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reviews in brief.
Laura Linney and Sean Penn play parents haunted by their teenage daughter's death in Mystic River.
Mystic River
R. 137 minutes, South Wind 12
In a poor riverside community in Boston, three all-American kids named Jimmy, Sean and Dave encounter pedophiles posing as policemen. Dave is taken away with them, a heinous crime that irrevocably alters the boys' future.
This is the grim premise for Hollywood's searing adaptation of Dennis Lehane's bestseller Mystic River. Director Clint Eastwood's beautifully characterized, complex rendering paints an ambitious portrait of social virulence rarely seen since The Godfather.
After the boys grow up, their lives are once again torn apart when Katie, the teenage daughter of Jimmy (Sean Penn), is found dead in the park. Sean (Kevin Bacon), a homicide detective, is called in to investigate. Dave (Tim Robbins), who came home bloody the night Katie was murdered, is interrogated.
Eastwood's direction and Brian Helgeland's script both deserve Oscar consideration. So does Robbins, brilliant as a broken man perpetually tripped up by fate. There's still a few months left to go, but so far Mystic River is the movie of the year.
—Stephen Shupe
Grade: A
Runaway Jury
PG-13, 127 minutes, South Wind 12
Oh John Grisham. Your work always inspires faith in the U.S. justice system. This time you decided to show us how a jury can be manipulated if enough money changes hands, and you did it with class and sophistication. Well done.
This case involves a widow (Rachel Weisz) who sues a gun manufacturer because its easily accessible weapons led to the murder of her husband. Her lawyer (Dustin Hoffman) is trying to win it for her the right way and slick jury consultant (Gene Hackman) will stop at nothing to pick a jury that will win it for the guns. Enter Nick Easter (John Cusack), a seemingly carefree juror who ends up being entangled in a plot to sway the jury depending on which side pays him and his girlfriend $10 million.
All the performances are superb and the film has just enough craft, suspense and original twists to earn John Grisham a pat on the back for showing us the way our twisted system really works.
Lindsey Ramsey
Grade: B
Scary Movie 3
PG-13. 90 minutes. South Wind 12
When Scary Movie came out in 2000, it worked because so many fine thriller/horror movies had resurfaced and were doing well. Now with the horror genre churning out duds such as Wrong Turn and Jeepers Creepers 2, making fun
In Scary Movie 3, films such as The Ring, Signs and The Matrix are the targets of this Wayans-brothers-free fiasco. Anna Farris, the one person who has benefited from the franchise, returns as Cindy Campbell to gasp her way through yet another uninspired spoof. Also along for the ride is Charlie Sheen as Mel Gibson in Signs plus dozens of cameos ranging from Pamela Andersen to Leslie Nielsen. I have to give the movie some props for its star power.
Otherwise there are few laughs to be had as the plot follows that of The Ring. No doubt the film will make an ungodly amount of money, but I can only hope that God takes mercy on us all and kills the franchise for good.
—Lindsey Ramsey
Grade: D+
of these movies seems unnecessary.
The Secret Lives of Dentists
R. 105 minutes, Liberty Hall
David (Campbell Scott, Roger Dodger) is a pretty good dentist, an excellent father and a drab husband.
His life is the subject of the film The Secret Lives of Dentists as audiences get a keyhole view of his marital crisis. David loves his three daughters and enjoys doing dental work with Dana (Hope Davis, Final), who is not only his wife but also his work partner. So, it is understandable that he loses it when he discovers Dana is having an affair.
Director Alan Rudolph (Afterglow) does an excellent job of leading the audience through this study of self-doubt and emotional repression. He allows the audience to see David's fantasies and delusions as he tries to maintain some semblance of order. He guides the two leads into powerful performances that display the fragility of normal everyday people.
The movie is about how un-sexy and un-thrilling an affair can be and the impact it can have on a typical family.
—Cal Creek Grade:B
Texas Chainsaw Massacre R.98 minutes.South Wind 12
There is nothing special about The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. As a remake,
Director Marcus Nispel adds nothing new to the teen slasher genre as limbs get sawed, heads get bashed and Jessica Biel (Summer Catch) runs around in a tight shirt. R. Lee Ermey (Willard) provides the only reason to watch this movie with his portrayal of the backwoods Sheriff Hoyt. Ermey's thick Texas accent and over-the-top attitude do what nothing in this film is capable of: entertain.
In this version four teenagers on a road trip get side-tracked in a small Texas town. The group runs into a cannibalistic family, demented sheriffs and other strange folk who just aren't quite right.
Nispel delivers the same amount of gore as his 1974 predecessor but delivers none of the suspense.
While the original film isn't a cornerstone of great cinema, it does manage to scare the crap out of the audience, but not disgust them. This incarnation leaves the audience feeling bored, tired and gross.
it provides no new insight into the original film created in 1974.
Cal Creek Grade: C-
Wonderland, the new sex, drugs and rock-and-roll period piece starring Val Kilmer as porn king John Holmes, covers strong material that could have been stronger.
Eschewing what was presumably a happier time for Holmes as the star of 1,000 porno movies, writer-director James Cox's gritty portrait plunges immediately into the 1981 massacre on Hollywood's Wonderland Avenue.
R. 104 minutes, South Wind I2 (closes tonight)
Cox takes a wrong turn by structuring his entire film around flashbacks that show varying perspectives on the crime. The message seems to be that people who steal and take insane amounts of drugs tend to lie about where they were when a crime was taking place. How profound.
20 jayplay
Wonderland
The film's hedonism feels a bit trite when you realize how little has been accomplished, but Wonderland is never less than absorbing. Lisa Kudrow and Kate Bosworth give risky, powerful performances that hint at the benefits that might have been reaped from a more traditional biopic.
Stephen Shupe
Grade: B-
thursday, october 30.2003