AWCH Film Reviews -- September 2004

(Osanna V) Opening September 2, 2004

Written and directed by David Twohy, starring Vin Diesel (XXX), Judi Dench (Mrs. Brown), Alexa Davalos and Karl Urban (The Lord of the Rings), Riddick is a futuristic action adventure that follows up Twohy’s film Pitch Black.

The Necromongers are out to convert the whole universe to their beliefs – a conversion that involves more programming than conviction. Those who resist them face only one choice, extermination. Having destroyed all the Furyan – the only race capable of withstanding the invaders – the Lord Marshal journeys from planet to planet aboard the huge Necro mothership known as “the Basílica”, confident that none can stand in his way.

But one Furyan has survived: Riddick. He is an aggressive, anti-hero type who just wants to be left in peace. But peace is no longer an option unless the Necromongers are destroyed. In spite of his non-caring façade, Riddick is drawn in to help, especially when he hears that his former charge, the young Kyra, has been imprisoned in the Slam on the scorching planet of Crematoria. In a series of adventures that unfold in amazing sets, Riddick sets off to rescue Kyra and, in the process, save the Universe!

While the main thread of the story is pretty straight-forward, other aspects of the movie are rather confusing. Maybe a viewing of Pitch Black would help clarify a few things. However, if a couple of hours in a murky, futuristic, action-packed adventure with some hair-raising stunts are enough for you, this may be a movie to enjoy with your teen-age kids. Diesel has an unexpected charm that helps carry the whole production and is supported by a solid group of actors.

(Becky T) Opening September 2, 2004

In this high school comedy four girls comprise a clique called the Christians Jewels. Needless to say, their American Eagle High School is private and Christian. The girls, Mary, Hilary Faye, Tia, and Veronica, are dedicated to clean living according to the teachings of Jesus. They are holier than thou ad nauseam and adhere to strict standards for themselves. Their attempt to control others through religion fails with some such as Cassandra, a rebel and the only Jewish girl, or Hilary Faye’s brother in a wheelchair: Roland. Mary offers herself up as a sacrifice to her steady boyfriend after he tells her (underwater in a swimming pool where communications are less than clear) that he is gay. Since her school’s biology class skipped the unit on reproduction she thinks that sleeping with the opposite sex will cure homosexuality. Becoming pregnant was not supposed to be a by-product. Her growing unborn child makes Mary ineligible for the clique, and she seeks companionship with the losers, who turn out to be the real friends.

Director Brian Danelly wrote the script with Michael Urban and both intended to show that religion has become an industry which sells fear in these times of terrorism, AIDS, drugs, etc. The music is Christian pop; many funny quips are directed at the church, of which probably the most politically incorrect one is, “That’s what I call well hung on a cross.” The ultimate message is that everyone fails and everyone is forgiven. This may hold true for the unfaithful pastor, or writing graffiti on the walls or swearing, drinking, and smoking. However, being forgiven does not help the ones faced with such life decisions as having an illegitimate child or being bundled off to a Christian camp for de-gay-ification. Perhaps it’s too much to ask a film to take a serious stand on these problems, but impressionable 10-year-olds, my idea of the target audience, need more guidance. The actors, Jena Malone, Mandy Moore, Macaulay Culkin (looking these days much like German actor August Diehl), Patrick Fugit, Eva Amurri, Mary-Louise Parker, and Kett Turton, are excellent in their roles, perhaps because many of them are relatively unknown and fresh. It’s interesting that Dannelly was born in Würzburg, Urban studied in Berlin, and producer Michael Ohoven is a German who started his career at the Commerzbank, although this is not a German film.

(Pat R) Opening September 2, 2004

The subject is war crimes and the moral dilemma created when a country asks its young people to kill and the even deeper moral quagmire when one’s church either supports or opposes that effort. “The self-examination and self-deception that one must do to rationalize, equivocate and justify ones actions, resulting in troubled consciences wrestling with responsibility and hypocrisy.*” The role of individual conscience in collective evil doing.

The Statement was a novel written by Brian Moore, an Irish Catholic, fascinated by the real life story of Paul Touvier, a former French Vichy officer who, after the war, was convicted of treason and sentenced to death but escaped and was on the run for fifty years, supported and sheltered by a network of right wing clergy of the French Catholic Church.

In his 20s Touvier had headed the militia's intelligence unit, fighting the Resistance and deporting Jews. In June of 1944 he had selected seven Jews to be shot as hostages in revenge for the killing of a Vichy government official. In 1946 he was tried and sentenced to death in absentia and finally arrested after a robbery of a bakery, but escaped police custody, bringing into suspicion the involvement of high ranking ex-Vichy government officials.

In 1971, he was pardoned by President Pompidou in the name of national reconciliation, amidst a great public outcry, as much of his personal property was found to have been seized from deported Jews. He was charged with crimes against humanity but again escaped police custody and in 1989 was finally found hiding in a Monastery in Nice, rearrested, tried and convicted.

There is still controversy surrounding the actions of the Catholic Church towards the persecution of Jews during the war. The Church presumably feared a godless Communism more than the stain of collaboration with the anti-Semitic Nazis. Although the Vatican remained neutral during the War, Pope Pius X11 publicly condemned the Nazi actions and allowed Jews throughout Italy to seek shelter in the Church. Hitler had replied that "there is no future with churches; one is either a Christian or a German. One cannot be both."

