REVIEWS

With "Four weddings and a funeral", director Mike Newell became famous all over the world. His laid back directing was perfect for the lovely romantic comedy. 3 years later, he directs a movie so different from "Four weddings…." In terms of setting and story BUT the ambiance is still there. Here we have a British director taking on the subject of American/Italian Mafia hardcases , and the result is outstanding.
"Donnie Brasco" has a lot in common with "Carlito’s way" but reaches higher at any level. Where "Carlito’s way" was in your face, both in character and plot, "Donnie Brasco" is subtle, genuine and lovable. This is not a story- or plot driven movie, but very much a character driven one. The pace is slow, and it must be, there’s only one scene with gunshots which is beautifully set up.

FBI-undercover Donnie Brasco (Johnny Depp) becomes a friend of Lefty (Al Pacino), a loyal member of the NY Mafia. As the movie unfolds, Donnie becomes more and more involved in the famiglia, winning everybody’s trust and respect. The main story isn’t whether Donnie will destroy the famiglia or capture the bad guys but the friendship between an undercover agent and his prime target. I was already impressed with Depp in "Ed Wood" but I must say that here he delivers a performance far better than Ed Wood. He has really turn into a great actor. Possibly the best of his generation.
Pacino is, well Pacino is Pacino, we are so used to see him perform extraordinarily that it’s hard to point out what he does better than he usually does. He’s truly one of the best actors in movie history.
The two stars along with director Newell makes a rather ordinary story something so magical it will for sure hoist in a couple of Oscars. So far, this is year’s best film.

Director: Mike Newell
Cast: Johnny Depp, Al Pacino, Bruno Kirby, Michael Madsen, Anne Heche

Canadian director David Cronenberg comes up with a gloomy, dark and nightmarish film about the identical Mantle twins, Beverly and Elliott both successfull gynecologists.
When a famous actress, Claire Niveau becomes a patient at their clinic, Elliott, the charismatic one, seduces her then he tells Beverly, the shy one, to try her on. Beverly falls soon in love with the actress revealing he’s a very sensitive fella much different to his brother.
After a while Claire’s told by a friend that she’s seeing two men who happens to be identical twins. In a wonderful scene at a fancy restaurant she confronts the two Mantle brothers, describing Elliot as "Dracula".
She breaks up with both of’em leaving Beverly crushed and Elly amused by the "show".
From now on, Beverly is starting to loose grip on reality, begins to do drugs becoming more and more depressive. In order to get his brother off the drug addiction Elly needs to be "syncronized" with Bev, he simply becomes a drug addict himself.

Interesting point that one unsepareted twin can feel the alcoholic rush if the other one drinks. From here on we hardly can identify the twins when they stroll around the apartment as usually wíth no light on, which enhances the gloomy mood.
The terrifying scene in the surgery room, when Bev for the first time shows the surgery tools to his shocked colleagues, is even more horrifying by the fact that the entire crew wears their bloodred uniforms.
By the way very similar to the ones worn by the empires bodyguards in Return of the jedi.

Despite the dark and pessimistic visions on the human mind, I find this film actually quite warm and loveable. The way that Elly cares for his twin brother I find very touching.

There isn’t a single scene in Dead ringers that’s unnecessary.
Yes, the pace is slow, but that’s not a negative thing, instead it makes it easier for Irons to dig deeper into the mind of the two Mantle characters, which is far more interesting than if we would be given a rollercoaster of a movie.
This movie is inspired by the real-life story of the Marcus-twins found dead in their New York apartment, both heavily addicted to drugs.
They too were gynecologists, however I’m not sure if they also shared women. Jeremy Irons stunning performance as the Mantle twins, is for me the best performance of the 80’s. The way Irons facially portrays each twin is quite remarkable.
This is a must-see....

Director: David Cronenberg
Cast: Jeremy Irons, Genevieve Bujold.

Saving private Ryan starts off with an approximately 20 minutes long scene
where we follow the first American soldiers trying to embark on "Omaha beach" on The Normandie shore. For 20 long minutes there is pictures showing the full extent of the cruelty of war. Tom Hanks plays "Captain John Miller" who is given the mission to find a young paratrooper soldier trapped behind enemy lines "James Ryan" (Matt Damon). The captain and his 7 soldiers carry on with their mission as they meet both suspicion from fellow American soldiers and fierce resistance from German nazi troups.

This movie has been hailed by critics as the best war-movie ever made and I tend to agree. Not only is "Saving Private Ryan" a very realistic and honest movie about the horror of war, but it's also a movie about comradship in arms. After watching this movie you'll never look the same at warveterans or wars itselves. Steven Spielberg has made a movie showing a side of the WW2 which doesn't glamorizes it by any means. At a first look it can seem like he's portrayed the Americans as their usual good guys and the Germans as the usual bad guys. But there are scenes where the American soldiers behaves as badly as Germans have been portrayed in other war movies.

There were two scenes who left a particular strong impression on me. 1) The first soldiers who were gunned down immediately when they open the doors on the landing crafts, all this waiting and then being killed even before having fired one single round.
2) when "Captain Miller" is lying on the beach trying to get cover from the German bullets and grenades. He looks around him and simply can't believe his eyes. All the wounded or dead bodies floating around in the water. The almost impossible mission to get out of this thing alive. Is this really happening he seems to wonder. The plot isn't of an important nature here, the rescuing mission for "Ryan" is here simply to set up a string of events where Spielberg gets to question issues like , morality, guts and glory etc. And he does that superbly. Janosz Kaminsky's grainy cinematography gives the film a documentary feeling. They stripped the cameras of their lenses and filters and shoots it in a very down to earth manner. Even the otherwise to bombastic John William score is softened down in order not to give the film a "romantic" feeling. The cast is a non-stellar one , with expception of Tom Hanks. We see a group of very talented actors, such as, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns and Matt Damon give performances with great credibility and poignance. But it's Steven Spielberg who is the star of "Saving private Ryan".

Don't be surprised if "Saving private Ryan" sweeps the Oscar board next year.

Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore

Steve Buscemi makes an interesting directorial debut in this down to earth every day drama. Trees lounge deals with social issues like alcoholism, relationships and lost hope. Buscemi stars (also penned the script) as the unemployed, out of luck Tommy who drinks way too much for his own good and takes the day as it comes.
One of the movies' best moments are the scenes with his former girlfriend's niece, played by Chloe Sevignoe, playing with the idea of having an older man having a relationship with an under age girl.
It's easy to identify and feel sympathy with Tommy and Buscemi does a good job both as an actor and director never losing the grip of the movie.

Director: Steve Buscemi
Cast: Steve Buscemi, Chloe Sevigny, Daniel Baldwin, Anthony LaPaglia, Samuel L Jackson

Brassed off is set in a british mining community during the early 80's when Thatcherism had its haydays. The government is planning on closing all pits in the country to make way for more economical and environmental sources of power. The local band faces closure as well if the pit is closed but still participates in a nationwide band contest. A new girl in town (Tara Fitzgerald) joins the all men band and starts dating one of the younger guys (Ewan McGregor) in the band. The movie starts out as an out and out comedy then changes to serious drama, then changes to light hearted comedy again. But it works. Some of the scenes might be too sentimental and cliche but in a whole the movie manages to fullfill its purpose by focusing on two things, the contest and the relationship between people living in a small community. Pete Postlethwaite impresses as the old band leader. However the movie fails to deliver a lasting impression on the viewer simply because of a too sappy ending and a couple of weak scenes in the middle.

Director: Mark Herman
Cast: Tara Fitzgerald, Ewan McGregor, Pete Postlethwaite

Egyptian born director Atom Egoyan has adapted this novel by Russel Banks to a movie and comes off with a rather depressing and emotional drama.
Ian Holm (Alien, 5th element) plays a lawyer arriving to a small Canadian town after a tragic school bus accident where several kids were killed. We follow him as he tries to convince the parents to the kids to file a lawsuit against the company who made the bus.
He has to deal with the parents' pain and also people not so keen on being reminded of the terrible accident.
We also learn that the lawyers' own daughter is doing drugs and they're having short angry conversations over a cellular phone.
The lawyer has to live with the fact that he believes that he somewhere along the road did a mistake raising his daughter and therefore tries to compensate this by helping the parents winning the case.

The sweet thereafter is about overcoming obstacles in life, moving on and dealing with what might have been. It's also a film about loss, guilt and how much a small town can be effected by a tragic accident. Some of the characters could be more fleshed out, for instance the bus driver and the wheelchaired kid. The movie would've gained if it had been some 20 minutes longer to really dig into the problems in the town and the frictions between friends there. Ian Holm does a masterful piece of acting and shows both inner strength as vulnerability.

Director: Atom Egoyan
Cast: Ian Holm and a bunch of actors I don't know the the name of.

Another teen-suspense-thriller with Neve Campbell and Matt Dillon as its biggest stars. Matt Dillon portrays a guidance teacher at a Florida High School who gets accused of raping one of his sexy students, poorly played by Denise Richards. Things get complicated as the events unfold and people and things aren't what they seemed to be.

This movie has it all, and still nothing. Betrayals, sex, humor, suspense, and yet it fails to deliver in each and every area. The movie itself seems to be an excuse to show off Denise Richards breasts, (that doesn't have to be an entirely bad thing though) and body for the male viewer's pleasure. There are so many plottwists and turnarounds in Wild things, you keep asking yourself, what all the fuzz is about. It's simply poor moviemaking with very poor performances from Dillon, Richards and a somewhat misplaced Bill Murray.

