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PEARL HARBOR: Directed by Michael Bay. Written by Randall Wallace. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay. Cinematography, John Schwartzman. Production design, Nigel Phelps. Editors, Chris Lebenzon, Steven Rosenblum, Mark Goldblatt and Roger Barton. Visual effects supervisor, Eric Brevig. Costumes, Michael Kaplan. Music, Hans Zimmer. Starring Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale, with Alec Baldwin, Jon Voight and Cuba Gooding Jr. Touchstone Pictures, 2001. PG-13. 183 minutes.
Instead, its uninflected patriotism shamelessly appropriates conventions from the WWII movie canon. Farm boys, best friends, sign up together to fly for Uncle Sam. The cheeky fly boy, Rafe McCawley (Ben Affleck), tries a corny pick-up with a beautiful nurse, Evelyn Johnson (Kate Beckinsale). When he flies off to be a hero, he asks his shy best friend, Danny Walker (Josh Hartnett), who's also in love with her, to take care of her for him. There are feet-sweeping clinches and misty farewells at the train station and night-before shipping out goodnight kisses. Such threadbare chestnuts wear down the audience. Instead of reimagining how a few individual men and women who fought this war might actually have felt about themselves, each other and the impending war, the filmmakers Bay, Bruckheimer, screenwriter Randall Wallace and the studio suits chose to create calculated "types" of aviators and nurses. Rafe is pure concoction from his improbable name to his postmodern irony and smart mouth. He is, in other words, Ben Affleck. Danny is equally poorly drawn, but Harnett is a better actor. While Evelyn shows true grit in the post-attack scenes, she's otherwise predictable. Even the talented Beckinsale is haunted by the insipid lines and contrived sequences. For its first hour-and-a-half, Pearl Harbor piles up sentimental, romantic movie tropes to force us to care for the characters. But when the attack begins we are distanced because we can't engage with types but only with distinct characters. Also, the 10 minutes preceding the attack is too beautiful a prelude. The sound and sight of the phalanx of enemy airplanes flying low over the island on the way to the harbor to drop their payloads is a chilling, emotionally cool spectacle. The sheer cinematic elegance of this scene, the film's high point visually, weakens our appreciation for the bombastic attack and its cruel impersonality. Redemptive moments come from scenes such as the silent recognition between survivors. Evelyn and Dorie Miller (Cuba Gooding Jr.), one of the heroes of the actual attack, exchange weary looks that encompass conflicting emotions. Jon Voight is excellent as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, nailing this icon's complicated strength as a leader. Historically-based scenes of the Japanese planning the attack add veracity to a film awash in fictions. Although the movie is restrained in its treatment of the enemy, the concerns of contemporary Japanese Americans that the movie will fan the flames of racism is understandable. Their wrongful detention in domestic concentration camps during the war years has kept such fears alive for many and is a permanent stain on the victory America claims for the war. Now playing at Cinema World and Cinemark, Pearl Harbor may put some historical events in perspective for people born after the war.
THE DISH (Australia, 2000): Directed by Rob Sitch. Written, conceived and produced by the creative team of Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner, Jane Kennedy and Rob Sitch. Produced by Michael Hirsch. Editor, Jill Bilcock. Cinematography, Graeme Wood. Production design, Carrie Kennedy. Art direction, Ben Morieson. Costumes, Kitty Stuckey. Music, Edmund Choi. Starring Sam Neill, Kevin Harrington, Tom Long, Patrick Warburton. With Tayler Kane, Bille Brown, Roy Billing, Genvieve Mooy, John McMartin, Carl Snell, Eliza Szonert and Lenka Kripac. Warner Bros., 2001. PG-13. 104 minutes.
