Film Fanatics: October 2002
by
News and Reviews
- Nicolas Cage must be feeling fairly pleased with himself at the moment. The Oscar-winning actor's personal collection of more than 400 comic-books - assembled over a period of several years - has recently fetched $1.6 million at auction. Perhaps the most impressive item in the sale, which was conducted by Heritage Auctions of Dallas, was the actor's copy of Action Comics 1, the 1938 comic which featured the first appearance of Superman. This single comic sold for a grand total of $86,250 or £55,290!
- Freddie Prinze Jr, newly married to Buffy star Sarah Michelle Gellar, apparently did his best to make a good impression during his recent stint on the set of hit US sitcom Friends. The young actor, who was making a guest appearance on the show playing the male nanny to Ross (David Schwimmer) and Rachel's (Jennifer Anniston) baby, handed out free caramels to every member of the cast and crew on his very first day. Aww, what a sweetie! (I sincerely apologise for the unauthorised use of such a shockingly awful pun - I just couldn't resist!) That's enough puns! The Ed
- It seems that, despite previous plans to the contrary, Michael Caine's new film with Miramax, The Quiet American, is now assured a sufficiently early release to allow it to qualify for the Oscars. Why the change of heart? Apparently Mr Caine threatened not to do any publicity for The Actors, another Miramax movie, unless the studio had a little rethink.
RED DRAGON (15):
Sir Anthony Hopkins returns for a final outing as the infamous Dr. Hannibal Lecter in Brett Ratner's big screen adaptation of the first book in the Thomas Harris trilogy, which continues with The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal. The serial killer at the centre of Red Dragon however is not Lecter himself, but Ralph Fiennes' 'Tooth Fairy'. Just as Clarice Starling is forced to do in The Silence of the Lambs, in this film FBI agent Will Graham (Edward Norton) has no choice other than to seek help from the recently apprehended Lecter if he is to have any chance of understanding, then hunting down and catching another killer. An earlier, much admired version of the same story, entitled Manhunter and starring Brian Cox in the role which Hopkins later made his own, was filmed in 1986 and is still viewed by many as a classic.
The Mail on Sunday: "Our fondness for Lecter does have its attendant problems. First is that he has become such a pivotal character, so we miss him when he's not there. .When Lecter isn't involved our attention flags and there's nothing Ralph Fiennes's murderous Tooth Fairy - so dubbed because of his habit of leaving bite-marks on his victims - can do about it. We want Hannibal the Cannibal.
".Fiennes is impressive as the deranged Francis Dolarhyde and his scenes with the blind but lovely Reba (Emily Watson) are touchingly well acted. But we never really understand what is truly at stake because Ratner clearly believes (and, regrettably, probably rightly) that a modern cinema audience will be lost by references to William Blake and his engraving of the Red Dragon.
What does it symbolise? Audiences will leave with almost no idea, recalling instead a film comprising a tattooed bloke who thinks he's turning into a dragon and a leftover plot from Psycho. Don't get me wrong, Red Dragon is a genuinely enjoyable chance to bid goodbye to one of our best-loved villains but, as a thriller, it lacks pace, tension and anything resembling genuine menace."
Heat: "Leave the 'not as good as Manhunter' chatter to the movie buffs. This latest Lecter flick is no classic, but so what? Scary, darkly funny, by turns clever and stupid, but most of all engrossing and consistently entertaining, Red Dragon is currently your local multiplex's most enticing prospect."
The Times (Culture): ".Fans of Dr Lecter will be a little disappointed by the lacklustre return of their antihero. Part of that has to do with the narrative structure of Harris's original novel.[in which].Lecter only has a bit part. Consequently, the star of this movie is marginalised by the thrust of a whole different story line.
"But the problem goes deeper. The Hannibal we see here just isn't scary, and that has nothing to do with not seeing a hungry Hannibal in action. What's missing from Hopkins's performance is that mood of menace: the threat that he could get inside your head and stir-fry your brain. For this, the great cinematographer Dante Spinotti (Heat and, weirdly, Manhunter) is also partly to blame. When it comes to presenting the face of evil, he doesn't have any fresh ideas. There's not one memorable shot in the whole film.
".Fiennes does his best to bring the character of Francis Dolarhyde alive, though he's clearly a descendant of Norman Bates, only with granny issues. With the exception of Emily Watson.this talented cast, which includes Philip Seymour Hoffman as a tabloid hack, is utterly wasted."