The film is dedicated to those seven murdered French Jews and the 77,000 other French Jews that perished under German occupation and the Vichy Regime. Its director and co-producer is Norman Jewison, nominated for seven Oscars for Fiddler on the Roof, Moonstruck, The Russians Are Coming, In the Heat of the Night, and The Thomas Crown Affair.

Michael Caine is brilliant as the former Vichy officer Pierre Brossard, running from both the French government and another killer protecting some one else's dark secrets. Tilda Swinton plays the ambitious French judge determined to track him down with the help of an officer of the French Army, played by Jeremy Northam, as the police cannot be trusted.

The director's son, Kevin Jewison as director of photograhy, effectively captures scenes of the French countryside as well as small French villages, helping to create a very real and thrilling historically based drama.

*Quote from The New York Times on the novel The Statement by Brian Moore, "A Question of Conscience" by Eugene Weber, 1996)

(Becky T) Opening September 2, 2004

Here a weak story provides the basis for good breakdancing. Elgin (Marques Houston) is overcome with problems: an argument with his best friend David, disloyalty on the part of his sister who is dating David, threats from a gang of rich kids, and trouble with a drug dealer whom he owes $50,000. That is the prize of a breakdance contest. You can figure it out from there. This is similar to the film Drumline, where you sit through a few insults to your intelligence to be rewarded with an exciting contest at the end, even though you know who will win. Each dance was precisely choregraphed and the results are breathtaking, especially if you appreciate breakdancing.

(Becky T) Opening September 9, 2004

This Danish film is about two women, both new to the prison where they meet. Anna (Ann Eleonora Jørgensen) is the interim pastor until the regular pastor returns. Kate (Trine Dyrholm) is serving a life sentence for murder. Kate has a reputation for having a direct line to God and possessing the healing talents that come with it. Anna’s long-awaited unborn baby appears to have a chromosome defect, and Anna needs more help than her faith in God can give her. She turns to Kate. Prison guard Henrik is in love with Kate, but will lose his job for cavorting with an inmate. Jossi, the prison drug dealer, sees her sales sink as Kate influences her customers to become clean. Anna and Kate are strong women, but the story obviously revolves around Kate, and she solves her and everyone else’s problems in her own way. In Your Hands first appeared in the original Forbrydelser in competition at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. It has been endorsed by the head of the Lutheran churches in Hamburg and Hannover, Bishops Maria Jepsen and Dr. Margot Käßmann respectively. Director Annette K. Olesen researched prisons and hospitals intensively with her cast before making a feel bad film according to the rules set out by Dogma 95: hand-held camera, filmed in consecutive order, etc.

Opening September 9, 2004

Click here to see the review by Kirsten G in the In a Strange Land article from the April 2004 Currents 54th Berlinale Special Issue.

(Jenny M) Opening September 9, 2004

Comparisons between Tom Hanks in Big and Jennifer Garner in this movie are inevitable, but there’s no denying who is the better actor and which is the better movie. Here we have a gawky thirteen year old with an unspoiled disposition longing to be in with the in-crowd (goodness knows why, seeing as it’s made up of all the nasty little girls with horrible dispositions you’ve ever had bad dreams about). Young Jenna Rink is played by Christa B. Allen, the boy next door, Matt Flamhoff, is played by Sean Marquette. Fast forward to the present by a means I won’t bore you with, and we have Jenna aged thirty living the good life in Manhattan. Jenna is played by Jennifer Garner, who has won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series for her role in Alias, a cult serial, which also won a People’s Choice Award for Best New Drama Series. I doubt if she’ll win any awards here because her wide-eyed attempt to portray a teenager in a grownup’s body doesn’t ring true. Tom Hanks, if you remember, was very funny when he attempted the same thing in Big. Matt, of course, is still around, and he is played as a grownup by Mark Ruffalo. The year 2000 was a good one for Ruffalo; he won a Best Actor Award from the Montreal Film Festival and a New Generation Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association for his performance in You Can Count on Me. In this movie, which is a modern day morality tale, he plays the down-to-earth guy who makes Jenna rethink her priorities.

(Osanna V) Opening September 9, 2004

Directed by Howard Deutch, this gangster comedy brings Bruce Willis, Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet, Kevin Pollack and Natasha Henstridge back together again for the sequel of The Whole Nine Yards.

At the close of The Whole Nine Yards, we had a love-prevails-over-all ending for Jimmy “the tulip” Tudeski (Willis) and Jill (Peet), for Nick “Oz” Oseransky (Perry) and Cynthia (Hentsridge), and maybe we did wonder if and how they lived "happily ever after". The Whole Ten Yards tells us that the first two are living in Mexico – Jimmy has become an eccentric, domesticated Martha Stewart type, whilst Jill still has high hopes of becoming a renowned contract killer. On the other hand, Oz has set up a very fancy dental practice and lives with Cynthia in discreet luxury.