Octogenarian Cliff Buxton (Sam Neill) comes to see the Parkes receiving dish smack dab in the middle of a sheep farm in New South Wales. A satellite dish 210 feet in diameter, the 1,000-ton radio telescope is the most powerful in the Southern Hemisphere. And 30 years earlier, Buxton had led the team that tracked the historic Apollo 11 space mission for NASA from Parkes. Getting a chance at the prestigious moment was a fluke. Parkes was intended only to backup California's Goldstone receiving station. But when Apollo 11's schedule changed, California was on the wrong side of the world from the moon, while Australia was in place. The Dish checks in at Parkes a few days before the July 20 moonwalk. A favorite at Sundance and a People's Choice at Toronto 2000, The Dish focuses on Buxton and his three-man team: the NASA man, Al Burdett (Patrick Warburton); the mathematician, Glenn Latham (Tom Long); and the technical support man, Ross "Mitch" Mitchell (Kevin Harrington). Besides the unexpected and near-catastrophic events at Parkes, the filmmakers take time to look in on a developing love story between terminally shy Glenn and Janine (Eliza Szonert), sister of the station's security guard, Rudi (Tayler Kane), as well as the growing friction between techie Mitch and the by-the-books NASA liaison. Buxton keeps his pipe in his mouth and the crew from blowing up by never losing his cool, steadying presence. The town of Parkes (indeed Australia itself) seems as bucolic and pre-1960s as the huge sheep grazing in the meadows below the gigantic radio telescope. The film portends Australia's entry into the wider world, an idea foremost in Buxton's vision. Townies include Mayor Bob McIntyre (Roy Billing), his wife Maisey (Genevieve Mooy), their sullen teenage daughter, Marie (Lenka Kripac), and precocious son, Billy (Carl Snell). Little Billy understands more about the Apollo flight than all the adults in town put together. The big to-do in Parkes is the imminent arrival of the Australian Prime Minister (Bille Brown) and the U.S. Ambassador (John McMartin). The film's funniest sequence involves the ambassador's visit to the radio telescope station at a crucial moment. Invited by Burdett, he wants to listen in on the verbal traffic between the astronauts so much that the dish guys arrange for him to hear Armstrong's voice. The Dish opens at the Bijou Friday, June 1. This understated docudrama reminds us that a small group of people can make a big difference in the world the crew of Apollo 11 and the four technicians at a dish tuned to their frequency in Australia. Highly recommended.
Dish, The: Australian technicians manning the Southern Hemisphere's largest radio telescope save the day on June 20, 1969, when Neil Armstrong walks on the moon. Stars Sam Neill, Kevin Harrington, Tom Long and Patrick Warburton. Highly rated docudrama is highly recommended. PG-13. Bijou. Get Over It: Romantic teen comedy stars Kirsten Dunst and Ben Foster (Liberty Heights). PG-13. Movies 12. Luna Park (Russia, 1991): Writer/director Pavel Lounguine's film is about an anti-Semitic skinhead in Moscow (Andrei Goutine) who discovers his father is Jewish and missing. NR. At 6:30 on 6/4 in 115 Pacific Hall. Free. Modern Times (1936): Charlie Chaplin's silent classic is a must-see, its relevance undimmed today. Chaplin plays a factory worker who loses it at his repetitive, assembly line job. Also stars Paulette Goddard and Gloria De Haven. NR. At 7 pm on 6/6 in 180 PLC. Free.. Moulin Rouge: Director Baz Luhrmann (Strictly Ballroom, Romeo and Juliet) sets this dramatic musical extravaganza in the infamous Paris night in 1900. Stars Nicole Kidman as Satine and Ewan McGregor as Christian. PG-13. Cinema World. Cinemark. Nothing To Be Written Here and Still. Wendy Oberlander screens her videos about the Jewish Diaspora at 7 pm on 6/5 in 214 Grayson. Free. Rosa Luxemburg (German, 1986): Margarethe von Trotta's film about the Jewish political radical who was murdered in 1919. Stars Barbara Sukowa in a fabulous performance. At 7 pm on 6/5 in 122 Pacific Hall. Free. Song of the Siren: A search for love during the Gulf War. At 7:30 pm on 6/4 in 115 Pacific Hall. Free. What's the Worst That Could Happen: Thief Martin Lawrence and businessman Danny DeVito star in this Sam Weisman comedy about a ring DeVito steals off of Lawrence's hand as he's taken off to jail. Revenge ensues, with comic results. With John Leguizamo, Glenne Headley, William Fichtner and Bernie Mac. PG-13. Cinema World. Cinemark.