Director: John McNaughton
Cast: Denise Richards, Neve Campbell, Kevin Bacon, Bill Murray, Matt Dillon

The last seduction must be one of the best thrillers during the 1990's with one of the best female acts I've ever seen. Linda Fiorentino does a remarkable job as the femme fatale stealing her husband's drug money. It's all about lies, taking advantage of people and hidden secrets in "The Last Seduction". Bill Pullman plays a, for him, interesting character as the foiled husband trying to track down his wife. But it's Peter Berg, who plays the young man falling in love with Fiorentino, and Linda Fiorentino who steals this movie. Every scene with those two in entertains, both on a comedy and dramatic level with a great directorial hand by John Dahl. Peter Berg has an interesting face accompanied by a terrific sense for acting, giving his character the extra sensitive touch it requires. This is a movie that will stand the test of time, and the theme is universal. Greed and betrayal walks hand in hand. Look for J.T Walsh as the lawyer.

Director: John Dahl

Cast: Linda Fiorentino, Peter Berg, J.T Walsh, Bill Pullman, Bill Nunn

There's a trend to make films about angels, messengers of death and the Evil one himself. Here's another example of Hollywood's obsession with the supernatural and how the culture clash happens when someonenot from this world is thrown into the pot of the big city. This could be Crocodile Dundee 3 except for the crocodiles themselves. William Parrish (Anthony Hopkins), industrial leader, father of 2, on the verge of dying, one night hears a voice inside his head. What to do and who was it? Death arrives a couple of hours later in the shape of Joe Black (Brad Pitt) knocking on the front door at a late dinner in Parrish's huge mansion. Of course Death falls in love with Parrish's youngest daughter, Susan, who of course is already with a cocky young executive at her dad's communication company. From here on the movie starts to play with the idea of what happens if Death starts to get human feelings. It's a little bit like Terminator 2 where Arnie's robot finds himself caring for the people he is supposed to protect. All this happens while Bill Parrish is trying to save his company on the last days of his life, saving his life monument and besides his daughters, the only positive thing he's done in his life.

Hopkins is by far the film's best actor but this is not a very good movie. It lacks from conflict, it's too much of City of Angels and not enough of The Devil's advocat's provocativeness. Director Martin Brest has made wonderful movies such as "Scent of a woman" and "Midnight run prior to this rather dull flick. It's not surprising the pseudonym Alan Smithee is attached to this movie. All in all, Brad Pitt lovers will cherish "Meet Joe Black" because of his "cute" hair but anyone who wants something mind challening or remotely intriguing watch something else.

Director: Martin Brest, Alan Smithee
Cast: Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins

The 19th Bond movie has no surprises worth mentioning and uses the same old formula as earlier bondmovies. Ingridients such as nuclear weapons, luscious braindead babes, superhuman baddies and state of the art gadgets makes it predictable as snow melting in the sun. Robert Carlyle plays the villain who can't feel pain due to a bullet in his head, trying to set off a nuclear blast in a submarine (heard it before?). Sophie Marceau is the femme fatale, beautiful and deadly, who has a few hidden cards up her sleeve. Judi Dench plays M yet again, this time getting involved in the action a lot more than in prior Bondmovies. Then we have Denise Richards as the nuclear expert(!). She's so breathtakingly bad it's almost worth the ticket just to see her "act". It's not as bad as Tomorrow never dies or Goldeneye and this movie has a couple of outstanding action sequences, the boatchase on the Thames comes to mind but other than that "The world is not enough" seems to be more of an excuse to show off cool products from companies such as BMW rather than be a good bondmovie. I miss the days of Spectre and Jaws.

Pierce Brosnan is great looking and just as charming as before, but he lacks the kind of raw edge that Dalton and Connery had, he's simply too cute for the role in my humble opinion. He does carry a tux great though and shoots off blinding smiles like he was in an "instant whitening" commercial. The director Michael Apted makes the most of a script that hasn't enough twists, turns nor uniqueness to make it good and no blame should be laid on him.

"The world is not enough" was to become Desmond Llewellyn's last Bondmovie as he was killed in a car accident not long after it premiered in Sweden.

Director: Jon Amiel
Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Denise Richards, Robert Carlyle, Judi Dench, Sophie Marceau, Desmond Llewellyn, John Cleese

If you're gonna watch one movie this year, watch the Sixth sense starring an unusually modest and down to earth Bruce Willis. India born director/writer M Night Shyamalan comes off with THE surprise hit of the year with a very slowpaced and carefully shaped picture about ghosts. Bruce Willis does his best acting job so far as the troubled child psychologist Malcolm Crowe, trying to deal with his maritial problems by helping a young boy Cole Sear, excellently portrayed by Haley Joel Osment, dealing with visions of dead people and fears about his security.

The movie takes its time to set up the plot and characters, something not too common these days, it also provides you with a portion of chocking images that will make you jump in your seats, but they're used sparsely and never gets in the way of the story. Everything in the movie moves with a slowpace, the score works as background and atmosphere music working very well with the acting and editing. The film's biggest asset though is the acting of young Haley Joel Osment as Cole Sear. He comes off with one of the best acting achievements I've seen in years. Haley was first seen as Forrest Gump's son back in 1994 and if he isn't Oscar nominated this year as best supporting actor or best actor I'll personally abuse the Academy. The reason why this film works is because you can feel the angst and fear of little Cole, this thanks to Osment's Oscar worthy performance. Finally a movie where you actually care for the characters.

Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Cast: Haley Joel Osment, Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, M. Night Shyamalan

In "Se7en" and "The Game", director David Fincher dealt with issues like absolution and sacrifices. In his latest movie Fight club he paints a landscape of alienation, loneliness, "controlled" violence and the decay of western culture. Serious issues. We get to meet an unnamed young man, Edward Norton, alone in the big city who goes to different crisis groups just to belong and fit in somewhere. He is the epitomy of society's consumption and pop cultural trivialities and he meets Tyler Durden, (Brad Pitt). Durden convinces him that he needs to break out of his way of living, buying furniture at IKEA for instance and go back to nature. They start to bond and forms the first Fight club. No more than 50 members are allowed in one fight club so after a while other fight clubs starts showing up all over the country. An underground movement has started. The creators are looked upon as Jesus figures or even Hitlerfigures and the snowball effect is soon spinning out of control. Tyler Durden leads his disciples to terrorist acts against the commercial world out there, blowing up stores etc.

"Fight club" has been branded "the world's most dangerous movie" by some. Why, is for me a mystery. It can't be because of the violence, because it's more appauling than glittering. Fascist like underground movements already exists today, so it can't be that either. The ideas about having a revolution against the consumption society isn't too groundbreaking, hence this movie will probably not start any riots anywhere. So it's clearly a marketing trick. Danger sells! The first 30 minutes are clearly the film's highlight, Norton going to crisis groups to bond and feel warmth and sympathy says more about the society of today than anything else in the movie. The second half loses its charm trying to be too quirky and smart for its own good, although there's a nice little twist in the plot in the dying minutes that'll leave you thinking about what you've seen prior to this revelation. All in all, Fight club will make you think about how people easily can be mislead by "prophets", we see it everyday, neo nazis, religious sects, but it's not a movie that'll blow your mind away but still it provokes from thinking by you. Watch "A clockwork orange" instead.

Director: David Fincher
Starring: Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf

Captain John Boyd (Guy Pearce)is promoted captain for bravery in combat in the Mexican-American war, but soon a general realizes it was because of cowardice that he survived the battle and sends him to a remote outpost in the wilderness, Fort Spencer. The soldier fort is occupied by a bunch of military outcasts led by a Colonel Hart (Jeffrey Jones).
One night an exhausted and terrified stranger (Robert Carlyle) stumbles upon the fort and tells a horrific story about people having to eat human flesh in order to survive from starvation. The soldiers goes on a mission to try and save the people who's still alive. But things are not what they seem to be.

Director Antonia Bird was the genius behind the very emotional and moral questioning "Priest", also with Robert Carlyle. In "Ravenous" she continues to explore the human morality and comes up with a graphic and violent piece of movie. It's a bit like "Dances with wolves" meets "The texas chainzaw massacre", people with weak stomaches beware.
This is a movie who will probably make you feel sick because of all the blood and gory details, but it's also a portrait of human sacrifices and survival that most likely will fascinate you at the same time.
It's not easy to put a label on "Ravenous". Its form is closer to thriller than to adventure, it's both drama and action moulded together and more than once you get the feeling you're watching a 3rd sequel of Evil Dead.

So what works and does not work in "Ravenous"? Both the cinematography and original score, by Michael Nyman and Damon Alburn from Blur, are top notch and serves its purpose very well, especially the guitar parts performed and written by Alburn adding a twisted satirical touch to the movie. Sometimes one can't help to think it's all too very much unbelievable and it's easy for a movie like this to turn into a pathetic piece of gore and sleaze fiest, but Antonia Bird manages to be both sadistically funny and breathtakingly violent without overstepping the boundaries of becoming slapstick.
I'm not sure whether the indian myth "Wendigoo" is real or not, but it works as a nice little catalyst and mystic folklore. One can't help to think what you would do if you were put in the same situation of starving to death. It doesn't carry much reality a la "Alive" but its fast tempo and detail in gore livens things up for the viewer. It's not flawless, some of the character development is a tad unbelievable and it sometimes takes some shortcuts in the story, seems like the makers had a problem of having the film flow in a good and thrilling pace, but all in all "Ravenous" comes out as a positive surprise and Antonia Bird will be a very exciting director to follow in the next coming years.

Director: Antonia Bird
Cast: Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, Jeffrey Jones, David Arquette

I went to see this movie with no big expectations, sure, a movie with Matt Damon, Jude Law and Cate Blanchett is bound to be one of great acting and with satisfactory amounts of drama. With Anthony Mingella ("The English Patient") the directing craftsmanship was there as well. As for the plot and premise, poor but very talented guy is hired by rich man to find his son soon overtaking his identity in order to protect himself. It could be taken from a psychology book dealing with split personalities and finding your true self and it works very well in this movie.

Matt Damon plays Tom Ripley, a human chameleon who's hired by a very rich gentleman, played by James Rebhorn, to find his runaway son, Dickie (Jude Law) now living in Italy. Tom instantly befriends Dickie by stating that he used to know Dickie from their university time back in the States. Dickie can't remember him but soon accepts the newcomer and they start to bond together and forms a close relationship hanging out at jazzbars.
Tom even charms Dickie's girlfriend Marge, Gwyneth Paltrow.
But after a while Dickie soon starts to get tired of Tom always being around him, ultimately blowing his top about it and disasters follows.

