Movies
Excellent: Movies this great are rare, so don't miss it.
Good: At least worth the price of admission.
Okay: See it if you have nothing better to do.
Bad: If you absolutely have to see it, wait for the DVD.
No stars: Frickin' terrible; give us our two hours back, you director from hell.
The Life Aquatic (☆☆☆)
R. 118 minutes, South Wind 12
Smiles are an endangered species in Wes Anderson movies. This is the case in his past films such as Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, and also in his latest, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. In all of these movies his characters move through the plot doing and saying ridiculous things with deadpan expressions, and it is one of the reason why his films are so loved: Watching something so
offbeat and bizarre that's taken so seriously that gives the viewers a sense that they are the only ones getting the joke. The Life Aquatic follows the same formula, but different from Anderson's past films, it hurts the film more than it helps it. But the film has enough quirks and offbeat humor to bring enough smiles to the viewer's face to make it worth seeing.
Bill Murray plays the title character, Steve Zissou, an aging oceanographer and documentary filmmaker, in search of the shark that are his friend so he can exact
his revenge upon it. Among his crew is Steve's estranged son (Owen Wilson), an eccentric and lovable mechanic (William
Dafoe), a pregnant journalist (Cate Blanchett) and a safety expert and guitar player (Seu Jorge) who translates David Bowie songs into Portuguese and sings them at random times during the movie. During the voyage, Steve and his crew encounter pirates and a three-legged dog, break and enter into an underwater research lab and have a run-in with a rather large creature known as a jaguar shark.
The biggest flaw in The Life Aquatic is that its characters look like they are having a miserable time doing remarkable things, and it makes it difficult to have fun watching them. But it's the little things that save this movie. How cool would it be to have a random guy singing David Bowie songs in Portuguese to cheer you up when you're having a bad day? Maybe in Wes Anderson's next movie, the characters will find pleasure in the little things like that.
— Jon Ralston
The Aviator
1/2)
PG-13, 166 minutes, South Wind 12
The Aviator is a biopic about a man with dreams greater than the world wanted them to be: Howard Hughes. This film, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring a talented and diverse ensemble including Leonardo DiCaprio, cast almost perfectly, captures the man and his accom-
plishments. It also shows how Hughes wasn't able to handle the greatness of his own life.
The film starts in the late 1920s with Hughes already a millionaire businessman and focused on a career in the movie business. His film Hell's Angels would become the most expensive movie of its time because of Hughes's obsession with perfection, drawing out production and
Hughes his millions back and famous in the process.
This opening act of The Aviator is indicative of the rest of the film. Hughes settles for nothing less than the greatness that leads to his downfall. After Hell's Angels, Hughes goes on to court Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett), design and pilot the fastest plane ever built and build the largest aircraft of its
eventually having to finance it himself just to see it finished. Making the film bankrupts him, but when he finished, Hell's Angels is successful and made
time, becoming the world's richest man in the process.
The talented supporting cast includes Blanchett, Jude Law, John C. Reilly and Kate Beckinsale. Blanchett's portrayal of Hepburn stands out among them. She does a good job of inhabiting her character and not letting herself become a living caricature. Scorsese's film lets Hughes's life speak for itself and its grandeur, and as a result, is pure entertainment.
— Jon Ralston
House of Flying
Daggers (✩✩✩)
PG-13, 119 minutes, Liberty Hall
In 859 China, near the fall of the Tang Dynasty, a rebel group called the House of Flying Daggers is fighting the corrupt and incompetent government. One of the rebels, Mei (Ziyi Zhang), is captured while posing as a showgirl at the Peony Pavilion brothel. Meanwhile, two imperial guards, Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and Leo (Andy Lau), hatch a plan to infiltrate the rebels.
Jin pretends to rescue Mei, hoping she'll lead him to the House of Flying Daggers. For three days, through a forest strewn with fallen golden leaves, Mei, who's blind, and Jin, who's having second
thoughts, head north toward the rebel base, fighting off Mei's pursuers and quickly falling in love.
This is the premise for Zhang Yimou's ravishing, gravity defying, deliriouslyromantic martial-arts masterpiece House of Flying Daggers. Yimou also directed last fall's Jet Li hit Hero, which was visually stunning but emotionally cool. Here, Yimou combines
formal virtuosity with an emotional potency rarely seen in action pictures.
designers have fashioned the most physically beautiful film since Wong Kar-Wai's
The director and his costume and set
2000 romance In the Mood for Love, House of Flying Daggers' unforgettable set pieces include a shimmering pond where Mei seduces Jin and a bamboo f o r e s t
shrouded in green mist where imperial fighters bend the tops of the trees to fly high above the two young lovers. In the
fight scenes, Yimou applies an eye-popping digital sheen to the martial arts stylizations of Ang Lee's 2000 epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Zhang, who is one of the pure pleasures of world cinema, delivers her most engaging performance yet. Kaneshiro and Lau provide strong support as men whose secrets unravel in a flurry of fists and spilt blood.
Run to this House immediately. When you look inside,you can almost see heaven.
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Stephen Shupe
Jayplay 1.20.05