FILM index
FILM LISTINGS continued
The Matrix (15) (The Wachowski Brothers, US, 1999) Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Lawrence Fishbume. 139 mins. 1n the future, reality is actually an illusion - the human race is enslaved by a computer virus which has taken over the world. Computer genius Neo (Reeves) is one of the few people who doesn't believe his eyes, so it’s up to him and a couple more cyber commandos to save the world. Edinburgh: Cameo.
Mickey Blue Eyes (15) (Kelly Makin, US, 1998) Hugh Grant, James Caan, Jeanne Tripplehom. 102 mins. Four Weddings meets The Godfather in this funny though highly predictable romantic comedy. Grant plays an Englishman abroad with a girlfriend (Tripplehorn) whose Dad (Caan) has dubious Mob connections. By
comparison with the more staid Notting Hill,
Mickey Blue Eyes is far more engaging. It may not play to the unconverted, but for those who like him already this tale will confirm Hugh as their blue eyed boy. East Kilbride: UCl.
A Midsummer Night's Dream (PG) (Michael Hoffman, US, 1999) Kevin Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Calista Flockhart. 115 mins. Not since Max Reinhardt‘s 1934 version has any film sought to pay loyal tribute to this classic tale of misbegotten romance and fairy magic. Until now. Hoffman, cautious that the text‘s classical Greek setting might distance his audience, has relocated to Tuscany at the turn of the century and draws upon those changing times to highlight the conflict between the old and young generations in the story. Kline stands out in the role of Bottom, while the lush world of nymphs, satyrs, centaurs and Medusas is a beauty to behold. General release.
Mifune (15) (Soren Kragh-Jacobsen, Denmark/Sweden, 1998) Anders W Berthclscn. Jesper Asholt, lben lljejle. 98 mins. On the eve of his wedding, Copenhagen yuppie Krestcn (Berthclscn) learns that his father has died and reluctantly returns to the remote, neglected family farm. Unable to cope with his mentally handicapped brother, Rud (Asholt), he advertises for a housekeeper, and is delighted when the beautiful Liva (lljejle) arrives to take on the job. But Liva too has a secret. Kragh-Jacobsen‘s film, the third made under the Dogma banner, distinguishes itself by not playing fast and loose with the rules, by telling a simple, linear story with a minimum of formal
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28 THE LIST 7-21 Oct 1999
fussiness. So, ironically, while Mifune less ambitious and innovative than Festen and The Idiots, it is also the purest, most involving and most emotionally satisfying. Glasgow: GFT. Edinburgh: Cameo, The Filmhouse.
Mighty Joe (PG) (Ron Underwood, US, 1998) Charlize Theron, Bill Paxton. 114 mins. Whichever way you cut it, Mighty Joe is just another big monkey movie. Despite infinitely more sophisticated effects than its 1949 predecessor, this version is far less involving or entertaining — it's so predictable you would think the monkey wrote it. Glasgow: Odeon at the Quay. Edinburgh: ABC. Kilmamock: Odeon. Mon Oncle (PG) (Jacques Tati, France, 1958) Jacques Tati, Jean-Pierre Zola, Adrienne Scrvatie. 116 mins. Working in colour for the first time, Tati presents Monsieur Hulot befuddled by the modern factory where his brother-in-law has given him a job, and by the all-mod-cons apartment where he visits his young nephew. Superb catalogue of sight gags centring around the dchumanising effect of the new technology. Glasgow: GFT. Mousellunt (U) (Gore Verbinski, US, 1997) Nathan Lane, Lee Evans, Christopher Walken. 98 mins. Lane and Evans play hapless brothers who inherit a decrepit mansion, but when they decide to renovate and auction it, a resident rodent is not willing to be evicted. An excellent blend of Laurel and Hardy slapstick and black humour, MouseHunr is sheer entertainment and has some real belly laughs. The tone and the pacing are spot-on throughout, and the sets and special effects are the icing on the cake. Edinburgh: Lumiere.