Jimmy has demanded that there be no contact between the two couples. Even though he is officially dead, he still feels he needs to lay low for a while. His worries are validated when Lazlo Gogolak (Pollak), father of Yanni who was killed in the first movie, is released from prison. He does not believe for a moment that Jimmy is really dead and decides that kidnapping Cynthia will trigger off events to lead him to his son's murderer. Sure enough, it does. Oz breaks the silence rule (which we discover everyone had been breaking anyway) and, unwittingly, leads Gogolak's band of thugs down to Mexico. From then on a mad caper ensues, with all kinds of cross-wired messages and insinuations. In the end we discover (though clarity did not prevail in this respect) that it was all an intricate plot hatched by Jimmy and Cynthia to get hold of even more of Gogolak's money.

Once again, the sequel to a good comedy just does not make it – Ghostbusters 2 and Analyze That come to mind to name a couple. Maybe I had too high hopes because, as Spielberg said in Berlin at the Catch Me If You Can press conference, the public wants to know what happened to their heroes after the movie ends. After twenty minutes I was wondering if I was going to laugh at all. I admit I did, but it was not really hearty, and I could not keep track of who was in league with who, which relationships were real and which were put on for show. Of course, a good comedy of errors can also have you confused, but at the end you are supposed to go “Ah, brilliant, I was completely lead up the garden path...” I found no brilliance in The Whole Ten Yards I'm afraid. Even Perry's great comedic timing was not enough to save it for me.

(Jenny M) Opening September 16, 2004

It’s hard not to have preconceptions about a movie with a name like this. And it doesn’t disappoint; it has it all. We begin in 1944 on a storm-swept Scottish island where Professor Trevor Buttonholm (played by John Hurt, looking as if he’s stepped out of a Chekhov play, which is his natural habitat as it happens) is on the trail of Nazi researchers into the paranormal. It’s downhill -- or uphill, depending on your point of view -- from then on.

The professor adopts a little monster, who is lured into his arms with Baby Ruth bars, and names him you-know-what. Flash forward to the present and we have a 60-year-old Hellboy (Ron Perlman) who has been brought up well and knows that his job in life is to kill Baddies. He works in tandem with Abe (born on the day Lincoln was shot) Sapien (Doug Jones), who is a dead ringer for C3PO from Star Wars. ( I forget the correct spelling but you probably do too.) Throw in a resurrected Rasputin (Karel Roden) and the plot thickens. Also throw in slimy monsters, lots and lots of very noisy fighting, mayhem on the New York underground, a little monster love interest (yes, you read that correctly) supplied by Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), and you’ve got this movie all sewn up. Apart from the same old script and the same old monsters, director Guillermo Del Toro has made a fast paced, noisy and funny morality tale of good overcoming evil.

(Mary W) Opening September 16, 2004

Sir Simon Rattle as the new conductor for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra brings together classical dance and music as a part of his first season. With Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps as the music, filmmakers Thomas Grube and Enrique Sánchez Lansch spent five months following the motion. British choreographer Royston Maldoon has the daunting task of teaching dance to the 250 students from 25 different nations and a wide variety of social and cultural backgrounds. He begins by telling the students, “You can change your life in a dance class.” And by the end, it is clear that some really have. As the camera spans the various groups, you can see scepticism, amusement, boredom and even hope. Nervousness is palpable. Almost everyone giggles or talks out of turn. The filmmakers concentrate on three students: Marie (14), Martin (19) and Olyinka (15), each of whom takes something very different from the experience. Perhaps the biggest changes occur with Martin and how he perceives himself. At first, Martin admits he does not even like to be touched. He does not socialize with anyone and lies to friends and relatives about what he is doing. His face contorts with discomfort when he must be picked up and held by another dancer. His transformation is remarkable as he gains confidence and learns to dance with abandon, even inviting family to the actual performance.

The film moves from the dance studio to the orchestra hall where Sir Rattle talks about his love of music and how it all began. As a child when he heard a youth orchestra for the first time, he felt that everything looked bigger, colors were brighter and sensations were closer. He explains, “I felt as though some kind of fire had come through my insides. It’s a kind of heat; it’s white heat.” His passion for music burns through his every move. Although the film concentrates on jut a few of the personalities in the background you can see the metamorphosis of the group as a whole. Assistant choreographer Susannah Broughton recognizes these changes and observes, “At the end of the session today, they started working in silence. When that happens, a real transformation begins to happen, because the mind and the voice and the sound switches off, and instantly in order to carry on, the sight and the sensory perception has to kick in, in order for them to stay with it. And the moment that happens, that’s when the real shift begins.” The performance before an audience of 3000 was phenomenal but not enough of the performance was included, leaving us all wanting more.

(Osanna V) Opening September 16, 2004

Jean-Jacques Annaud (The Bear, The Name of the Rose, Seven Years in Tibet) brings us a stunningly beautiful film about the eventful lives of two tiger cubs as they grow up. The film also stars Guy Pearce, Jean-Claude Dreyfuss and others.