Minghella has done a great job creating a subdued drama thriller which works on both levels very good, especially the dramatic moments such as the interaction between Law and Damon in all of their scenes together. Damon's Ripley is a likeable villain challenging the viewer not being sure whether to condemn or feel sorry for him.
It's not a clear cut fight between good and evil, but about trying to fit in and be liked by other people. Minghella lets the actors have their freedom and letting the story breath with long sequences of John Seale's breathtaking images accompanied by Gabriel Yared's Oscar nominated ethnical original score.
It sometimes drags, especially in the long 2nd act, but overall the pace of the movie is working well. But the best part of it is that Minghella doesn't underestimate the viewer's ability to think for themselves and be challenged by the not so mainstream character developments. Too bad Cate Blanchett is wasted though, she should've swapped roles with Gwyneth Paltrow, but kudos to Damon, Law and Philip Seymour Hoffman, who always manages to add a quirky and insane touch to his roles and his achievement in The talented Mr Ripley is no exclusion from that fact.

Director: Anthony Minghella
Cast: Matt Damon, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman, James Rebhorn, Philip Baker Hall.

Ridley Scott's "Gladiator" is the first major motion picture since the days of "Cleopatra" and "Spartacus" which deals with the Roman empire. I'm not counting "Caligula" as one since it's only a big budgeted porno flick. Even though "Gladiator" was made with lots of CGI effects the creators gets away with it simply because they are so well made.
They're not as animated looking as they were in "Titanic" or in "Star wars Episode 1", and the detailing is top notch. There are a couple of breathtaking shots outside the Colosseum which makes you believe you're actually there in person and believe that was the way it actually looked like.

Aussie Russell Crowe (LA Confidential, Romper stomper) portrays hugely respected Roman general Maximus who after Caesar Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) dies are sentenced to death by his son Commudus (Joaquin Phoenix).
Maximus manages to escape and later ends up as a gladiator with an ex-gladiator, Proximo (Oliver Reed in his final part). In the meantime Commodus slaughters Maximus' wife and kid. Thanks to his military training and leader instinct, Maximus manages to stay alive and after a couple of months he and his gladiatorcompatriots are sent to Rome to fight in the Colosseum. He sees his chance to avenge Commodus.

Although there are a couple of historical inaccuracies it feels genuine and real. Maybe the film is a little bit too formualic and too Hollywoodish, concentrating on plot rather than character, but it's so spectacular it doesn't irritate you as a viewer. The introductory battlescene is a tour de force by director Ridley Scott and cinematrographer John Mathieson which sets the tone of the whole film. Scott is one of the most cinematograpy minded directors around and one can always identify a film of his by the cinematography. He's working with a lot of deep focusing and warm colours. Gladiator reminds very much of one of his other period pieces "1492", which also used the same kind of lighting and colour enhancement.

Scott's direction never gets heavyhanded, keeping a pace wherein the dialogue and acting scenes never seems long and boring.
Of course, it does contain of the same long monologues as in "Ben Hur" and "Spartacus", but without the preaching and silliness those movies sometimes carries.

The violence is very graphical, but seldom unnecessary and 9 out 10 times serves a purpose. Kill or be killed, survival of the fittest, a universal and everlasting theme spiced with a very subtle love story, which never really blossoms, and some political backstabbing. It's all pure entertainment though, never pretending to be anything else and therefore it's working so well.
Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix as Commudus both gives powerful performances, but the big stars in this movie are director Scott and the producers, among them is Steven Spielberg. It's one of those productions where you as a bystander feels like you've been hit by that passing train. The score by Hans Zimmer enhances every scene and never becomes too intimidating which could've easily ruined the experience. His score resembles a lot to Vangelis' masterful score for Scott's "1492".
Gladiator is a must see and will for sure hoist in a couple of technical Oscarnominations next year.

Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Russell Crowe, Richard Harris, Joaquin Phoenix, Oliver Reed, Derek Jacobi, Connie Nielsen, Djimon Hounsou.

Johnny Depp stars as Dean Corso, a rare book buff, hired to find the last two copies of a book called "The book of the nine doors" which allegedly is an instrument to a path to Satan. Corso travels to Europe where he learns that more people is searching for the books. The plot thickens.

When Polanski fled the US borders back in the mid 70's to get away from the US law he must've thought that not only his presence wouldn't be welcomed back but also his movies. Yet he's still making movies for the American market with American actors and actresses but it's rather obvious that his body of work post-70 has fallen somewhat flatfaced. With "The Ninth gate" he returns to the theme of the ocult and devil worshipping a la his masterpiece "Rosemary's baby". Unfortunately "The ninth gate" has nothing of the latter movies' qualities and originality.
It's not helping that Polanski keeps on casting his spouse Emmanuelle Seigner in his movies either (she was in Polanski's "Bitter moon" and "Frantic"). Her lack of screen personality and talent as an actress is blatant and one can't help to laugh whenever she opens her mouth. Depp tries his best in the lead role and isn't bad, it's just that the script is stupid and Polanski more than once slacks behind the camera. This is "Rosemary's baby" meets "Frantic" and the end product is nothing but a pathetic attempt of a former champion's shot at the title again. Director: Roman Polanski Cast: Johnny Depp, Frank Langella, Lena Olin, Emmanuelle Seigner, James Russo

This is the latest big budget bonanza from the king of "brainless" action spectacles, Jerry Bruckheimer the mastermind producer behind monster box office hits such as "Top gun", "The rock" and "Armageddon".
This time a retired master car thief, Randall "Memphis" Raines (Nicholas Cage), has to steal 50 top of the art cars in 24 hours in order to save his little brother Kip (Giovanni Rbisi) from being killed by a British psycho cardealer after fucking up a cardelivery for him.
Safe to say Memphis reluctantly again starts doing what he does best, steal cars and the rest of the movie is a rollercoaster when it comes to displaying cliche after cliche. Of course there's a love interest for Memphis, a fellow master carsnatcher called Sway (Angelina Jolie) who teams up with him again, along with other old friends.

Bruckeimer this time hired "Kalifornia" director Dominic Sena to give the film some edge but the end result is nothing but horrifically unexciting and a more predictable and flatfaced movie couldn't have been made. The characters are so unbelievable and one dimensional and not even a character actor like Robert Duvall, who plays Memphis substitute dad and mentor, delivers. There isn't a hint of character development whatsoever and what is Frances Fisher doing in the movie? She has about 2 lines and then just stands there as a supportbra with nothing to do other than to stand by her man.
The carchases, that this movie assumably lives highly on, are nothing but disappointing and dull. "Ronin", even with its flaws, is a much more adrenaline rusher than "Gone in 60 seconds".
Brucheimer ensures the audience of the usual commercial like cinematography with its dawn lighting and endless shots of people walking side by side with the hero leading them on. There isn't a single surprising reversal in the script and after the first 2 carsteals you're bored to death and that's not the end of the misery! The completely clicheridden and predictable ending is laughable to say the least and you ask yourself who likes these movies? Bruckheimer is the worst example of Hollywood moviemoguls who treats the audience like 10 year olds who can't think for themselves with over the top and glossy looking flicks who's so easily digested you could watch 20 of them and not remember any of them afterwards.

Cage's choice of roles lately must be highly questioned. "Snake eyes", "The Rock" and "Con Air" are movies which offers nothing but big explosions and one dimensional characters which seldom or never develops anything but scars and wounds on the characters from fistfights. Cage's taste for money is as clear as the Bruckheimer's view of the movie going audience today and Sean Penn is spot on when accusing Cage for being greedy. The original "Gone in 60 seconds" can only be better than this version and you don't have to be insulted by the Bruckheimer assembly line productions. And please, stop using British actors as baddies in the future!

Director: Dominic Sena Cast: Nicholas Cage, Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Rbisi, Vinnie Jones, Robert Duvall, Frances Fisher, Delroy Lindo.

When a "maiden guy" is being whiped out by one of the maffia's retainers, Ghost Dog, who's living as a modern day samurai, the chaser suddenly becomes the chased when the mobsters tries to kill off their hired gun. Ghost dog's passion for carrier pigeons is being targeted when they fail to locate the mysterious inner city samurai and decides to go after the mafiosos before they get to him.

With a flowing cameratechnic Jarmusch paints a poetic image of Ghost Dog and his expertise in martial arts mixing it with gritty urban city life.
It's clear that Jarmusch wanted to get away from the stereotypes often found in movies that has the mafia in it. There are no Italian opera music nor any scenes with pasta eating mobsters. Instead they listen to rap music, with a hilarious scene with Sonny Valerio (Cliff Gorman) in a bathroom rapping, and mobsters watching cartoons everytime the opportunity is at hand. Even the character Ghost Dog is a contradiction of his own, a big afro American male indoctrined by Japanese culture and approach to life.

Jarmusch sets up the story nicely and then lets the events unfold without rushing things on and what's most satisfying is that he never indulges himself with clicheed action sequences a la Van Damme. Ghost Dog's backstory is only mentioned with a flashback when being bullied and almost killed by a streetgang and is saved by one of the mobsters, Louie who after several years after is contacted by Ghost Dog again this time to being offered his services as a hit man.
Whitaker always manages to give his roles a human touch with his round and childlike face, something that works especially well in this movie. Sometimes it's desperately close to become a pastisch of old martial arts movies but Jarmusch manages to keep the balance right between drama and action thriller.
Some of the plot is a little bit unbelievable, for instance does it seem highly unlikeable to keep a character like Ghost Dog secretive in what seems to be a very closed in neighbourhood. Especially when all the "brothers" greets you with "word is word, Ghost Dog" and other catchphrases like that.

