Film index
Film Index continued
Rush Hour 2 (12) ooor-t- (Brett Ratner. US. 2001) Jackie Chan. Chris Tucker. Zhang Ziyi. 89 mins. Chan and Tucker re-team for a big-budget sequel to their mediocre action-comedy hit. The basic set up remains the same. but with the roles reversed. Tucker is a fish-out-of-water LAPD cop bemused by the language and customs of Chan‘s home turf. Hong Kong. The mis-matched buddies are meant to be on holiday, but the bombing of the local US embassy leads workaholic Chan to John Lone. his late father‘s ex-partner in the Hong Kong Police. now a Triad gangster. While the action remains in Hong Kong. the verbal humour and slapstick action play well; but once it shifts to Las Vegas. Jeff Nathanson‘s script runs out of steam. However. Crouching 7iger. Hidden Dragon star Ziyi. as Lone‘s vicious henchwoman. makes quite an impression. See review. General release.
0 The Season 0! Men (12) eooe (Moufida Tlatli. France. 2000) Rabiaa Ben Abdallah. Sabah Bouzouita. Ghalia Ben Ali. 124 mins. Aicha decides to return to her old home of Djerba by the sea when Aziz. her son with learning difficulties. just keeps getting worse. Her two grown up daughters also join her. while disaffected husband Said refuses to have anything to do with the return to [)jerba. Their horne- coming is intercut with the day-to-day events leading up to the birth of Aziz over past Seasons Of Men. the time of year when the men folk briefly return from the city. Tlatli‘s film is achingly beautiful. con- structed round themes of past and present. colours and light. family and freedom. See review. Filmhouse. Edinburgh.
Series 7: The Contenders ( I 8) oooo (Daniel Minahan. 2001. US) Brooke Smith. Marylouise Burke. Glenn Fitzgerald. 87 mins. You will die. unless you can kill five other contenders first. You are given a gun. pursued by a cameraman. monitored by global television systems and left to play the game. These are the rules of The Contenders. the hottest US reality TV show and fictional subject of writer-director Minahan‘s quite brilliant debut. Drawing from his background in tabloid documentary. Minahan has created a gruesome satire on audience voyeurism that is as disturbingly familiar as it is comically absurd. The idea is repulsive and yet the action is engrossing. It‘s like Gladiators for the 21st century. FTH Cinema. Falkirk. Shallow Grave (18) me (Danny Boyle. UK. 1994) Kerry Fox. Ewan McGregor. Christopher Eccleston. 90 mins. Three Edinburgh flatmates find their new co-habitant dead with a stack of money under his bed. so after performing a little DlY on the corpse. they reckon all their worries are over. But the cops are closing in. there are two thugs after the money. and the psychological tension is beginning to show. Filled with dark humour and cynical one-liners. this Scottish thriller is bloody and intelligent enough to please the cult audience while remaining accessible
83;.
FTH
Sun 5th August Girlfight (15) 5:00pm Series 7: The Contenders (18) 7:30pm Sat 25th August Spy Kids (PG) 1 t :OOam Tues 28th August Amores Perros (18) 7:30pm Wed 29th August Captain Corelli's Mandolin (15)
C UPPA 1 t :OOam & at 7:30pm
Tickets and further information from The Steeple Box office
(Tel: 01324 506850)
or on the day from the hall
14 THE LIST 2-9 Aug 2001
enough to be a mainstream hit. Filmhouse. Edinburgh.
0 Shrek (L') ooooe (Andrew Adamson. Vicky Jenson. US. 2001) Voices of Mike Myers. Cameron Diaz. Eddie Murphy. 90 mins. .S'hrek will have Walt Disney turning in his cryogenic freeze tank. This truly subversive animated film takes pot shots at fairytale mythology. while singling out L'ncle Walt's beloved Snow White. Cinderella. Pinu'r‘hio. et al. Under the guise of a quest to rescue a princess from a dragon undertaken by the eponymous green ogre (which kids will love). .S’lirek also ruthlessly pillages corpo- rate Disney. satirising its theme parks and executives. And who's behind all this‘.’ Producer Jeffrey Katzenberg of Disney rival studio DreamWorks. also formerly head of. yep. Disney. General release. Solas ( 15) .0. (Benito Sambrano. Spain. 1999) Ana Fernandez. Maria Galiana. 98 mins. Caught in a crappy relationship and with her father ill in hospital. Maria (Fernandez) is also stuck in a menial cleaning job. has her mum (Galiana) staying over in her cramped Seville apartment and often loses herself in an alcohol induced oblivion. Is this neo- realism squared? Zambrano‘s film isn‘t first and foremost socio-political. but psycho- generational. Meaning. can Maria adjust to the problems of the past conceming her father that recur in the present in relation to her boyfriend? The film's conclusion might seem pat. but has an apt emotional logic. GET. Glasgow: Filmhouse. Edinburgh. Spy Kids (U) 0... (Robert Rodriguez. US. 2001) Antonio Banderas. Alan Cumming. Carla (iugino. 87 mins. Like any young children. Carmen and Juli (,‘ortez harbour hopes of madcap adventure. but unlike most children their apparently normal parents are top international super- spies. When they’re kidnapped as part of a dastardly plot to destroy the world. cooked up by kooky mastermind Fegan Floop (Cumming). it falls to the children to save the world. Rife with fantasy. special—effects wizardry and high-octane thrills. Spy Kids is particularly enjoyable because it‘s the children and not the adults that ultimately save the day. Selected release. Sweet November ( 12) oo O‘Connor. US. 2001) Keanu Reeves. Charlize Theron. 120 mins. Reeves takes time off the physical challenges of his Matrix sequels to make another soppy romance. He did this before with A Walk In The Clouds. and proved to us what we already know: Keanu‘s range is very limited. Nevertheless. he stretches his dramatic ‘range‘ to here play a workaholic advertising executive whose life is shaken up by his latest one-month stand. Theron plays the kooky woman with an air of mystery about her who suggests she be Reeves‘ squeeze. but for 30 days and no more. Studio Cinema. Dunoon; Magnum Theatre. Irvine.
