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FILM new releases
ALSO OPENING Perfect Blue (18) 80 mins
She's All That (12) 95 mins
'lf Hitchcock partnered wrth Walt Disney, they'd have ntade a picture like thrs.’ That’s the reference point for expl :tation insivie maestro Roger Corman when discussing Japanese animated film Perfect Blue
The story follows a former pop star whose grip on reality starts to slip when she branches out as an actress in a daytime soap opera. Meanwhile, a series of murders appear to be linked to her new, raunchy image A huge hit back home in Japan, it now comes to the late evening big screen slot at Edinburgh’s Cameo Cinema.
She’s All That, on the other hand, has
l w: ,- Hey fish-face: Mima in Perfect Blue
very different roots — playwright George Bernard Shaw. While Clueless transformed Emma and the forthcoming Cruel Intentions twrsts Dangerous Liaisons into an American high school setting, She’s All That is basically a teen romantic comedy remake of Pygmalion.
Freddie Prinze Jr accepts a bet to turn -
nerdy schoolgirl Rachel Leigh Cook into the Prom Queen, but finds himself falling in love With the result and discovering new sides to hrs own personality. Pepped up by a ’Kevm Williamson’ style cast, the film took a respectable $60 million at the US box office, although several critics slammed the stereotypical characters while praismg the snappy script.
(Alan Morrison)
a Perfect Blue: Edinburgh Cameo from Fri 27 May She’s All That; general release from Fri 27 May.
Fat boy‘s skim: Mark Wahlberg and Chow Yun-Fat in the Corruptor
The Corruptor (18)110mins Mark (Boogie Nights) Wahlberg and HOng Kong hero Chow Yun-Fat star in this sorrrewhat stilted action-drama ab0ut corrupt cops in New York’s Chinatown
Following an esc alating feud between rival Chinese rtahgs for control of the rackets, idealistic raw recruit Danny
Wallace “J‘Jaliilertg is drafted in to beef up the department Nick Chen (Cliowi, the rioirlcon l)’.)‘/ of the precinct, is liostile at first, but
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payroll of obseqwous crime boss Henry Lee (Ric Young in deadly form), and there is more to young Wallace than meets the eye.
The Corruptor was intended as a dramatic vehicle for Chow Yun-Fat, star of several pre-Hollywood John Woo films, and also as an opportunity for Glengarry Glen Ross director James Foley to try the action genre Neither one of them fares too well, since, for all his police-light interiors, Foley's one big outdoor sequence -- a car chase — is not really tip to scratch, and Chow completely overdoes his police patter. ln fact, they all (even Brian Cox) sound like cop caricatures Il‘. that sense, Henry Lee makes a clean getaway, (John MacKenzre)
General release from Fri 27 May
Southpaw
(15) 77 mins wk e it;
After the craic success of crime caper I Went Down, Irish producers Robert Walpole and Paddy Breathnach have returned to the sports documentary genre which first made their names. Here, the sport itself is a backdrop to a spectrum of bigger ideas and broader contexts. Southpaw looks at the myth of Ireland as one big happy, tolerant famin — our hero is a Traveller, fighting societal attitudes when he'd rather be pummelling opponents in the ring.
The film follows y0ung Francis Barrett as he ducks and dives towards his dream of representing Ireland at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. And, sure enough, he does, even grabbing the honour of carrying the tricolour during the opening ceremony before Winning his first round fight by a record points score.
On his return, boxmg has lost a little of its shine. More practical matters take precedence — his marriage and his famin trying to find a permanent home in Galway overshadow the sport. While Southpaw may not shed new light on boxing, it movmgly opens up an area of Irish life which few have dared to tell. (Brian Donaldson)
I Glasgow Film Theatre, Tue I 8—Thu 20 May. Edinburgh Fi/mhouse, Tue l—Thu 3 Jun,
Mellow traveller: Francis Barrett in Southpaw
Best Laid Plans
(15) 93 mins is e 'fi' w
Wherever you start, it’s impossible to reveal much of the plot of this super-stylish, well-crafted thriller wrthout ruining it. Old college pals Nick and Bryce meet for an impromptu reunion in their Californian hometown, Tropico. Bryce picks up a young woman who later accuses him of rape, so he calls on Nick to sort out the mess, but . . . Trapped in a dead end jOb, Nick sees a way out when a work buddy offers him $10,000 to help rip-off a local gangster. But the heavres catch up wrth the buddies, and . . .
Direct0r Mike Barker (The James Gang) adds a palpable atmosphere of brooding menace and dark desire to the plot U-turns of writer Theodore Griffin (who also penned the forthcoming Robert Carlyle cannibal adventure, Ravenous). The s0undtrack, featuring Masswe Attack and Mazzy Star, provrdes the appropriate sonic backdrop, while an undercurrent of dark hum0ur twrsts Tropico’s film noir setting into something akin to The Simpsons' Springfield.
Best of all is the cast. Undervalued until now, but surely about to hit the bigtime, Alessandro Nivola (I Want You) and Reese Witherspoon (Pleasantvi/le) are enormously impressive as the desperate lovers. (Miles Fielder)
I Selected release from Fri 74 May See preview
ALSO OPENING
Twin Dragons (12) 89 mins
Van Damme did it in Double Impact, now Jackie Chan is at it - playing two parts in the same film. Cashing in on the success of Rush Hour, which saw Chan finally strike box office gold in America, the Hong Kong superstar's next cinema appearance teams him up, not With another rising star comedian, but himself.
Chan plays the dragons of the title, John Ma and Boomer, twrn brothers separated at birth. One becomes an orchestra conductor, the other a gangster. When rival criminals mistake one twm for another, the brothers are forced to swap roles and chaos ensues
Twrn Dragons was made back in 1991 as a benefit for the Hong Kong Director’s Gurld and was co-directed by top filmmakers TSUI Hark and Ringo Lam In fact, apart from Chan and female co-stars Maggie Cheung and Nini Li Chi, all the cast members are directors Furthermore, individual action scenes were choreographed by different martial arts directors, varying styles from fight to light
And Chan's opinion of Turin Dragons7 Compared to Hollywood, Honc; Kong special effects are not that good. The action remains as iiitpiessive as ever, though, the final fight in the car factory is fantastic ' Purists beware and cheese- lovers note Twrri Dragons hits the multiplexes clubbed not subtitled (MiIeS Fielder)
I General release from Fri IA May
Yin and Yang: Jackie Chan and Jackie Chan in Twin Dragons