The baby tigers Kumal and Sangha were born among temple ruins in the jungles of Asia around the beginning of the last century. Hunter Aidan McRory (Pearce) arrives with an expedition looking for ancient statues to take back to Europe to sell, and fear of the "man-eater" leads to the death of the father and the capture of Kumal. At first McRory wants to keep him, but the village elder who both helps him and betrays him manages to get the baby tiger from him. At the first chance he gets, he sells the cub to a circus. Shortly afterwards, Sangha is caught and becomes the beloved pet of the French Governor's (Dreyfuss) son Raoul (Freddy Highmore). However, keeping a baby tiger has its dramas and eventually Raoul's parents get rid of Sangha who ends up in the private collection of the local regent, known as “his excellency”. A year later, when both brothers have become fully-grown, magnificent tigers, they meet again in the arena where they are supposed to fight each other.

The images in Two Brothers are certainly beautiful and the presence and performance of the tigers amazing. Unfortunately, the film falls short in other areas. With the exception of the young boy Raoul, none of the other characters are particularly sympathetic, and the story holds few surprises. However, if seen as an effort to bring the tiger and the risk of its extinction (only between 5000 and 7000 remain) to the attention of the general public, it is a very worthwhile movie to go and see.

(Stephan W, guest reviewer) Opening September 16, 2004

This unusual film begins with complete silence except for the rough voice of an older woman. It belongs to one of the main characters, Traudl Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara), who, after the fact, is trying to reconcile the fact that she willingly served the greatest monster of the 20th century: Adolf Hitler. Two and a half years before the Dictator’s downfall she felt that a stroke of fate had chosen her to stand by him as his young secretary.

The film then turns to April 1945 and the last days of the Fuhrer as well as the Third Reich. We hear artillery fire; the madness has not yet been brought to a halt, although Berlin is already destroyed. The Red Army pushes forward without resistance and prepares for the final battle. When resistance does come, it is not in the form of experiences soldiers, but fanatic children of the Hitler Youth. In the meantime, Hitler’s girlfriend, Eva Braun (Juliane Kohler) makes plans for his 56th birthday, and the leaders of the Third Reich gather in the dictator’s Berlin bunker for the last time. Heinrich Himmler (Ulrich Noethen) begs Hitler to leave Berlin, but he refuses. He is still holding out for the final victory.

Eva Braun and Adolf Hitler marry on April 29, 1945. The following day they commit suicide. According to Hitler’s last wishes, their corpses are burned to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Allies. The fanaticism of the Nazis was so far-reaching that Madga Goebbels, wife of the minister of propaganda, poisoned her six children, after which Joseph Goebbels (Ulrich Matthes) shot his wife and then himself. For them life without National Socialism was no longer worth living.

Director Bernd Eichinger has made an extremely instructive and oppressive masterpiece. The actors are excellent, especially Bruno Ganz who expertly shows Hitler’s many faces, both as an unscrupulous man with no qualms about the plight of slaughtered soldiers or civilians, but at the same time a Hitler with human traits. This film is shocking and provocative; it will get under your skin.

Original review written in German:

Ein ungewöhnlicher Film, mit einem ungewöhnlichen Anfang: Eine alte, raue, weibliche Stimme ist zu hören, sonst nichts. Sie gehört der Hauptfigur in diesem Film, Traudl Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara), die sich im nachhinein zu rechtfertigen versucht: Wie habe ich bloß dem Monster des 20. Jahrhunderts, Adolf Hitler, dienen können?? Zweieinhalb Jahre vor dem Untergang stellte sie sich, wie sie glaubte, vom Schicksal berufen an Hitlers Seite zu stehen, dem Diktator ( Bruno Ganz) als junge Sekretärin vor.

April 1945, die letzten Tage des „Führers“ und des „Dritten Reiches.“Artilleriefeuer, der Wahn ist trotzdem nicht aufzuhalten. Berlin zerstört. Die Rote Armee rückt unaufhaltsam vor und steht vor ihrem letzen Sturm. Sie soll nicht von erfahrenen Soldaten aufgehalten werden, sondern von fanatisierten Kindern der Hitler Jugend.

Unterdessen bereitet die Lebensgefährtin des Führers, Eva Braun (Juliane Kohler) den 56. Geburtstags des Diktators vor und die Führungsspitze des Dritten Reichs trifft sich zum letzten mal im Führungsbunker in Berlin. Heinrich Himmler (Ulrich Noethen) fleht Hitler an, Berlin zu verlassen. Der hat aber immer noch nicht die Hoffnung auf den „Endsieg“ aufgegeben. Am 29. April 1945 heiraten Eva Braun und Adolf Hitler. Am folgenden Tag begehen sie Selbstmord. Die Leichen werden auf vorheriger Anweisung Hitlers verbrannt, damit sie nicht den Alliierten in die Hände fallen. Der Fanatismus der Nazis ging auch bis zuletzt so weit, dass die Frau des Propaganda-ministers Magda Goebbels ihre sechs Kinder vergiftete und danach Joseph Goebbels (Ulrich Matthes) zuerst seine Frau und dann sich selber erschoss. Den Goebbels erschien ein Leben ohne den Nationalsozialismus nicht lebenswert.

