Film
Tab—limit; COMEDY CRAZY/BEAUTIFUL (12) 95 mins 00
Rich kid Nicole (Kirsten Dunstj meets poor kid Carlos (Jay HCrllaHdGZI whilst doing community service on an LA beach. and it's not long before the two are snogging in the highschool darkroom. The question in crazy/beatitifu/ is therefore not so much how to bring the two together as how. once together. they can reconcile their different lifestyles. Carlos needs to make a success of himself to repay the effons of his demanding mother. while the unstable Nicole wants to tune in and rock out. In fact. each has what the other wants — he has the nous to use the word 'homies' withOut SOLinding like a complete tool. while she has the connections to get him into the Naval Academy.
crazy/beautiful feels a little schmaltzy. despite occasional moments of wonderful satire. as when Nicole's congressman father asks Carlos how many of his friends have started living ‘La Vida Loca': ‘it's not just a Ricky Martin song. you know...‘ In the end the movie succumbs to cliche. with Nicole giVing up the mood swings and the nu-metal. Carlos opening his arms to the middle classes by going out with a white girl. and the two drivmg off down the freeway. V‘i/hich is very nice if
you like that kind of thing. (James Smarti
I General release from Fri 5 Oct.
COMEDY
MIKE BASSETT: ENGLAND MANAGER
(15) 90 mins 00.
Comedy reigns on and off the pitch in Mike Bassett: Eng/and Manager. a self-effacing send-up of the English soccer scene. Ricky Tomlinson plays the affable but inept scouser Bassett. the only person mug enough to try and steer the national team to the finals of a fictitious World Cup in Brazil. Elevated from lowly Norwrch after his predecessor has a heart attack. Bassett soon has a string of disastrous results behind him and an inflamed press (led by Phil Jupitusi baying for his blood. Things get even worse after England SCrape through to South America. and the normally unflappable Bassett and his rigid 4-4- 2 formation start to crumble.
Shot on digital video as a mock- documentary. an impressive amount of filming was done at the actual stadiums. Elsewhere. a dead-pan Martin Bashir (as himself; interwews an equally po-faced Tomlinson. and there is also a lovely cameo from Pele. Mike Bassett and his pool of footballer parodies poke fun at every
28 THE LIST 4-18 Oct Q’i’fli
Self-effacing send-up of soccer
facet of the game. particularly its many self—contra(Iictory figures. Colemanballs (and balls; are in abundance. but while fans Will doubtless love the i()()'.-Ill~lll()lliil humour. others may find it a bit predictable. (John IvlacKen/iei I On general release.
ACTION DRIVEN (12) 117 mins 0
Apparently. Sylvester Stallone spent years trying to finance Driven. Whoever finally relented should be put in a car with no brakes. Stallone. not content with giving us years of bad performances. has now hoiked on the world a script that makes Days Of Thunder look like Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintanence.
The story concerns veteran driver Beau Brandenberg (Til Schweiger) battling it out with a yOung upstart Jimmy Bly (Kip Pardue) who doesn't look old enough to have a driving license. Stallone plays Joe Tanto. a former wild man employed to mentor Jimmy to the top. giving him racing tips and advice on love. Therefore. there are countless gratuitous shots of scantily clad belles to go with Beau aimed squarely at the teen boy market. Still. one time Synchronised
Less fun than a traffic jam
swimmer and model Estelle Warren manages to prove that her performance in Planet Of The Apes was no fluke — she's really that bad. Despite a couple of action packed race scenes it w0uld be more fun spending the day in a traffic jam with the stero jammed on Radio 1 than sitting thrOugh this drivel.
(Kaleem Aftab)
I General release from Fri 5 Oct.
DRAMA PEACHES (15) 82 mins 0.
It's Summer in Camden Town. Frank (Matthew Rhys has dropped out of college. and he's living rent-free with his mate Pete (Matthew Dunsteri. The lodgers in no hurry to get a job thOugh — ‘peoole who work don't look happy. I've seen happier pigs in a statighterhOLise'. he maintains — and anyv'iay he'd much prefer to be out with Pete and Johnny (Justin Salinger) chasing women. His equilibrium is disrupted however when Cherry (Kelly Reillyi confesses that she's had a crush on him for several years.
Shot for budgetary reasons in Dublin. this London-set slacker picture was adapted for the screen by writer- director Nick Grosso from his original play. The cinematic model fOr Peaches is American indies like Swingers. although this is an uninvolvrng and stagin mOunted effort. which trudges along through a cl0ud of misogyny. Women are either sexually objectified (the peaches of the title) or crudely derided (the juvenile men race their toy cars around their ‘snatch track'i. whilst the filmmakers themselves lack the necessan/ distance from their creations for this to be considered a critique of contemporary masCuIinity. Promising yOung actors like Rhys and Reilly are ill- served by such second-rate material. (Tom Dawson)
I Selected release from Fri 72 Oct.
Uninvolving and misogynistic
FAMILY
LA VACHE ET LE PRESIDENT
(PG) 90 mins 0...
There's nothing new or innovative about this formulaic feel-good movie. but then there doesn't need to be. We've been down this road so many times before. it offers a well-worn familiarity and easy viewing terrain. Eight-year-old Lucas never met his mother; she died in childbirth. leaving his farmer father to raise him with a heavy heart but lots of love. When a cow on the family farm suffers a Similar fate. Lucas steps in to take care of new calf and kindred Spirit. Maeva. But tragedy strikes in the form of mad cow disease. which threatens the entire herd. including Lucas" bovine pal; only a pardon from the French PreSIdent can save her now.
Things get a touch siin when the pair head for Paris. particularly Maeva's inadvertent trip on the Metro. And the love interest — City gal writer moves to the country and falls for rugged farmer and the ‘simple' life — is a touch cliched. But the father and son relationship is touching throughout. as is the underlying message about movntg on after the death of a loved one. (Kelly Apter)
I Fi/itihouse. Edinburgh from Fri 72 Oct.
Formulic and familiar, but fun