ALSO RELEASED Aquamarine (PG) 103min
00. Surprisingly sweet adaptation of Alice Hoffmann’s popular book aimed squarely at an undiscriniiriating audience of preteens, When two twelve yeariold girls discover a mermaid on their favourite beach. their troubles have only just begun. Splash meets llie little Mermaid for a s; ssy new generation. General release from [in 23 Jun.
Ultraviolet (15) 87min 0
lnept superwoman heroine nonsense which borrows from everything from Flectra. the Lara Croft moVies and most recently Aeon Flux. It comes as some surprise then that according to writer/director Kurt [quill/brrurn Wimmer. U/travro/et is not based on a comic book but on Cassavettes' Gloria. Milla JoyaVich stars. General release from Fri 23 Jun.
Half Light (15) 110min
0.. Intriguing. eerie. Scottish island—based thriller from the writer of After the Sunset — Craig Rosenberg. Demi Moore plays successful novelist Rachel Carlson who moves to a small village after the death of her son. but strange spooky things start to happen shortly after her arrival. Though based in Scotland this was actually filmed on Llanddywn Island. Anglesey. Wales where the production was plagued by bad weather. The finished film is a flawed but an interesting modern attempt at a Don't Look Now—style chiller. General release from Fri 23 Jun.
The Lake House (PG) 98min .0 Florid. stilted. boring. stupifying. banal but occasionally poetic supernatural romancer starring Speed freaks Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. Directed by Argentine filmmaking veteran Alejandro Valentin Agresti. General release from Fr'r 23 Jun.
Little Manhattan (PG) 83min .0. Cute. manipulative. very watchable but very white. privileged look at urban puppy love. set to a backdrop of landmarks. which lovers of New York will enjoy spotting. Cynthia Sex and the City Nixon stars with some brats. The film boasts the same husband and wife production team behind TV's The Wonder Years. General release from Frr 30 Jun.
Over the Hedge (U) 83min .0. Above average DreamWorks animation about an audacious raccoon who fools a family of forest creatures to invade suburbia with unexpected results. Bruce Willis. William Shatner and Avril Lavigne are on voice duty. General release from Fri 30 Jun.
46 THE LIST 22 Jun—6 Jul 2006
HORROP REEKER (15) 90min 0
Not Ficekcr stiriker This stalk sash chiller. in which a bunch of obnoxious American teenagers headed for a raxe in the desert are stranded overnight at a diner and slaughtered by a noxrous creature that looks like the Grim Reaper. but might better be described as a shit monster. is in even, conceivable way. cack. Lacking an ounce of originality. it makes the recent slew of killer onthe road studio flicks (Joy Ride. Wrong Turn. et all look like genre classics.
The plot. scripted by director Davrd Payne. has more holes in it than the scantilyclad co-eds slaughtered by Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees. Characterisation has never been a strong point in horror films. but there isn't even so much as caricature- isation here. just five jerk—offs farting around waiting their turn to be butchered. The gore comes too late to provrde any distraction from the film's fatal flaws. and a scene in which a bimbo is dragged arse-first into the septic tank of an outside crapper makes it clear Payne has totally misjudged the tone of the horror and the humour. Only the high quota of unintentional laughs — down there with the infamous Plan 9 From Outer Space — contribute any sort of relief. (Miles Fielder)
I Selected release. from Fri 30 Jun.
CRIMETHRILLER SEGUESTRO EXPRESS (18) 88min .0.
Jonathan .JakubOWicz‘s hard—hitting Venezuelan kidnap thriller has rightly been compared to the Brazilian ghetto drama Crty of God. Like that Latin cinema international hit. Secuestro Express is super—stylish. daringly dynamic. boasts superb performances (from a cast partly comprising street kids) and delivers an urgent message for socral change.
The Latin American phenomenon of express kidnappings — in which gangs snatch rich kids and demand modest- SIZGG ransoms from their families payable Within a few hours. thus circumnaVigating police involvement — is convrncmgly and compelling played out as three drugged—up thugs kidnap a yOung COupIe (one of whom is played by rising star Mia Maestro. seen recently in Pose/don) Out on the town in Caracas.