Der Regisseur Bernd Eichinger hat es geschafft, aus dem Stoff ein aufschlussreiches und beklemmendes Meisterwerk zu schaffen. Die Schauspieler haben sich übertroffen, besonders Bruno Ganz, der es verstand die vielen Gesichter Hitlers hervorragend darzustellen. Eines Hitlers, dem auf erschreckender Weise das Schicksal der von ihm „verheizten“ Soldaten und der Zivilbevölkerung gleichgültig war, aber auch eines Hitlers mit menschlichen Zügen. Der Film „Der Untergang“ schockt und geht zweieinhalb Stunden unter die Haut!

(Becky T) Opening September 23, 2004

Three people meet in Los Angeles airport. They are taxi driver Max (Jamie Foxx), contract killer Vincent (Tom Cruise), and lawyer Annie (Jada Pinkett-Smith). Max drives Annie to her office where she plans to work on her case all night long. She gives him her business card in case he would like to see her again. (Hint, hint.) Cut to his next fare: Vincent, who offers him $600 for the night to go to five destinations. Max cannot refuse since he needs the money to realize his own limousine company after 12 years of driving for other people. Soon Max has his doubts when the occupant of the first destination falls stone dead from a fourth floor window onto his taxi. The next hour is sort of a road movie with philosophical discussions about Vincent’s life (“Sorry does not put Humpty Dumpty back again.”, “That’s us, lost in space.”), while Max considers his precarious situation as captive in his own taxi and accessory to the crimes. The ride is interspersed with short stops for more murders, a surprise appearance with the contractor, and a visit with Max’s hospitalized mother (Irma P. Hall from Ladykillers). The ending brings all three to a tense meeting in Annie’s office. She is on Vincent’s hit list and Max must save her. The police join the fun halfway through but get nowhere.

The photography is fine, supposedly alternating between conventional and digital shots, and Jamie Foxx is quite good. However, I felt no sympathy for anyone, not even the victims, who were mostly gangsters getting their just desserts as well as missing their next day’s court appearances, which was the reason for their being knocked off in the first place. The soundtrack might be fine on its own, but within the story it was always the wrong song at the wrong time. Tom Cruise seems to be going the way of Richard Gere, i.e., a star with trim grey hair in yet another disappointing movie. Several critics (Robert Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times and David Denby of the New Yorker) disagree with me. See for yourself and make your own conclusions and please tell me what the title – Collateral – has to do with anything.

(Becky T) Opening September 23, 2004

Tim and Nick (Ben Stiller and Jack Black) are best friends, live across the street from each other and drive to work at 3M together. Each has a wife and two children. Tim is the more ambitious and successful until Nick invents a way to make dog doo-doo disappear from sidewalks. His invention is a spray called Vapoorize (poo as in poop). Tim is sceptical about the invention (“Shit doesn’t just disappear; it has to go somewhere”) and declines an offer to become a partner in the manufacturing. Almost immediately Nick becomes enormously rich and the house across the street turns into a mansion with butler, bowling alley, horse and stable, go-kart track, carousel, etc, which could easily compete with Michael Jackson’s Neverland. Nick remains a good friend, but his mere existence reminds Tim that he is a loser. His envy drives him to depression, marital problems, drink and a doubtful friendship with the J-Man (Christopher Walken), who is a bum. The advice of J-Man leads to such antics as burying, excavating, transporting, losing and finding a dead horse, as well as an uncomfortable night in a shack in the woods and blackmail. In the end Nick declares bankruptcy because the customers also want to know where the poop goes, and the two friends are on equal footing again. The moral of the story is that equality is the basis of friendship, or inequality destroys friendship, or perhaps, if you have it, don’t flaunt it, move away. Although all participants do a good job, the story is confusing and not very funny. Wait another week and go see Dodgeball for a really funny Ben Stiller.

(Jenny M) Opening September 23, 2004

The next time you pop a load of wash in your washing machine spare a thought for Griet. She is a servant girl in the Vermeer household of 1664, and she’s played to perfection by Scarlett Johanssen. While keeping up with the washing, buying the day’s food at the meat market and generally being a household drudge, Griet manages to catch the eye of her master, the painter Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth) and Pieter the butcher’s son (Cillian Murphy). Sensing an artistic soul, albeit an uneducated one, Vermeer overlooks all Griet’s chores and orders her to mix and grind his paints as well as clean his studio.

Griet’s adolescent awareness of sexual desire develops as she toils away in this tense, difficult household, filled with the spiteful children of a spiteful mother. Cornelia Vermeer (Alakina Mann) is unsure of her husband’s love and is jealous of the attention he shows to the pretty, young maid. Cornelia’s mother Maria Thins is another unpleasant woman but one who has the good sense to know that Griet is needed to help keep the family’s precarious finances solvent. Maria is a businesswoman who realises that her son-in-law’s patron has designs on Griet, and she must overlook her daughter’s wishes while complying with his. The patron, Van Ruijven, is an unsavoury character who sets in motion Griet’s downfall.

If you enjoyed the novel then you’ll enjoy the movie. Tracy Chevalier wrote a wonderful piece of fiction, which has been beautifully filmed by director Peter Webber. He brings to life the Dutch town of Delft in the seventeenth century, with its stifling class system, making a servant fearful, powerless and at the mercy of the employer. Mr. Webber has used a palette of old master paint colours to help immerse the viewer in his movie, and he has captured the slow tedium of daily life in a provincial city of four hundred years ago. Please go and see this movie; it’s a feast for all the senses.

