COMING SOON

Cast Away, Chocolat, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Dracula 2000, Family Man, Miss Congeniality, One Day in September, State and Main, Venus Beauty Institute


NEW THIS WEEK

*Animated Children's Shorts
See Stranger Suggests A stellar lineup of cartoons screened especially for yelling, screaming, popcorn-throwing kids. Sat only. Little Theatre

*Chinatown
Everyone's favorite excuse to see Jack Nicholson's nose slit in two is back with a new print. Thurs only. Seattle Art Museum

Defining the 1970S
Reviewed this issue Seattle's prodigal son Dennis Nyback returns with a collection of 130 advertisements from the '70s. Thurs-Sun only. Little Theatre

Dude, Where's My Car?
Dude, why didn't they hold a press screening for this obviously awesome film about two guys who wake up with tattoos on their backs and no recollection of the previous night to speak of? Opens Fri. Various Theaters

*Emerald Reels Super-8 Lounge
Another all-star lineup of Super-8 films by such talents as Trish van Heusen, Martha Colburn, and Hamish Chappel. Live musical accompaniment by DJ Kid Hops. Thurs only. Sit & Spin

The Emperor's New Groove
Reviewed this issue. Disney gives us something white and black America can both love: David Spade turned into a llama. Opens Fri. Metro

GANGSTERS WEEK
Reviewed this issue An eclectic selection of Gangster films flits across the Egyptian's screen for one week only. Opens Fri. Egyptian

*The Gods of Times Square + Pie Fight '69
See Stranger Suggests A documentary about the maniacs who used to stand around screaming and yelling in Times Square. Fri only. 911 Media Arts

Heavy Metal Parking Lot 2000
To begin with, this film has nothing at all to do with the original Heavy Metal Parking Lot, Jeff Krulik's 15-minute cult classic featuring gut-bustingly funny interviews with fans outside a 1986 Judas Priest/Dokken show. Instead of unguarded moments with blissfully stoned metalheads, Heavy Metal Parking Lot 2000 is much more consciously manipulated, with the interviewers asking women to bare their tits and telling lame jokes. Visit www.planetkrulik.com and watch the original instead. (Melody Moss) Sat only. Rocksport

Into the Arms of Strangers
A powerful new documentary about the Holocaust. Opens Fri. Varsity Calendar

*It's A Wonderful Life
Reviewed this issue. Good friends, clumsy angels, and the suicidal banker who learns that the world does revolve around him. Opens Fri. Grand Illusion

Muri Romani
Jon Jost's newest film is a non-narrative examination of a bunch of walls in Rome--really! The film will provide a backdrop for ConWorks' closing night party, with DJs, beer, and more. Sat only. Consolidated Works

Quills
Reviewed this issue The Marquis de Sade writes himself into a frenzy in this new biopic starring Geoffrey Rush. Opens Fri. Harvard Exit

Rock Around the Clock
Rock Around the Clock is stiff with the easy self-righteousness of outraged liberal humanism, 1950s-Hollywood style. Though in fairness that's an opinion formed from the safe vantage point of hindsight; in 1955 it was a good deal rawer and more discomfiting to show movie audiences that teens might be drifting into drug use, casual violence, and sexual promiscuity. Not the least of the movie's outright provocations is slapping Bill Haley and the Comets over the opening credits. Glenn Ford is in fine form as the conscience-stricken teacher; Sidney Poitier exudes grace as the most intelligent (read: savable) student in his class. (Bruce Reid) Wed only. JBL Theater at EMP

*Slime People
Underground nuclear explosions have upset the Slime People, and so they have taken over Los Angeles, surrounding it with a dome of solidified fog. This gloriously inept film boasts miserable acting, the absolute worst costumes in the history of cinema (the Slime People resemble mud-covered robots holding swords), and some of the best "scientist" lines ever. ("We'll need to try many more chemicals on this fog.") So gleefully bad, it transcends. (Jamie Hook) Fri-Sat only. Grand Illusion