The pigeons is clearly a homage to "On the waterfront" and Ghost Dog is the same kind of outsider as Terry Malloy is in "On the waterfront" with the similar surroundings. "Ghost Dog" is a nice little urban murder tale with and outstanding performance from Whitaker, moving like a cat despite his huge body mass, and a clearcut direction by Jarmusch always knowing where to go with the story.

Director: Jim Jarmusch
Cast: Forest Whitaker, Cliff Gorman, Henry Silva

"The red violin" opens with a tracking shot of newly built violins hanging from the roof in a 17th century instrument workshop in Cremona, Italy. It's the shop of instrumentbuilder Niccolo Busotti, a demanding and volatile boss who smashes one of his worker's newly built violin when it's not up to his standards.
There is one violin though that he's more than satisfied with, "The red violin". The violin itself seems to carry a spell, bringing death and sorrows to anyone who owns it or is closely attached to it.
As the story progresses people die but the violin remains throughout 4 centuries, changing owners anywhere from Austria to Communist China during the Cultural revolution.
The film is told in 5 different stories, with an auction in modern day Montreal working as frame story and the director cuts back to it as an interchange to the different period sequences. The most powerful and effective story is the one taking place in China under the Mao regime, with a strong political message about oppression and censorship.

The structure of the film resemebles Tarantino's or Altman's films using time lapses and intercutting different stories weaving them together in a rather clever little way. Sometimes it seems as we're missing out on too many time periods where we have no idea what is happening to the violin, but overall the result is more than satisfying. The plot itself is similar to both "20 dollars" and "The ninth gate", people trying to get a hold of a valueable artifact and an item changing owners over a long period of time, also showing people's greed and obsession over rare things. A phenomenon as steadfast throughout the history of mankind as growing old or in this case, not growing old because of a violin.

"The red violin" surely will attract not only arthouse members but also the popcorn eating mass because it casts Samuel L Jackson, playing the violinexpert mr Morritz, in one of the leading roles and even if his input in the movie is sparsely compared to many of his other work, he is the big name who's gonna attract a larger audience. Greeta Scacchi is also cast in this film with her obligatory nude scene. She works well as a novel writing mistress of violin virtuoso Frederick Pope, who is the "lucky" owner of the violin for some time.
Francois Girard, the director, uses 5 different languages (Chinese, English, French, Italian, German) never compromising with the authenticity of the story even though it's a made up one. This would never be accepted by a major Hollywood studio where subtitles are treated like the plague and it's quite refreshing to actually hear the characters speak their native language for a change.
The original score by John Corigliano won an Oscar edging out my personal favourite "The talented mr Ripley", but it was worth it I can say now having seen both films. The Philharmonic Orchestra is by the way conducted by Esa Pekka Salonen, who used to direct the Stockholm's Philharmonics for some years and now works with the LA Philharmonics.

The actors and actresses all makes a good job of making the most out of their characters' limited screentime, but the one who stands out from the crop must be young Christoph Koncz playing Kaspar, an Austrian wonder boy who actually plays the violin in the film. Samuel L Jackson has toned down his cool guy approach a couple of notches but still has the authority of his persona carries, but he can't get away from his nobility image, something he probably will always have.
"The red violin" is made with passion and pride for an instrument and the music that can be played on it, it truly is a film to remember.

Director: Francois Girard
Cast: Samuel L Jackson, Greta Scacchi, Christoph Koncz

RKO 281 was the production number for first time director Orson Welles' famous and hugely acclaimed masterpiece "Citizen Kane".
Director Benjamin Ross, who directed the odd but very good "The Young poisoners handbook", here takes on the daunting task of giving us a movie about the making of "Citizen Kane".
RKO 281 starts off with a young Orson Welles celebrating his birthday with his mother, just like in "Citizen Kane" with a young Charles Foster Kane leaving his parents' home in early years.
We get to see how Welles the filmmaker pushes his filmcrew and friends to the edge trying to achieve greatness with "Citizen Kane". Meanwhile, William Randolph Hearst, the powerful newspaper tycoon tries his best to stop the release of the movie who clearly is a not so nice portray of himself and the life he leads.
But not only Hearst himself is working against Welles, but also the people in the moviebusiness, afraid of a lawsuit from Hearst, are against the whole project.
In a great scene with Welles shooting the famous office scene with Joseph Cotten we see a good example of the true visionary artistry of Welles digging out a whole in the stagefloor just to get the right angle for the camera. One simple scene is also shot 56 times, showing how petty Welles could be (Stanley Kubrick anyone?), but also showing how he never compromised with his work, always going for the perfect pronounciation of the dialogue.
But this is not a movie who is about good and bad, Welles and Hearst. Welles persona is portrayed as a manipulating one as well as a fierce workoholic who demands the same commitment of his crew as his own. Hearst is also not only being portrayed as a evil business tycoon but a man who likes to dance with his girlfriend in the huge rooms of his castle, a man who has a passion for art. Nothing is black and white, the characters are honestly portrayed with their own faults and bad sides.

With the 2nd World war raging in Europe, the fear of anything foreign and anti semitism are always around the corner, Hearst threatens the Hollywood moguls, lead by Louis B Mayer, with revealing their jewish heritage to the American public if they allow the film to open.
In a speech to RKO's stockholders, Welles gives a terrific speech comparing Hearst to Hitler, with Hearst trying to suffocate the freedom of speech.
Hearst's aquisitions of rival newspapers is similar to Hitler's takings of a number of European countries, something which is working very effectively as a characterisation. RKO 280 also deals with fame and how much the public actually has the right to know about a person's life, something Hearst contradicts himself of when objecting against. He is after all the owner of a number of newspapers printing news and things about people.

Liev Schreiber playing Orson Welles does a fine job, showing Welles' nearly fanatical sides and chaotical ways of making his first movie, playing his cards to his own self service and almost abandoning his friend and screenwriter Herman "Mank" Mankievicz played by a, by his standards, down to earth John Malkovich. The old newspaper millionaire is portrayed by James Cromwell, who after "Babe" has delivered several fine performances, this is no exception.
Even the otherwise so dull and bad Melanie Griffith pulls it off as Hearst's love interest Marion Davies and Roy Schieder as Welles's boss George Schraeder is equally as good. The movie never loses the viewer's interest with the scenes from the actual shooting of "Citizen Kane" as highlights. And of course we get to know where Welles got the mysterious uttering of "Rosebud" from, and it's not what you thought it was.
There are flaws, such as the ways of trying to make some parts of the movie with suspense playing on will the movie be released or not, something we all know the result of. One wishes it could've been a little bit longer, giving Hearst v Hollywood subplot more space, also having more scenes from the making of the movie.
This is however a entertaining and honest view on the backstory of possibly the most important American film ever to be made.

Director: Benjamin Ross

Cast: Liev Schreiber, James Cromwell, John Malkovich, Melanie Griffith,
Brenda Blethyn, Roy Scheider, David Suchet.

When "Primal Fear" was released it was supposed to be another Richard Gere success, a perfect award vehicle for the famous star, but the filmgoers
was to be presented with a new rising star, Edward Norton making his big screen debut. It was Norton who ended up with the Oscar nomination, best supporting actor. Since then he's made a number of movies which he has continued to shone in, amongst them "Everyone says I love you", "Fight club" and this one, "American History X" for which he was rewarded with yet another Oscar nomination, this time for the big one, Best Actor. He's been hailed as the new Robert DeNiro, shaping his body for what the role requires, here adding 20 pounds of muscles to get the authencity as leading skinhead Derek Vinyard.

In Venice Beach, California, a gang of neo nazi skinheads terrorises the neighbourhood and its ethnic minorities. The gang is lead by intelligent but lethal Derek Vinyard, whose father was killed by an Afro American gang member while doing his duty as a fireman trying to put out a fire in a black community.
The hatred grows within Derek and soon after, he's transformed into a cleanshaven and powerly built skinhead trying to recruit followers to local nazi führer Cameron Alexander's troups.
Derek's little brother Danny looks up at him with adoring eyes and when Derek's sent to Chino after killing 2 Afro American guys trying to steal his van, Danny himself is taken up by Cameron's nazi boys and starts hanging out with them.
After 3 years Derek's released from prison as a changed man, not wanting to have something to do with his past and his old skinhead friends and now he sees his oldself in young Danny. He now not only has to sort out his old past but his brother too.

Edward Norton is rumoured to have re-edited the movie increasing his own screen time, and director Tony Kaye then trying to remove his own credit and doing an Alan Smithee. Kaye also had been fighting the studio when they insisted on casting Norton in the lead character, Kaye simply thinking Norton was too skinny and whimpy for playing a brutal skinhead. If any of this seriously effected the end product is uncertain, but one thing is for sure, Norton has done a great acting job and deserved his Oscarnomination. There are many serious issues being handled in "American History X", apart from the blatant obvious, racism, anti semitism, growing up and parent responsibility, it also gives a firm kick in the gonads to the American penitentiary system with corrupt guards looking the other way.
The democratic society which we live in, whether it's in USA or Sweden, sometimes shoots itself in the foot by allowing un democratic movements to flurish and spread its dark message. In "American history X" we get a full display on what kind of ideas that goes through the head of a firm believer of nazism.
In one particular scene at the dinner table with the Vinyard family (after the father's death) and a teacher dating their mom, Murray, (who also happens to be of jewish decent) Derek's ideas and his nazi ideology are forcefully spoken.
It's a dramatic but also very hazardous scene. Kaye is dangerously close to flirting with the very same nazi ideas he's supposed to be condemning. Now I don't believe for a minute that Kaye shares the same views as Derek. Murray is left stuttering and whincing
when Derek bombards him with nazi propaganda and critical views on the racepolicy in USA and finally hits out at Murray himself and his Jewish background driving him away from the family altogether.
All this isn't as easy as black and white though.
There ARE problems within ethnic minorities and this goes for all over the world. The crime rate IS high, one can not deny that and Kaye tempts us to agree with Derek's speeches, luring us to root for him instead of condemning him.
It's a risktaking, and Kaye almost pulls it off if it wasn't for Murray whimpering away leaving noone with the ability to stand up to Derek, except for his sister who tries to hit him with a bat, which hardly will convince Derek otherwise.
There's also a keyscene which shows how Derek's dad plants the racist seed in his head. Uptil then the dad has been painted as a heroic family man and determined firefighter, but that particular scene tarnishes that image of him succesfully, giving us the most important lesson of today: First and foremost it's the parents' responsibility to raise a kid. This time the excuse of a not present father as the rolemodel doesn't apply, he was there, it was just that he himself had rotten ideas.