MY KINGDOM (18):
Don Boyd's lurid version of King Lear reworks the well-known Shakespearean tragedy into a 'murky Liverpudlian thriller'. Following the death of his wife, Richard Harris's gang boss Sandeman decides to divide his 'kingdom' among his three daughters.
The Times (Culture): ".Sadly, better versions by Jocelyn Moorhouse and Akira Kurosawa mean [that this reworking of King Lear] is never much better than an also-ran. .There are strong characters in Boyd and Nick Davies's screenplay, but it succumbs to the inevitable clichés: bent cops, heavies and willing whores. Louise Lombard is excellent as Kath, but the film is mostly held together by the almost calm deterioration at the heart of Harris's performance, his best since The Field."
The Mail on Sunday: "A ghastly mess of a movie that seeks to combine the Liverpool underworld with the plot of King Lear, and fails completely. .The blood-splattered plot, complete with ludicrous storyline about smuggling drugs in golfballs hidden in cows' stomachs, makes almost no sense at all."
The Observer: ".An ingenious relocation of King Lear to present-day Liverpool gangland. .Much of the fun comes from seeing the way Boyd reworks the plot and the characters. The Fool, for instance, becomes Sandeman's mixed-race grandson; Gloucester and Kent are conflated into Tom Bell's customs officer, while Aidan Gillen's bent cop is both Edmund and Edgar. There is a nice sense of modern Merseyside and occasionally there's a variation on familiar Shakespearean lines - from Richard III (the film's title), The Merchant of Venice, Othello and Lear itself."
CLOCKSTOPPERS (PG):
Two American high-school kids gain possession of a watch that can freeze time, allowing them to 'get up to all sorts of mischief'. However, they soon discover that they are not alone in 'hypertime' and swiftly find themselves on the run from a group of menacing men in suits bent on world domination.
The Mail on Sunday: "The time-stopping effects are certainly impressive, but the film fails to follow its own logic and descends into boring clichés about dads, sons and cool stuff you can do on your bike."
Heat: "[A] shoddy teen sci-fi lark that will be appreciated best by ten-year-olds. .Not great, not awful, just forgettable."
The Times (Culture): "When Zak (Jesse Bradford) slips on a watch he picked up from his dad's things - dad being a brilliant scientist and all - he enters hypertime, allowing him and Francesca (Paula Garcés) to move around a frozen world, invisible to those around them. Cue plenty of fun pranks. But the special effects look cheap, Bradford can't act and Garcés is a double for the Little Mermaid. This belongs on a Saturday-morning TV show."
The 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):
- M Night Shyamalan, writer and director of Signs, shot to fame with which film starring both Bruce Willis and child actor Haley Joel Osment?
- Kate Winslet is currently dating which well-known British director, whose new film Road to Perdition looks set to garner him yet more Oscar glory?
Less Easy (two points for each correct answer):
- Anthony Hopkins is presently enjoying his third outing as Hannibal Lecter, a serial killer whom he first brought to life in The Silence of the Lambs, playing opposite Jodie Foster's 'Clarice Starling'. Can you name the actress who took over the role of Clarice for the 2001 sequel, Hannibal?
- John Corbett, star of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, is best known for playing Aidan, the boyfriend of Sarah Jessica Parker's character in the hit US show Sex and the City. What is SJP's character called?
Difficult (three points for each correct answer):
- Kenneth Branagh will soon be seen on screen playing the foppish 'Defence Against the Dark Arts' teacher Gilderoy Lockhart in the second Harry Potter film, The Chamber of Secrets. The next film, based on the third book, will be The Prisoner of Azkaban and the fourth will be The Goblet of Fire. Can you name the fifth, long-awaited and as yet unpublished book in the Potter series?
- Robin Williams, currently receiving great reviews for both Insomnia and One Hour Photo, is still fondly remembered for his role as a childlike alien playing opposite Pam Dawber in which late '70s - early '80s sitcom? (Clue: 'Nanu, nanu!')
(Answers at bottom of page.)
Film Chart
Since the figures are not always available until after the event, the Box Office chart may occasionally be a couple of weeks behind. Sorry!
UK BOX OFFICE (Week ending October 6th)
- Lilo and Stitch
- My Big Fat Greek Wedding
- Signs
- Road to Perdition
- My Little Eye
- Boat Trip
- One Hour Photo
- Van Wilder
- The Bourne Identity
- Sweet Sixteen
Quiz Answers:
- The Sixth Sense
- Sam Mendes
- Julianne Moore
- Carrie Bradshaw
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Mork and Mindy
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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