From: owner-movies-digest@lists.xmission.com (movies-digest) To: movies-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: movies-digest V2 #96 Reply-To: movies-digest Sender: owner-movies-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-movies-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk movies-digest Sunday, September 20 1998 Volume 02 : Number 096 [MV] review: Rush Hour (no spoilers) [MV] Remakes of French Flicks. [MV] depressing Re: [MV] Point of no return/la femme nikita Re: [MV] Point of no return/la femme nikita Re: [MV] Point of no return/la femme nikita [MV] The Film.com Weekly Newsletter -- 9/18/98 Re: [MV] depressing + Howard Chau [MV] MovieJuice! - Week of September 20, 1998 [MV] Film Threat Weekly : 9-21-98 : Slate II, Take 39 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 08:41:59 -0600 From: cHriS Subject: [MV] review: Rush Hour (no spoilers) I did not have high expectations for this film, and to my pleasant surprise I had a good time! This film does not pretend to be anything other than what it's supposed to be: fun. I thought the chemistry between Chan and Tucker worked really well. The fight choreography was cool (more than a couple times the audience went "oooh!"), and Tucker's one-liner zingers kept the mood light. If you watch with a critical eye, you'll notice some weak points in the story and continuity, but they weren't damaging enough to me to take away from the overall flow of the show. Even the blooper cuts during the ending credits drove the point home with this movie: it's all fun. - - cHriS [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 11:51:04 -0700 (PDT) From: Christina Stanley Subject: [MV] Remakes of French Flicks. On Fri, 18 Sep 1998, Mel Eperthener wrote: > Sorry, but the only thing I found depressing about Point of No Return is > that Hollywood once again took a wonderful film that is literally a work of > art (La Femme Nikita) and turned it into complete and utter crap. As far as remakes of French films go, this one was passable. I'd still say that La Femme Nikita was the better film, but Hollywood has done far, far worse. christina ______________________________________________________________ cristina@blarg.net The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing..if you can fake that, you've got it made. Groucho Marx [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998 04:26:20 +0900 From: Honwa Chau Subject: [MV] depressing "Se7en" "Heavenly Creatures" "Breaking the Waves" "Naked" itchy [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 16:57:39 EDT From: KenKnows@aol.com Subject: Re: [MV] Point of no return/la femme nikita In a message dated 98-09-18 16:15:17 EDT, danyelli@hotmail.com writes: << I saw Point of No Return, and loved it. I think it's a great movie. After seeing the original la femme nikita, i thought that was a good film too. But i still like the American version better. >> Why do you like it better? [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 14:38:18 PDT From: "Danielle Conkle" Subject: Re: [MV] Point of no return/la femme nikita everything...from the hollywood explosions, to the acting. (might have been influenced by the fact Bridget Fonda is my fave actress...) ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 14:42:17 -0700 (PDT) From: Christina Stanley Subject: Re: [MV] Point of no return/la femme nikita On Sat, 19 Sep 1998, Danielle Conkle wrote: > everything...from the hollywood explosions, to the acting. (might have > been influenced by the fact Bridget Fonda is my fave actress...) hmmm ... I just found the action and story in La Femme Nikita to be more stylish. I do think, though, that the American version isn't bad. christina ______________________________________________________________ cristina@blarg.net The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing..if you can fake that, you've got it made. Groucho Marx [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 18:27:54 -0700 From: "Film.com" Subject: [MV] The Film.com Weekly Newsletter -- 9/18/98 Welcome to the Film.com Newsletter - a weekly mailing of the news and reviews from www.film.com. This mailing is distributed to the Film.com mailing list and to new members of Film.com. For information on how to subscribe/unsubscribe, please scroll to the bottom of this message. Contents - 9/18/98 1. Rush Hour: Chan and Tucker . . . Not Quite a Dream Team 2. One True Thing: Meryl's Magical Mom 3. Permanent Midnight: Stiller Goes Dark 4. A Soldier's Daughter . . . : Merchant-Ivory, Sans Corsets 5. Six-String Samurai: Sucks 6. The Fall Movie Preview 7. Weekend Box Office 8. In the Screening Room . . . 9. Video news: New releases 10. Video specials from Reel.com 11. Movie Music 12. Do You Have G2? 