The format of the movie is that of using lots and lots of flashbacks (all in black and white) revealing background information and character.
It doesn't work satisfactory enough though, often breaking up and making the storytelling coming to too many halts. The flashbacks are also too long for being so many and is a narrative blunder.
But the biggest flaw of the movie is the character development of Derek Vinyard. After 3 years in prison he returns to society and Venice Beach with the mission to cut off his past, his physical appearance has changed with him growing out his hair, and apparentely he's now come to terms that what he believed in before he was sent to Chino was terribly wrong. Now. now, we're talking about THE skinhead in Venice, a firm believer of the superiority of the master race. Of course, it can happen, it has been happening over in Sweden the last couple of years. Die hard nazis has left the very organisations they formed, breaking with their "comrades in arms", but in this case it's too unbelievable and doesn't make any sense at all.
Vinyard is first disgusted by his fellow nazi pals in prison when they are trading cigarettes and drugs with some of the ethnic minorities they're supposed to fight outside prison. According to Vinyard they aren't real nazis.
This is about the same time when he gets closer and closer to an Afro American prisoner which he is doing the laundry with, hypcrite anyone?
After being sexually molested by his former nazi pals he breaks down when his old teacher Sweeney (who also happens to be Afro American) and begs him to get him out prison. It's a fiesta of contradictions and unbelievable developments.
Why would Derek suddenly abandon his old ideas and lifestyle just because of this? Sure, he has a lot of time on his hands to think things through, but the main reason is that he becomes friends with an Afro American guy who shows him that they're not as bad as he first thought. But shouldn't his relation with Sweeney already have made that clear to him?
Also, the reason why he broke with his nazi pals in prison was because they weren't die hard enough not that Derek himself had softened up regarding his beliefs.
"American history X" is an important and emotionally high charged movie who sometimes feels as if it's taking too many plot shortcuts.
The cast is sublime though with Beverly D'Angelo as his strained mother, Fairuza Balk as Derek's fanatic girlfriend, Edward Furlong as the adoring and coming of age little brother and Stacy Keach as Cameron Alexander. I however recommend it and if it manages to change the mind of only one individual it's served its purpose.

Director: Tony Kaye
Cast: Edward Norton, Edward Furlong, Beverly D'Angelo, Elliot Gould,
Ethan Suplee, Stacy Keach, Fairuza Balk

4 American soldiers embark on a mission to get their hands on huge amounts of gold after having "survived" the Gulf war in Kuwait. Somewhere out in the Iraqi desert Saddam has a bunker that's supposed to hold treasures that the Iraqi soldiers have stolen from the Kuwaiti people while invading the country.
At the beginning the soldiers, played by George Clooney, Spike Jonze, Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube, is driven by their greed joking around about which cars they're gonna buy when coming back to USA, soon they discover how strange the post-war situation is having to witness Iraqi soldiers slaughtering their own countrymen who is anti-Saddam. The soldiers' consciences makes them change their plans and also questioning themselves as soldiers and human beings.

The Gulf war was hugely covered by the media, with every newsreel having an effect on the public's opinion back in the States.
It was surgically clinical warfare with laserguided smartbombs,
which afterwards have been proved to many have hit the wrong targets and never were that efficient as the military leaders wanted them to look like.
The 4 soldiers are followed by a female journalist, suspiciously similar to CNN's starreporter Christiane Amourpoor, risking life and limb to get the action at the front. As for the action itself, the Gulfwar was mainly fought by the pilots and tanks, not the ground troops, something that the film shows in a subtle but good way.
The scenes with the American soldiers dancing around at their camp and sunbathing looks more like clips from summercamps for adolescents rather than a armybase. There's also a scene where a party is being held in a tent,
resembling the partyscene in Oliver Stone's "Platoon" but without the psychological and absurd touch.
Our heros searching for the gold also shows their inexperience from combat by being excited like little kids when they see a dead soldier for the first time or while shooting at footballs tossed up in the air saying it's the first time they've fired their guns. John Huston's "Treasure of the Sierra Madres" has a similar storyline, greed being a driving factor and also a divider for friends being suspicious on each other although that particular theme isn't as obvious in "Three kings" as it is in Huston's masterpiece.

One of the Iraqi soldiers, incidentally the one torturing the Mark Wahlberg character, is the only Iraqi soldier who shows some sort of human empathy and emotion telling us about his background and how his family and hometown had been bombed by the Allied airforces. He also reveals that he was trained by the US military, something Wahlberg finds it hard to believe. It's a critical view on the war and hypocrisy of the US' international affairs that first educates and trains a foreign army just to years after attacking it saying it's the root of all evil. There's also a rather nasty scene were an Iraqi soldier executes a defenseless woman with a headshot, resembling a very famous photograph from the Vietnam war. The whole shot is filmed with long cuts and slowmotion giving it a sense of time lapsing giving it a more psychological feeling.
This scene is a keyscene in the plot, when the American soldiers witnessing this starts to what their priorities would be.
After the seizefire it was forbidden for Allied troops to get involved with the Iraqi troops as they were systematically executing Iraqi citizens who were anti-Saddam, raising the stakes for our soldiers knowing they could face court marshalls for disobeying orders.

"Three kings" is a mix of all sorts of genres, comedy, war, drama, action. It starts off as a satire, M.A.S.H in the Gulf, then evolves into an action flick and ends up as a dramamovie with a profound human message.
Director David O Russell ("Flirting with disaster", "Spanking the monkey") shoot the movie with an energetic handheld camera giving it a documentary feeling and using a grainier filmstock. One could ask a little more in terms background of the leading characters, especially on the Clooney one, fledging it out more in order to understand what drives him. The greed that drives them in the beginning soon turns into empathy for the refugees, but it's the very same greed that knots the story up in the end. The actors all do a good job with special kudos to Wahlberg and Spike Jonze, who also directed "Being John Malkovich".
The absurdity of this movie is that Saddam Hussein is still at power in Iraq, the Allies are still bombing him and Iraqi citizens are still being slaugthered by their "leader".
The Gulf war might not be the most interesting war to make the movie about. Both the Vietnam war and World war 2 have its romantic and psychological ingredients not to mention it's huge impact on the domestic American politics and thinking of the common man.
The Gulf war's effects has not yet been fully seen with Saddam still running the show and furthermore the "surgically clinical" strikes has made war more like a TV game, making it hard for people to feel empathy or any kind of emotion.

Director: David O Russell
Cast: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Spike Jonze, Ice Cube

Indian director Shekhar Kapur gives us a honest, violent and fascinating film about Queen Elizabeth's reign during the 16th century.

Cate Blanchett's tour de force as "the virgin queen" is nothing but masterful and she of course should've been rewarded with the best Actress in a leading role Oscar instead of the, in comparison, pale Gwyneth Paltrow in 1998.
The film begins when Queen Mary Tudor dies and the only one left to inherit the throne is her half sister Elizabeth who was fruit of King Henry VIII's out of marriage affair several years earlier. She's a "bastardchild" who must be stopped to take the throne. The Catholic church is furious over the idea to have a queen with non royal blood streaming through her veins, not to mention she's being a Protestant as well.
At the time Elizabeth's named queen of England the rift between the Catholic church and the Protestants is greater than ever and the new queen is trying to both fight off domestic enemies as well as foreign ones. England is in such a poor state that she's told there's no money in the treasury at all and any enemy could easily invade the country. She's also in love with a Lord Robert, played by Joseph Fiennes, who now fears that Elizabeth will distance herself to him as a queen after having an affair with her before her taking the throne.
With wars and plots to kill her lurching behind every corner the queen must deal with her enemies with the same violence and forcefullness as her enemies and finds the perfect tool for it in a former exiled Lord, Sir Francis Walsingham (Geoffrey Rush), to do her dirty work.

For being a costume drama "Elizabeth" is much more bold in its form compared to other periodpieces. The cinematography is raw and "modern" almost in the class of Kenneth Branagh's "Hamlet", using a more psychological editing and cameraplacing than what's usual for films in the same genre. In one scene we see how Elizabeth is practicing her lines before going to talk in front of the Catholic church representatives. Here the editing is fast and modern, almost resembling a Quentin Tarantino film.
The hypocrisy of the Catholic church is attacked as we hear how one of the Catholic bishops is ridiculed in public over having divorced two wives and now being in marriage with a 3rd. This after having attacked the queen herself for being frigid and having an affair with a married man. There are also some scenes in the Vatican and the Pope signing a paper greenlighting the assassination on the queen. This is nothing else but cold hearted murder, with the Catholic church working as the instigators of the violence.
It's the start of an era, Queen Elizabeth went on to reign for another 40 years, being known as "the virgin Queen" as she never married a man but always stayed loyal to the crown and country not letting love interfering with her ruling of England, or if she just couldn't get laid.

Today, several centuries later, many of the old rules and laws of how royals should live and act is still present. They're being followed and scrutinized like popstars and celebrities, but they don't have to fear being banishes to the Towern or worse,
having their heads cut off for adultery.

"Elizabeth" works so well because the drama and story always moving forward, always raising the stakes, accompanied by outstanding performances by Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Joseph Fiennes and Christopher Ecclestone as the ruthless and plotting Duke of Norfolk. Even Eric Cantona is believable as the French Ambassador, but I suspect that his agent worked his ass off to get Cantona this role, I doubt he was the first one the makers had in mind for that part.
The characters develops pleasingly with Elizabeth going from a scared girl to a hard but just queen who knows she must sacrifice some things in life in order to survive as both queen and person, and everyone who's been in love can feel nothing but sympathy for Lord Robert. This film is highly recommended.