The Mummy (12) (Stephen Sommers, US, 1999) ) Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah. 115 mins. The secret of the film‘s success lies in its reinvention as an Indiana Jones-style adventure in which rugged hero Fraser, luscious librarian Weisz and comic sidekick Hannah scour 19305 Northern Africa for the fabled City of the Dead and unwittingly resuscitate dead Egyptian priest, who immediately busies himself with ravaging the land with apocalyptic plagues. Edinburgh: Lumiere. Galashiels: Pavilion. Muppet Treasure Island (PG) (Brian Henson, US/UK, 1996) Tim Curry, Kevin Bishop, Billy Connolly. 102 mins. Young Jim Hawkins, along with his friends the Great Gonzo and Rizzo The Rat go hunting for treasure with Captain Flint’s map, meeting up on the way with Long John Silver (Curry), and Fozzie, Kermit, Miss Piggy et al as various Stevenson characters.
‘Me Tarzan, you Jane': Disney's Tarzan
Faithful to the book, but hilarious in its extraneous details - especially in the opening section - this is one time everyone can enjoy Hollywood’s plundering of British literature. Edinburgh: Odeon.
My Favourite Martian (PG) (Donald Petrie, US, 1999) ) Christopher Lloyd, Jeff Daniels, Elizabeth Hurley. 92 mins. This movie remake of an American TV favourite, scarcely known in the UK, is a breezy family adventure that’s amusing and disanningly entertaining. Some excellent special effects help, as we meet a hapless Martian visitor who has crash landed on Earth and is keen to leave as soon as possible. Glasgow: Grosvenor. Edinburgh: ABC, Brunton Theatre. Falkirk: FTH Cinema. Greenock: Waterfront.
Natural Born Killers (18) (Oliver Stone, US, 1994) Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey Jr. 119 mins. Stone’s visual and aural assault makes for one of the most remarkable cinematic experiences in years; his attempts to marry style with content, and provide a damning expose of the media adulation of serial killers is less successful, let down by his trademark overstatement. Violent, mesmerising, hallucinatory and bold in its use of various film formats, NBK is a landmark in MTV-influenced filmmaking. Edinburgh: Cameo.
Never Been Kissed (12) (Raja Gosnell, US, 1999) Drew Barrymore, David Arquette, Michael Vartan. 107 mins. As journalist Josie Geller, Barrymore is given her first undercover reporting assignment: to go back to high school as a student to find out about modern education from the inside. Needless to say Jessie has some problems adjusting to the priorities of her new life and, at school first time around, Josie was far from Miss Popular. Capitalising on the considerable charm of its star, Never Been Kissed is a cheery, upbeat affair, enjoyable enough for the popcorn cinema audience. General release.
A Night At The Opera (PG) (Sam Wood, US, 1935) The Marx Brothers, Margaret Dumont, Kitty Carlisle, Allan Jones, Walter Woolf King. 90 mins. The Brothers (minus Zeppo) were at the height of their comic powers when they made this masterpiece. This time they’re helping an Opera company get back on its feet, but not before they've had a hand in wrecking it in the first place. Edinburgh: Lumiere.
Ninety Degrees South (U) (Herbert G Ponting, UK, 1933) 73 mins. Documentary coverage of the final fatal expedition of Captain Robert Scott to the Antarctic. Edinburgh: Film Guild at Filmhouse. Notting Hill (15) (Roger Michell, UK, 1999) Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts. 110 mins. Screenwriter Richard Curtis’s eagerly awaited follow-up to Four Weddings And A Funeral has Grant playing William Thacker, the divorced owner of a travel bookshop into whose life walks Hollywood megastar Anna Scott (Roberts) and, before you know it, they kiss. Paisley: Showcase.