13. Next week on Film.com 1. RUSH HOUR Review excerpt by Sean P. Means http://www.film.com/reviews/index.jhtml?review_url=/film-review/1998/10723/27/default-review.html " . . . The action follows the Hollywood buddy-movie formula so slavishly that Mel Gibson and Danny Glover should get royalty checks. One of them hits people, the other makes wisecracks, and tons of stuff blows up. Don't tell me Jackie came all the way from Hong Kong for this -- he could have stayed home and made something just as predictable. . . . And, if Jackie had stayed home, the action scenes would be more exciting. Chan has a few instances to shine -- a brawl in a pool hall, a brawl in a mansion, a brawl in a Chinese restaurant, and a cool final stunt -- but director Brett Ratner (who boosted Tucker's star power with Money Talks) doesn't allow Jackie to be Jackie. The sloppy camerawork and choppy editing shortchange Chan by not letting his spectacular fight choreography speak for itself . . ." 2. ONE TRUE THING Review excerpt by Moira Macdonald http://www.film.com/reviews/index.jhtml?review_url=/film-review/1998/10722/1 11/default-review.html " . . . [Meryl] Streep puts on yet another accent for this role -- she pitches her voice higher, and speaks as if she has a spoonful of oatmeal in her mouth. When we first meet Kate (dressed up for a costume party as Dorothy, from the Wizard of Oz), her screechy flutteriness is irritating, and Streep seems to be overdoing the ditziness. But the character becomes softer as the film progresses, partly due to her illness, and partly, I think, because the daughter's perception of her mother has changed. Ellen is accustomed to seeing her mom as a silly, childlike simpleton, and, through Ellen's eyes, that's how we see her as well. But as Ellen begins to understand the rich detail of her mother's life, she begins to see Kate differently, as do we. It's a tribute to Streep's skill, and to director Carl Franklin, that this happens so subtly it's barely perceptible. And Streep's physical transformation, as Kate's cancer worsens, is nothing short of astonishing and can be quite painful to watch. . . ." 3. PERMANENT MIDNIGHT Review excerpt by Robert Horton http://www.film.com/reviews/index.jhtml?review_url=/film-review/1998/10725/18/default-review.html " . . . Rollicking may not be quite the right word to describe Permanent Midnight, a high-energy adaptation of Jerry Stahl's addiction autobiography. The subject matter may be too dark, and the treatment too graphic, to qualify as an actual rollick. Yet this film is wild and often hilarious, and in its hero, played by Ben Stiller, we have a character who is equal parts Charles Bukowski and Robin Williams . . ." 4. A SOLDIER'S DAUGHTER NEVER CRIES Review excerpt by Elizabeth Weitzman http://www.film.com/reviews/index.jhtml?review_url=/film-review/1998/10726/23/default-review.html " . . . Merchant and Ivory, and their excellent cast, bring this story and these people to life with an exquisite feel for the magnitude of everyday, unextraordinary experience. The moods -- French to American, '60s to '70s, childhood to teendom, carefree to fearful -- shift so subtly they remind us of the garishness with which most films indicate change. Here, period singularities like clothes or haircuts, though faultless, are as much a background detail as they are for us offscreen: things never analyzed or even noticed until removed from their context. . . ." 5. SIX-STRING SAMURAI Review excerpt by Robert Horton http://www.film.com/reviews/index.jhtml?review_url=/film-review/1998/10839/18/default-review.html " . . . But this movie makes Sam Raimi look like Ingmar Bergman. Where someone like Raimi understands that flamboyant style and gallows humor must be connected to some logical raison d'etre, director/writer Lance Mungia and star/co-writer Jeffrey Falcon are content to string a bunch of Mad Max ripoffs together in a row. You can see exactly what they were going for: a certain drop-dead cool, filtered through the style of a cutting-edge comic book, dressed up in Blade Runner funk. . . . Most off-putting of all, the level of wit is pitched at 14-year-old computer freaks. Off-putting, that is, unless you're a 14-year-old computer freak. . . ." 6. THE FALL PREVIEW http://www.film.com/reviews/rev_coming/previews/1998/98fall/ There's a nip in the air and a frost on the pumpkin, and Film.com is celebrating the season as well with our massive Fall Movie Preview. Check it out for the scoop on more than 80 new films, including extensive coverage of Antz, A Bug's Life, Babe: Pig in the City, Beloved, John Carpenter's Vampires, Meet Joe Black, Practical Magic, The Prince of Egypt, Snow Falling on Cedars, Star Trek IX, The Thin Red Line, and You've Got Mail. Oh, and we've got fall trailers too . . . 7. BOX OFFICE RESULTS Weekend of September 11-13 http://www.film.com/reviews/rev_box/ 1. Rounders 2. There's Something About Mary 3. Blade 4. Saving Private Ryan 5. Simon Birch 6. Ever After 7. Knock Off 8. Snake Eyes 9. Armageddon 10. How Stella Got Her Groove Back 8. IN THE SCREENING ROOM http://www.film.com/screen/ This week: new trailers for Rounders, Pleasantville, and The Mighty. Plus, check out our "Film Clips" room, loaded with scenes from current films, and the RealShorts Film Festival, our online collection of 31 short films from the Seattle International Film Festival. 9. NEW VIDEO RELEASES http://www.film.com/reviews/rev_video/ In Sean Axmaker's video column, read all about this week's new releases, including Mercury Rising, The Player's Club, My Giant, Nightwatch, and a special edition of The Searchers. Be sure to send the "Print and Go" page to your printer, to take along as a handy guide to the video store. 