RENTAL Angel's Dance (15) 98 mins * t *
Blackly comrc thrrller along Grosse Pomt Blank lrnes The Labrutto famrly need a hrtman, new bOy Tony (Kyle Chandler) has to be swrftly trarned up by expert Steve (James Belushr) For practrce, he's assrgned a random vrctrm Out of the phonebook who turns out to be drtzy goth Angel Chaste (Sheryl Lee) She holds her own though, and thrngs go awry Nerther as funny nor as dark as rt c0uld be, and overly rndulgent of Belushr's hammrng and Lee's hrstrronrcs, rt’s nonetheless a decent yarn (Hrgh Flrers) (HM)
Darkness Falls
(15) 88 mins t t t
No screenwrrter rs credrted here, but there’s an acknowledgement to a stage play by NJ Crrsp So rt comes as no surprrse that Darkness Falls essentrally places three people rn one room and only expands rnto crnematrc narratrve wrth reCurrent flashbacks. Ray Wrnstone lrfts thrs melodramatrc psychologrcal thrrller wrth an rntense but sympathetrc portrayal of a nrce guy drrven to extremes by the knowledge that hrs comatose wrfe has had an affarr Wrth frnanCrally desperate busrnessman Trm Dutton Performance comes out top over plot. (Fox Pathe) (AM)
The Last Witness
(15) 88 mins * x t Model-turned-actress Natasha Henstrrdge (of Specres rnfamy) takes the lead rn thrs forgettably-trtled, unorrgrnally-plotted polrtrcal consprraCy She’s an ornrthologrst specralrsrng rn predatory brrds, but when she forls an assassmatron attempt on an Afrrcan leader vrsrtrng New York, she becomes the assassrn's prey, oh, the rrony. Surprrsmgly, The Last Witness proves to be a watchable, rf pedestrran, thrrller, thanks marnly to the attractrve leads, Henstrrdge and Johnathon Schach (The
Rein taker: Richard Attenborough turns the Yuletide in the 1994 version of Miracle On
Doom Generatron and Welcome To Woop WOOp) (Allrance Atlantrs) :lvlFl
Entrapment
(12) 109 mins t t *
Puttrng Sean COnnery and Catherrne Zeta-Jones together rn any son of sexual capacIty reguwes rmagrnatrOn 0n the part of the vrewer, rf yOU can go that far (wrthout burstrng out laughrng wrth rnCredulrty), then the rest rs eaSy Both are notorrous threves and have teamed up to pull off a cOuple of the world’s brggest ever hersts There's dOuble C’OSSing galore and some pretty rmpresswe notrons of how to steal rrdICUIOUSIy guarded thrngs Plus, there rs Sean's Scottrsh castle to admrre (Fox Pathe) (SB)
Vendetta (15) 112 mins 1: t
In Amerrca, made-for-cable TV movres often attract frlm stars — thrs one has the ever-watchable Chrrstopher Walken, Unfortunately, the calrbre of thrs movre doesn’t match that of rt’s star. Lengthy, worthy and dull, Vendetta plods through the orrgrns of Italran-Amerrcan gangsterrSm rn New Orleans at the turn of the century Racrst abuse suffered by rmmrgrant Srcrlrans, whrch Walken's greedy busmessman and hrs cohorts take advantage of, culmrnates rn a mass hangrng and brrth of the Mafra. Hardly The Godfather. (Mosarc Movres) (MF)
Gloria
(15) 103 mins 1% 1t
Glorra (Sharon Stone) rs released from prrson after servrng a three-year strnt for a crrme she drdn’t commrt. Her gangster boyfrrend, whom she has taken the rap for, has promrsed her a large wad of cash when she garns freedom. Naturally, he has changed hrs mrnd and then thrngs go a brt daft; she robs a gang at gunpomt and takes a chrld hostage. On the run, Glorra drscovers all sorts of deep and meanrngful thrngs about herself. Thrs rs not Sharon's frnest moment. (Entertarnment) (SB)
I.
34th Street, part of the Christmas Classics series which also includes the Home Alone Trilogy, A Christmas Carol and Jingle All The Way. Available on retail priced £9.99 each.
RETAIL
RETAIL Last Night
(15) 94 mins *it*
It would have been so simple for Last Night to have been an overwhelming calamity. In the wrong hands (an Oliver Stone or a Robin Williams, say) a good idea such as this would have become an overblown or overly sentimental end product. Yet, with the skilful writing and direction of Don McKellar, Last Night becomes a
reviews VIDEOS
End of days: Last Night
beautifully subtle and moving story, jammed to the brim with a host of inspired little ideas and, at the very least, a contender for debut film of ’99. For reasons withheld, we know that the world has six hours remaining. A group of Toronto residents are planning very different ways to mark their final moments on earth. Escaping the parents, doing your job as usual, avoiding rampaging looters, getting home in time, having sex with as many different people in as many different ways as possible or hoping to have the last laugh by committing suicide - all are seeking to do the right thing
before the apocalypse is now.