*Treasure of the Sierra Madre
John Huston's classic adaptation of B. Traven's novel remains a classic example of Hollywood's unique, upbeat fatalism. The sweat and dust of Mexico make a much better impression than the gold ever does, and the landscape (Huston insisted upon filming on location) becomes a fantastic character in its own right: ruthless, hard, but ultimately rewarding. Featuring immortal performances from Humphrey Bogart as the cynic driven mad by greed, Walter Huston as the half-cracked old timer, and, um... oh yeah, Tim Holt. (Bruce Reid) Admiral

What Women Want
Mel Gibson stars as a man who can hear women's innermost thoughts in this feminist remake of the David Cronenberg sci-fi thriller Scanners. Opens Fri. Metro

The Wizard of Oz
Technicolor before color movies became boring, nostalgic innocence before it became corrupted, Judy Garland before the drugs. The Wizard of Oz makes Kansas look so sepia drab that the first shot of the Yellow Brick Road can still take your breath away after all these years. (Bruce Reid) Admiral


OPPORTUNITIES

Women in Film/Seattle seeks film, video, television, or new media work completed between Nov 1999 and Dec 2000 for the Seventh Annual Nell Shipman Production Excellence Awards. Entrants must live and/or work in the Pacific Northwest. Call 447-1537 to request an application; entries must be received by Dec 31.


CONTINUING RUNS

102 Dalmatians
102 Dalmatians was really funny but pretty boring, because it seemed really long. For example, the movie wasn't very exciting because almost half of it was dating and talking about stupid stuff. Glenn Close was very good as Cruella. Most of the actors besides Glenn Close were corny, because everything they said you knew they were going to say, and they said it in a fake way. In this movie it seemed like there was only about 50 dogs, even though the name of the movie is 102 Dalmatians. All you saw were about 20 dogs escaping up the stairs, a few more dogs nursing, and a couple dogs helping the 20 dogs escape. We would have liked it better if we saw more dogs in the movie. (Sam Lachow & Maggie Brown) Factoria, Majestic Bay, Metro, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center

*The 6th Day
Ahh, the glory of the movie star! In The 6th Day, Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as a helicopter pilot who is mistakenly cloned, thus becoming a double. Of course, a dastardly corporation is behind it all, and Schwarzenegger must topple it single (or, in this case, double)-handedly. But just in case you are turned off by the thought of Schwarzenegger and his double, be assured that the true star of The 6th Day is Vancouver, B.C.'s fantastic new Central Library, designed by the great Moshe Safdie. Cast as the villain's corporate headquarters, this stunning building upstages everyone, especially in the action scenes. Let's hope Rem Koolhaas' new Seattle Public Library can put us on the action movie map as gracefully! (Jamie Hook) Aurora Cinema Grill, Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Pacific Place 11

Almost Famous
The truth of the matter is that this movie is nothing more and nothing less than a light and entertaining crowd-pleaser. Which is fine. Good, even. It's just that for a rock 'n' roll tour film set in 1973, the content comes across as so... clean--like R-rated content in a PG-13 package. (Andy Spletzer) Uptown

*Best In Show
Christopher Guest's latest with Eugene Levy follows several dog owners on their quest for the blue ribbon at the 2000 Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show. A well-executed, ridiculous little film lovingly mining ridiculous little people's ridiculous little lives. (Jason Pagano) Broadway Market, Grand Alderwood, Redmond Town Center, Seven Gables

*Billy Elliot
As the BBC put it, "You are heartless if you don't love every minute of this film"--and I'm not heartless. Thirty minutes into it, I gave in; there was no way I could hate it. I must make a confession: I almost cried during this film--yes, it's that touching. (Charles Mudede) Broadway Market, Guild 45th

Bootmen
In this Australian flick, two blue-collar brothers tap fantastically. And tap dancing gives them enlightenment in the midst of life with a drunk father and a dead mother. In the end, the alchemy of tap dancing turns a death in vain, into supreme shuffle-ball-change nirvana. But after a pleasing film lead by three lovely actors, the ending takes on an inflated purpose and ends up a lot like Stomp!! The blue-collar background becomes the setting for the tap dance finale and everybody is tapping on metal grating, lead pipes, oil drums, etc. But so what?! If tap dancing has ever been your number-one concern in life, and you generally feel tap-dancing movies ought to be made (as I do), put on your character shoes and go. (Paula Gilovich) Broadway Market