10. VIDEO SPECIALS FROM REEL.COM http://www.film.com/store/ It's not too late to order Titanic at the lowest price anywhere - it's still $9.99, through the end of September. Reel.com also offers a host of other special events, at special prices, including a selection of romantic tragedies, gay and lesbian classics, and the AFI Top 100 - all at 25 percent off. 11. MOVIE MUSIC http://www.film.com/reviews/rev_wild/stc/ Next week on Soundtrack Cinema: "Back to Titanic." The ship that won't sink returns one last time, as Ford Thaxton presents James Horner's new album of music from the film. 12. DO YOU HAVE G2? www.film.com/reviews/smil Check out the Film.com and Screening Room channels on the new G2 Player - and don't miss the Talking Picture Show, in which Film.com's critics debate the movies of the week. NEXT WEEK . . . Watch Film.com for reviews of Urban Legend, Pecker, Lolita, Ronin, Clay Pigeons, and Monument Ave.; a wrap-up from the Toronto Film Festival; and a special RealVideo interview with Jackie Chan! SUBSCRIBING/UNSUBSCRIBING This mailing is distributed to the Film.com mailing list and to new members of Film.com. If you do not wish to receive this mailing, please send an e-mail to film-rem@dmail1.film.com with the following message in the body of the text: unsubscribe (Note that the address is "d-mail-one," not "d-mail-L") To subscribe to the film.com mailing list, send an e-mail to film-sub@dmail1.film.com with the following message in the body of the text: subscribe We will deal with requests as soon as possible, but are not always able to clear subscriptions/unsubscriptions immediately. We thank you for your patience in this regard. For technical problems or questions, send an e-mail to michael@dmail1.film.com. Thanks for reading Film.com -- we welcome your story ideas, suggestions, and feedback. [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998 06:24:28 +0100 From: "Gerald Taylor" Subject: Re: [MV] depressing + Howard Chau This is a multi-part message in MIME format. - ------=_NextPart_000_0060_01BDE45F.520DBCE0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Good man! That's exactly the type of films I've been on about......but = "Breaking the waves" has a bit of a happy ending. - -----Original Message----- From: Honwa Chau To: movies-digest@lists.xmission.com Date: 19 September 1998 20:27 Subject: [MV] depressing >"Se7en" > >"Heavenly Creatures" > >"Breaking the Waves" > >"Naked" > > > >itchy > > > >[ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] >[ movies (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] >=20 - ------=_NextPart_000_0060_01BDE45F.520DBCE0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Good man!  That's = exactly the type=20 of films I've been on about......but "Breaking the waves" has = a bit of=20 a happy ending.
-----Original Message-----
From: = Honwa Chau=20 <nihonitchy@ibm.net>
To: movies-digest@lists.xmis= sion.com=20 <movies-digest@lists.xmis= sion.com>
Date:=20 19 September 1998 20:27
Subject: [MV]=20 depressing

>"Se7en"
>
>"= ;Heavenly=20 Creatures"
>
>"Breaking the=20 Waves"
>
>"Naked"
>
>
>
&= gt;itchy
>
>
>
>[=20 To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe = ]
>[=20 movies (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com &n= bsp;        =20 ]
> - ------=_NextPart_000_0060_01BDE45F.520DBCE0-- [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998 20:42:19 -0400 From: maillist@moviejuice.com Subject: [MV] MovieJuice! - Week of September 20, 1998 RUSH HOUR - BEVERLY HILLS CHOP by Mark Ramsey http://www.moviejuice.com September 20, 1998 I was ready to check my brain at the door to this theater. Unfortunately the coat rack was chocked full with a wide variety of frontal lobes in every shape and size. So in I went to take my medicine which I strongly suspected would be fatal. Whoa! Hey Mikey, I liked it! Surprise, surprise, Rush Hour is gobs of fun. Gobs and gobs. In fact, this is the kind of fun Lethal Weapon used to be before the Holy Roman Numeral empire invaded and comic-relief guest stars and love interests began popping out like Peter Falk's glass eye when he concentrates really hard. Now don't get me wrong. This ain't no cinematic revolution, and there's nothing novel about this formula. And no, snoot-heads, Oprah Winfrey and Tom Hanks ain't in it, and Spielberg wouldn't wipe his ass with this script (if only because he's got people who do that for him). Don't go looking for a paradigm shift or even a March-of-Dimes shift here, unless you mean the shift from Wheel of Fortune to Hollywood Squares. Think of this as Beverly Hills Cop - The Next Generation. And that's okay with me, because this movie is more fun than a barrel of monkeys - and that includes the upcoming stinks-from-here epic Mighty Joe Young. Rush Hour features Chris Tucker in a role which more than makes up for his last gig in the constitutionally cruel and humiliatingly unusual punishment called The Fifth Element. Can you believe how high-pitched this guy's voice is? Rumor has it that Puff Daddy sampled Tucker for