Film Clips

CURRENT RELEASES

THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON / THE WOODSMAN Nixon, inspired
by actual events of the mid-70s, centers on an ordinary joe ( Sean Penn) who’s
a failure both professionally and personally. Tired of being constantly beaten
down by life, he decides to murder Nixon, the man he feels best exemplifies
everything that’s wrong with America. The Woodsman, meanwhile, casts
Kevin Bacon as a former convict trying to adjust to life on the outside after
spending years in prison for molesting young girls. He does his best to stay
clean, but discovers it just might be a losing battle when those around him
aren’t willing to give him a chance to start anew. Nixon focuses on a
man succumbing to sickness while Woodsman centers on someone who’s trying
to escape it – both films dole out the will-he-or-won’t-he? tension in comparable
doses. Both movies:

ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 A favorite of critics and cultists alike, John
Carpenter’s 1976 Assault On Precinct 13 was a nifty little “B” flick
about an LA street gang that descends upon a police station with the sole purpose
of wiping out everyone inside. This flashy update is a competent but entirely
generic action opus in which it’s a group of rogue cops who attack the precinct
in order to kill a captured crime lord whose testimony would put them behind
bars. Laurence Fishburne plays the cool-under-fire kingpin, who reluctantly
teams up with an honest officer (Ethan Hawke) to ensure his own survival. Expect
few surprises from yet another needless remake.

THE AVIATOR This sprawling biopic about Howard Hughes (played by Leonardo
DiCaprio), the notorious billionaire-industrialist-producer-flyboy, employs
all the cinematic razzle-dazzle we’ve come to expect from Martin Scorsese, yet
there’s an added layer of excitement as the eternal cineaste finally gets to
step back in time via his meticulous recreations of the sights and sounds of
Old Hollywood (look for Cate Blanchett in a show-stealing turn as Katharine
Hepburn). Still, the behind-the-scenes movie material takes a back seat to other
aspects of Hughes’ life – namely, his adventures in the field of aviation and
his lifelong battle with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. At its best, the film
is a stirring tale about a man whose inner drive allowed him to climb ever higher
and higher, grazing the heavens before his inner demons seized the controls
and forced the inevitable, dreary descent. 1/2

BEYOND THE SEA Kevin Spacey serves as actor, co-writer, director and
producer – and probably caterer, key grip and best boy, if we search the closing
credits hard enough – on this misguided vanity project that’s so in love with
its creator (as opposed to its subject, singer Bobby Darin), it makes Yentl look like a model of modesty and restraint. Spacey is 45 years old, yet here
he’s playing Darin from his late teens(!) up until his death at the age of 37;
the effect is at once creepy, comical and impossible to digest. The film-within-a-film
framing device, meant to deflect criticism of the distortions (“He was born
to play the role!” someone says of Darin, though the line is really about Spacey),
is as clumsy as the flat-footed musical numbers. Skip the movie and use the
admission price to purchase a Darin CD instead. 1/2

BUGS! / ROAR: LIONS OF THE KALAHARI The renovations at Discovery Place’s
IMAX Dome Theatre (formerly the OMNIMAX Theatre) are nice enough, but the big
news is that, following these upgrades, the venue has elected to premiere two
of its best offerings in ages. Both Bugs! and Roar weave Hollywood-style
narratives through their nonfiction settings – the former focuses on the intertwined
fates of a praying mantis and a caterpillar, while the latter centers on a real-life
lion king and the events that transpire when a younger male threatens his supremacy.
Boosted by stupendous cinematography as well as fascinating peeks at the structures
of the insect and animal kingdoms, Bugs! and Roar allow the IMAX
Dome Theatre to trumpet its return in grand fashion. Both movies: 1/2