Director: Shekhar Kapur
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Joseph Fiennes, Eric Cantona,
Christopher Ecclestone

The true story about American football coach Herman Boone, played by Denzel Washington, who's installed as the first African American coach for the TC Williams High school football team in the little town Alexandria, Virginia, in the early 70's.
He's picked over the existing and townfavourite white Coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton), the white high school players and the white community are outraged by the decision. At the same time black students have been allowed to integrate the local school and things are starting to boil over as the football season draws closer.

The producer behind this movie is none other than Jerry Bruckheimer. The man responsible for shallow, stupid and glossylooking movies such as "Con Air", "Armageddon", "Gone in 60 seconds" and "Top gun" to name a few. It's clear that with "Remember the Titans" he wants to be taken seriously making a smaller, serious and down to earth drama movie.
He hires Afro American director Boaz Yakin, superb actor Denzel Washington and leaves it at that probably thinking that's all he's got to do. Time to wait for the Oscar nominations.
However, this is nothing but a manipulating, melodramatic, intelligence insulting piece of crap. The director and screenwriter seems being in love with scenes where the "heroes" either breaks out singing or are greeted with the usual clicheed standing ovations.

The characterization and execution of the movie itself is only one knotch above the ones in "Armageddon" and if it wasn't for Denzel Washington and Will Patton it would've been unwatchable.
When there's the least hint of conflict or tension in the story it's smoothened out by the players starting to sing or giving some wise ass joke which doesn't pay off. Even the supposedly racial plot has to take a backseat after a promising beginning at a training camp. After that it becomes the usual "winning against all the odds" movie. Sure, that might be what happened, but is it that interesting? No. It's all so formulaic and safe it becomes duller than watching paint dry. It's all oversimplified, decades of racial thinking is suddenly gone topped by a pathetic scene where Boone's racist neighbours suddenly giving him a standing ovation after a successfull win.
Again, it might've happened, but not why just break it down, make it more effective by maybe having one of his neighbours coming over to him reluctantly giving him praise for his efforts? No, Bruckheimer's movies usually are like this. He seems to think that the people watching his productions can't take any sort of uncomfortability or risktaking. It's all pats on the backs for a job well done or rousing applauses so we really get the point of a hero's journey. I won't bother writing about any of the other actors in this movie simply because it's nothing to write about. The black players are of course portrayed as soulful brothers, nothing wrong with that mind you, but surely there must've been some rotten eggs amongst them too?
Stay away from this movie. It's a waste of your time.

Director: Boaz Yakin

The Manchurian candidate (1962)

During the Korean war in the 1950's a group of American soldiers are captured by their Communist counterpart. They're brainwashed by a Chinese Army psychologist making them believe they're in a hotel lobby and being part of a flowerconvention. Before they know it they're back in the States apparentely being rescued by Sgt. Raymond Shaw who receives the congressional medal of honor for his heroic act. Everything is fine and dandy until 2 of the soldiers being captured starts having the same recurring nightmare of them witnessing how Sgt. Shaw coldbloodily kills two of their fellow soldiers in the "hotel lobby" watched upon by various Communist officers and "flowerladies".
One of the soldiers having the nightmares, Major Ben Marco, starts to question whether this was just a dream or this actually happened back in Korea and contacts Sgt. Shaw, now living in New York City working for a leading newspaper.
Shaw's dominating and politically right wing mother (superbly acted by Angela Lansbury) is at the same time puppetmastering her husband, senator John Iselin. Iselin's a populistic far right demagog never missing an opportunity to lash out at the political establishment, and suspected communists in particular, all the time being puppeteered by Shaw's mother.
As Major Marco befriends Shaw again he witnesses how Shaw's triggered by a deck of cards to go into a hypnotic state. Marco must save his friend and at the same time find out who's behind the brainwash.

Released in 1962, 1 year before president Kennedy is murdered, "The Manchurian candidate" was soon taken off the cinema repertoar. It was seen as provocative and unsensitive because of its assasination plot, however there are stories saying it was taken off purely because of financial reasons. Sinatra was also a close friend to president Kennedy and he apparentely tried his best to keep it in the can. It was re released 25 years later in 1988 and is still regarded as one of the best political thrillers ever. Movies like "The parallax view" and "JFK" owes a lot to "The Manchurian candidate".
Director John Frankenheimer and screenwriter George Axelrod have turned Richard Condon's novel into a satirical, suspenseful and multilayered study in obsession, political paranoia and extremism.
It's both biting satire and effective drama at the same time, never letting one or the other take a backseat to plot nor the other way around. The excellence in the acting is first and foremost thanks to Lansbury, who's both sensitive and abusive, Sinatra, giving one of his best performances and Harvey as the manipulated and brainwashed Raymond Shaw. It's his character that moves us, and who change the most during the movie going from a bitter and badtempered GI Joe to a loveable, caring lover.
And in the end it's him we sympathize and share the pain with..

There are a couple of flaws. For instance the Asian characters doesn't look particularly Asian and a couple of confusing scenes when Shaw's hypnotisized but then suddenly acts normal again. We don't get much background information on major Marco other than that he's been in the army for most of his adult life. However none of this are any major flaws and doesn't get in the way of the story and the sheer power of its message is reason alone to see it.

Director: John Frankenheimer
Cast: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury, Janet Leigh

We all have hobbies, guilty pleasures, interests. Whether it's movies, literature, model planes or pets, we're passionate about it and can't understand why not everyone on this godforbidden planet shares the same interest for it. Cameron Crowe's interest happened to be music and as a teenager he was on the road with several famous bands, The Allman brothers and the Who, writing articles about them for The Rolling stone magazine.
In his latest film, which he directed and wrote, we get to follow young William Miller, a 15 year old rockmusiclover who gets a chance of touring with up and coming rocksensation Stillwater, when being hired by The Rolling stone to put together an article on them.
He meets a girl who calls herself a band aid, not a groupie, who religiously adores Stillwater "for their art" and "only gives blow-jobs". She goes by the nickname "Penny Lane" taken from the Beatles hit. She becomes somewhat of a guardian angel for William in the fast and furious rock 'n roll business, a role that's eventually reversed.
Back in William's hometown his protective and politically correct mother (Frances McDormand) anxiously sits by the phone awaiting William's promised calls and reassurances that he's not taking any drugs or doing any other "bad" activities. When she finally gets ahold of him she's far from convinced that's the case.
The band's lead guitarist, Russell, (Billy Crudup)is being predicted a great solo career and there are attempts to make him split up or leave the band, but the friendship between the bandmates is strong. William is sometimes left in the crossfire and as he tries to interview Russell he's taken on several small adventures where he learns what stardom and growing up are all about.

Crowe's script's smoothly and charming, trying and succeeding to capture William's search for his identity and love for the written word and music itself. It's apparent that Crowe has experienced the musicbusiness from William's point of view with nice tidbits here and there. He has an eye for details, both in character and story and successfully creates a feel-good and humoristic atmosphere, even when things are hotting up.
Being in a band myself I can relate to the arguements and bickering in the band but also the feeling of being part of a family where you travel and spend lots of time with people you share a common goal with, and Crowe comes off with an A in portraying the different situations a band can be in.
"Almost famous" is in the same vein as "High fidelity" and "The Commitments", lighthearted, funny and made with love towards the music and the ones involved in it, whether it's a recordstoreclerk, a rock journalist or a manager.

Both Kate Hudson as Penny Lane and Frances McDormand as William's concerned mother are both terrific, but the one who's this movie's heart is young Patrick Fugit as William on tour. One can't help but love this kid and his innocent looks having to stand face to face with some hardcase doormen and drugged up rockstars. The chemistry between him and Penny Lane is unbelievably present and one sympathies with them both as they struggle with their own problems as the story unfolds. And Philip Seymour Hoffman is hilarious as legendary rock journo "Lester Bangs" from the "Creem magazine". I want to mention Jason Lee as the lead singer of Stillwater too. I like this guy a lot. The first time I saw him was in Kevin Smith's "Mall rats" and he was one of the few things I liked about that movie. He later was one of many great things about Smith's follow up movie, "Chasing Amy" and Lee has come to embody smartassness and attitude since then.

This movie is about searching for one's true identity, being shaped by one's interests, believes and ambitions. Cameron Crowe made a good and fruitful choice when deciding to make movies and not pursuing a journalist career, something moviegoers all over the world should be thankful for.
His best movies uptil this one have been "Say anything", "Jerry Maguire" and "Singles", all of them being just as lighthearted, characterdriven comedy- dramas as"Almost famous", but this one excells them all. His narrative skills have improved, not that they were bad before, but here he manages to go the full distance.
There are no big flaws, the Russell Hammond character might be a little bit too likeable for being the lead guitarist. It would've been more interesting if he'd been a complete asshole and still become friends with William, but then I'm being very picky.
This is a must see and a must hear (There's some great music in it) for everyone who is in the need for a laughter or two and in the meantime being moved by a story that doesn't manipulate the viewer for sentimental reasons for a change.

As this is written "Almost famous" has been rewarded with two Golden Globes, Best comedy or musical and Best supporting actress (Kate Hudson).

Director: Cameron Crowe
Cast: Kate Hudson, Patrick Fugit, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jason Lee,
Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Anna Paquin, Fairuza Balk

10 years after Clarice Starling saves senator Catherine Martin's daughter and Hannibal Lecter escapes the Maryland police force Starling, now an honoured and respected FBI agent, is involved in a drug bust that goes terribly wrong. She's suspended by her bureau publically humiliated and castigated by the press.
Hannibal now living in Florence, Italy, using the name Fell contacts Starling sending her an emotional letter expressing his condoleances and at the same time sending
chills down her backbone.
Also Lecter's 4th victim, the deformed multi millionaire Mason Verger is trying to
locate Lecter to seek vengeance and is buying Lecter memorabilia for huge amounts of money
nurturing a perverted fascination for the famed serial killer.
So Clarice Starling, despite being under suspension, starts the search for Hannibal unknowing that more interested groups are after him.