his new song titled "Silently Calling all Dogs!" During the recent MTV Music Awards, Tucker was chatting with Madonna when his snake charmer pitch coaxed her nipples free of their faux Hindu wrappings, causing them to jingle jangle across the stage, clapping together like cavernous finger cymbals celebrating the great Vishnu and magnetizing Nielsen families across the land into a chorus of stunned acquiescence that passes for viewership nowadays. Yes, people were peeking and meters were peaking as Madonna expressed her spirituality in the only way that focuses our attention: with boobies blaring! Jimmy Swaggert, take note! May I suggest a muscle-shirt? Tucker is often confused with Chris Rock, but get it straight: Chris Rock is funny like a sonofabitch. Chris Tucker talks like a girl. That's it. Plus, thanks to his vocal range, Chris could play in a children's movie - as the children, that is. All Tucker doubt aside, James Earl Jones on helium couldn't do a better job of it than Chris. This guy's got it! This Chris Rocks! How do you not get a kick out of lines like "I'm Michael Jackson, you Tito; your ass belongs to me." And let's not forget Far Eastern good luck charm Jackie Chan. "You want a Cup O' Noodles or something?" Chris asks Jackie. The Chan-man is my Buddha's Delight, baby! He's the Fred Astaire of the Martial Arts flick, and while Chris may not be Ginger Rogers, he's a dandy Leslie Caron. Look out Chinese Mafia, it's Jackie and Blackie to the rescue! I saw Jackie belt out some Presley tune on the Howie Doody Mandel show recently (yes, that's right. That was me watching). And all I can say is that Jackie may not be able to speak English, but he sure sings it better than Elvis. So, as in all cop/buddy movies, our unlikely duo teams up to fight crime and save the girl (the aptly named "Soo Yung"). Jackie and Slappy venture to Chinatown (where every crook owns a restaurant, it seems) to take on the venomous but much admired "Too Hung," the odious "Dog Dung," the diminutive "Tom Thumb," and the emaciated poseur-child for bulimia, "Ally McBeal." Unfortunately, Ally and Jackie face off. When Ally shakes her fist in a fit of unhinged fury, her wrist breaks clean in half, since gravity is too strong a force for her fragile, bird-like bones. Thank God producer David Kelley was on the scene. Looking on in horror, Kelley quickly penned an episode where Ally's hand comes to life and dances across the sink in the unisex bathroom, thus guaranteeing Emmy nominations by the truckload. Tired though the whole buddy cop concept may be, Jackie and Wacky are energetic dynamos. They're like humanoid action/comedy Altoids - seriously strong salt and peppermints, with a fresh, what-the-hell attitude only seen in up-and-coming stars with something to prove. The mix may not be new, but as NBC likes to say, Jackie and Tacky make it "new to you." See Rush Hour. You'll laugh your ass off. Copyright 1998 Mark Ramsey. All rights reserved. NO PORTION MAY BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR. ******************** Hey, kids, don't forget to visit the MovieJuice! Site at http://www.moviejuice.com. The pictures are half the fun (and sometimes more than half the laughs)! ******************** TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS LIST: DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL! Just go to http://www.moviejuice.com and follow the directions at the top of the left frame. It's very easy. NOTE: YOUR NAME CANNOT BE REMOVED FROM THE LIST UNLESS YOU UNSUBSCRIBE USING THE EMAIL ADDRESS YOU REGISTERED WITH). And don't write me lots of mean-spirited crap. I won't read it. ******************** IF YOUR LINES AREN'T WRAPPING If the lines extend way off into the right horizon, then look to your browser or email software for a setting called "Wrap Long Lines." Now, if your lines aren't RAPPING, then you should consider that normal. [ To leave the movies mailing list, send the message "unsubscribe ] [ movies (without the quotes) to majordomo@xmission.com ] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1998 20:32:27 EDT From: FTWeekly00@aol.com Subject: [MV] Film Threat Weekly : 9-21-98 : Slate II, Take 39 FILM THREAT WEEKLY "Hollywood's Indie Voice of the New Millennium" ============================= Slate II, Take 39 : September 21st, 1998 ============================= http://www.filmthreat.com ============================= "What a dump." - - Bette Davis raging at her smalltown Wisconsin home in King Vidor's "Beyond the Forest" <===========Deluxe======Widescreen======Edition ===========> THIS WEEK "Right here, right now." =========================================== ——> NEWS: Where objectivity is strangely absent. ——> BOXOFFICE CHART: Who's number one at the boxoffice? ——> BIG SCREEN: Rush Hour, Clay Pidgeons, One True Thing, more... ——> DIY FILMMAKING: Filmmaker War Stories SUBSCRIBE "Unless you already did." =========================================== Subscribe/Unsubscribe by sending an e-mail to FilmThreat@aol.com. CLASSIFIEDS "If you advertise, they will come." =========================================== Reach over 55,000 film fanatics on the net. For our reasonable ad rates, e- mail