Swordfish (15) oo (Dominic Sena. US. 2001 ) John Travolta. Hugh Jackman. Halle Berry. 99 mins. Opening with a magnificent explosion which occurs during a bank robbery and FBI siege. Swordfish flashes back in time to tell us how matters came to a terminal head. Criminal mastermind Gabriel Shear (Travolta) hires top computer hacker Stanley Jobson (Jackman) to help him steal billions of dollars from the Drug Enforcement Agency‘s money-laundering scheme. Berry plays Shear‘s partner Ginger. a role that naturally calls for her to remove her bikini top in a laughably gratuitous scene. Ultimately. just another big. brassy and pointless ‘actioner‘ from Hollywood mogul Joel Silver and hired-hand director Sena. General release.
The Tailor Of Panama (15) ooo (John Boomian. UK. 2001) Pierce Brosnan.
(Pat
Geoffrey Rush. Jamie Lee Curtis. 109 mins.
Brosnan‘s Andy Osnard. the anti-hero of Boorman‘s black comedy based on John Le Carré‘s spy novel. is unashamedly self- seeking. Having been banished to Panama he sees a way to turn his new posting to his advantage by exploiting British and American paranoia about the fate of the
strategically vital canal. To this end he recruits cockney ex-con turned bespoke tailor Harry Pendel (Rush). The pacing is uncertain and the ending is a mess. but the film's central relationship is intriguing. Harry is an admirable foil to comipt Osnard. whose Bond-like attributes are exaggerated until they appear nasty. Selected release.
Thomas And The Magic Rallroad (L') O. (Britt Allcroft. L'K/L’S. 2000) Voices ofAlec Baldwin. Peter Fonda. Michael E. Rodgers. 79 mins. This adaptation of the Reverend Wilbur Awdry books is aimed squarely at under tens. Whilst children will be lapping up the tale of Thomas The Tank Engine aiding The Conductor (Baldwin) against the evil Diesel train. accompanying guardians will be wondering what happened to Allcroft‘s classic series narrated by Ringo Starr. Surely it was never this juvenile! Grosvenor. Glasgow.
Three Colours: Blue (15) oeoo (Krzysztof Kieslowski. France. 1993) Juliette Binoche. Benoit Regent. Charlotte Very. 100 mins. A young woman tries to isolate herself from friends and any notion of affection following the death of her composer husband and child in a car crash. but she cannot escape from the fragments of his unfinished composition. in which she played a major part. An expressive and symbolic film that is also emotionally satisfying. Binoche‘s award-winning performance. in a film of profound beauty. is the best of her career. Filmhouse. Edinburgh.
Thrill Ride (PG) (Ben Stassen. US.
2001 ) A mix of computer graphics and live action. providing a scientific. but fun look at the history of rides. from their early origins in 17th century Russia to today‘s ride simulators. lMAX Theatre. Glasgow. Time Code (18) ooo (Mike Figgis. US. 2000) Saffron Burrows. Salma Hayek. Stellan Skarsgard. Jeanne Tripplehorn. 97 mins. Another audacious. experimental feature from Figgis. interweaving four improvised stories shot in real time and projected on to a split-screen simultaneously. The characters‘ lives criss- cross in time and space. as they enter and leave different locations. interact face-to- face or on the phone. and slowly converge upon the office of lndie film production company Red Mullet lnc.. where a tyrannical director is in the final stages of casting his new movie. lntellectually invigorating. technologically bold and — perhaps most surprisingly given the technical nature of the project - always emotionally involving. Filmhouse. Edinburgh.
0 Together (15) em (Lukas Moodysson. Sweden. 2000) Lisa Lindgren. Gustaf Hammarsten. Sam Kessel. 106 mins. Set in the mid-70s. Moodysson‘s fol- low-up to the highly-rated Show Me Love gives a gentle. comic dig in the ribs to the hippy ideal. When Elisabeth (Lindgren) and her children take refuge from a violent husband with her placid brother Goran (Hammarsten) at his commune. named Together. their lifestyles are not the only ones that end up being reassessed. lmportantly. the film eschews both nostal- gia for the period and mockery of it. despite the retro soundtrack (Abba. natural- ly) and embarrassing contemporary cloth- ing. Cameo. Edinburgh.