Bounce
Even fans of Don Roos' first film, The Opposite of Sex, will likely find Bounce to be bad. This being a Miramax production, it stars Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck. He's a successful ad exec with an empty life; she's a happy housewife married to a TV writer/failed playwright. In a Chicago airport, Ben gives the bad writer his ticket and then the plane crashes. A year or so later, he tries to buy off his guilt by giving the widow, now a real estate agent, a sale that she's not qualified to make. They start dating. Everybody knows that when she finds out he's a creepy death-stalker she'll rightfully dump him. Everybody, that is, but her best friend, her kids, and writer-director Don Roos. This movie is very wrong on many levels. (Andy Spletzer) Aurora Cinema Grill, Factoria, Metro, Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center

Catfish in Black Bean Sauce
In Catfish in Black Bean Sauce, we have two mothers, one adoptive and one genetic; two adopted Vietnamese children, one seeking her traditional roots and the other embracing his African American upbringing (his vocabulary consists entirely of hiphop slang); and a young Caucasian man who insists he is not gay, though his true love is a Chinese transvestite. Put them all in a room together, and what can you expect but a hilarious fist fight? Put them all in a Chi Muoi Lo movie, and what you will see is a quizzical and humorous expression on the face of identity as it looks at its own reflection in the mirror. (Suzy Lafferty) Broadway Market

*Charlie's Angels
Completely brainless, God bless its heart. Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu kick, chop, giggle, and dance their way through some sort of story involving technical thievery or... something. It doesn't really make sense, but then again, it doesn't really matter because director McG has created a world of lunacy where people levitate with relative ease, and there is absolutely no explanation for it. (Bradley Steinbacher) Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree, Redmond Town Center

Dungeons & Dragons
Straight world: Please, please just turn away. Geeks like me: If you know the difference between a drow and an orc, it's too late for you anyway. It doesn't matter that this movie is wretchedly incomprehensible, or that it was made at least 15 years too late; the promise of seeing mages and Beholders and the Thieves' Guild and a deadly labyrinth is just too tempting, if only so we can go and harrumph our way through the whole thing. And let's finally face the facts, shall we? We're geeks by nature, we belong to this stuff; Dungeons & Dragons is really only as embarrassing and unbearable and uncool as we are. (Evan Sult) Aurora Cinema Grill, Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Varsity

*A Hard Day's Night
Of course you're going to go see A Hard Day's Night, the wonderful movie about the Beatles made by Richard Lester in 1964 and rereleased in a glorious new print, as crisp and tasty as fresh lettuce--you'd be daft not to. (Barley Blair) Varsity Calendar

How the Grinch Stole Christmas
The Grinch is much different than the old cartoon. In this movie, the Grinch has a huge house with a telephone, a pulley, and trap doors. In the old cartoon he doesn't have any of that stuff. If you watch this you will find out where the Grinch came from, and why he hates Christmas. Like always, Jim Carrey is FABULOUS! He is sooo funny--you couldn't find a better actor to play the part. On the other hand, the actor who played Cindy Lou Who was not very good--she was pretty corny. The Grinch was funny but not as good as I thought it would be. (Sam Lachow, 10 years old) Factoria, Lewis & Clark, Majestic Bay, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree, Redmond Town Center

The Legend of Bagger Vance
Bagger Vance opens with Jack Lemmon having a heart attack on a golf course, which sets the tone for the whole movie. Lying in the rough, Lemmon starts to narrate a story about how, when he was 10 years old, he and a mystical caddy named Bagger Vance (Will Smith) helped keep local golfer Rannulph Junuh (Matt Damon) from embarrassing himself in an exhibition match against the two greatest golfers in America. You see, Junuh "lost his swing" when he saw his buddies die in WWII, and he needed the love of a pretty woman (Charlize Theron), the faith of a child, and some Zen-like advice from a mystical caddy to get it back. (Andy Spletzer) Pacific Place 11