filmthreat@aol.com. NO DANCE FILM FESTIVAL The NO DANCE Film & Multimedia Festival is accepting entries for its 2nd annual alternative D.I.Y. festival in Park City, Utah January 1999. Seeking features, docs, shorts, and music videos. Screenings on DVD, VHS and internet streaming. Awards, prizes and parties. Deadline November 20th, 1998. Check web site (http://www.6161.com) for application, or send SASE to: NO DANCE Film & Multimedia Festival, 703 Pier Avenue #675, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254 http://www.6161.com ATOMIC HOLLYWOOD - $3.00 VIDEO SAVINGS! Hard to find videos at www.atomichollywood.com. Many titles. Readers of Film Threat Weekly will get a special $3.00 discount on all videos when they key "FTW". http://www.atomichollywood.com WIN A FILM THREAT VIDEO! "Sign up a friend!" =========================================== Each week we'll be giving away a special collectible Film Threat Party Video to readers who forward Film Threat Weekly to their friends! (And you know in Hollywood, "friends" is a loose term, so that means just about anybody!!!) You could WIN, too! The more e-mail addresses you send, the more your chances to win. Sign up your whole family, or your whole company! Start forwarding FTW to your pals or send us their e-mail address and we'll send them a weekly fix of Film Threat. That's not a threat, it's a promise. THE NEWS "Filtered and manipulated. Just like the real news." =========================================== Our top story... TINY-TANIC MAKES VIDEO DEBUT It took screenwriter/director/producer/actor Rick Weber only one hour to write the "Titanic" spoof "tiny-tanic." He got the idea after watching last year’s "Special Edition" of the 1978 "Star Wars" parody "Hardware Wars." Then he teamed with aspiring filmmaker and friend Scott Russell, and after assembling a small cast and crew of friends, the diminutive duo set out to film the cheapest and silliest spoof ever. "Tiny-tanic" tells the story of "Rowze Dimwit Equator", a first class passenger heading home to marry her arrogant, millionaire finacé "Kaladim Hockey" -- an arranged marriage she is not too happy about. Along comes "Jak Dullson", a happy-go-lucky steerage passenger who quickly steals her heart. The film loosely follows 1997's "Titanic", taking jabs at key scenes and characters. In one hilarious scene, instead of cutting "Jak’s" handcuffs off with an axe, "Rowze" accidently chops off his left hand and then keeps the severed limb preserved in a jar as a momento after he dies. The 20 minute underground comedy was produced with a $200 budget, one- millionth the budget of Cameron's movie. The film plays like a live-action version of one of those cheesy MAD magazine movie satires. James Cameron has not yet seen the film but once he does, we will report his comments in the weekly. The film ends with a parody of the Celine Dion song "My Heart Will Go On." Here’s some sample lyrics: MY HAND WILL GO ON Every night on my shelf Preserved, I see you Though not whole I know you go on Deep beneath the ocean And seaweed between us The rest of you is rotted and gone CHORUS: Sealed Jar A picked hand you are This is how I know that you go on The rest is gore On the ocean floor But you’re here in my jar And my jar will go on and on... LYRICS: An axe can touch you one time And changes you for a lifetime And leave behind a limb that goes on On the ship I loved you With both hands to hold onto Now with one I promise To go on CHORUS: You’re Dead The sea is your bed But I know that your hand Will go on It'll stay Preserved this way I am saving your hand And your hand will go on and on... For more info, cruise on over to the official "tiny-tanic" web site: http://www.iglou.com/tinytanic Look for updates this week at Film Threat Online in the Dailies section at: http://www.filmthreat.com/Dailies-Today.htm BOXOFFICE CHART "Hollywood's Horse Race... and they're off!" =========================================== Weekend of September 18-20, Source: Exhibitor Relations Co. 1/New RUSH HOUR $31.0 2/New ONE TRUE THING $6.6 3/ 2 THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY $6.0/$147.4 4/ 1 ROUNDERS $4.8/$16.2 5/ 5 SIMON BIRCH $3.9/$8.3 6/ 4 SAVING PRIVATE RYAN $3.4/$178.1 7/ 3 BLADE $3.3/$61.3 8/ 6 EVER AFTER $1.7/$59.5 9/ 9 ARMAGEDDON $1.2/$195.7 10/ 8 SNAKE EYES $1.0/$53.9 BIG SCREEN "Coming Soon to a Theater Near You" =========================================== From five stars "Perfect! * * * * *" to one star "Crap! *" here's the lowdown. RUSH HOUR (PG-13) * * * (http://www.lycos.com/rush/) Jackie Chan had to lose some control of his films and come back to Hollywood, site of his worst failure, to return to his former glory. Who knew? When the Chinese consul's daughter is kidnapped in Los Angeles, the consul sends for Hong Kong inspector Lee (Chan) to help the FBI with the investigation. The FBI want nothing to do with him, so they get wannabe-FBI LAPD cop James Carter (Chris Tucker) to keep him out of the way. Once the premise is set up, the fun begins. Jackie obviously has some new, and better, handlers this time. What decisions were made to sell Jackie to America and ease his transition? 