Film Fanatics: May 2001
by
News and Reviews
- It seems that yet another Hollywood actor may be interested in running for President. Diane Keaton is rumoured to have predicted that Warren Beatty has "got the bug" and just might take the plunge sometime soon.
- Spooky or what? Apparently Winona Ryder had a dream that Sir Richard Attenborough's plane had crashed into a snow covered mountain. She called his office only to discover that he'd changed flights - and the plane that he had originally been scheduled to fly on had indeed crashed into a snowy mountain peak!
- On his way through Customs in the Czech Republic, Wesley Snipes was stopped by officials who found 200 pairs of socks and a similar amount of underwear in his luggage. They apparently drew the conclusion that he was 'smuggling the goods for re-sale' - only the intervention of some high-level diplomatic bigwigs convinced them that he was in the country to film Blade 2 and not to make a profit selling cut-price underwear!
- Hair today, gone tomorrow? It is being said that George Clooney is so concerned about going bald that he frequently calls his father to find out how much hair he has left, in an effort to guess what he's going to look like in 25 years or so. Clearly no one told him that baldness is supposed to skip a generation - it's the state of his grandfather's head that he should be concerned about!
BLOW (18)
An account of the rise and fall of real life drug smuggler, George Jung (Johnny Depp) who played a very large role in the birth of the cocaine trade in America. Jung was said to be responsible for around 85 per cent of all cocaine entering the West during the late 70s and early 80s. The film did badly at the American box office, due mainly to a huge misjudgement of the American public's attitude to drug taking. Critics have homed in on the film's misogynistic portrayals of almost all the female characters (including both Jung's mother, played by Rachel Griffiths, and his wife, played by Penelope Cruz) and its glamorisation of the world of drug dealing and taking.
The Times (Part 2): "The film comes across like some ultra-trendy social worker who wants to avoid censure and judgement of Jung at all costs. We are never allowed to get close to Jung's dark, selfish, ruthless side, but if he hasn't got one, he's the first ex-drug smuggler and addict who hasn't."
The Times (Culture): "The worst thing about this turgid slice of amoral schmaltz is the lazy, one-dimensional performance from Depp. He never tries to get beneath the skin of his character. Instead, he relies on a series of wigs, costume changes and sunglasses to suggest George's inner state and the passage of time."
The Evening Standard (Hot Tickets): "Based on a true story, but straddling too many years to provide a comfortable structure, Blow doesn't cut as many original lines as it maybe thinks it does. The market is over-supplied at the moment.
Heat: "Although you may have happily rooted for glamorous crims in the past.you might have a problem doing so in Jung's case, given the fact that we all know the harm that guys like him can do. ...The best efforts of Demme's busy directing style and a strong cast are only just enough to convince you that Jung's life merits two hours of your attention."
The Daily Mail: "It's about as incisive as a Virgin-made profile of Richard Branson. Nowhere is there any evidence of the misery and human waste created by drug abuse."
VERY ANNIE MARY (15)
The latest Britflick in the cinemas - and the latest disappointment. The film centres on a twenty-something Welsh soprano (Rachel Griffiths) who won a scholarship to study singing in Milan, but had to stay in the Welsh valleys and take care of her domineering father (Jonathan Pryce) after her mother died. When he suffers a stroke, she sets about making a new life for herself.
Heat: "The story has its heartwarming and amusing moments...[but]...lead character Annie Mary isn't exactly a loveable loser. ...Not great but still a step forward from the director's Mad Cows effort."
The Times (Part 2): "Too self consciously quirky to raise any real laughs or forge a proper sense of community. It might have its heart in the right place, but its central character in particular is all over the shop."
The Evening Standard (Hot Tickets): "A whimsical satire on the Welsh and their eccentric ways from Sara Sugarman, it's a mishmash of individual scenes, some amusing, others a write-off."
The Daily Mail: "Sara Sugarman's direction is as subtle as a John Prescott General Election campaign, and her storytelling is shambolic. ...Sugarman's only previous feature film was the 1999 fiasco Mad Cows. ...Very Annie Mary is not another Mad Cows. It is merely amateurish, ineptly written, poorly acted and crudely directed. But it was only the final half-hour that left me in an agony of boredom and embarrassment. That, I suppose, is some sort of improvement." So, not great then?