Second Opinion by Becky T

Based on Tracy Chevalier’s book by the same title, this is an imaginary explanation of the origin of Vermeer’s famous painting of a girl wearing a pearl earring and looking over her shoulder. Little is known of Johannes (Jan) van der Meer van Delft except that he died young (1632-1675), had a wife Catharina and a mother-in-law Maria Thins, painted slowly, used the camera obscura, and invented his own type of under-painting. This is in the film, but the rest is a fictitious soap opera about a jealous wife, a bratty daughter, a strict mother-in-law, a lustful patron of the arts and a lovesick butcher’s son. Nobody knows when the actual painting was made, or who The Girl was. Here her name is Griet, and she works as a servant in the Vermeer household. The greatest value of director Peter Webber’s film is visual: each frame is an exquisite picture in its own right. The seasons, laundry on the line, canals, houses in the 17th century, costumes, etc., are all perfectly planned and photographed. It stars Colin Firth, Scarlet Johansson, Tom Wilkinson, and Judy Parfitt.

(Shelly S) Opening September 23, 2004

Directors: Piet De Rycker, Thilo Graf Rothkirch

Lauras Stern is an animated film based on a book by Klaus Baumgart. The story begins with Laura and her family moving to the big city since her mother has a new job playing her violin in the concert hall. Like many children moving to new surroundings, Laura finds it difficult to make new friends. Instead she spends time playing alone. One night when she is out on her rooftop balcony studying the stars, she sees a falling star shooting to the ground. She immediately goes to investigate the situation and finds a magical shooting star stuck in the earth. The star is broken and missing a piece.The missing piece was found by the neighbor boy, Max. The two pieces want to be together and miraculously they end up in Laura’s room where she fixes the star with a band aid. The story then takes a giant leap into the fantasy world where the star displays feelings for Laura. The star is homesick, but it would rather stray with her so she won’t be alone. Naturally the star begins to fade, and Laura has to find a was to bring it home to the sky. Of course Max has a flying machine and together with Laura's little brother they return it to the heavens. The story is nice for small children but anyone over the age of eight or nine might wonder what this story is really teaching us. The story is a bit too sweet and too idealistic even for an animation.

(Nancy T) Opening September 23, 2004

Directed by Alexander Witt

A deadly virus infects Raccoon City. The virus turns people into zombies – who by biting others, turn them into zombies. It leaked from The Hive, the underground research laboratory for the Umbrella Corp., whose motto "Our business is life itself" is disturbingly vague.

This same laboratory performed genetic manipulation on one of its own scientists, unbeknownst to her. Alice (Milla Jovovich) was turned into a superwoman with abounding strength, senses and movement capabilities, but still looking like a beautiful woman. Her boyfriend was also genetically altered becoming the ugly super-strong monster Nemesis (who looks like a lost Urukun, i.e. big Orc, looking around for the Lord of the Rings set.)

The Hive wants to conduct a gladiator-style battle between Alice and Nemesis to see who is the stronger (indication of the level of their scientific experiments?).

There are a few people who have as yet escaped the virus and zombies (who slowly shuffle about like those in Night of the Living Dead). If Alice and her band of survivors, including sexy policewoman Jill (Sienna Guillory) and TV Reporter Teri (Sandrine Holt) can find Dr. Ashford's daughter, he will assure their safe passage out of the quarantined city before the nuclear bomb is dropped (spoiler – best part of the film.)

Based on a popular computer game, there is no real story or characters here, just target practice. A film for zombies.

(Tracy M) Opening September 30, 2004

The girl witch Bibi Blocksberg (14-year-old Sidonie von Krosigk) has a serious problem. Because she spent her time on witchcraft instead of math homework, she must attend summer school at Altenberg Castle. The school director, Dr. Quirin Bartels (Edger Selge), while presenting himself as the ultimate absent-minded professor, is actually hunting for the answer to the Mystery of Altenberg. Bibi's roommate, Carinna -- a Britney Spears wannabe -- is a perfect beast. Fortunately, Bibi makes friends with Elea (newcomer Marie-Luise Stahl) who is in a wheelchair due to an accident in which her parents were killed.

Of course, Bibi wouldn't be Bibi if she didn't try to help Elea walk again, although the Witch's Code forbids interfering with human fate. She also hears about the Mystery of Altenberg and the magical Owl's Dust and tries to find it in the caves beneath Altenberg Castle. Her enemy, Rabia von Katzenstein, with the help of her cat, follows Bibi through the underground maze in a race to the blue dust. Bibi's witch mother Barbara (Katja Riemann) and her naive and befuddled father (Ulrich Noethen) visit her at summer school and are pulled into this adventure too.

Franziska Buch directed this sequel withElfie Donnelly's screenplay, and both were behind the successful first film, Bibi Blocksberg. Corinna Harfouk received the German Film Award for best supporting actress (Deutsche Filmpreis als beste Nebendarstellerin) for her role as the devious witch Rabia von Katzenstein.