1) GET A CO-STAR WHO CAN DO ALL THE TALKING. Chris Tucker is the man. With the right director, as here, he can drive the momentum of any movie. If Peter Greenaway had used Tucker instead of Sir John Geilgud in "Prospero's Books", he could have trimmed a good hour off of that movie, and it might have actually been entertaining, though no more intelligible. As Jackie said in an interview, "He does all talking comedy, I do all the fighting comedy... together, a BIG comedy." 2) GET A PLOT EVERYONE DOESN'T FORGET IN THE FIRST FIVE MINUTES. Quick -- What was "Rumble in the Bronx", "First Strike", or "Mr. Nice Guy" about? 3) GET SOME REAL ACTORS. One of his last films, "Mr. Nice Guy", all of the actresses seem to have been cast solely for their cup-size, not for any talent or charisma. 4) DO ONLY STUNTS THAT NOMINALLY HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE MOVIE. The action sequences may not be as memorable as the aquarium sequence in "First Strike" or the wind tunnel fight in "Operation Condor," but then we're not sidetracked by kung-fu fights in colossally inappropriate places, like an aquarium or a wind tunnel. The stunts are great but they make sense and don't blow the sense of reality of the whole movie. 5) MAKE JACKIE ACT AGAIN. I'm pretty sick of Jackie's routine of the last several films where's he's some poor nice-guy schlub who just gets into trouble. Here, he and Tucker, with whom he has terrific chemistry, are hostile to each other from the starting line. Chan's a man with a job to do, and he hasn't got much patience with anyone who's in his way. He's deliberately antagonistic to Tucker. He even says s--t a couple of times. Conclusion? Our man Chan is playing catch-up for a change as Jet Li is already skyrocketing to the A-list and Chow Yun Fat is developing his carefully managed career. I had thought Chan was too inflexible, after micro- managing his own films for so long to deal with the aggravation of breaking through to America again. I was wrong. He's made a solid, distinctly American action comedy. The crowd at the screening adored him. If he can now carry a film by himself, he's home free, but he's got to handle a lot more dialog than he did here. - Ron Wells PERMANENT MIDNIGHT (R) * * * (http://www.permanentmidnight.com/) "Midnight" is the edgy new creation from writer/director David Veloz. It's impressive cast includes the tiresome workhorse, Ben Stiller ("There's Something About Mary", everything else released in '98), Maria Bello (Television's "E.R."), Owen Wilson ("Bottle Rocket"), Janeane Garofalo and Elizabeth Hurley among others. If you are looking for an uplifting, optimistic, light-hearted film ... avoid this like the plague. If you are interested in an intensely riveting, true-to-life, engaging story, than "Permanent Midnight" is a must see. The film is based on television writer, Jerry Stahl's autobiography of the same title and is told through the mouth of Stahl (Stiller) himself as he recounts his life to his new love interest, Kitty (Bello). As Stahl recounts, he was a writer with a huge drug addiction, an addiction that is described as being "as big as the state of Utah". Later we learn that Stahl moved to Los Angeles with two aspirations: to become a writer, and to get away from drugs. When questioned about why this move failed to keep him off drugs, Stahl calmly replies "I miscalculated". It is these revelations that drive an ordinary story into the realm of an extraordinary feature. While the supporting cast of Hurley, Wilson and Garofalo more than hold their own, it is the great onscreen chemistry between Ben Stiller and Maria Bello, with Stiller's extremely credible portrayal of Stahl and Bello as his newly discovered soul mate that make this film flow. While Stiller's performance is not Oscar material, the year of Ben Stiller continues with a very good performance on top of a seemingly endless supply of other notables. With the films "The Zero Effect" and the ever chilling "Your Friends & Neighbors", Stiller has changed the mind of this reviewer and has proven that he is a talented actor with an extremely bright future. While the tail end of the film does receive cheap laughs, it really does ruin a very emotional end to a rollercoaster ride that is, after all, a man's tragic life. In fact, if it were not for this tacked on, sleazy wrap-up, the film would have garnered an even higher rating. Do not let this fact dissuade you from seeing this film. It is well written, well acted and extremely engrossing. Just find out exactly when the film ends and leave about five minutes before and you will be very satisfied. - Anthony Miele CLAY PIGEONS (R) (http://www.reellife.com/claypigeons_tease.html) * * * * Vince Vaughn may play the two best movie serial killers this year if his Norman Bates rendition can match his performance in "Clay Pigeons." The focus of the story is our anti-hero, Clay Bidwell (Joaquin Phoenix), in tiny Mercer, Montana. Clay has a really bad day when his unbalanced best friend Earl commits suicide in a manner to indicate Clay had killed him. Clay makes a couple of BAD judgement calls, and then Lester Long (our boy Vaughn) enters his life and the wacky