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Back to MAY JUNE... Word Wars 6.6.4 At the Movies June 2004
Word Wars; Roxie; 6.6.4; with Mom. A documentary about Scrabble Championship playing. Mom and I have always been big Scrabble fans. If you don't like Scrabble, or don't play Scrabble, or don't get Scrabble, or are just someone who can't spell very well -- don't bother seeing this movie. It's not good enough to transcend that. But if you're into Scrabble, you should definitely see this movie. It's totally decent light documentary on Scrabble Championship playing. The film generally follows Joel Sherman (whose diarrhea issues are more than touched on in the brief less-than-80-minute running time); the less bowel-disturbed, but more volatile Marlon, who grew up poor and was able to bypass a life of crime or addiction or nothingness by becoming a Scrabble master. Every once in a while there seems to be real hope for Marlon to break out, but then he always seems to fight it. But the relative success of this film may help change that. Part-time stand-up comic Matt Graham has some mood swing issues, but can be very engaging and funny -- when at his best. Joe Edley 's bowels seem okay, but I think he makes Sherman's problems worse. He's the reigning champ (or something like that), and also runs some official Scrabble clubs (I just joined one and emailed with Joe!) I won't tell you who wins. Word Wars at imdb. ***** Before Sunset. June 9. Very good. Click here for review. ***** Harry Potter and the ..... Vogue; 6.12.4; 3:30pm; $7. I stayed for the entire 17 minutes or so of ending credits to see if they mentioned or dedicated the film to Richard Harris, who had appeared in the first two Potters and then died. He was not mentioned. I found this tacky and in poor taste. Otherwise this Potter was easily as good as the first two. Passable entertainment; more than passable if you're a 10 year old boy.
It's Harry's third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and he learns that a convicted murderer, Sirius Black has escaped Azkaban prison, and could be coming after him next -- and bla, bla, bla... However, the cast is beyond reproach: Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter; Richard Griffiths as Uncle Vernon; Fiona Shaw as Aunt Petunia; Geraldine Somerville (the wonderful Jane Penhaligon from the UK's Cracker TV series; all too briefly seen) as Lily Potter; Gary Oldman as Sirius Black; Robert Hardy as Cornelius Fudge; Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley; Emma Watson as Hermione Granger; Julie Walters as Mrs. Molly Weasley; David Thewlis as Professor Lupin; Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore (replacing our late heroic elder statesman of ex-drunken British stage and screen, Richard Harris); Alan Rickman as Professor Severus Snape; Maggie Smith as Professor Minerva McGonagall; Robbie Coltrane (also of UK TV's Cracker) as Rubeus Hagrid; Dawn French as Fat Lady in Painting; Emma Thompson as Professor Sybil Trelawney; Julie Christie as Madame Rosmerta; and Timothy Spall as Peter Pettigrew.
Directed by Alfonso Cuaron (Y tu mama tambien [2001], Great Expectations [1998]). Screenplay by Steve Kloves (all the HPs, Wonder Boys, Flesh and Bone, The Fabulous Baker Boys -- the last two he also directed); based on the novel by J.K. Rowling. Warner Bros. MPAA rated PG for frightening moments, creature violence and mild language. Runtime: 141 min.
***** Life of Brian; Opera Plaza; Sunday, June 13, 2004; 2:15pm; $7; with Steve. Some funny parts, some of it too silly; it's refreshing to see some irreverent takes on religion, especially given the times (Bush White House/Christian Fundamentalist political control).
I'm not sure just how funny Life of Brian (1979) is now, or perhaps ever was -- it's rather hit and miss -- but I think Holy Grail is still easily their best film. Life of Brian is still extremely irreverent though; sacrilegious, blasphemous. The plot is that Brian is born on the original Christmas, in the stable next door. He spends his life being mistaken for a messiah.
Directed by Terry Jones. Written by, and starring Monty Python: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin; with Carol Cleveland, Sue Jones-Davies, Bernard McKenna, Spike Milligan, George Harrison. Executive producers: George Harrison and Denis O'Brien. Original Music by Geoffrey Burgon; Eric Idle (song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life..."); Michael Palin (Brian's song). Cinematography by Peter Biziou. Production Design by Terry Gilliam.