Both my girls, Becka, 8, and Ally, 5, had seen the first Bibi film and were very excited to watch the second one. Becka was a bit concerned that boys might not like film because it was about a girl witch, but thought that they probably wouldn't have been as worried for Bibi when she was in the caves underneath the school as she was. Ally was impressed when Bibi flew on her broom and wanted to know if she would ever see her flying over our house. I thought Sidonie von Krosigk is wonderful as Bibi, although she does get a bit sassy to her parents when she finds out that she has to spend her vacation at summer math school, which as a mom, I didn't care for too much.

(Becky T) Opening September 30, 2004

Someone must have told Ben Stiller that he was much more effective in his various costumes in Starsky & Hutch than playing the straight man, and he must have listened. In this comedy, Stiller is White Goodman, the successful owner of Globo Gym, a high-tech fitness studio. (“I earned this body. I built this temple.”) He looks exactly like the musician Prince and talks like George W. Bush. Christine (Kate Veatch) is the lawyer who represents Goodman. He wishes to take over the run-down shack of a gym, Average Joe’s, across the street. That owner is cheerful Peter La Fleur (Vince Vaughn). He and his five faithful customers form a dodgeball team after watching a very funny take on a 1950s black and white film in which dodgeball is explained by the famous Patches O’Floulihan (Rip Torn). He represents the ADAA (American Dodgeball Association of America) and describes the five Ds: dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge. He says dodgeball means violence, degradation, and exclusion. This does not discourage them because the prize money of a national dodgeball competition would be enough to pay the outstanding debts. But they must win the local events, and their first challenge is a team of Girl Scouts. We follow their progress to the finals in Las Vegas.

The opponents are always interesting; the games are exciting. The humor is sewer/gutter (Grab life by the ball!). I thought it was hilarious, and so did all the young men at the press conference on Hamburg’s hottest Friday afternoon. Think: There’s Something About Mary or test your funny bone with the trailer on www.dodgeballmovie.com. There are surprise appearances by unexpected people, such as Lance Armstrong and Chuck Norris (whom I didn’t recognize). There is a moral to this “true underdog story.”

(Pat R) Opening September 30, 2004

Robert S. McNamara talks openly and candidly about the lessons that he has learned from his experience as the Secretary of Defense for both President Kennedy and Johnson, and as an assistant to General Curtis LeMay in the Second World War, in this documentary filmed by Errol Morris. “At my age, 85, I’m at an age where I can look back and derive some conclusions about my actions. My role has been to try to learn, try to understand what hap-pened. Deve-lop the lessons and pass them on.” It is a powerful state-ment on war, rationality and human nature. Hopefully Mr. Rumsfeld is listening.

A graduate of Yale, McNamara was picked by IBM statistical analysis of punched cards to join the best and the brightest in serving the nation. As an assistant to General Curtis LeMay, his insights on aerial bombing helped improve the percentage of hits, especially when LeMay threatened to courtmarshal pilots who failed to reach their targets.

Together they directed the B-29 fire bombing of over 67 Japanese cities, killing nearly one million civilians, including 100,000 in Tokyo. Hiroshima and Nagasaki came later. He expressed concern that they would have been found guilty of war crimes had the U.S. not won the war. Lesson #5: “Proportionality should be a guideline in war” and Lesson #9: “In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil”.

He holds up two fingers to show how close we came to nuclear war during the Cuban missile crisis, which apparently was only averted by advice given to President Kennedy from a State Department official. Advice taken. Whew! Lesson #1: “Empathize with your enemy”.

Known as the architect of the Vietnam War, McNamara loyally served two Presidents with very different agendas. Archival footage and newly released Oval Office tapes reveal conversations with both. To Kennedy, he stressed the need to set a timetable to remove the advisors, and with Johnson, to stop the bomb-ing of North Vietnam, however, in the end, endorsing Johnson’s wish to continue the war. He later resigned and now expressed some remorse over his actions. Lesson #6: “Get the Data”, Lesson #7: “Belief and seeing are both often wrong”, and Lesson #8: “Be prepared to re-examine your reasoning”.

This somber and timely reflection shows the frailty of leadership, especially during times of war. The outlook is not hopeful, as Lesson #11 is “You can’t change human nature”.

(Coppelia H-B) Opening September 30, 2004

What happens when you lose your faith and lose your fear and no longer believe in heaven and hell – in this movie we are shown that you become capable of doing anything. This thriller, where passion is the guiding force, consists exclusively of male protagonists and is filled with sensitivity and destruction. Almodovar’s latest film opened the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and has become the most visited movie of all times in the Iberian Peninsula.

During the 60s, Ignacio and Enrique are in an all-male boarding school that is run by priests. Here they discover the love of cinema and the love of each other. Padre Manolo (Daniel Gimenez-Cacho), director of the school and also infatuated with Ignacio, has his own role to play in this sexual discovery where a forbidden area is entered. As Padre Manolo discovers them together, the boys have the taste of fear in their mouths. Ignacio promises the priest anything as long as Enrique is not punished and in this instant, loses his fear. However, Enrique is later expelled from school.