ALL THE PRETTY HORSES (15)
Another big film that failed to make an impression Stateside, it tells the story of two young cowboys (Matt Damon and Henry Thomas) who ride from Texas to Mexico looking for work and adventure. Along the way they meet a "gun-totin' urchin" (Lucas Black), who leads them into all sorts of trouble, and one of them falls in love with a Mexican landowner's daughter (Penelope Cruz).
Heat: "Every now and then the film captures the sweetly elegiac mood of young men enjoying the last flush of youth, it's full of gorgeous images, and little Lucas Black is excellent. ...[But] while Damon and Cruz are darn pretty their big romance is a washout. Thornton had to hack down his original four-hour version to a strangely stilted and meagre two...[and]...while Billy Bob's original cut might have been an arthouse classic, this version is a tedious compromise."
The Times (Part 2): "Billy Bob Thornton's film preserves the lyrical nostalgia of Cormac McCarthy's fine 1992 novel, and Barry Markowitz's widescreen photography is suitably lush. But for all its strivings after intense experience, the film remains stubbornly inert. Stripped of its literary finery, the story becomes a picaresque adventure yarn which sets its hero a series of increasingly obvious tests of character. He might not always win; but he's never allowed to fail."
The Times (Culture): "Fans of the book will, I suspect, be very disappointed by.Billy Bob Thornton's movie. He never manages to re-create the intimacy of the novel; the short poetic cadences of ordinary speech that work so well on paper seem rather prosaic on the big screen. The film doesn't have a fresh visual poetry of its own. Instead, we get the usual shots of big skies, the big country and horses in slow motion. ...Verdict: another great book badly mauled by the movies."
The Daily Mail: "There are so many repetitious patches and so much empty philosophising about heaven, death and the meaning of life it makes you wonder how bad the lost half of the movie must have been. I can see why a few people admire this film - it's big and handsome, and has a feel for wide, open spaces. But it's also overblown, under-involving and so lacking in dynamism that it might as well have been called All The Pretty Hearses."
Film quiz
Just how much of a film fanatic are you? Answer these questions, add up your scores and find out!
Easy (one point for each correct answer):
- Which Spanish actress has appeared in three big screen releases this May, the first of which was Captain Corelli's Mandolin?
- Which young American actor, currently appearing in All The Pretty Horses won the 1997 Oscar for best original screenplay, written jointly with his childhood buddy and star of Pearl Harbor, Ben Affleck?
Less Easy (two points for each correct answer):
- Who plays Rick, the husband of British actress Rachel Weisz's character Evelyn, in the current smash hit The Mummy Returns?
- Which television character, played by Sacha Baron Cohen, appeared in the video for Madonna's single Music and is now filming a new movie in downtown LA?
Difficult (three points for each correct answer):
- Which ultra low budget film shot Robert Rodriguez, director of Spy Kids, to fame in Hollywood?
- Martine McCutcheon is hoping to star opposite Antonio Banderas in the Hollywood version of which Andrew Lloyd Webber musical?
(Answers at bottom of page.)
Film chart
Obviously the audience figures only become available after the event so the film chart will always be a couple of weeks behind. Sorry!
UK BOX OFFICE (week preceding 20 May)
- The Mummy Returns
- Bridget Jones's Diary
- Captain Corelli's Mandolin
- Along Came A Spider
- The Dish
- Spy Kids
- The Mexican
- Rugrats In Paris: The Movie
- Amores Perros
- Exit Wounds
Interested in making films? Film Underground have advice on script writing, financing, and production. They have an excellent page of links to other resources. Well worth a look for aspiring movie makers.
Quiz answers:
- Penelope Cruz
- Matt Damon
- Brendan Fraser
- Ali G
- El Mariachi
- The Phantom of the Opera
How did you do?
0-4 points: Who needs film when you can listen to the radio, eh?
5-8 points: You're a fan all right, but you're not a fanatic yet.
9-12 points: Move over Spielberg, there's a new man in town!
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