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Ipreviews I v i u i L coach? Something tells me a lot of moviegoers are going to make like a quarterback and pass. (R) THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY The new film from The English Patient director Anthony Minghella wasn't even in wide release yet and it was knee-deep in Golden Globe nominations. A good sign there's more to this star-studded saga of social climbing than meets the eye. Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law star. (R) MAN ON THE MOON Milos Forman brings the life of comedian/basketcase Andy Kaufman to the screen with a little help from Jim Carrey and Taxi alums Danny DeVito, Carol Kane, Judd Hirsch and Christopher Lloyd. (R)
BOYS DON'T CRY The true story of a young Nebraska man who is sexually assaulted and murdered when his buddies find out he's really a young Nebraska woman. Hilary Swank stars. (R)GALAXY QUEST Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver play has-been stars of a '70s sci-fi series who get the call for real when an alien race in need of help looks Earthward. Alan Rickman and Tony Shalhoub costar. (PG) (R)
ANY GIVEN SUNDAY Let's see. Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Albert Brooks, Chris Columbus and Rob Reiner all came up with disappointing duds in '99. What are the odds on Oliver Stone's gridiron saga faring any better featuring, as it does, the very nonjocky A1 Pacino as a has-been
shorts
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new on video
AMERICAN PIE** 1 / 2 There's Something About Mary meets Porky's in this envelope-pushing
*****
THE GREEN MILE***172 Director Frank (The Shawshank Redemption) Darabont is back in jail again, this time for the story of a prison guard and the Death Row giant he believes to be inno- < cent. Starring Tom Hanks, David Morse and Michael Clarke Duncan. (R) STUART LITTLE***^ From the co-director of The Lion King and the visual-effects guru behind the original Star Wars comes the story of a dapper, well-spoken and extremely high-tech rodent. Geena Davis, Michael J. Fox and Gene Wilder star in this adaptation of the E. B. White classic. (PG) DEUCE BIGALOW: MALE GIGOLO**172 SNL vet Rob Schneider stars here as a fish-tank cleaner who fills in for a vacationing hustler. Sound dumb enough to be an Adam Sandler movie? It is. Big Daddy is executive producer. (R) ANNA AND THE KING*** I'm confused. Is there, like, infinite, insatiable demand out there for new movie versions of this story? This time around Chow Yun-Fat and Jodie Foster play the unyielding old-world monarch and the Western woman who whips him into shape. Andy Tennant directs. (PG-13) TOY STORY 2 * * * * Everybody's favorite living dolls reunite for an all-new animated adventure when Woody (Tom Hanks) is kidnapped by an unscrupulous toy collector and Buzz (Tim Allen) rallies the 'toon troops to rescue him. (G) SLEEPY HOLLOW*** Tim Burton teams up with Johnny Depp again, this time for an update of Washington Irving's classic Headless Horseman saga. Christina Ricci and Christopher Walken co-star. (R) END OF DAYS**1/2 Arnold Schwarzenegger is back on the big
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comedy about high school friends who concoct a plan to lose their virginity by prom night. Jason Biggs and Chris Klein star. Brother Paul and Chris Weitz direct. (R) SUMMER OF SAM*** The latest from Spike Lee looks to be his most controversial since Do the Right Thing. Lee directed and cowrote this portrait of a Bronx neighborhood in the grip of a heat wave and a serial killer's reign of terror. Families of some of David Berkowitz's victims have criticized Lee for making the picture. But then, so has Berkowitz. John Leguizamo and Mira Sorvino star.
cosponsored by Video World Superstore
a piece of the action
Time once again for the version of our game in which we freeze an action-packed frame from a well-known film and extract a pivotal puzzle-shaped piece from the picture. Your job, as always, is to come up with the name of the movie anyway.
(R)
ELMO IN GROUCHLAND (NR) The fuzzy red one makes his big-screen debut alongside the more experienced Mandy Patinkin, who costars as a mean junkyard owner who tosses a beloved blankie into Oscar the Grouch's trash can.
