Film index
An American In Perle (L') 0000 (Vincente Minnelli. L'S. 1951)Gene Kelly. Leslie Caron. Oscar Levant. .\'ina Foch. 1 13 mins. Splendid — if sometimes garish — romantic musical. with Kelly on top form as a would-be artist kicking up a storm in la belle cite. Lumiere. Edinburgh. Anllulla (L') 0... (Don Bluth/Gary Goldman. LS. 1997) Voices of Meg Ryan. Christopher Lloyd. John Cusack. 94 mins. With this widescreen romantic musical adventure. animator Don Bluth offers a film that rivals Disney. Rewriting history somewhat. evil magician Rasputin puts a curse on the Tsar's family and causes the 1917 Revolution. The child princess Anastasia survives. but grows up as an orphan. unable to remember her past. With extraordinary action sequences. exquisite characterisations and beautiful songs. Grosvenor. Glasgow.
The Animal (12) 0 (Luke Greenfield. LS. 2001) Rob Schneider. Colleen Haskell. John C. McGinley. 84 mins. Deuce Bigulmv star Schneider plays another schmuck. His Marvin Mange is a wannabe cop who drives his car off a cliff and is rescued by a mad scientist who rebuilds him Six Million Dollar Man—style. though on the cheap. replacing his broken parts with animal ‘spares'. Thereafter. Mange is transformed into super schmuck and gets frisky around sheep on heat. This is the level of humour in The Animal. and while lavatory laughs are perfectly acceptable. these gags are crap. Vikingar Cinema. Largs.
cDApocalypee Now Redux (15) 0... (Francis Ford Coppola, L'S. 1979/2001) Martin Sheen. .Marlon Brando. Robert Duvall. 202 mins. Coppola's new. longer cut of his Vietnam war masterpiece includes more of Duvall's era/.y chopper commander Kilgore. a second encounter with the Playboy Bunnies. a new sequence set on a remote French plantation adding historical background and Brando expound-
Hollywood joins the propaganda war with the bludgeoning, patriotic Bosnian war movie Behind Enemy Lines
ing upon the insanity of war. It isn't an improvement. but considering the circum- stances under which it was filmed - in the Philippines where everything from hurri- canes to heart attacks plagued the cast and crew »— you want to see everything they got on film. LTGC' Renfrew Street. Glasgow; Cameo. Edinburgh.
Arsenic And Old Lace (PG) .0000 (Frank Capra. 19-12) (‘ary Grant. Raymond Massey. Peter Lorre. Josephine Htill. Jean Adair. l 18 mins. Priceless black
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comedy has Grant upping the double-take factor when sinister criminals Massey and Lorre come to stay with his two sweet aunts. a double-act who of course are just as murderous themselves. See Rough cuts. (iFT. Glasgow.
As Good As It Gets ( IS) 0000 (James 1.. Brooks. 1997) Jack Nicholson. Helen Hunt. Greg Kinnear. 139 mins. Neurotic writer Melvin suffers from obsessive-compulsivc disorder. but compensates for his lonely life by becoming a master of abuse. Carol. the waitress in a local restaurant. is the only person tough enough to take him on. As romantic comedies go. it's an odd pairing. but the match works thanks to a sharply witty script and spot-on performances from Nicholson and Hunt. ()deon. Edinburgh.
Atlantic: The Lost Empire (1')
0. (Kirk Wise. Gary Trousdale. LS. 2001 ) Voices of Michael J. Fox. James Garner. John Mahoney. 96 mins. The basic premise of Disney’s latest. the discovery of the lost. mythical empire of Atlantis. is a scenario with soooooooo much scope for magic and enchantment it shotild be impossible to fail. But it is realised with all the visual and imaginative panache of a
jaded street artist. Furthermore. it sorely
lacks an eyebrow-arching. pupil-narrowing. gloriously caricatured villain. Similarly. Milo. the geeky hero (voiced by Fox) is deficient of charm and arouses little sympathy. As Disney‘s raison d‘etre is the good/bad dichotomy. it seems not only was the Empire lost. but a grand opportunity too. General release.
