Connect Savannah Apr. 04th, 2007 www.connectsavannah.com
40 Movies
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ing Irving’s own tell-all book) to imbue the character with some degree of sympathy fall flat, Gere is skilled enough to nevertheless add some complex shadings to the role. Also memorable is Alfred Molina, sweating up a storm as Irving’s nervous accomplice in the scam. With its allusions to Richard Nixon and Watergate, Hallstrom and Wheeler firmly establish the timeframe of their film. Yet if anything, the movie feels more like 2007 than 1971, given that fraudulent writers (like Stephen Glass) have proliferated in recent years and “identity theft” has become a commonplace expression. The Hoax might be intended as a cautionary tale, but in today’s cynical climate, it stands a better chance of emerging as an inspirational training film.
I Think I Love My Wife
It’s inconceivable that the names Eric Rohmer and Pootie Tang would ever appear in the same sentence, yet that’s the result of cowriter-director-star Chris Rock making I Think I Love My Wife. The film is an American bastardization of 1972’s Chloe In the Afternoon, the sixth and final movie in philosophical French director Rohmer’s “Moral Tales” series (Criterion released a glorious box set last year that includes all six titles). Now, Rock and his Pootie Tang cohort Louis C.K. have teamed up to rework Rohmer’s story into a moderately amusing but ultimately scattershot comedy about Richard Cooper, a New York businessman whose marriage to a schoolteacher (Gina Torres) has become so stagnant that he constantly daydreams about being with other women. Into his office walks Nikki Tru (Kerry Washington), a high-maintenance friend from his long-ago clubbing days. Bringing to mind the “Darling Nikki” from Prince’s Purple Rain soundtrack, she immediately tempts Richard by injecting some much-needed fun back into his life, thereby requiring him to decide whether or not he should cheat on his sexually frigid spouse. The level of humor is all over the map, ranging from funny (Richard works at the investment firm of Pupkin & Langford, a nod to the characters played by Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis in Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy) to rancid (“I have an appointment,” states a beautiful woman in a fantasy sequence, to which a sex-crazed Richard replies, “Yeah, a pussy appointment!”) to somewhere in between (I don’t think I’ve ever heard a large pair of breasts referred to as “village feeders”). Yet while the script by Rock and C.K. offers a few salient points about the challenges posed in keeping any marriage fresh, any benefit of the doubt as to the picture’s worth goes out the window upon the arrival of a dreadful conclusion that’s not only poorly conceived and executed but also reverses one of the major conflicts in the story with no explanation.
Local Film Series Psychotronic Films Presents Baxter
This John Waters dark comedy about a highly intelligent Bull Terrier who plots against his unsuspecting owners because he feels they just don’t understand him (and the mental and emotional needs of dogs in general) is an infamous cult classic that has never been released in the U.S. Wed., April 11 at the Sentient Bean Coffeehouse, 13 E. Park Ave., seating begins at 7:30 p.m., film at 8 p.m. w
Shooter
Shooter kicks off with a scene in which a young man flashes a picture of his fiancee to his partner, and we all know that when an unfamiliar, expendable cast member shows off a shot of his sweetie, he won’t be around for many more scenes. Shooter also includes a sequence in which our protagonist, already pissed at the sour turn his life has taken, reaches his boiling point upon learning the worst news a movie hero can hear: The villains went and shot his faithful dog. It’s a testament to all concerned that Shooter can include such hoary clichés and not only survive them but also make them fun to watch one more time. Crisply directed by Antoine Fuqua and adapted from Washington Post film critic Stephen Hunter’s bestseller Point of Impact, this casts Mark Wahlberg as Bob Lee Swagger, a former Marine sniper who’s duped into taking part in a political assassination and then served up as the lone gunman. Refusing to go down easy, Swagger instead uses all his training to get back at the slimy suits who framed him, along the way enlisting the aid of an earnest FBI rookie (Michael Pena) and, yes, his late partner’s fiancee (Kate Mara). Comparisons to Sylvester Stallone’s equally ill-treated combat vet from two decades ago are paper-thin, since this film is anything but a Rambore; instead, it benefits from some taut action sequences, a well-chosen supporting cast (66year-old Levon Helm, not looking a day over 99, steals the film as a gun enthusiast), and a smoldering Wahlberg in a commanding central performance. It’s nice to see that the former Marky Mark is already building on that Oscar nod for The Departed.
