THURSDAY,FEBRUARY 27,2003
MOVIES AROUND TOWN
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN - 13
Chicago
Grade: B-
Contributed photo
Kevin Spacey stars as an anti-death penalty advocate in The Life of David Gale.
Everybody sings and dances just swell in Rob Marshall's take on the Bob Fosse Broadway hit, but after Chicago is over you may wonder what all the fuss was about. Renee Zellweger stars as Roxie Hart, a nobody who wants to be a somebody who becomes famous the American way: She shoots her lover dead. Catherine Zeta-Jones seethes with sexuality as the cool-hearted Velma Kelly, and Richard Gere, who for once deserved the Academy Award nomination he was snubbed for, channels James Cagney in a rare magnetic performance. 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.
Stephen Shupe
Daredevil
Grade: D+
Art and commerce collide in Daredevil, easily the worst comic-book fiasco since Dolph Lundgren played The Punisher. Forced to commercialize his dream project with Nokia product placements and Moby music, director Mark Steven Johnson (the man responsible for 'Simon Birch') can only make the first 30 minutes satisfying before the picture dissolves into mediocrity.
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.
Darkness Falls
Grade: D
A silly and mostly unsuccessful ghost story about a demonic tooth fairy (really!) plaguing some none-too-bright townsfolk and a guy on heavy dosages of anti-psychotics. Television's Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Emma Caulfield co-stars. It's more like "Darkness Kerplunks."
Steven Rea/KRT Campus
Final Destination 2
Grade: B+
This gory sequel can't wait for its stupidly defensive cast of forgettable characters to die spectacularly horrible deaths. Despite the ambiguous previews, the film picks up where its superb predecessor left off. Nearly all of the survivors of the Flight 180 tragedy have been tracked down by Death.
After a premonition dream sequence that arguably tops the terrifying plane
SS
explosion in the original, a new tragedy occurs, this one an expertly staged pile-up on the highway. Nothing new here just the same scary logic to the details of accidental death that made the first film such a surprise hit. A criminally fast-paced and laughably shocking ride that's not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach.
The Hours
Grade: A
Most people see movies to escape "the hours," the moments of the day when there's more to be endured than desired. So why see Stephen Daldry's stunning adaptation of Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer prizewinner? First and foremost is the film's brutal approach to depression; this is the kind of honesty rarely seen in commercial or even independent film.
Coming in at a close second are the positively amazing performances by Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Ed Harris.
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.
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days Grade: D
-SS
Carrie Rickey/KRT Campus
The Life of David Gale Grade: C+
The Life of David Gale has the courage
-KRT Campus
of its own convictions. What it lacks is the grace to transmit them with subtlety.
To preach his anti-death penalty sentiments, 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.
The film has sharp dialogue, as when the (fictitious) Texas governor is described as "being in touch with his inner frat boy." But some plot contrivances and coincidences will gnaw at the viewer. C'mon, Bitsey, wouldn't you think to trade in an overheated rental car?
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Overwrought and over-directed, The Life of David Gale has ideas worth considering, but its largest group of advocates will be the already converted.
Grade: A
-ss
The fellowship might be broken, but everything else in Peter Jackson's massive follow-up to The Fellowship of the Ring feels perfectly in place. The surprise is what an altogether different experience The Two Towers is from its predecessor. It falls more directly into the category of fantasy and its stirring climactic grandeur hasn't been matched in the last thirty years of epic Hollywood filmmaking.
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.
The Recruit Grade: C
It's remarkable the way Polanski, whose other films (Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby) have his dark visionary signature all over them, seems to disappear here, treating the film almost like a historical document. The violence is appropriately rampant and shocking. But by the end you get to see the Nazis on the run, which is always a joy.
-ss
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?
Carrie Rickey/KRT Campus
Shanghai Knights
Grade: C
Talk to Her
Grade: A
Once again Jackie Chan and his nimble limbs join forces with Owen Wilson, and his loose lips, this time to rid 1887 Peking of British imperialists and London of Chinese assassins out to kill Queen Vicky. And once again is not enough. Again and again please.
Carrie Rickey/KRT Campus
A cinema maestro in the tradition of Bergman and Fellini, Pedro Almodovar is one of the few true artists of today's film world. His newest film, Talk To Her, paints an extravagant portrait of two men in love with two comatose women.
Benigno (Javier Camara) is a shy, sexually ambiguous virgin who cares for a ballet dancer injured in a car accident.
Marco (David Grandinetti) is more sexually confident but less sure about what to do when his girlfriend almost dies in a bullfight.
One of them hides a secret no sensible critic would give away, but I will say that it knocks the wind out of you.
Nobody blends mood with visuals like Almodovar - almost every shot of Talk to Her is a masterpiece. He's up for two hugely deserved Academy Awards for his direction and screenplay.
-ss
Along with Tim Blake Nelson's The