fun REALLY starts. FBI agents Janeane Garafalo and Phil Morris arrive to complicate matters. I don't want to say any more about the plot, it's just too much sick fun. A more appropriate title would have been, "What the f--k do I do now?" but it's a little long. First time director David Dobkin kicks Clay in the nuts in the first five minutes and launches him down the abyss. Earl's tart, sociopath wife (Georgina Cates) stalks him mercilessly to rekindle the affair they had prior to Earl's farewell gesture. The great part is, as vicious as the film is at this point, it's only when Clay thinks she's finally out of his hair that he learns what his real problems are, and the movie kicks into a whole new gear. Suddenly, the movie belongs to Vaughn. Why did it take so long for Vaughn to make it? The swagger, improv skills, and self-confidence he exudes here demonstrate he's ready to go head to head against anybody. Phoenix is fine in a part where he looks like he's really bummin' all the time and Garafalo is her usual cranky, funny self. At one point, Clay is asked why he didn't say something about Vaughn's Lester sooner. "Wait till you meet him," he says. Just wait until you see the film. - Ron Wells SIX-STRING SAMURAI (PG-13) (http://www.sixstringsamurai.com/) * * * * * It must have been 3 am. I think I was watching "Rock Around the Clock" when I got up to hit the fridge, tripped over the bong, and slammed my head into the coffee table. The ensuing adrenaline rush unlocked some three-year old acid sitting in my fat cells. When I came back down, I was watching "The Hills Have Eyes." In the interim, my mind conjured up a fever dream something like "Six-String Samurai." The Russkies nuked America in 1957. All that remains is a "Mad Max"-style wasteland and the fabled city of "Lost" Vegas subbing for Oz. We pick up the story 40 years later after Elvis, King of Vegas since the meltdown, has died. Now, every guitar-slinging swordsman in America is journeying to Vegas to claim the throne, including our hero, Buddy (Jeff Falcon as a stocky, seedy Buddy Holly clone). Buddy has a long road to Vegas, though, and "Death" (or Slash from Guns n' Roses, I'm not sure) is just a step behind him. Buddy picks up an almost mute kid along the way whom Buddy cares for, despite himself. "SS Samurai" wins the 1998 "El Mariachi" award for saying, "I've got a story, talent, a camera, some friends, and no money, but I'm makin' a movie anyway!" Director Lance Mungia's reach sometimes exceeds his resources, but he and the film always have fun. This movie is inspired by nearly every film that plays TNT in the middle of the night except, strangely, "Beastmaster." My favorite would be a guitar duel straight out of Walter Hill's "Crossroads" (a film that would be classic if Charlie Sheen had starred in place of Ralph Macchio). "Samurai" will be around for years to come with appeal to frat boys and stoners alike. (I know they're the same thing now, just humor me). Jump on this film while you can as its release is rather limited. You should then be able to determine the drinking game by the time it's released on video. - Ron Wells ONE TRUE THING (R) * * * (http://www.one-true-thing.com/) Anna Quindlen's novel about a family affected by dysfunction and coping with cancer, looks great in the hands of director Carl Franklin ("One False Move"), but Franklin's efforts aren't enough to raise the Quindlen's manipulative material above it's ordinary trappings. Renee Zellweger plays a New York City journalist about to hit the big-time until she's beckoned town home by her over critical father (William Hurt) to nursemaid her cancer-stricken mother (Meryl Streep). Zellweger has a love/resent relationship with Hurt, a small- town college professor, who uses his time away from the homestead to carry on troubling, late-night dalliances. There's a lot of Oscar timber here, and Streep and Hurt do a fine job, it's just unsettling to watch them project the same persona that they have recycled on screen for the past decade. Conversely, Zellweger gives a rich performance, emoting dynamically in this otherwise hobbled melodrama with obvious "Terms of Endearment" pretensions. - Tom Meek DIY FILMMAKING: "War Stories from the Frontlines of Filmmaking" =========================================== Here we present another chapter in our continuing series focusing on the trials and tribulations of making independent films. These War Stories from filmmakers who slaved to get it done will tear at your heart and might even make you cry. (Not really, but it sounds good to say that.) Battle on indie filmmakers! INTERVIEW WITH FILMMAKER: Tom Hosler, writer/director What's your story? It was a year after I graduated from college that I finally finished my first and only feature script worthy of production, a twisted sci-fi comedy entitled, "DR. BENDERFAX". Six moths later, "DR. BENDERFAX" went into production. Working with extremely talented actors on my own film and watching my creation come to life before my eyes was an incredible experience, and the best part is that at the end of the day, when a scene was shot, it was shot for good. It was in-the-can. My work was done. If