Film
COMED { ACTION CHARLIE’S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE
(12A) 105min O.
In Bret Easton Ellis' 1985 novel Less Than Zero. the cultural and moral vacuity of its characters was expressed in a striking image: the skinny, coke-fuelled teens constantly watched MTV, but with the sound turned down. The 21 st century version would be different: obese youths on a Coke-fuelled sugar rush would watch MTV-style movies on a giant plasma screen, with the Dolby Digital surround-sound system turned up to eleven. With the fast forward button permanently pressed. And the kind of film they would be watching? Charlie ’5 Angels: Full Throttle.
For those who hated the hair- flicking original, Full Throttle might sound like a tempting invitation. If you enjoyed the crime-fighting silly Girl Power fantasies of the first one, this super-charged sequel offers more hyperactive fun (for those with ADD). Whenever the Angels aren’t shaking their own shapely arses, they're kicking someone else’s, while the nominal plot proceeds in jerky fits and starts.
The Angels must recover two rings which, if brought together, will reveal the names of everyone on the US government's witness protection programme. Justin Theroux’s steroid- crazed bad guy is a demented, muscle-bound Irishman named
REISSUE THE WORD (T BC) 126min 00000
With a season at the NFT and the re-release of Day of l/‘Vrath (1948). it's good to see Carl Dreyer getting exposwe once again. After his final film. Gertrud (1964). the great man was booed at Cannes. and there was a danger that the archiVing of his work would Slip into neglect. Dreyer's earlier films Varnpyr and The Pas‘Sion of Joan of Arc have long been accepted as masterworks but the self-indulgent ‘late' period work that included Order and Gertrud has always raised a
question mark Over his oeLivre.
Film scholars have unfortunately been asking the wrong questions: the only one wonh asking is how Dreyer managed to make ever subtler works of metaphySical Cinema: how does he raise ba8ic spiritual questions WithOut falling into a theological mm of View? In Day of Wrath he does so through Suggesting a malevolence in the y0ung. adulterous wife. at the same time as foetising on Witch trials during the 17th century. But he doesn't necessarin suggest the Wife is a witch.
In Order he offers us the miraCLilous in the famous ending. but as a family grieves over a dead sister. and the sen believes JeSus Christ talks through him. Dreyer somehow
Seamus O’Grady, Demi Moore‘s surgically-enhanced bad girl runs the gamut from surfing fiberbabe to fallen angel and on to wicked witch.
Hats off to Mark Stetson for the seamless visual effects though, and to the many stunt persons for the acrobatic action sequences. These leave Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu with walk-on parts consisting mostly of dressing up (as nuns and strippers), dancing to MC Hammer (?!), and role playing in lame movie parodies iFiashda'rre.
offers the spiritual through the technical. It's the way he
The spiritual through the technical
30 THE LIST 3—1 7 Jul 2003
frames. the way he pushes penonnancesto the point of somnambulance ito become
(PG) 92min 0.
COMEDY DRAMA DADDY DAY CARE
Sisters are doing it for themselves
Occasionally, director McG hits the pause button, which gives the powder-puff girls a chance to explain the story to one another. And there are a few rewinds to drag in characters from the original or, most notably, from Dylan’s (Barrymore) dodgy past. As welcome as a solo album from one of the Appleton sisters, as substantial as a McDonald‘s McFlurry, and as liberating as a hairspray ad. Because you're worth it. (Nigel Floyd)
I Ger‘ei'a/ r‘e/ease .‘ro'r? Fri ~' Ju.
Erosive candy for the Murphy die-hard
Eddie Murphy should have listened to that old thespian adage about not working wrth children or animals.
‘Spiritual Two fathers (Eddie Murphy. Jeff Garlini lose their )Ohf} in
automatons in One critic's phrase. that allows for the eQuivalent of a spiritual release. Brilliant Stuff. iTOny MCKlbblf‘.) I Fi/mhouse, Edinburgh on Fri 4 Jul (Kaleem Aftab)
product development at a large food company and are forced to take their sons Out of the exclusive Chapman Academy and become stay—at-home fathers. With no rob pOSSibilities on the hOfl/Oli. the two dads Open their own day care faCility and employ some fairly unconventional methods of caring for children. As it catches on. their project attracts the barbed attentions of the Chapman Academ‘. 's eVil director (Antelica Huston). Steve Zahn ta great comic turn as child minder MarVini and Huston apart. this is eroswe candy for the Murphy die-hard.
diets CAN’T SWIM
(18) 101 mins 0..
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‘,',’hat the trim is good on is a ()t:l‘.£l(tlll(; delicacy of t(‘r(?|lll(]. ()Yl’it,‘ Lise arrives at (Bx-Jeri", she gets ‘:lll()tli’)lt(l|l, attached beyond friendship Will these feelings result in a deeper eriiotio'ial bond. or ‘.'.'o'.ilrl taking the feelings lit the (ll!(:(;tl()ll of sex cause more problems? And. £1ll‘,’y'.’£t‘,'. isn't (Ewen basically hetero?
Director AnneSophie Birot's obvioust 'Jflflkllit} NIH) a potentially very tired theme: the teen. ternale bonding rnotit of Heaven/y Crmtures. f on and La Hepet/tion for example - .vhere the gay subtext is never far away. But .‘xhere this tlll,’ genre often lends itself to austere presentations of psychosis and despair relieck out the recently published French novel by Anne- Sophie Brasrne caller) Breather. Birot's seems a more humane .vork. (Tony t~./1r;Kibbini I Film/rouse. [Edinburgh from Tue 75 Jr// to Thu 77 JU/
Humane