NR = not reviewed
screen for the first time since 1997. Saving one person at a time apparently is old hat at this point for the 52-year-old action star, so this time out he's saving the whole human race. From Satan, no less. Gabriel Byrne co-stars. Peter Hyams directs. (R) THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH*** And, apparently, audiences can't get enough when it comes to these deals. Which always mystfies me. Pierce Brosnan presides over the 19th Bond film, in which the Menudo of undercover operatives faces off against an evil genius with designs on the planet's oil supply. With Robert Carlyle and Denise Richards. Michael Apted directs. (PG-13) BEING JOHN MALKOVICH**** Music video director Spike Jonze makes his big-screen debut with this odd-a-thon about a guy (John Cusack) who discovers a portal that transports him into the brain of the actor John Malkovich. With Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener and — surprise! — John Malkovich. (R) AMERICAN BEAUTY****172 Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening play the heads of a nuclear family in the process of meltdown in the feature debut from from whitehot Broadway director Sam (The Blue Room) Mendes. (R) FIGHT CLUB*** Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are teamed in the dark new film from Seven director David Fincher. Based on the bestselling novel by Chuck Palahniuk, the picture concerns an underground organization in which men meet to beat the post-modern numbness out of each other.
(R) THE HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL** Famke Janssen and Geoffrey Rush star in this update of the campy Vincent Price chestnut about strangers who spend the night in a haunted mansion
in exchange for a large sum of money. Which is exactly what it would take to get me anywhere near this. (R) SUPERSTAR**172 The latest "Saturday Night Live" sketch to make it to the big screen has Molly Shannon stretching her Catholic schoolgirl spaz bit into a 90-minute saga about an underdog's triumph over geekiness. With Will Ferrell and Mark McKinney. (PG-13) STAR WARS EPISODE 1: THE PHANTOM MENACE** Forget the Force — may the No-Doz be with you if you decide to sit through George Lucas' overhyped and under-written saga about Jedi knights (Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor) trying to save a planet from invasion. The dialogue is stunningly banal. Ditto the new characters and most of the derivative action sequences. Short on warmth and humor, and long on computer imaging, the director succeeds less as a fleshed-out story than as an ad for his special effects business, and an opportunity to make millions in merchandising tie-ins. (PG) RANDOM HEARTS**172 Harrison Ford's a cop. Kristin Scott Thomas is a congresswoman. After their spouses perish in a horrible plane crash, they discover the two had been having an affair. Which, of course, means they have so much in common it's just a matter of time until they're making whoopie, too. Sydney Pollack directs. (R) THREE KINGS****172 The buzz is big for this off-beat black dramedy-action from Flirting With Disaster director David O. Russell. George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube star as American soldiers who do some personal treasure hunting during the Gulf War. (R)
For more film fun don't forget to watch "Art Patrol" every Thursday, Friday and Sunday on News Channel 5!
LAST WEEK'S WINNERS STEVE GARBARINO JONATHAN HUDGENS TINA WHITCOMB DAVID LUMBRA MARY GRIFFIN JERRY COLEMAN DALE O'DANIEL OTTO MACKENZIE RITA FOURNIER ALICE CHRISTIAN
LAST WEEK'S ANSWERS: WHO? AMY BRENNAMAN WHY? SHE ALONE HAS NOT APPEARED IN A STEPHEN KING ADAPTATION.
DEADLINE: MONDAY • PRIZES: 10 PAIRS OF FREE PASSES PER WEEK,
3 GIFT CERTIFICATES GOOD FOR A FREE RENTAL AT THE BURLINGTON VIDEO WORLD SEND ENTRIES TO: FILM QUIZ P O BOX 68, WILLISTON, VT 0 5 4 9 5
OR E - M A I L TO ultrfnprd@aol.com. BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR ADDRESS. PLEASE ALLOW FOUR - SIX WEEKS FOR DELIVERY OF PRIZES. ey il9yd T H I S year I ' M doinGi I T All ONLIN6> THERE/ J Jl/sr BOVbHTl J HAT JEDADIAH P VRDY BOOK Fop ivy dad/.
WOW I ' M CATCHING, up With my rI FOUND A weffsITS VJITH 23,000* ISTCR in MANITOBA ON A SPECIAL HOLIDAY CAROIS IN mP3 FORMAT.'j I made reindeer keyboard Holiday e-chat jpoppets decorated my^ bESKTOP.
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wvjw.troo bit town • com
december 22, 1999
SEVEN DAYS
page 35