Jakubowcz. who wrote and directed the film. himself a one-time kidnap victim, leads his feature debut wrth plot twrsts and pitch-black humour. In one priceless scene one of the victims
is forced at gunpoint to withdraw money from an ATM. orin to be held up by an armed robber. Nevertheless. Jakubowic/ never loses sight of the serious busuiess at hand. maintaining an almost constant atmosphere of dread and rising hysteria. It's exhausting to watch. and at times somewhat overwrought. The delivery of the social message :sn’t subtle. particularly in a Stockholm Syndrome style exchange between kidnappei and Victim. But the film's call for the breaking down of the barriers between Venezuela's poor and rich (here argued as the root of risnig crime) hit home with Chavez' government. which has threatened Jakubowrc/ wrth ten years in the slammer. That in itself is a seal of approval. (Miles Fielder)
I Out now on general release.
DOCUDRAMA
THE CAVE OF THE YELLOW DOG
(U) 93min 0..
One of the great cliches of the movre busmess is that aSpiring filmmakers should avoid working with animals or small children. Well, it's adVIce Mongolian director Byambasuren Davaa gleefully disregards for her second feature. Set in the remote rural steppes of her native country. it's a deceptively simple tale revolvmg around Nansaa. a young girl from a famin of Nomads. who discovers a stray pup in a liillSide cave. which she takes home and names Spot. Trouble
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lt's the kind of ("erase a Hollywood tilt" would heed 'er its :;e"fe"7ent.il \tllllt’ But \‘.'Tllz‘ PALM ik‘.l\"l<‘:l .l j‘er‘nrmiani‘e at wile med charm "or" her ll‘.t‘ \.e.i' mi eat: and the tied is anileniattlx i‘cte "e' ‘i.m is atimrral‘n 'ealnztii‘ about the teatit‘. tinrtrnantii rigours .t‘ the family f; nernailit‘ lite Taking pate amid the stark beautx of he Mantiamn vour‘tr‘ysiile. iTl‘i. is .i tasunatxia thli‘.lrtii'llt of .i disappranng wax o‘ l:te The 'noutlx non professional .ast. rneai‘wnile. hung .1 twitter intiiva \ .inil .tltjuntllllt) spontaneih to Illa»! roles as Nansaa's \anous family members It a little slow going at ti'nes, Dog is still .ir‘ assured and engaging tale. touched in moments of haunting
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lyricism and rough hewn \isual grandeur. if dward l awwnsonl I Gl'l, Glasgow. and“ Car'reo. Ed/nfmrgl‘ from f r, .i'tl .lrr':. COMl DY
LOST EMBRACE (15) 100min oo
Argentina's official choice for the 2004 Oscar Awards finally surfaces on these shores and it's not difficult to see why it failed to make any headway in that year's nominations. A guirky (occasionally too much for its own good; comedy set for the most part in a Buenos Aires shopping mall.
Writer director Daniel Burman's film centres on young thick haired lingerie clerk Ariel (Daniel Hendlen and his day to (lay life amongst a bunch of mildly eccentric. mad or downright weird JeWish. Italian and Korean fellow shopkeepers. Spurred on by a subplot concerning Ariel's attempts at understanding his family history and potential emigration to Poland. the film is robbed of some of its potential for magic realism in retail land (as so successfully deployed by Justin Kerrigan in his much underiated 1999 raver flick Human Traffic) by an Obsession With mobile digital cameras and a need to make this look like a spoof reality TV show.
Though ultimately derailed by a kind Of gauche. studenty, chaotic sentimentality. Lost Embrace does boast some lovely touches and great performances (Adriana Aizernberg as Ariel's slippery mother is particularly excellent). This gentie sweet natured little film does however bear little connection to the great work currently been done in Argentinean Cinema by the likes Of Carlos Serin (Bonbon: El PerrOi and Pablo Trapero lFamr/ra Rodente). (Paul Dale)
IF/lmhouse. Edinburgh from Tue 4 Jul.