300 1/2
Positioned as the Ultimate Fanboy Movie, this adaptation of the Frank Miller graphic novel is indeed ferocious enough to satisfy basement-dwellers with its gore, violence and chest-pounding machismo while savvy enough to downplay the homoeroticism that will ever-so-subtly cause heretofore unexplained stirrings in the loins of these same armchair warriors. Yet for all its brutality, 300 has as great a chance of satisfying a sizable female contingent, since it’s ultimately a beefcake calendar posing as a motion pic-
What’s Playing Where CARMIKE 10
511 Stephenson Ave. • 353-8683 Meet the Robinsons 3D, The Lookout, Blades of Glory, Pride, The Last Mimzy, Hills Have Eyes 2, Reign Over Me, Dead Silence, 300,
REGAL EISENHOWER
1100 Eisenhower Dr. • 352-3533 Shooter, TMNT, I Think I Love My Wife, Premonition, Wild Hogs, Bridge to Terabithia
REGAL SAVANNAH 10
1132 Shawnee St. • 927-7700 Blades of Glory, The Lookout, Hills Have Eyes 2, Last Mimzy, Pride, Reign Over Me, Dead Silence, 300, Wild Hogs, Zodiac, Ghost Rider
VICTORY SQUARE 9
1901 E. Victory • 355-5000 Meet the Robinsons, Blades of Glory, Wild Hogs, Premonition, Pride, 300, Shooter, TNMT, The Last Mimzy, Hills Have Eyes 2
WYNNSONG 11
1150 Shawnee St. • 920-1227 Meet the Robinsons 3D, Peaceful Warrior, Shooter, TMNT, I Think I Love My Wife, Premonition, Amazing Grace, Bridge to Terabithia, Norbit ture (ironic, then, that the lockstep online trolls attack anyone who doesn’t rave about the film as being like “a girl”). Beyond its demographic-targeting, however, its greatest claim to fame is that it’s positioning itself as the next step on the evolutionary CGI ladder, offering (in the words of director and co-writer Zack Snyder) “a true experience unlike anything you’ve ever seen before.” Snyder was responsible for the surprisingly accomplished Dawn of the Dead remake three years ago, but here he seems to have been swallowed up by the enormity of the project, which depersonalizes the major players in the battle between the Spartans and the Persians to such a degree that one ends up feeling more sympathy for the shields that end up receiving the brunt of the sword blows and arrow piercings. 300 contains a handful of staggering images — and, for once, the color-deprived shooting style fits the tale being spun — but Sin City, a previous adaptation of a Miller work, offered more variety in its characterizations and, more tellingly, in its cutting-edge visual landscape.
Wild Hogs 1/2
This simple-minded comedy has the audacity to reference Deliverance in one scene, yet the only folks who’ll be squealing like a pig are the ones who fork over 10 bucks, only to find themselves royally screwed after enduring its inanities. Four Cincinnati bunglers (John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy), each suffering though some pathetic form of midlife crisis, decide to embark on a road trip to the West Coast. They mount their motorcycles with the intent of rediscovering life’s little pleasures, but it’s not long before these queasy riders are having to cope with menacing bikers, “bomb”-dropping birds and a homosexual highway patrolman (John C. McGinley).
Amazing Grace
Basically Amistad with only half the serving of self-importance, Amazing Grace examines the efforts of William Wilberforce, a member of British Parliament who fought to end his country’s involvement in the slave trade during the late-18th and early-19th centuries. Ioan Gruffudd (the officer who rescues Rose in Titanic), plays Wilberforce, who spent over two decades of his life battling colleagues who saw nothing wrong in keeping the practice of slavery alive. But armed with his deeply held religious convictions and a basic sense of decency, he persevered against all obstacles, including a reputation as a traitor to his country during the war with France (“You’re either with us or with the French terrorists!” has a familiar ring...) and his own failing health. Perhaps more Masterpiece Theatre than motion picture — director Michael Apted (Nell) frequently opts for static shots more suitable for the small screen — Amazing Grace nevertheless tells a story that’s compelling enough to compensate for the occasional stuffiness.
Bridge to Terabithia
Like the film versions of A Little Princess and The Neverending Story, Bridge to Terabithia wasn’t made for crusty-snot-nosed kids; instead, it’s for bright, inquisitive children (and attendant adults) who subscribe to the theory that imagination is one of the most wonderful tools available. Based on Katherine Paterson’s award-winning book, this explores the relationship between two outcast middle-schoolers (Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Robb, both highly appealing) and the adventures they share as they create a magical kingdom in the woods that rest behind their respective houses. If the effects involved in the creation of their imaginary world seem on the thrifty side, that’s OK, since the heart of the story rests in the manner in which children are able to cope with loneliness, ostracism and even death. w