CLOSER How much one enjoys Closer depends on how charitable one
feels toward the characters at the center of Mike Nichols’ lacerating film,
in which fo ur people (Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen)
in messy relationships take the notion of “brutal honesty” to such an extreme
that their words suddenly qualify as deadly weapons. Viewers not interested
in shifting through the rubble of these people’s immorality in an effort to
locate some common truths will have no use for this picture, the most divisive
film about modern relations since Eyes Wide Shut. Others willing to dig
deeper in an attempt to understand (if not always empathize with) these recognizably
flawed human beings will be rewarded with some choice dialogue and a quartet
of finely etched portrayals – not to mention a heady buzz that will remain long
after the movie’s over. 1/2

COACH CARTER This works the usual underdog cliches fairly well as it
tells the true story of Ken Carter (Samuel L. Jackson), a high school basketball
coach in California who manages to turn a team that won only four games during
its previous season into a statewide powerhouse. But at the height of their
success, Carter elects to bench the entire team once he discovers that most
of his players are performing poorly in their classes. Carter’s selfless actions
against a failed education system register even when the movie surrounding him
turns on itself: All pertinent points are made after a full two hours, but the
picture drags on for another 20 minutes simply so viewers can be treated to
a climactic Big Game. Ultimately, Coach Carter‘s sincerity gets trumped
by its savvy at milking the sports formula for all it’s worth. 1/2

ELEKTRA Talk about a house of flying daggers: The multiplex is filled
with them once Marvel’s blade-wielding superheroine springs into action in this
spin-off of 2003’s Daredevil (in which she appeared as the sightless
superhero’s romantic interest). But while this lady in red often kicks it into
high gear, the movie itself rarely moves beyond a stroll. The story finds the
assassin-for-hire (Jennifer Garner) balking when her latest assignment requires
her to kill a single dad (Goran Visnjic) and his teenage daughter (Kirsten Prout,
whose annoying performance does the film no favors). Elektra elects to protect
them instead, which in turn pits her against an evil organization known as The
Hand. Inexplicably, no one ever deadpans, “Talk to The Hand,” but then again,
a sense of humor is noticeably missing throughout. 1/2

HOTEL RWANDA Set in 1994 Rwanda, this powerful film takes place during
the 100-day period when nearly one million of that country’s Tutsis were slaughtered
by the Hutu extremists. Clearly, Hotel Rwanda is about international
indifference and liberal ineffectualness, and the movie reverberates with such
topical force (Sudan, anyone?) that the ink is still drying on its condemnation
of a planet that operates with blinders firmly attached. Yet for all its indignant
ire, the movie is more than anything a humanist saga, and it’s in this area
where it draws its greatest power. Don Cheadle exudes quiet authority as Paul
Rusesabagina, the Hutu hotel manager who risked everything to save over a thousand
Tutsi civilians from falling under the machete. 1/2

HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS Zhang Yimou recently stated that it’s always
been his dream to direct martial arts films. Having now helmed Hero and
House of Flying Daggers, let’s hope he’s gotten it out of his system.
Yimou directed the best foreign-language film of the 1990s – Raise the Red
Lantern – and was also responsible for other titles that explored Chinese
history in all its facets. This overrated new film pales by comparison, exuding
a been-there-done-that vibe on the heels of (among others) Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon and Hero. But if nothing else, Daggers is gorgeous
to behold, and that alone almost carries the picture over the hump: Its rainbow
visions are probably vibrant enough to even register with the color-blind. Daggers is appealing eye candy, but here’s hoping that Yimou goes back to making movies
that can rattle a nation to its core. 1/2

IN GOOD COMPANY In Good Company works as well as it does because
its central character, Dan Foreman, is a paragon of uncompromised ideals, and
because Dennis Quaid plays him so perfectly that we can’t help but line up behind
this guy and cheer him on. Dan symbolizes not the larger-than-life morality
found in superhero or gladiator yarns nor the bogus morality exhibited in pieces
of hypocrisy like Christmas With the Kranks; instead, it’s the everyday
type to which we can all aspire, as decent people trying to make the right choices
concerning family and career. The storyline, which finds ad executive Dan forced
to report to a corporate golden boy (Topher Grace) half his age, rarely strays
far from convention, but it’s hard to dislike a picture that goes out of its
way to champion integrity in America.