Toy Story (PG) .0” (John Lasseter. US. 1995) With the voices of Tom Hanks. Tim Allen. Don Rickles. 81 mins. It isn‘t just the state-of-the-art images that distinguish Disney‘s first computer- generated animation feature. it's got a cracking adventure story too. A tale of friendship and self-belief combined with an exciting rescue and against-the-clock tension. Toy Story is sprinkled with comic asides. Don‘t be fooled into thinking these toys are just for the kids. Odeon. Edinburgh.
2001: A Space Odyssey (U) .0.” (Stanley Kubrick. UK. 1968) Keir Dullea. Gary Lockward. Leonard Rossiter. 139 mins. Re-release (with new widescreen 70mm print) of the greatest sci-ti film of all
time. 33 years after it was made. in the year it was set. Kubrick’s gloriously grand architecture sees prehistoric apes timelined into a space ballet featuring a lunar craft docking to the sound of Strauss. This prefigures an extended drama aboard a spacecraft bound for Jupiter involving a murderous Al computer and the giant embryo of a space child signifying what'.‘ The next step in human evolution‘.’ An opaque masterpiece that suggests so much. yet explains so little. Which is why it‘s a timeless classic. Showcase Cinema. Glasgow; L'GC. Edinburgh.
Under The Sand (Sous Ie sable)
( 15) O... (Francois ()Ion. France. 2001 ) Charlotte Rampling. Bruno (‘remer 95 mins. Marie (Rampling) has been happily married to Jean (Cremer) for 25 years. but on a joint holiday. he mysterioust disappears whilst swimming at sea. Returning to Paris. Marie continues her daily routine teaching at the university. ref-Using to believe that she has been bereaved. And then the coastguard rings to inform her that a corpse has been retrieved. Devised by ()zon in collaboration with three female writers. overblown melodrama is eschewed in favour of a sustained mood of melancholy. Rampling provides a superb performance of understated expressiveness. capturing Marie‘s peculiar blend of vulnerability. self-absorption and haunting emptiness. The Lumiere. Edinburgh.
When Brendan Met Trudy ( 15) O... (Kieron J. Walsh. Ireland. 2001 1 Peter McDonald. Flora Montgomery. 95 mins. Roddy Doyle‘s first original screenplay boasts his trademark eccentric characters and sharp-wilted gags. and first- time director Walsh rings every last one one from it. Brendan. a nerdy English teacher who loves old movies. has his world turned arse over tit when Trudy struts up to him in a pub and demands he buy her a pint. From there the two embark on a relationship that takes in wild sex and noctumal law breaking. This is filmic equivalent ofAngel Delight: light. fluffy. sugary and unadulterated indulgent fun. Adam Smith Theatre. Kirkcaldy.
Whipped ( l 8) .0 (Peter M. Cohen. US. 2001 ) Amanda Peet. Jonathan Abrahams. Brian Van Holt. 82 mins. Whipped is what three single guys in New York are. How is a woman. Who is Mia (Peel). who gives the boys a hard time by having sex with each one of them. Thereafter. the strumpet puts a strain on the friendship of Wall Street suit Brad (Holt). emotionally sensitive Jonathan (Abrahams) and East Village bohemian Zeke (Zorie Barber). As the friendship deteriorates so does the boy‘s ritualistic Sunday Lunch. where they discuss the weekend's sexual conquests. Ugly. ()deon. Glasgow. Whisky Galore (PG) oeeoe (Alexander Mackendrick. UK. 1949) Basil Radford. Joan Greenwood. Jean Cadell. 82 mins. Much-loved Ealing comedy by the late Sandy Mackendrick. A ship carrying a cargo of whisky is shipwrecked off a Scottish island during wartime. so the locals decide it‘s time to wet their thirst. Full of wit and charm that others can only hope to emulate. Filmhouse. Edinburgh. Yaadein (PG) (India) 189 mins. Hindi film presentation. Cineworld. Falkirk.
You Can Count On Me (15) oooo (Kenneth Lonergan. US. 2001) Laura Linney. Mark Ruffalo. Matthew Broderick. 111 mins. Single mother Sammy (Linney) enjoys an orderly existence in upstate-New York town. Scottsville. She works at the local bank. devotedly brings up her kid Rudy (Rory Culkin). and attends the local church. However. the arrival of her brother and fellow orphan Terry (Mark Ruffalo) turns her cosy world upside down. Written and directed by New York playwright Lonergan. You Can Count on Me is a touchingly perceptive portrayal of a sibling relationship. Accompanied by an elegant chamber music score. and filmed with quiet. naturalistic assurance. Lonergan's debut is notable for the depth of the writing and impressively modulated performances. Cameo. Edinburgh.