Blow: Ted Demme directs Johnny Depp as George Jung, now in prison, but in the 1970s the first American to import cocaine from Carlos Escobar's Colombian cartel to the U.S. Based on book by Bruce Porter, movie also stars Penelope Cruz, Ray Liotta, Rachel Griffiths and Paul Reubens. R. Movies 12. Bridget Jones' Diary: Renée Zellwegger plays the neurotic but witty Londoner on the prowl for a man. Hugh Grant's her boss, and Colin Firth is an old friend. All three give excellent performances, especially Zellwegger. Sharon Maguire's directorial debut. Script by Helen Fielding, Andrew Davies and Richard Curtis. Funnier on second viewing, this smart, good-hearted romp is highly recommended. R. Cinema World. See review. Cast Away: Tom Hanks learns to survive when his plane crashes and he washes up on a remote tropical island. Helen Hunt is the girlfriend he left behind. Intimate direction by Robert Zemeckis, a lean script by William Broyles Jr., and an edgy performance by Hanks. Highly recommended. PG-13. Movies 12. See review. Double Take: It's Trading Places for the new century as NY investment banker (Orlando Jones) switches identities with a petty thief (Eddie Griffin). George Gallow directs. PG-13. Movies 12. Exit Wounds: Steven Seagal, DMX and Tom Arnold mix it up in this action flick about rogue cops directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak. R. Movies 12. Hannibal: Ridley Scott chronicles Hannibal Lector's inevitable return in this gruesome sequel starring Julianne Moore and Anthony Hopkins. Script by David Mamet, Steven Zaillian. Bloodsoaked, creepy movie earns its rating. R. Movies 12. See review. Josie and the Pussycats: Rachel Leigh Cook, Tara Reid and Rosario Dawson, life-long friends from the 'burbs, put their garage band on the road to success until they run into a nefarious pair of schemers. PG-13. Movies 12. Knight's Tale, A: Aimed at 12-year-olds, this medieval adventure fantasy stars Heath Ledger, Shannyn Sossamon, Mark Addy, Rufus Sewell. Directed by Brian Helgeland, co-writer of L.A. Confidential. PG-13. Cinemark 17. Memento: Written, directed by Christopher Nolan, based on his brother Jonathan's story. Stars Guy Pearce as a man whose memory loss following a crime in which his wife was raped and killed propels him toward vengeance. With Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano. Question the film's skewed reality at every opportunity. R. Bijou. See review. Mexican, The: Comic road movie stars Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and James Gandolfini in a mobbed-up escapade south of the border. Has its moment, but murder isn't really all that funny. R. Movies 12. See review. Mummy Returns, The: Starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz star in this thriller directed by Stephen Sommers. PG-13. Cinema World. Cinemark. Pearl Harbor: Director Michael Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer's $135 million WWII epic stars Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale, with Cuba Gooding Jr., Jon Voight, Dan Aykroyd and Alec Baldwin. B & B (Armageddon, The Rock) blow up lots of vintage battleships and aircraft and strike a blow for patriotism. Spectacle wins out over tepid, stereotypical WWII romance. Tediously unoriginal, mercenary manipulation marks this turkey. Cinemark 17. Cinema World. See review. Pokemon 3: 'Nuf said. G. Movies 12. Recess: School's Out: Animated Disney film's about a plot to create permanent winter, thus doing away with summer vacation! G. Movies 12. Save the Last Dance for Me: Talented white girl from small town (Julia Stiles) enrolls in an inner city high school in New York where she falls for a popularAfrican American boy (Sean Patrick Thomas) who also loves to dance. PG-13. Movies 12. Shrek: Computer-animated fairy tale (by DreamWorks' Pacific Data Images, makers of Antz) stars Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and John Lithgow. Entertaining and funny for kids and grown-ups. PG. Cinema World. Cinemark. See review. Tailor of Panama, The: John Boorman's film, based on a John le Carré novel, stars Pierce Brosnan as a bored British agent who puts the moves on Catherine McCormack while tying his fate to a British ex-con (Geoffrey Rush) married to Jamie Lee Curtis. Surprisingly well-done, it's highly recommended. R. Cinemark 17. See review. Traffic: Steven Soderbergh's acclaimed film stars Michael Douglas, Benicio Del Toro, Don Cheadle, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Erica Christensen. Academy Awards for Soderbergh's direction, Del Toro's acting, Gaghan's screenplay and Mirrione's film editing. Best film of 2000. R. Movies 12. See review. What Women Want: Mel Gibson as an accident victim who can suddenly hear the private thoughts of women -- Helen Hunt, Marisa Tomei and Lauren Holly. PG-13. Movies 12. Widow of Saint-Pierre, The: Patrice Leconte directs Daniel
Auteuil, Juliette Binoche and Emir Kustirica in a passionate love story wrapped around
the tale of a condemned man on a French-run island in the 19th century who must wait
for a guillotine to arrive that will kill him. R. Bijou. See Review. Bijou
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Yi Yi: Writer/director Edward Yang's film has won many awards and was a huge success at the 2001 Portland International Film Festival. It is a film of small moments, set within a large family but primarily focused on a middle-aged father and his 7-year old son, who's attempting to make sense of the world around him. Critics and audiences world-wide have loved the film, but its nearly three-hour running time kept it from many theaters. This is a don't miss film. NR. Next week: Cast Away and O Brother Where Art Thou?
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