it sucked a bit, I could fix it in post, hopefully. Post production is agonizing, mind wrenching and sometimes demoralizing work that never seems properly finished, at least in my case. The post of "DR. BENDERFAX" involved pouring over hours of pictures, sound, and music for months, then years, to conform thousands of tiny bits into one cohesive and entertaining piece that hopes to hold the attention of a teenage viewer for over 85 minutes! Oh, the humanity! What does the title mean? (Some say it sounds like Dr. Bend-the-facts. Some don’t.) Synopsis: Dr. Benderfax is a highly esteemed medical researcher who will do "whatever" it takes to reach a scientific goal. Unfortunately, the doctor's experiments often result in the termination of his subjects, so he and his partner, Nurse Clench, acquire a psychiatric hospital and use the resident mental patients for their enigmatic research. As the formidable duo near the pinnacle of their scientific careers, the discovery of an elusive psychic phenomenon called the telefaximial field, a do-good young doctor named Andrew March stumbles upon the truth about the Benderfax Institute and threatens to expose the deadly operation. What is the budget/schedule? "DR. BENDERFAX" went into production December of 1992, financed by personal savings and credit cards and took five months, shooting only on weekends, to complete. My co-producer, Kata Jacobson and I prepared props, sets and costumes, etc. on the weekdays, then spent the weekends shooting. "DR. BENDERFAX" was put in-the-can for around $20,000, all labor costs deferred. Did you sacrifice anything because of the budget? We were quite clever about getting our money’s worth on the screen, but we did cut some regrettable corners to save money. We used older film stock we got on sale at half the price of the new Kodak EXR stocks that were coming out at the time. Our film looks good, but the EXR film would have looked noticeably less grainy. We could have used more lighting and grip equipment, too. With more and brighter lights we could have shot "DR. BENDERFAX" at T4 instead of T2.8, which would have dramatically improved the sharpness of our lenses. Oh, well. Next time we’ll do it better! Why did you do it? Even as a teenager, shooting blood (catsup) drenched super-8 shorts with my friends, I had ambitions of someday making a feature. After high school, I was influenced by my well meaning parents to give up my film making dream as "too expensive and just not practical." Many years later, I started taking film classes in college. There, I made a few decent short films and got inspired once again to make a no-budget feature film, this time in 16mm. Current status of the film? "DR. BENDERFAX" has been rejected by all the biggest U.S. Studios, distributors and film festivals, yet it did win the "Silver Cindy" in the Independent Feature Film category of the 38th annual International Cinema in Industry Awards. I've personally sold around 75 tapes to hip independent video stores around the USA and Canada. Advice or pearls of brilliant film making wisdom? The script is everything! Persistence is everything! Money is everything! Some other things I can’t recall are also everything! Was it worth it? Well, my parents were correct to say that making films is too expensive and not very practical, but if Ed Wood felt that way, "Glen or Glenda" would never have been made! "DR. BENDERFAX" is a film that needed to be made. I did it, and I’d do it again! What's next? Currently, I’m working on a feature script, SVENGALI, about a scientist who trains monkeys to perform experiments on humans. I will make the film as soon as I locate several very daring investors and 150 extremely talented monkeys. To find out more, surf over to: http://members.aol.com/BENDERFAX/BENDERFAX.html If you would like to know where to find DR.BENDERFAX, email BENDERFAX@aol.com FILMMAKERS: Hey! How come my film isn't in this column?!! E-mail your tales to WarStories@filmthreat.com and answer the basic questions above. Send us a copy of your film on video and if it sounds cool, we'll run a story about your movie! Send VHS review copies to: Film Threat, 5042 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90036 END CREDITS "Written, produced, and directed by . . ." =========================================== Publisher / Chris Gore Executive Publisher / Victor Minjares Contributors / Merle Bertrand, Tom Meek, Anthony Miele, Ron Wells Send us films, videos, CDs, games, screening passes: FILM THREAT, 5042 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 150, Los Angeles, CA 90036 Website: http://www.filmthreat.com Edress: FilmThreat@aol.com FILM THREAT WEEKLY is published by The Gore Group, LLC. All material © 1998 Gore Group Publications. All rights reserved. Contents may not be reprinted without written permission of the author. You are, however, welcome to forward this e-mail to whomever you wish. All letters, comments and reviews sent to Film Threat Weekly in any manner are assumed intended for publication, unless stated otherwise. Your name and e-mail address will be printed if published herein. 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