In "Hannibal" Lecter is allowed more "breathing space" and if "The silence of the lambs" was Clarice Starling's story "Hannibal" is Lecter's.
10 years after the first movie, it's director Ridley Scott's turn to make a 3rd movie with the most wellknown movie serial killer ever. Along with the scribes he's created a beautiful but violent movie with a some very gutwrenching scenes. Both Jonathan Demme, who directed "Lambs" and Jodie Foster who played agent Starling in the previous Lecter flick refused to make the movie after reading the script, which they felt were too violent and bloody.
Now we see Julianne Moore as Clarice and Scott as the director. When it comes to Moore she hasn't changed Clarice too much mentally. But it must be said that the movie is lacking something not having Foster to repeat her role. One of the best things about "Lambs" was the interaction and emotional connection between Foster and Hopkins and in "Hannibal" something is lost. This however is something that can be explained with the script not allowing Starling and Lecter the same kind of screentime together.
Hopkins is almost as good as in "Lambs" now playing on his intellectual side even more trying to get a job as a museum curator in Florence.
It's fascinating to see Lecter strolling around amongst the mideveal buildings in Florence
with the Belvedere streaming through the city in the background. It's a fitting place for the artsy schmartsy Lecter.
Another fine British actor, an unrecogniseable Gary Oldman, plays the crippled Mason Verger who's desperate to seek up Lecter and uses Starling as beit.
Oldman often gets to play extreme characters, Vlad Dracula in "Bram Stoker's Dracula", Lee Harvey Oswald in "JFK" or Sid Vicious in "Sid and Nancy". Most often he comes away with an A always adding extra layers upon his roles. In "Hannibal" he's almost even scarier than Lecter himself playing a paedophil obsessed with revenge not afraid to use any means to get to his goals.

Sometimes Scott overuses the slow motion shots, especially in a flashback showing what happened between Verger and Lecter and in one specifically gruesome scene with some really horrifying pigs. What worked for "Gladiator's" battlescenes to give you a sense of chaos doesn't quite work here. You get a feeling that the graphic violence has been added to make up for the lack of interaction between Starling and Lecter that worked so well in "Lambs".

Moore as Clarice Starling works satisfactory but never impresses.
She gives Starling a more sinister and physical presence, but Foster managed to give
her more depth, feelings and her background was revelealed not only by the shots from
her childhood but by her actions as well.
My bet is that Foster comes back in the planned 4th movie, whatever the plot will be. Not as bloody or gory as some people have made it out to be and not as great as "The silence of the lambs", but much better than the average Hollywood thriller. Interesting tidbit: Producer Dino diLaurentiis will be handed the Irving Thalberg Award at the Oscar show this spring.

Director: Ridley Scott
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Moore, Gary Oldman, Ray Liotta

"Se7en", "The silence of the lambs" and "Cape fear" have not only in common that they're serial killers movies but also that Howard Shore composed stunning and suggestive scores for them. Shore has also set the tone in "The Cell" with a score that resembles both "Se7en" and "The silence of the lambs".
Too bad the movie itself isn't nearly as great as the forementioned movies are.

Jennifer Lopez plays Catherine Duane, a young psychotherapist involved in a
groundbreaking method in treating traumatized and comatosed patients by going into
their minds and trying to locate what's causing their problems.
A serial killer is on the loose kidnapping young women and caging them in a glasscell
in the countryside. He lets them live for 40 hours then slowly drowns them like rats
while recording it on video being the truly twisted individual that every serial killer
movie apparentely needs.
When the killer, Carl Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio) is caught the FBI, led by by
a burnt out agent, Vince Vaughn, hires Lopez' psychiatrist team to help them find
his last victim who's still alive somewhere using their technology to get into the
mind of Carl Stargher.

Tarsem Singh is yet another director coming from the rockvideo world. Spike Jonze
("Being John Malkovich") and David Fincher ("Se7en", "Fight club") are two other
musicvideo-directors who's made it big in the feature film branch, both making inventive
and creatively outstanding freshman films.

Tarsen Singh, who made R.E.M's "Losing my religion" video doesn't quite pull it off with
"The Cell". It's style over substance, special effects over story and character, layman's
psychology and it's all desperately close to being laughable.
It's a fiesta in special effects and after a while the effects takes over the entire movie,
forgetting about plot and character in an attempt at mesmerizing the viewer. Although Singh's
direction is pretty clear and authorative the lack in the scriptdepartment bogs down the movie.
A miscast Jennifer Lopez tries her best to give her character depths, but it's not easy when
the script doesn't reveal any kind of background history. It's as if Lopez has no idea who
she's playing. We never understand why she's in this clinic or why she's so anxious to
save the little boy at the beginning.
Compared to "Clarice Starling" in "The silence of the lambs", Catherine Duane's one-
dimensional and stereotyped. Starling's motives and subconscious are both explained,
not too graphic and not too overexposed, but with an excellent touch of storytelling in
just a couple of flashbacks. "The Cells'" biggest flaw is the lack of humanity amidst all the extreme emotions and weirdness.

To mention a couple of positive things with "The Cell" one must give credit to the make
up people and the production design department. "The Cell" doesn't look like any other
movie I can think of. However there's a scene which pays homage to Singh's own "Losing my religion" video.
Howard Shore's score is, despite being repetitive, effective and hightens the tension
in most of the scenes clearly trying to build the same atmosphere as in "Se7en".
Vincent D'Onofrio's one of my absolute favourite actors. He gives his characters both a
physical presence as well as a psychological one. His work in "Full metal jacket" and
"The Player" are great examples of how a supporting actor can contribute with edgyness and
that little extra spice to give a movie more character depth and playground.
In "The Cell" he's been let loose, to play out his extreme side as an actor.
He does a good job, showing both sides of a disturbed and abused mind. And despite being
the "monster" in this movie he shows more human feelings than the other characters combined.
But all in all "The Cell" feels too constructed and shallow to satisfy.

Director: Tarsem Singh
Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Vincent D'Onofrio, Vince Vaughn

When a magical jade sword is stolen it starts a violent search for it. The sword's original owner had given it to an old friend of his but when it's stolen he begins a violent quest to reclaim it to its rightful owner.
He's partnered by his love interest Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh)who is a masterful martial arts expert herself. They trace the sword to a young girl, Yu (Ziyi Zhang), who's befriended Shu but they soon stand teeth to teeth in several incredible duels.

The plot isn't the most advanced in moviehistory, what propells this movie forward is the hinted love relationship between Shu and Bai and the more obvious love relationship between young Yu and Lo (Chen Chang), the desertnomad.
The title "Croucing tiger, hidden dragon" means to hide your skills for your enemy, something that's shown in a couple of actionpacked and funny scenes. They are beautifully choreographed and sometimes it's more like watching a ballet than a film, two graceful dancers completely in control of their bodies and minds.
Ang Lee has made a movie that's so much more than a martial arts film. Lee and his ever present scribe James Schamus have added characters and subplots as carefully detailed and told as any feature length drama.
The acting throughhout is superb, everyone giving their characters a believable touch and charisma. Michelle Yeoh, Chow Yun Fat, Chen Chang and Ziyi Zhang in the main parts are convincing both as actors and actresses as well as martial arts experts. They were helped by fight choreographer Woo Ping Yuen, who also choregraphed the fight scenes in "The Matrix".
You'll be awestruck by the lightning speed of the duels and the actors and actresses total control of their motions. The ethnic original score enhances the scenes with
monotone drums and weeping violins.

If there wasn't for a couple of flaws this would've been the best movie of 2000. There's a very long flashback in the middle of the movie, where we get to know the background story of Yu and Lo. It's too long and bogs down the movie. It serves as a descriptive tool and doesn't bring the story forward like one would've wanted. Still it's beautifully shot and has a comedic feeling to it which makes it rather enjoying.
Also the plot seems muddled sometimes, never really giving a good explanation to what's going on and why. The "flying skills" of the warriors is never explained. how they learned to defy gravity is a mystery and the reason why it's not explained is probably that they want to further add to the mysterious legends of the warriors. Though this doesn't really pay off and seems like a cheap way to avoid any problems with having to defend their theories against gravitational ones.
I've read some people saying it's one of the most complex movies they've seen. then I think they're confusing having difficulties with a foreign language with actual plot and structure. It's rather simple storytelling and one should take it for what it is,
a martial arts adventure movie.
When I watched "Crouching tiger, hidden dragon" some people giggled at the Chinese language
when it was supposed to be a dramatic or romantic scene.
They completely missed the point with the scenes, instead disrespecting the Chinese language with cheap laughter.
Sad to say 90% of the moviegoing public can't appreciate foreign language films, if they're not in English. In an era where MTV sets the cultural and moral standards for many people a Chinese film, even if it's packed with action and emotions, is too hard to see for many popcorn(s) munchers.
Still, this movie has been a big success throughout the world, and deservedly so. It carries some universal themes and if some moviegoers could just get over the fact it's in Chinese they too will be able to appreciate this one.

"Crouching tiger, hidden dragon" was on the 13th of February awarded with 10 Oscar nominations. Including, Best picture and Best director.

Director: Ang Lee
Cast: Chow Yun Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Chen Chang, Ziyi Zhang

Stanislaw Lem's literary masterpiece adapted by Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. Psychiatrist Kris Kelvin is sent to a spacestation orbiting the distant planet "Solaris". There has been deaths and the surviving members reports of supernatural events taking place. The planet itself is made of a gigantic ocean who seems to live a life of itself and the spaces- station is being haunted by images of people from the crewmembers' memories and subconscience. Kris immediately is in contact with his late wife but is aware it's nothing but a replica of her but he is given a 2nd chance to show his love for her despite this. Over the course his "wife" understands she's not his real love but tries her hardest to become more human and soon is plagued by her inability to do so. Kris on the other hand is fighting his own conscience and mind to overcome his guilty feelings and at the same time rediscovering sides of himself that has been subdued ever since his wife died. Kris also has to deal with one of the other crewmen who's a firm believer in science and tries to convince himself he has nothing to feel guilty about.