The Opposite Of Sex ( 18) (Don Roos, US, 1998) Christina Ricci, Martin Donovan, Lisa Kudrow. 105 mins. Ricci plays Dedee Truitt, a sixteen-year-old super-bitch who runs away from Louisiana to live in lndiana with her half-brother Bill (Donovan), who is still grieving for his dead lover, Tom. Dedee swiftly steals Bill’s new dishy-but-dim boyfriend, announces her pregnancy, and flees the state with Tom’s ashes and $10,000 of her brother’s money. A dark comedy brimful of two-timing and double-crossing flawed by a wilfully un-PC treatment of sexual politics and unnecessary dallying with post-modem narration. Edinburgh: Film Guild at Filmhouse
Orphans (18) (Peter Mullan, UK, 1999) Douglas Henshall, Gary Lewis, Stephen McCole. 95 mins. On the eve of their
'mother’s funeral, four grown-up orphans
express their grief as storm clouds gather in the skies. Les the social realism of Ken boach, more a surreal expressionism which takes everything to its illogical conclusion. Edinburgh: Film Guild at Filmhouse. Place Vendome (15) (Nicole Garcia, France, 1999) Catherine Deneuve, Jean- Pierre Bacri, Jacques Dutronc. 118 mins. This sleek thriller has some of the same pleasures as last year’s L’Appartement: an intricate narrative, crisscrossing relationships and an iconographic use of
Paris. Garcia’s film, though, has a bit more emotional resonance, courtesy, perhaps, of the characters' seniority here — Deneuve as a woman in her fifties whose life has fallen apart; whose husband is suicidaL There‘s plot enough here for Garcia to rollercoast, but the director's more interested in character study. Edinburgh: Lumiere. Playtime (PG) (Jacques Tati, France, 1967) Jacques Tati, Barbara Dennek, Jacqueline Lecomte. 152 mins. Monsieur Hulot, tussling with the modern world as usual, follows a group of American tourists around a garish and hi-tech Paris of concrete and glass. Undervalued later Tati, with the actor Tati’s slapstick of old overshadowed by Tati the director’s masterly control of the widescreen frame. Glasgow: GFI‘.
The Prince Of Egypt (U) (Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, 1998) Voices of Val Kilmer, Ralph Fienncs, Sandra Bullock, Michelle Pfeiffer. 99 mins. The Exodus story, animated for the big screen. With some artistic licence, it follows Moses from his discovery as a baby by Pharaoh's wife, through his formative years as a Royal Prince to his fall from grace when he discovers his true Hebrew background. The familiar tale is told in an imaginative and inventive fashion, yet in aiming for such a bold, epic approach the human focus is lost. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
The Princess And The Goblin (U) (Josef Gemes, UK/Hungary, 1991) With the voices of Rik Mayall, Claire Bloom, Joss Ackland. 75 mins. Pretty poor piece of children’s animation takes only the fairy tale cliches from a good original novel and has nothing other than Mayall's OTl‘ voice performance as the Goblin Prince to give it any life. I suspect that today's audiences will be a little too sophisticated for this offering. Glasgow: GFT. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
Psycho (15) (Alfred Hitchcock. US, 1960) Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, John Mclntire. 109 mins. Hitch’s misogynistic masterpiece has a young secretary take off to hicksville with a bagful of her boss's money. Unfortunately for her she chooses to put up at the Bates’ Motel, run by that nice Norman boy. The ironic dialogue (‘Mothcr's not quite herself today’) make it a joy to catch anytime around. We liked it didn’t we mother . . . mother? Glasgow: GFT. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
Reality Bites (12) (Ben Stiller, US, 1994) Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Ben Stiller. 99 mins. Soon after graduation, Lelaina (Ryder) loses her TV job (and the chance to complete her autobiographical documentary), and so has to buy food for her Generation X flatmates on the credit card daddy gave her. Self-indulgent, middle- class American problems that are hard to relate to and impossible to sympathise with fill this movie. If this is reality, it sucks rather than bites. Edinburgh: Cameo.
The Rugrats Movie (U) (Norton Virgien/lgor Kovalyov, US, 1998) Voices of: E.G. Daily, Christine Cavanaugh, Kath Soucie. 80 mins. The weekly animated adventures of the un-cutcsy, irritatineg voiced Pickles family is big among kiddies and adults in the States, but the movie is definitely more of a junior entertainment. The film‘s message is well intentioned. and it might keep the little ones quiet for a while. Edinburgh: ABC, Odeon.
The Runaway Bride (PG) (Gary Marshall, US, 1999) Richard Gere, Julia Roberts, Joan Cusack. 116 mins. Gere plays lke, a hardened New York newspaper columnist who gets sacked from hisjob for writing an inaccurate piece on Magic Carpenter (Roberts) who has jilted at the alter three times before and is set to marry again. He goes to her home town to write a revenge piece on her, only they meet and as plans for the wedding proceed, ‘things’ start to blossom between the two. The set up isn't a million miles away from Pretty Woman but the schmaltz-fest at the end is nowhere near as toe-curling as it could have been. See review. General release.
Rush Hour (PG) (Brett Ratner, US, 1998) Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker . 97 mins. Chan has surely US superstardom with this mismatched buddy movie. Chan is Hong Kong cop bee, sent to America to assist in the hunt for the kidnapped daughter of his friend, the Chinese consul. He is paired with