LEMONY SNICKET’S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS Even in Jim Carrey’s
broadest work, it’s difficult to see the gears in motion – his comedic instincts
are so fine-tuned, he morphs into his personas with amazing ease. Not so in
this new picture, adapted from the best-selling children’s series. As Count
Olaf, a villainous actor who seeks to inherit a fortune by knocking off three
orphans, Carrey delivers a disappointing performance, the sort of calculated
turn we had come to routinely expect from Robin Williams. This pale imitation
of the Harry Potter legend is merely an excuse to watch Carrey ham it up in
various guises, and the showboating grows tiresome before long. Luckily, other
elements of the project come to the rescue, from smart casting in the supporting
ranks to a visual look that manages to be beautiful in its beastliness. 1/2

MEET THE FOCKERS The drop in quality between a hit movie and its sequel
is usually so steep that just thinking about it could lead to a broken neck.
Happily, no such falloff exists between Meet the Parents and Meet
the Fockers. The freshness of the premise may have dissipated, but the attention
to the differences between the central characters – the primary reason the first
film raked in the dough – still exists. So once again we find Greg Focker (Ben
Stiller) seeking the approval of prospective father-in-law Jack Byrnes (Robert
De Niro), with the presence of Greg’s old-hippie parents (Dustin Hoffman and
Barbra Streisand) adding to the stress level. The primary pleasure is watching
veteran comedian Stiller once again squaring off against De Niro, whose recent
attempts at shtick have only worked in this series.

SIDEWAYS Movies in which characters hit the road in search of adventure
and end up discovering themselves are nothing new to American film – in fact,
they’re an integral part of our cinematic heritage – yet this one is idiosyncratic
enough to stand apart from the pack. Miles (Paul Giamatti), a chronically depressed
high school teacher, and Jack (Thomas Haden Church), a has-been actor about
to get married, decide to book passage to California’s Santa Ynez Valley to
tour the local wineries; while there, they get involved with two women (Virginia
Madsen and Sandra Oh) who force them to reconsider their present outlooks on
life. It should be noted that this lovely motion picture should itself be approached
like a fine wine: Uncork it, give it time to breathe, and then luxuriate in
its rich, heady flavor. It also ages nicely, holding up beautifully under repeat
viewings.

A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT The ad material wants us to believe that Engagement,
about a woman (Audrey Tautou) searching for her lover at the end of World War
I, is cut from the same cloth as pictures like The English Patient and
Reds, movies that place grand romances against the backdrop of wars and
social upheaval. But director Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s movie is a different kind
of epic, with a light touch and an offbeat attitude that strip the story of
much of its gravitas and instead replace it with a freewheeling flippancy. Engagement isn’t as overtly funny as Jeunet’s previous films (including Amelie),
but its comic quota is still there, resting behind its players’ character quirks
or within the tight choreography of several of the more elaborate set pieces.
The result is a real curio: often delightful, often tragic, yet never as penetrating
as one might expect.

WHITE NOISE This silly movie asks viewers to accept Electronic Voice
Phenomenon (EVP) – the method by which the dead communicate with the living
via televisions and radios – as cold, hard fact; it then proceeds to spin a
fantasy yarn that flubs its own narrative constraints. Michael Keaton headlines
as an architect whose wife (Chandra West) dies in a car accident. Soon, a fuzzy
figure starts appearing through the snowy static on his TV set, but rather than
assume (as most of us would) that he’s illegally receiving HBO without a converter
box, he’s convinced it’s his late wife trying to communicate with him. It’s
a coin toss as to whether this cribs mostly from Poltergeist, The
Ring or The Sixth Sense; in any case, its inconsistencies prove to
be the primary culprit, as this never plays fair even within the parameters
of its own supernatural milieu. 1/2