Audition (18) CO. (Miike Takashi. Japan. 2001) Ryo lshibashi. Eihi Shiina. 115 mins. ‘Wherc have all the good girls gone‘." asks the chauvinistic Yoshikawa of his widowed. middle-aged business partner Aoyama (ishibashi). The latter thinks he's found one. when he sets up a series of auditions to select a new wife: fortner ballerina Asami (Shiina). who's young. beautiful. and submissive. But where have the scars on her legs come from. and what is the nature of her interest in pain'.’ After a deliberately measured build-up. Takashi assaults the viewer‘s senses with a truly nightmarish finale. which threatens to overwhelm the film‘s critique of male Japanese attitudes to women. Cameo. Edinburgh.
Bandits ( l2) 0.. (Barry Levinson. LS. 2001) Bruce \Villis. Billy Bob Thornton. (‘ate Blanchett. 122 mins. Written by Harley Peyton (Twin Peaks ). Bum/(Is is a tale of modern day bank robbers Joe Blake (Willis) and Terry 1.ee (‘ollins ('l‘hornton). Having become folk heroes. their crime spree is complicated by Blanchett‘s neurotic
housewife who falls in love with both men whilst re-enacting the Patty Hearst story. Levinson and Peyton fail their likeable cast. but Thornton salvages the film with a genius comic performance as a hypochondriac criminal. it's a crime 'l‘hornton‘s poker face talents weren't matched by this overlong. unremarkable rotnp. General release. Battle Royale ( 18) O... (Fukasaku Kinji. Japan. 2001 ) l 18 mins. Loni ()f‘T/tt' Him is re-imagined as a violent pre- millennial nightmare as a class of teenage Japanese schoolchildren is abandoned on an island. given a variety of weapons. and told that only the last survivor will be allowed to leave. Gruesome cult action llick that sets out to bait the more reactionary members of society. Cameo. lidinburgh; MacRoben Arts Centre. Stirling.
The Believer ( IS) .000 (Henry Bean. LS. 2001) Ryan Gosling. Theresa Russell. Billy lane. 98 mins. A young New York Jewish kid who's also a neo-Naxi is about as provocative as subject matter gets. The story of Danny Blint rejecting his ycshiva studies to adopt a skinhead uniform and undertake acts of terrorism. might have been mere cheap sensationalism were it not for the thought-provoking manner in which writer-director Henry Bean investigates the story. and the fact that his script is based on a real case from the 1960s. l'nstnprisingly'. Bean (a Jew) got himself into hot water in America. but his film is a cerebral theological and philosophical inquiry which transcends criticism. L'GC Renfrew Street. Glasgow; L'GC Cinemas. Edinburgh. Blade Runner: The Director’s Cut (15)OOOOO(Rid1ey Scott. LS. 1982) Harrison Ford. Sean Young. Rutger Hauer.
1 16 mins. Out go the pseudo-noir narration and the tacked-on happy ending; in comes a more defined sense that Deckard himself may be a rcplicant. The look and feel remain as powerful. and the acting is superb. A flawed masterpiece is now a restored masterpiece. Cameo. Edinburgh.
Blue Velvet ( 18) .0000 (David Lynch. LS. 1986) Kyle Mac1.achlan. Dennis Hopper. Isabella Rossellini. 120 mins. 1n small-town Middle America. would-be boy detective Macl.achlan finds a severed car on some w aste ground. When the police shoo him away he decides to do some investigat- ing of his own. A singular fusion of the cosy and the terrifying which blends kitsch and nightmare. B-ntoy ie detection and bru- tal sex to deconstruct our complacent vision of normal society. This is film-making of remarkable imagination and skill. See review. 1‘G(‘ Renfrew Street. Glasgow: i‘iltnhouse. lidinburgh.
Bonnie Scotland tt') .0. (James llornc. LS. 1915) Stan Laurel. ()liycr ilardy.