***** Garden State. Variety Club Preview Room. Thurs, June 17, 4pm. Totally decent. Click here for review. ***** Dodgeball, June 23; 2pm; UA Coronet; 6.23.4; Matinee $7.25; PG13. Some good laughts. Anchorman will prove a better, similar-type comedy, largely because it never even attempts to sell itself out by forgoing zaniness for sentimentality, which Dodgeball does to a slight degree. ***** The Terminal; PG13; UA Metro; 1pm; Sat,6.26.4; Matinee $7. Weak, bloated, big-budget, nothingness. Embarrassing, boring. One of my great moments as a film reviewer was to dub this film: interminalable. Or, at least, so I think. This is sappy slop. Millions appear to have been piled on this film for director, cast -- and for a huge, fake airport terminal that was obviously constructed for this film. This movie is not an enjoyable trifle -- which is the most it could ever have hoped to be. It is, instead, a billionaire's nickel, smugly tossed out to a beggar. And now the billionaire pauses on the steps of the whatever great institution he had been leaving, to await applause and praise. And, sooooo none is deserved.
This film is 2 hours and 8 minutes long. If it had been 45 minutes shorter, and tightened up, and directed with a light touch, it could have been a passable light entertainment. As it is, it represents what people in the rest of the world despise America for.
Plot: An eastern immigrant finds himself stranded in JFK airport, and must take up temporary residence there.
Viktor Navorski is another beautiful simpleton from Tom Hanks' seemingly endless wellspring. Catherine Zeta-Jones is pretty -- so pretty that most people cannot get over it! One of the picture's most serious flaws is the character of antagonist Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci -- a decent actor, an inane character and role, but who can blame anyone for taking a high profile part in the latest Spielberg film?). At first one can sympathize with Dixon -- he's a by-the-book bureaucrat trying to get a major promotion, and this refugee lunkhead is causing him some grief. But at a certain point, Navorski is no longer a problem for Dixon, yet all of a sudden Dixon is so evil in wanting revenge against this person that he knows is but a simple, decent, honest peasant -- that all sense and credibility and empathy and even comprehension of this character is gone.
Chi McBride is fine; Diego Luna is fine; Barry Shabaka Henley is fine; as Gupta Rajan, octogenarian Kumar Pallana is the standout, and delivers the film's only laugh (appearing instantly from stage right to juggle dishes -- the first time it's pretty funny); Zoe Saldana is charming and beautiful; character player Jude Ciccolella is dependable as always; same for Guillermo Díaz. Benny Golson's cameo as himself is one of the film's few highlights. One of the only, at all, worthwhile points of this film, is that it informed a much wider audience of the famous "A Great Day In Harlem" photograph taken in 1958. For more on this click here.
As with all Steven Spielberg films, John Williams' overbearing score is ever-present. Meanwhile, theİcinematography by Janusz Kaminski is very like a sunrise after a night of snowfall.
***** CASTRO'S TRIBUTE TO ORSON WELLES -- "He inhaled legend -- and changed our air. It is the greatest career in film and the most tragic." -- David Thomson... MONDAY-TUESDAY JUNE 28-29: F FOR FAKE: 1:15, 5:15, 9:20. Skilled trickster Orson Welles, who's own career started with fabricated radio newcasts, focuses this free-form essay documentary about fakery on notorious art forger Elmyr de Hory and his biographer Clifford Irving, who himself authored the fraudulent Howard Hughes autobiography. With Joseph Cotton (Citizen Kane, The Third Man), Paul Stewart (Citizen Kane, Revenge of the Pink Panther), Nina Van Pallandt (The Long Goodbye, A Wedding) and Laurence Harvey (The Manchurian Candidate, Expresso Bongo) appearing briefly as themselves, along with Welles's longtime companion, Oja Kodar. "One of the most dazzling, equivocal and personal films ever made." -- Jack Kroll, Newsweek (1974) 85m New 35mm Print! *****
***** The Clearing; June 29; Empire 3; 7:30pm; shockingly rude guy talked throughout film, annoying dozens around him, ushers were called, then he'd be quiet while the ushers were there, they'd leave, he'd jabber again, this was not a high school kid, he was like 30; insane. Ticket purchase time: 7:19pm. Click here for review.
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