Last Night is one of those quirkin original, pleasure-laden cultish treasures that come along all too infrequently. The final countdown and moment of impact have a touch of those early 80$ nuclear threat dramas Threads and The Day After but the cast (McKellar himself, Genevieve Bujold, David Cronenberg) is uniformly excellent as their characters try to come to terms with the most unimaginable of situations. (Brian Donaldson)
l Available to buy at £ 74.99 from VCl/Fr'lm Four on Mon 27 Dec
Frank Lloyd Wright (Exempt) 155 mins * 1t 1% *
TWrce thrs year, Amerrca’s greatest archrtect featured promrnently rn Glasgow — at an exhrbrtron rn Kelvrngrove and rn Robert Lepage’s play Geometry Of Miracles The former revealed the awesome splendOur of hrs work; the latter, the contrnual drama of hrs lrfe. Ken Burns and Lynn Novrck‘s documentary serves hrm well on both c0unts: exceptronal use of archrve footage, brographrcal detarl, rntervrew materral and shots of Wrrght’s burldrngs reveal a man whose art was as confrontational and uncompromrsmg as hrs personalrty. An architectural lecture wrth a bestseller plot (Academy £15.99) (AM)
The Girl With Brains In Her Feet
(15) 98 mins * t **
Jackre (Joanne Ward) rs thrrteen and asrde from all the regular concerns — rrate mothers, erd boys, smokrng and perrods — she rs also a runner. Set rn 70s Lercester, thrs rs convrncrngly done vvrthout a hrnt of sentrmentalrty, hrghlrghtrng race relatrons as well as sexual mores among teens. John Fast Show Thomson rs superb as the Srde- burned, runnrng coach, as rs Amanda Mealrng as Jackre's uptrght mum. Perhaps what Grange Hill w0uld have been lrke had they kept rn the sex and swearrng. (Allrance Atlantrs £12.99) (MR)
Dr Seuss Favourites
(U) 55 mins t t *
Krds, parents and grandparents all love Dr Seuss. Even Mrchael Strpe rs a fan (have another lrsten to ‘The Srdewrnder Sleeps Tonrght'). Thrs collectron of educatronal tongue-twrsted rhymes and flat etches sees Walter Matthau and John Cleese provrdrng narratron to Stones such as ’How The Grrnch Stole Chrrstmas' (a krnd of shaggy dog Scrooge stOry) and 'The Cat In The Hat
Comes Back’ (the follow-up to Seusss acknowledged classrc) Even at under an hOur, only the most stOrc of toddlers er| get through rt at one srttrng
(Vrsual Entertarnment £8.99) (BD)
The Grace Of God
(PG) 70 mins it t t
Thrs rs part personal vrdeo drary, semr- sprrrtual odyssey, touched by some wry wrt and accompanred by a dash of Jarmanesque pastoral scenery The Grace Of God rs an often begurlrng but largely bafflrng trrp thr0ugh the mrnd of Gerald L’Ecuyer, the Canadran frlmmaker who has worked alongsrde the lrkes of Drane Keaton and Andy Warhol. The story embedded somewhere wrthrn the confusrng structure rs about nothrng less than the holy trrnrty — love, sex and death lnfurratrng and rntrrgurng. (BFI Vrdeo £12.99) (8D)
The Time Of His Life (PG) 60 mins it t *
Those famrlrar wrth the work of Rrkkr Fulton fall rnto two camps, he rs a cooth Caledonran operator who puts the natrve rnto alternatrve comedy or a character comrc supreme and the frnest ‘drunk' ever to grace stage or screen The rnclrnatron for most under 50s rs to plump for the former. Strll, thrs dOCUmentary has amusrng takes on 80s lager ads and Old Frrm sectarranrsm And, of course, the Inrmrtable Reverend IM. Jolly has a place In the hearts of many an rndoor Hogmanay reveller. (Unrversal £14.99) (80)
REVIEWERS THIS ISSUE:
Srmone Barrd, Brran Donaldson, Mrles Frelder, Hannah McGrll, Alan Morrrson, Mark Robertson
STAR RATINGS
“an: Unmissable
* 1: i it Very 00d
v: t * Wort a shot
at: * Below average
* You’ve been warned ‘
16 Dec 1999-6 Jan 2000 THE ll8T 105