Groovy Movie
Selector
March 16th, 2000
by Max Power
REINDEER GAMES -
Director John Frankenheimer resurrected his theatrical-release career a
couple of years back with the contemplative and adult action drama,
Ronin. Before that, for quite a while, Frankenheimer was relegated to
fine television movies (Andersonville, George Wallace) and poor
box-office duds like Island of Dr. Moreau and Year of the Gun. This,
from a man who made such classics as The Manchurian Candidate, Grand
Prix, and Black Sunday just to name a few. That’s why it is sad to see
that he got himself (or the rest of the fine cast), mixed up in this
rambling mistake. Ben Affleck is Rudy, a recently released ex-con who is
looking forward to spending time with his family and meeting Ashley (Charlize
Theron), a girl he’s read a lot about. Rudy meets up with Gary Sinise,
who plays Gabriel, a very naughty boy. Gabriel forces Rudy to help them
with a casino heist that Rudy’s old prison buddy was supposed to help
out with. Frankenheimer is very good at staging action sequences. If
anything can salvage this film it would be the fact that some of them
are very fun to watch, instead of the usual ‘crash that there,’ ‘blow
this thing up here’ boredom that some recent action films give us. For
Frankenheimer fans looking for one of his better films, stay away. If
you are looking for a jumbled action film that has some redeeming
explosive scenes in it, there isn’t much out there for you right now,
so you might as well see this.
WONDERBOYS -
Michael Douglas made a fine script choice when he decided to be the lead
in Curtis (L.A. Confidential) Hanson’s new dramedy. Douglas is a
writer and Professor in Pittsburgh that has had his share of weddings
and writer’s block and now spends his time chasing a valuable historic
dress and getting frisky with the school’s (un-single) chancellor
(Frances McDormand). Boarding in Douglas’s house is a student, (Katie
Holmes) and she is very interested in our rumpled hero. And that’s
just the start of things to come in this unpredictable and enjoyable
movie. This film plays great for a mature audience as a comedy that has
enough emotional ingredients to make it truly endearing. Douglas gives a
wonderful performance, like none he’s given in quite some time, and
the rest of the cast shine along side him. With Tobey Maguire, Robert
Downey, Jr., Richard Thomas, and Rip Torn.
NINTH GATE, THE
-
Johnny Depp has a pretty neat job. He has to go around the world and
track down priceless books, or at least find out if they are forgeries
or not. A rich booklover, played by Frank Langella, commissions Depp to
retrieve a mysterious old book for him. Depp goes all around the world
and begins to notice that everyone who’s had some sort of history with
this book has, gulp, died. The film doesn’t rise to a truly scary and
jolting level, but it tries to keep a consistent mode of tension, and at
least manages that. There are a few surprises and some interesting
characters that we get to meet towards the end. Director Roman Polansky
has fallen a long way from films like Chinatown and Rosemary’s Baby.
The fact that this film has been sitting on Artisan’s shelves for over
a year doesn’t inspire much confidence, either. What it has going for
it is some decent atmospheric scenery (not to mention the numerous
countries it is set in), and a storyline that while not very good, doesn’t
reach the bottom of the barrel either.
MISSION TO MARS –
When astronauts on a mission on Mars disappear, NASA has to send up
another group to find them. What ensues is a clichéd-ridden mess that
only continues director Brian De Palma’s spiral down the black-hole of
poor filmmaking. De Palma has made a good career for himself imitating,
er, paying homage, I should say, to Hitchcock’s work. Here, he takes
after countless other well-known sci-fi films (especially towards the
last few minutes) and forgets ho to steer this vessel into some original
territory. Also to blame are the writers. This film had at least three
very talented screenwriters and that could have been the overkill
problem as well. The cast is admirable with what they have and do the
best that they can. Gary Sinise, Jerry O’Connell, Tim Robbins, Don
Cheadle and Connie Nielsen all have to go to Mars and save the other
crew. Drifting away from sci-fi thriller and more towards sci-fi
spirituality bogs the film down too much, much like Contact, which
flirted with the mystical aspects of space a little too much. With a ‘PG’
rating, there is a limit to where the film can take us with its
gore-factor, but it does give us some decent action scenes that make the
film more bearable.
DROWNING MONA
–
What a terrible waste of good talent. Bette Midler plays Mona, a
constantly bitchy and mean woman in a small, upstate New York town
(overlooking the Hudson river), who, as the title suggests, drowns. This
wasn’t by her hands though and the mystery to figure out whodunit
begins. Police chief Danny De Vito (in his Yugo, which everyone has), is
put to the task to sort through the cinematic cuckoos onscreen to find
the killer. The film is chock-full of ‘wacky’ characters and
slapstick situations that fail to reach the comic zaniness that would
have made it work. With ‘scream’ queens Neve Cambell and Jamie Lee
Curtis.
MY DOG SKIP –
Taking place in Mississippi during World War II, narrator Harry Connick
Jr. introduces us to this often-sweet film that works hard to stay away
from saccharin sentiments. Likeable lead Willie (Frankie Muniz, star of
TV’s Malcom in the Middle) is a quiet introvert until his parents
(Kevin Bacon and Diane Lane) get him a dog. Skip is a Jack Russell (and
son of Frasier’s Eddie) who’s love and constant wonder helps Willie
slowly come out of his shell and become a more sociable and sure
individual. The settings and production design were done with great care
to take us back to a different era and that only helps the story more.
While it cannot fully escape from mushiness from time to time, it stands
out over similar recent films of this genre as a heartwarming winner.
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