Movies

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/05/2004 (8020 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

starting tomorrow:

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW

PG

It’s Apocalypse, Wow! as director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day) serves up another doomsday scenario about the effects of global warming, which yields a new Ice Age. Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal star.

RAISING HELEN

G

A comedy about a successful, single fashion industry career woman (Kate Hudson) who “inherits” her sister’s three kids. Helen Mirren plays Kate’s frosty boss-lady.

SOUL PLANE

R

A comedy starring Kevin Hart as a man who sues after being humiliated on an airplane and creates his own specialty airline featuring an in-air dance club and scantily dressed stewardesses. Fasten your seatbelts: Your pilot today is played by Snoop Dogg.

SUGAR AND SPLICE: FEMINIST FILM FESTIVAL

Cinematheque.

Women filmmakers, including Winnipegger Coleen Rajotte, are featured in this three-day festival of films, beginning with Rajotte’s documentary Jaynelle: It’s Never Easy to Escape the Past and also including In the Mirror of Maya Deren and even the Pam Grier classic Foxy Brown. Friday to Sunday. Call 925-3457 for more details.

now playing:

The following movies have been previously reviewed by Free Press movie critic Alison Gillmor, unless otherwise noted.

BREAKIN’ ALL THE RULES

Polo Park. PG

Jamie Foxx stars in this unlikely romantic comedy as a man who writes a book on how to break up with women, after himself being dumped by his fiancée, and the ensuing difficulties that result when he gives his expert advice to his friends. HH1/2 (Reviewed by Jesse Washington)

THE DELICATE ART OF PARKING

Globe. 14A

This funny, absurdist, infinitely Canadian mock-documentary takes us to the frontlines of urban life — the hot zone where irate citizens meet up with Zen-like parking enforcement officer Grant Parker (Fred Ewaniuk). HHHH

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND

Towne. 14A

Boy (Jim Carrey) meets girl (Kate Winslet); boy and girl break each other’s hearts; girl has boy erased from her memory using a handy new medical procedure. Director Michel Gondry and writer Charlie Kaufman are clever and quirky, of course — “that’s what they do,” to paraphrase Kaufman’s Adaptation — but they’re also unexpectedly subtle, graceful, tender and sweet in this unconventional love story. HHHH1/2

GOOD BYE LENIN!

Globe. PG

Some of the funniest moments in this subtitled German film are also its most poignant, as an East German kid tries to hide the truth about the death of communism from his passionately socialist mother. HHH1/2

INDIA: KINGDOM OF THE TIGER

IMAX

The first in a series of IMAX “destination films” introduces us to the history and people of India through one of the country’s most evocative symbols, the Bengal tiger. A beautiful, family-friendly way to get informed. HHH1/2

KILL BILL VOLUME 2

Polo Park, Towne. 18A

The mayhem never reaches the fever pitch of the House of Blue Leaves sequence of Volume I. But this second half of Quentin Tarantino’s revenge epic is an enjoyable love song to action cinema, as Uma Thurman’s hell-bent Bride goes home to the U.S. to complete her vengeance against her former lover Bill (David Carradine) and the two remaining assassins (Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen) who so rudely interrupted her wedding party. HHHH (Reviewed by Randall King)

MAN ON FIRE

Grant Park, Polo Park. 18A

Denzel Washington is a bodyguard who burns for vengeance after failing in his assignment to guard a little girl (Dakota Fanning) from kidnapping in Mexico City. An undeniably effective blood lust fantasy, but over-embellished and over-directed by Tony Scott. HH1/2. (Reviewed by Glenn Whipp)

MEAN GIRLS

Garden City, Kildonan Place, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG

Lindsay Lohan is a home-schooled teen whose delayed first school experience teaches her that the fight-or-flight law of the jungle applies in high school, especially when dealing with a trio of privileged social queens known as “The Plastics.” A rarity: A relevant high school comedy scripted by Saturday Night Live mean-smart-funny girl Tina Fey. HHHH (Reviewed by Randall King)

NEW YORK MINUTE

Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. G

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen grow up — a bit — with this comedy wherein Ashley’s plain Jane must deliver a speech in New York City while Mary-Kate’s rockin’ Roxy skips school to attend the taping of a rock video, with much confusion, misadventure and bling resulting. HHHH (Reviewed by Jodie Blahut, 15-year-old Free Press teen critic)

THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD

Grant Park. 14A

The latest feature from Winnipeg’s own Guy Maddin is stubbornly strange and strangely endearing, as a Depression-era Prairie beer baroness (Isabella Rossellini) sponsors a contest to find the saddest music in the world. Expect Maddin’s usual stylistic anachronisms, along with a (relatively) zippy story, and a sense of sorrow that skews funny. (Also starring Mark McKinney, Maria de Madeiros, David Fox and Ross McMillan.) HHHH

SCOOBY DOO 2: MONSTERS UNLEASHED

Towne. PG

Kids might like the gang’s latest capers, as Scooby, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar and friends hunt down some classic monsters. Teens carrying the torch of those ’70s Hanna-Barbera-loving stoners will be disappointed by the dumbed-down script. HH

SHREK 2

Garden City, Grant Park, Kildonan Place, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. G

The further adventures of our favourite ogre (Mike Myers), his new bride Fiona (Cameron Diaz), and the adorably clueless Donkey (Eddie Murphy) might not have the heart of the 2001 original, but they do have the same knack for firing off pop-culture jokes that grab the whole family. And the computer-generated animation, which has developed exponentially in the last three years, really pops. HHH1/2

13 GOING ON 30

Grant Park, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG

A 13-year-old girl goes to bed and wakes up a 30-year-old career woman (Jennifer Garner) in this Big-inspired comedy co-starring Mark Ruffalo. HHH1/2

TROY

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. PG

This uneven epic adaptation of The Iliad combines sword-clanging spectacle with some broad stabs at the Homeric themes of fame, honour and destiny. Peter O’Toole’s Priam is magnificent, but period acting is clearly Brad Pitt’s Achilles’ heel. HHH

VAN HELSING

Grant Park, Kildonan Place, Polo Park, St. Vital, Towne. 14A

In this noisy, empty tale of fearless vampire hunters (Kate Beckinsale and an underutilized Hugh Jackman), Stephen Sommers (The Mummy) drags out the old Universal movie monsters — Frankenstein, the Wolf Man and Dracula — but can’t give them life. Wavering between wink-at-the-audience humour and Wagnerian bombast, the flick OD’s on special effects and flatlines into a numbing, interminable ending. HHPHOTO