*Legend of the Drunken Master
Jackie Chan's best film is his 1979 breakout Drunken Master. This sequel from 1994 captures much of the high energy and goofy humor of that classic, and adds a greatly expanded budget that allows for some impressive sets, which the actors leap about and smash up to their hearts' content. The fight scenes are remarkable, but as always it's the throwaway bits that really blow your mind. Check out Chan's nimble leap up a wall and through an open transom; when you've picked your jaw up off the floor, remind yourself that's what movies are all about. (Bruce Reid) City Centre

Little Nicky
The best moments in Little Nicky, a clunking, amateurish, but occasionally quite funny succession of gags about Satan's son (Adam Sandler) hunting for his evil older brothers on the loose in New York come from such odd cameos as Jon Lovitz, Regis Philbin, John and Reese Witherspoon (no relation to the best of my knowledge), and that "nice, sweet man" Henry Winkler, who all obviously dropped in for a day and riffed on their lines to their heart's content. Extra credit, too, for the deadpan newscaster who finds nothing especially amiss when "what appears to be a section of Hell" manifests itself in Central Park. (Bruce Reid) Pacific Place 11

Meet the Parents
Ben Stiller plays Greg, a male nurse living in an unnamed metropolis, about to pop the question to Pam, his kindergarten-teacher girlfriend. But he realizes in the nick of time that he must first ask her father (played with vicious delicacy by Robert De Niro) for permission. Happily, a trip home to attend her sister's wedding presents the perfect opportunity. But wait! Complications invariably ensue, and each new catastrophic development drives a wedge ever deeper twixt Greg and his beloved. (Tamara Paris) Metro, Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11

Men of Honor
"History is made by those who break rules." That's the tagline for Men of Honor, which takes place when the American armed services were being racially integrated. Cuba Gooding Jr. portrays Carl Brashear, the first black underwater salvage expert in the Navy. Robert De Niro gives a bland performance as the master chief diver (love those military ranks!) who first tries to break Gooding, and then, when Gooding has disobeyed several of his orders, embraces his cause. Hal Holbrook plays a completely gratuitous role as a crazy old base commander whose only function is to add another layer of disobedience, so that when De Niro changes to Gooding's side, they can both defy Holbrook. It's bad, but it's not especially bad. (Barley Blair) Oak Tree, Pacific Place 11

*Non-Stop
Take three losers--a would-be bank robber, a convenience store clerk with rock 'n' roll aspirations, and an incompetent bodyguard. Involve them in a plot that also includes a missing gun, a toy gun, big knives, short swords, gangster groups, a car full of cops, and a gauze mask. Satirize all the movies that all of these movie characters wish they were in. That's the task that Sabu set for himself when he wrote and directed Non-Stop. It takes six seconds--seven, tops--to realize that you're in the hands of a competent filmmaker. So stop reading right now and just go see it. (Barley Blair) Uptown

Pay It Forward
After having been instructed by his social studies teacher to make the world a more benevolent place, Haley Joel Osment starts at the bottom, where the bums live amid burning oil cans, of course. About five minutes into his effort, Osment thinks he's failed and that the world is, in fact, shit. It's a performance that'll probably earn somebody an Oscar, but it just made me feel like kicking a kid in the teeth. (Kathleen Wilson) Pacific Place 11, Redmond Town Center

*Pizza & Movies
Join the wacky crew over at Second Ave Pizza in Belltown for their semi-regular movie "festivals"--where all things nostalgic, kitschy, and most of all fun, rule the screen (plus it's good eatin'). This week: The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, A Woman Under the Influence, and Mikey & Nicky. Second Avenue Pizza

Proof of Life
Meg Ryan is moderately unhappy wife Alice Bowman, and when her husband is kidnapped by the Liberation of Army of Tecala, it's going to take every ounce of Russell Crowe's rugged good looks and subdued masculinity to bring him back alive! Peter Bowman, in South America overseeing a dam-building project for QUAD Carbon, is ambushed and taken hostage by a cadre of bickering, incompetent Marxist rebels. Things actually get worse as his wife then finds herself enveloped by the intoxicating Aussie sex appeal of the seasoned professional in charge of negotiating his rescue. With David Caruso as another rugged, sexy man, you know, in that middle-aged way. (Jason Pagano) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Neptune, Oak Tree