As they meet again in the 80s, the old wounds resurface in a different light. Enrique (Fele Martinez) is a young and successful film director searching for a new movie. Into his studio walks Ignacio (Gael Garcia Bernal), whom Enrique does not quite recognize after 16 years. Ignacio presents him with his novel The Visit, based on their youth in the boarding school. This becomes the basis for a new movie; but while it is being filmed, Enrique discovers that Ignacio is not really Ignacio but rather his younger brother, Angel. During the last day of filming, a stranger walks in carrying the truth on his lips. He asks Enrique, “Don’t you want to know the truth about how Ignacio died?“ Come watch this movie to discover yourself the truth of this film noir.

(Kirsten G) Opening September 30, 2004

Director/producer Tony Scott knows how to combine acting talent with visual flair (as is evidenced by earlier films like Spy Game, Enemy of the State, Crimson Tide and Top Gun). But in Man on Fire, those two elements are not enough to counteract a weak plot. Man’s main character is John Creasy (Denzel Washington), an ex-CIA operative/assassin who feels so guilty about his past that he constantly dulls the pain with alcohol. A friend (Christopher Walken) talks him into moving to Mexico City to be a bodyguard to nine-year-old Pita Ramos (Dakota Fanning), daughter of a wealthy industrialist. Pita needs a bodyguard because of a wave of kidnappings sweeping Mexico City – 24 abductions in one six-day period. Pita proves a handful but her genuine concern for Creasy eventually breaks through the walls he has built around himself, which makes it that much worse when the inevitable finally happens.

There are a lot of things to like about Man: the story idea is compelling, the acting is quite good (especially from Fanning and Walken), and the visuals are interesting and do a good job of conveying the surging emotions Creasy feels. But there are also down-sides to the film, most evident being the film’s length (too long at 2 hours and 25 minutes), its obvious division into halves (the first all-drama and the second all-action), and the many plot holes. Also, while Washington is always fun to watch, he is given little room for depth in this role. Overall, the film starts out promisingly, but once Creasy turns into the “man on fire” in the second half, it descends into a run-of-the-mill, over-the-top revenge flick.

(Becky T) Opening September 30, 2004

Elviz (Denis Moschitto) sponsors a dance competition in his Hamburg disco. First prize is a lamb which is one of the first indications that Elviz is not your typical German businessman, but Turkish. He lives with his brother, sister-in-law and niece, later to be joined by mama from Turkey. Their wicked uncle Cengiz has loaned him money for the failed disco (which was closed due to under-aged patrons) and now believes that he can legally grab family property in Turkey because Elviz has no way to repay him. Elviz responds to a community need and opens a Turkish telephone-sex hotline called Superseks in the back of his brother’s bakery.

This is a delightful film for anyone who understands enough German and is interested in the phenomenon of creative Hamburg-Turkish film teams. Although director Torsten Wacker isn’t Turkish, his film is only about Turks, including their clichés: sensitive macho men, head scarves, moustaches, the all-mighty mosque and the caliph, marrying off your daughter, Turkish bread, etc. This, like other successful Hamburg-Turkish films, e.g., Head-On (Gegen die Wand) by Fatih Akin, or En Garde by Ayse Polat, was made possible by the FilmFörderung Hamburg. This office is threatened with huge budget cuts, which would be a tragedy. There are Hamburg scenes of the old war bunker at Heiligengeistfeld, the St. Pauli soccer stadium, the Speicherstadt, and Altona. Moschitto, who is Turkish-Italian, really sings an Elvis song, In the Ghetto. One of the funniest characters is Nilüfer (Hülya Duyar) who oversees the hotline. This is a happy film with a pearl of wisdom or as the Turks say, “Stick your feet out only as far as the blanket is long.”

(Becky T) Opening September 30, 2004

Thunderbirds was originally a TV series in the 1960s. Director Jonathan Frakes has revived and updated it for the children of the original viewers. The Thunderbirds are a team of father Jeff Tracy (Bill Paxton) and his four good-looking sons who fly around in exotic vehicles called Thunderbird 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. It would be naïve to assume that these guys and their planes won’t be action figures some day. Perhaps they already are, in which case any 10-year-old can describe them exactly. The Tracys’ purpose in life is to rescue people from natural catastrophes worldwide. In this full-length episode, the fifth and youngest son Alan (Brady Corbet) arrives on the family Paradise Island with his nerdy friend Fermat (Soren Fulton) for the school holidays. Fermat’s father, known only as Brains, is just that: the intelligence behind the whole enterprise and a friend of the family. The island caretaker’s beautiful daughter, Tin Tin (Bhasker Patel), makes up a threesome of nice children. The bad guys are The Hood (Sir Ben Kingsley – very good), Onaha and Kyrano. The Hood manages to put the Thunderbirds into a life-threatening situation. Who can save them? You guessed it. But, Alan, Fermet and Tin Tin are not alone. They call upon Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, a kind of female James Bond, who, together with her butler/driver, can reach the corners of the world in her pink FAB1 (car).

As the press packet says, this is a comedy, science fiction, adventure film. It was filmed on the Seychelles Islands and in London. It’s fine fun with a message about bravery and cooperation and growing up. You can send your kids to this movie with a good conscience, or go along with them and enjoy the spectacle of the space ship taking off from under the swimming pool.