of an independent woman who’s neither saint nor sinner, but merely a working stiff whose ill-advised decisions never subjugate her humanity. 1/2

SHE HATE ME Arguably Spike Lee’s worst film to date, this melting pot of muddled ideas centers on Jack Armstrong (Anthony Mackie), an executive at a shady biotech company who’s fired after turning whistleblower. Fortunately for the cash-strapped Jack, he falls into a new line of work, knocking up lesbians at $10,000 a bonk. The notion that all these women — without exception — are physically and emotionally satisfied by their heterosexual trysts with Jack would have played well at the recent Republican National Convention, but we’re not through yet: Lee also includes bits involving Watergate, AIDS, Michael Jordan’s semen and Grace Kelly’s ovaries (don’t ask), the Mob (repped by John Turturro), Senate hearings, and plenty of soft-core humping that indicates Spike’s been watching too much late-night HBO. 1/2

SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW A large-scale achievement that’s both retro and futuristic, Sky Captain features cutting-edge technology in the service of a storyline that harkens back to the days of Flash Gordon. While the actors are flesh-and-blood — or, in the case of Angelina Jolie, fleshy-and-bloody-hot — practically everything around them was created on computers by debuting writer-director Kerry Conran. I wish that Conran’s script (and his attendant direction) exhibited a bit more pizzazz, but it’s serviceable enough, with heroic Sky Captain (Jude Law) and spunky reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) trying to uncover a labyrinthine plot. From German Expressionism to screwball comedy, from The Wizard of Oz to Raiders of the Lost Ark, Conran’s influences often make this seem like the fever dream of a hopeless film buff — it may be derivative, but it’s never dull.

VANITY FAIR A condensation — and softening — of William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel, this finds Mira Nair (director of the wonderful Monsoon Wedding) filtering the tale through her own sensibilities. Yet her liberties don’t cripple the piece — more often, they provide a welcome sheen to a movie that often threatens to buckle under the weight of so many characters and plot strands. Although the script’s episodic nature sometimes gets in the way of narrative propulsion, the lively characters — and the hypocrisies they inadvertently champion — always remain watchable. As the poor but plucky Becky Sharp, the 19th century social climber determined to carve out a better life for herself, Reese Witherspoon makes a perky protagonist, though her character needs a nastier edge to be truly believable. 1/2

THE VILLAGE There’s a reason Alfred Hitchcock didn’t write the vast majority of his movies: He knew his forte was directing, and he left the scribbling to others. M. Night Shyamalan would do well to learn from The Master. As a director, he has a distinct visual style, and this thriller about a town whose surrounding woods are filled with monsters includes scenes that shimmer with an eerie beauty. But as a writer, he’s becoming a parody of himself: Eager to top the climactic twist of The Sixth Sense, he has masterminded three subsequent movies in which the “gotcha!” endings seem to be the only reason for their existence. This one isn’t really worse than Unbreakable or the silly Signs, but Shyamalan’s carny act already feels like it’s decades old — it’s a shame, because some good ideas are squandered in a muddled piece that ends up duping itself.

WICKER PARK Josh Hartnett, offering further proof that anybody can make it in Hollywood without a shred of talent, charisma or even a pulse, plays Matthew, who meets the love of his life in Lisa (Diane Kruger) and is heartbroken when she unexpectedly drops out of sight. Two years later, he thinks he spots her in a restaurant, but his subsequent sleuthing only puts him into contact with a clingy individual (Rose Byrne) who may know more than she’s revealing. A remake of a French thriller (L’Appartement) that never reached the US, Wicker Park is nothing more than a dull melodrama marked by plot coincidences of staggering stupidity. Kruger, the weak link in Troy, is even worse here, and whenever she and Hartnett share the same frame, you can almost hear the whooshing sound created by the two human vacuums filling the screen.

OPENS FRIDAY:

DANNY DECKCHAIR: Rhys Ifans, Miranda Otto.

SHAUN OF THE DEAD: Simon Pegg, Kate Ashfield.

This article appears in Sep 22-28, 2004.