Red Planet
In American cinema, the worse the director, the more strangely symbolic the film becomes. Red Planet is a perfect example. For instance: the egg/sperm imagery throughout the film (this is a film about populating a barren wasteland, after all) is over the top. There is even a spaceship that blastulates just before hitting the surface of Mars--much as a zygote does before becoming embedded in the uterine wall. Plus, there is a great scene where sperm, represented by little bugs, which, in turn, represent God, attack Tom Sizemore and then explode. Strange things! (Jamie Hook) Uptown

Remember the Titans
Remember the Titans is set in the early '70s and based on real life, real people, the real America. It's a "problem film"--a movie about a black man (a football coach, in this case) who has to win the trust and love of angry, white racists. Incredible as this may sound, the movie is actually fascinating--not because it's well done or acted (nothing stands out in that regard), but because it has the manic pace of The Rock coupled with the content of Do the Right Thing. Now how in the world can you top that? (Charles Mudede) City Centre

Requiem For a Dream
In Requiem for a Dream (based on the Hubert Selby Jr. novel of the same name, about the downward spiral of a trio of Brooklyn junkies), Darren Aronofsky opts to assault us with self-righteous imagery masquerading as some sort of daring bohemian technique. It is a conceit that manages to obliterate the few promising moments in the film. In the end, Requiem for a Dream comes off as so much high-school posturing: puerile; craven; and, in hindsight, embarrassingly tacky. (Jamie Hook) Broadway Market

Rugrats in Paris: The Movie
This is the season when the entertainment industry presents its most enticing new kiddy-crack. Why waste time dabbling in the waters of those fancy foreigners with their unintelligible offerings (Teletubbies, Pokemon, etc.) or those epileptic fit-inducing upstarts who employ every cheap trick involving violence, sex, and subliminal messaging (everything on Fox Kids, for example). Your child does not need variety--your child needs success! And you know full well that the Rugrats have been, are, and for some time to come will be the bearers of the formula for success. Sing when you're winning my friends, sing when you're winning. (Kudzai Mudede) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Oak Tree

Unbreakable
Bruce Willis sleepily stars as a mild-mannered security guard, who walks away without a scratch as the sole survivor of a two-train pileup. Soon after, he is approached by Samuel L. Jackson, a comic-book collector who's become convinced that Willis is a charmed person, immune to harm, perhaps gifted with psychic powers. Willis portrays Dunne, whose grudging awareness that he is different from the rest of us is told with as little humor or even enjoyment as possible. Thus introducing a whole new genre: the glum, glacially slow, risibly pretentious superhero flick. (Bruce Reid) Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Lewis & Clark, Meridian 16, Metro, Oak Tree

*Vertical Limit
Three survivors are trapped after a disastrous attempt to climb K2, the most challenging mountain in the world. Fueled by a "reward" of a measly half-million dollars apiece, three teams of two climbers each risk their lives and set out to save those who are now stranded and left to die. And, just as your subconscious craves, the body counts grow higher, the scandals become sexier, and the obstacles hit one right after another in unbelievable proportion. It's a no-holds-barred world in the mind of a seven-year-old. (Megan Seling) Cinerama, Factoria, Grand Alderwood, Metro, Northgate, Pacific Place 11, Southcenter

*You Can Count on Me
As a teenager, alone in my teenager room in America, my greatest longing was for a state of sadness. My craving was so strong it became clear that "sadness" was the very root of desire for me. Now with my thoughts gathered in full-blown adulthood, I realize that all I wanted in my quest for "sadness" was to be an adult. In Kenneth Lonergan's You Can Count on Me, "adult" and "sadness" and "American" become a knot of synonyms as the story focuses on the pure inability a brother and sister have with one another now that they're adults. It is as though being an adult, and a member of a grownup American family, is the path of loneliness and sadness. Without any trendy embitterment, the sad path of the story is inspired, beautiful, and desirable. And the case is made for loneliness as the Great American Pursuit. (Paula Gilovich) Guild 45th, Harvard Exit