THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2003
MOVIES AROUND TOWN
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN - 13
LIBERTY HALI
The Bread, My Sweet Grade:(Opens Friday)
Nicholas Nickleby
Grade: B+
It sounds like a boring costume-drama for the Merchant-Ivory crowd, so don't let that title fool you: This is a major entertainment. With a beginning like Oliver Twist and an ending that's a logical alternative to A Christmas Carol, the film remains faithful to Dickensian misery while still giving you a lift and emanating a warm tonal glow. (Ends today)
— Stephen Shupe
Contributed photo
The Pianist
Grade: A-
Along with Tim Blake Nelson's The Grey Zone and Werner Herzog's Invincible, The Pianist made 2002 a sort of banner year for wrenching Holocaust dramas. This film covers the most ground opening when the Germans began to brick up Jews in tiny corners of the country and coming to a near-close with an unforgettable shot that reveals most of the walls have been burned to the ground.
(Endstoday)
-SS
Grade: A-
The Quiet American
Thomas Fowler (Oscar nominee Michael Caine), a British journalist chasing the dragon and other interests in 1952 Saigon, meets Alden Pyle (should-have-been-nominated Brendan Fraser), an American charmer who falls in love with Powler's Vietnamese girlfriend. When Fowler investigates a violent political faction, one that's fighting both the Communists and the rebels, he finds Pyle waiting for him around every corner. Phillip Noyce's incredibly suspenseful rendering of Graham Greene's novel is the most politically inflammatory American movie in years, one that should provide plenty of fuel to the fire for today's anti-war movement.
SOUTHWIND 12
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Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck star in the Marvel Comics-inspired Daredevil. Affleck plays Matt Murdock, a blind man who becomes a lawyer by day and vigilante by night. Garner plays Elektra, an assassin and Affleck's love interest.
Agent Cody Banks (not reviewed) Opens Friday
To his friends and family, Cody Banks (Frankie Muniz) is a regular teenager who likes to skateboard and hates math. Little do they know that he's really an agent working for a secret teen CIA program. For his first assignment, Cody
must enroll in a prep school to infiltrate a scientist who's developing a fleet of deadly nanobots.
-SS
Chicago
Grade: B-
Everybody sings and dances just swell in this Academy Award-nominated take on the Bob Fosse Broadway hit, but after Chicago is over you may wonder what all the fuss was about. Director Rob Marshall's carbon-copy theatricality ensures you'll have a good time, but for less style over substance, see Björk in the daring Dancer in the Dark.
-SS
Cradle 2 the Grave Grade: C
A bungled thriller about a booty of black diamonds with nuclear capabilities, Cradle 2 the Grave opens with an elaborate heist followed by a full hour of zero excitement. The filmmakers rarely find the time to showcase Jet Li's poetic acrobatics. At one point, DMX walks up a wall like a ninja. It's a cool idea to blend cultures and conventions like that, but this is the only time Cradle 2 the Grave tries to reinvent some of the East-meets-West vocabulary created by Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker in Rush Hour
Daredevil
Grade: D+
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Art and commerce collide in Daredevil, easily the worst comic-book fiasco since Dolph Lundgren played The
Punisher. Ben Affleck stars as a blind Hell's Kitchen lawyer who sees audible objects in his head and haunts dreary New York rooftops to brutalize bad guys. The film's list of flaws (choppy effects, unnecessary killings, corny lines ...) scrolls longer than the "pizza" section of the Lawrence yellow pages. A cheap, self-conscious bore.
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Gods and Generals Grade: D+
Good as Gettysburg was, that's how godawful Ronald F. Maxwell's prequel is. The film dramatizing the first two years of the war between the states plays less like a drama about the Civil War than a high-school pageant re-enacting Notable Moments. With Robert Duvall, Jeff Daniels and Stephen Lang. PG-13. (Ends today)
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days Grade:D
Despite a few clever insights and twists, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days is neither good nor distinctive enough to rise above the level of generic romantic comedy. This, despite appealing performances by Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey.
Carrie Rickey/KRT Campus
The Hunted(not reviewed)
(Opens Friday)
William Friedkin directed two classics back in the '70s (The French Connection and The Exorcist) and then faded fast. He has another shot at a comeback with this thriller about an
AWOL assassin (Benicio Del Toro) who murders four deer hunters in the Oregon wilderness. Tommy Lee Jones plays the Special Forces trainer hired to track down the killer.
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The Life of David Gale Grade: C+
The Life of David Gale has the courage of its own convictions. What it lacks is the grace to transmit them with subtlety. Director Alan Parker has assembled an impressive cast topped by Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslet and Laura Linney. But he presents each scene with flourishes usually associated with musical production numbers. It's as if Parker thought he was still directing Madonna in Evita. Overwrought and over-directed.
—KRT Campus
Old School
Grade: B+
A mile-a-minute tummy-tickler, Old School follows the travails of three 30ish friends unwilling to leave behind the glory of their collegiate yesteryear. A movie that spoofs the greek experience has the artistic license to be rowdy, bawdy and completely lacking in moral fiber. The director, Todd Phillips, plays by those rules while also giving the film an exquisite sixth sense for the kitsch 1980s nostalgia most yuppies just can't escape. And as a newlywed streaking his way to a quick divorce, Ferrell goes Farley in a comedy that's savvy enough to give him free rein.
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Taut, enjoyable thriller with Al Pacino as a CIA scout who taps Colin Powell as an agent-in-training. Are the head games they play training day or the real deal? PG-13 (sexual candor, violence, profanity) (Ends today)
The Recruit
Grade: B
-KRT
Willard(not reviewed) (Opens Friday)
George McFly goes Norman Bates in Willard, a horror movie about a social misfit who befriends two rats that live in his mother's attic. When Willard (Crispin Glover) loses his job and one of his furry friends is killed, he unleashes an army of rats on his unsuspecting coworkers. An unusually intelligent and deadly rat named Ben (no, really — I couldn't make this stuff up) leads the arsenal.
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