Solaris is a slowpaced, metaphorical and psychological characterstudy who challenges itself and the viewer's mind by questioning what's real and what one should treasure in life. It deals with guilt, conscience and morals in a way that sometimes makes it hard to follow, yet it evokes lots of feelings and thoughts.
Tarkovsky the director is always present, leading the story and characters throughout the psychological maze and the corridors of the spacestation with excellence and poignance. He never tries to shove the morals down your throat, never becoming a preacher, simply an observer letting us take in the film, decompressing it, slicing it and putting it together inside our own minds for our own interpretation.
Even if Kris is the lead character, it's his late wife Hari who manages to develop the most trying to feel more human and reaching out to Kris and it's her who we feel for. Solaris has been compared to Kubrick's 2001 a space oddyssey for obvious reasons. Both films have supernatural ingridients, alien beings who influences mankind or as in Solaris' case, the persons directly. They also are very similar when it comes to pacing, set and production design, the limited use of music both using classical pieces. But when 2001 deals with man vs machine, Solaris is about man vs conscience creating a more human yet awkward atmosphere than Kubrick's masterpiece which is more existential and philosophising.
"Solaris" can however stand on its own and be regarded as one of the science fiction or any feature film masterpieces in filmhistory for that matter.

Sidenote: Steven Soderbergh and James Cameron are planning on shooting their own version of "Solaris" based on the book.

Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
Cast: Donatas Banionis, Natalya Bondarchuk, Juri Jarvet

In a not so distant future man has started to use robots or "mechas" as they call it in their daily life.
There's a growing revolt from the orgas (humans) against mechas, a pro-human movement is hunting down lawless mechas who are living in refugee in forests scouring for leftover robot parts that are dumped there.
In the midst of all this scientist/engineer Dr. Hobby, played by William Hurt, presents a new robotboy who will serve as an experiment as he's "adopted" by a young couple whose own son is in a coma. The robotboy David has all the physical attributes of a real humanboy but lacks the understanding of loving until his new mother "programs" him to feel affectionate towards her. But problems looms as their real son wakes up from his coma and he faces stiff competition from this Mechaboy.

"I want her to love me more", utters a gazing David, and encapsules the whole movie and the filmmaker behind it.
Steven Spielberg isn't known for making bold movies (Schindler's list and the first 20 minutes of Saving Private Ryan are the exceptions). He's an escapist that relys on an audience who wants to be dazzled by special effects and a need to get away from their boring own lives. I can confess I do enjoy movies like Raiders of the lost ark, Jurassic Park and ET. But when he takes on a more "serious" subject like in "A.I" (Artificial intelligence") he seems out of his depth.
The movie is sometimes bold and makes some interesting social and ethical comments. How much can we love an artificial boy, and to what extent stretches our responsibility both emotionally and ethically for a non-human thing. One could also draw similar lines with the way foreigners and asylum seekers are treated in a lot of the industrial world. The jews were treated similarly as the mechas with tagnumbers and being hunted down by the nazis for instance. "Pinocchio" is evidently a big inspiration for "A.I" and according to writer Sara Maitland Kubrick never referred to the project as "A.I" but always called it "Pinocchio".

Spielberg directing it, Stanley Kubrick producing it (based on Brian Aldiss' short story "Supertoys last all summer long" first published in "Harper's bazaar" in 1969). Oh how I wish it would've been the opposite. One can only dream of what this movie could've been like with the late Stan the man having directorial control over it. One of the movies this year I've been most looking forward to ended in a, not huge Bronchosaurius like, but a smaller T-Rex like-disappointment. It started off promising, some rather interesting (but not groundbreaking) moral issues regarding robots vs man, where do you draw the line between "real" human feelings and artificial ones?
Unfortunately the fairytaleteller Spielberg soon gets the upper hand and turns it into somekind of sleazy sentimental which never really digs deep into the problems with a possible world with robots being used as malewhores. A couple of subplots are almost clumsily handled with, with no good explanation why it's there in the first place. Spielberg indulges in melodrama like always trying to evoke as many feelings as possible. He really can be quite a manipulator sometimes, for good and bad, never really being an objective bystander (Saving Private Ryan's first 20 minutes being an exception again, and parts of Schindler's list). It's a mix between escapist moviemaking and philosophizing that where the balance between the two is too askew leaning towards the escapism a tad too much.

One can't help but ask yourself what the movie would've been like if Stan the man had directed it instead of Spielberg. For sure it would've been a much more bleaker and cynical look on the future and the humans. It would hopefully carried on the moral and philosophical beginning much more not letting the movie become too sentimental and atmospheric. And hopefully he would've ended the movie in time. The last 20-25 minutes were pathetic, melodramatic and frankly insulted me as a "thinking" viewer. Apparentely Kubrick had difficulties with the ever so important second act and with the character arc of David. The final result can only underline that fact. The second act is a mess with lots of scenes that doesn't pay off and I can't say there aren't any scenes that I can recall or that's worth mentioning. It also lacks from a cohecency between the scenes which makes it feel like a jigsaw with its pieces forced to fit together.

A couple of words about the cast.
One of the brightspots was the always magnificent Jude Law. Count on him being nominated for a Best supporting actor Oscar come March 2002. The CGI effects were also very impressive, always serving a purpose, adding to the story. Haley Joel Osment, very good, really managed to catch that semi human behaviour and convincingly transformed his static robotboy into an emotional robot...boy. No, the acting performances weren't this film's problem.
It's Spielberg who's the problem here. It's a good film with lots of potential but sadly never goes the full distance stopping short of greatness.

Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Jude Law, Haley Joel Osment, William Hurt, Sam Robards, Frances O'Connor

Kevin Costner isn't famous for taking on roles that goes against his good guy image. He did it in "Bull Durham" and "A perfect world" and "Waterworld" but has
often played characters that the public roots and feels for.
I must admit that I like his dry minimalistic acting style and often he pulls the job off with bravura, "JFK","No way out" and said "Bull Durham". In "3,000 miles to Graceland" he takes on a roll whose only motivation seems to be to taste other people's blood in
his mouth and to bury a couple of hundred bullets in their bodies while trying not to look like a complete fool dressed in an Elvis costume. "3,000 miles to Graceland" is about a gang of robbers who instead of robbing banks wearing skimasks or socks over their heads strips casinos off of their "hardearned" money wearing Elvis costumes instead.
The gang is lead by the clearly psychotic Murphy (Costner) and the not so psychotic Mike, portrayed by Kurt Russell. The movie begins with Mike meeting singlemom Cybil "with a C", "portrayed" by Friendsstar Courtney Cox, and her brat of a son Jesse. Of course it doesn't take much use of celluloid before Mike and Cybil "with a C" is rolling around in the hay having wild perverted sex in front of her 11 year old kid, who obviously has seen it all before and goes on to steal Mike's wallet instead of being upset by his mom's behaviour with complete strangers in front of his young eyes. Cue the gang teaming up for the actual robbery, and cue a sequence so full of holes and excessive use of violence that even the spottiest teenager must've cringed in the theaterseats when watching it. These criminals are as stupid as they look, they make every mistake possible. Drawing attention, forgetting survelliancecameras. They do actually spraypaint the lenses of some cameras, in an elevator and in some hallways, to prevent the guards to notice what they're upto. But what they don't do is to spraypaint the most important camera in the vault so the guards can watch them live in technicolor (I've never seen a surveillance camera with better picture quality in my life. Eat your hearts out HDTV) and the inevitable shooting frenzy is soon to take place in the casino itself. And no movie about a robbery is complete without some moralbusting infighting within the gang and "3,000 miles to Graceland" is no exception.

There's so many plotholes and illogical events and sequences in this movie that it would take me, well a 3,000-mile trip to list them all. The director, in this case Demian Lichtenstein, clearly has sacrified all sorts of logic reasoning and narrative storytelling for excessive use of fast paced MTV cuts and "hip" camerawork. It's not very surprising to read that he's a former music video director and I'm sorry to say that in this case he really should've stuck to making music videos, although I can't really think of any rockgroups who possibly could benefit from working with him. Everything from the completely unnecessary opening scene involving two CG scorpions fighting in the desert to the unintentionally hilarious end is a mess of a film which only reason to exist is so that people can realise how good other films can be compared to this waste of celluloid. And I haven't even mentioned the acting yet.
It's sad to see that Kevin Costner's career has come to this. The man had some really good movies in the 80's and early 90's and even last year's 13 days was an enjoyable political thriller.
Friendsstarlet Courtney Cox's talent lies in pouting with her mouth and saying things like "Please take us with you. I fell for you at first sight". Her character is completely unbelievable and does things that make no sense whatsoever. Come to think of it, I wouldn't expect ms Cox to choose any other characters as she clearly can't act to save her life. Kurt Russell does his best with a role that is so boring and offers no character development at all but feels stale and uninspired.
And you know the film is in trouble when you can't even bother to care for the kid to survive a shower of bullets but find yourself thinking "Please, just let one of them hit him to put him out of his misery".
You start to suspect that the reason the main stars wear those goofy looking Elvis costumes isn't to add something to the plot but so nobody will recognise it's them.

If you have 2 hours of your life to spare, whatever you do don't watch this movie. Go out and take a walk, wash your car or even pluck your nosehair for a while. It surely will be a more rewarding 2 hours than having to sit through one of the worst movies to come out of the Hollywood assembly line in years and years. Sly Stallone, please come back, everything's forgiven!

Director: Demian Lichtenstein
Cast: Kevin Costner, Kurt Russell, Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Christian Slater,
Kevin Pollak, Jon Lovitz, ICE-T