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Me If You Can (Full Screen Edition)
An enormously entertaining (if somewhat shallow) affair from blockbuster
director Steven Spielberg. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Frank Abagnale, Jr.,
a dazzling young con man who spent four years impersonating an airline
pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer--all before he turned 21. All the while he's
pursued by a dedicated FBI agent named Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), whose
dogged determination stays one step behind Abagnale's spontaneous wits.
Both DiCaprio and Hanks turn in enjoyable performances and the movie has
a bouncy rhythm that keeps it zipping along. However, it never gets under
the surface of Frank's drive to lose himself in other identities, other
than a simplistic desire to please his father (Christopher Walken, excellent
as always), nor does it explore the complex mechanics of fraud with any
depth. By the movie's end, it feels like one of Frank's pilot uniforms--appearance
without substance. --Bret Fetzer - Amazon.com
DVD from Umvd/Dreamworks
starring Leonardo
DiCaprio, Tom
Hanks, Christopher
Walken
directed by Steven
Spielberg
Published: 06 May, 2003 |
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The
Dancer Upstairs
Marking an assured directorial debut for actor John Malkovich, The
Dancer Upstairs is a tense, nerve-jangling political thriller that values
adult storytelling and emotional depth over cheap thrills. It's a challenge
for those accustomed to the frantic pace of Hollywood thrillers, but attentive
viewers will be richly rewarded by Malkovich's slow-burn approach to the
film's terrorist plot, adapted by Nicholas Shakespeare from his own novel,
based on the "Shining Path" movement that terrorized Peru in the 1980s.
The plot unfolds in an unnamed Latin American capital, where a lawyer-turned-police
detective named Rejas (Javier Bardem) leads an investigation to locate
Ezequiel, a terrorist whose followers have left a trail of fear, death
and destruction across the city. Rejas falls in love with his daughter's
ballet teacher (Laura Morante), but the film's ultimate revelation--a coincidence
that Malkovich handles with credible delicacy--throws this simmering drama
into stark relief, bringing Bardem's character (and his subtle performance)
to a greater awareness of his own personal and political humanity. --Jeff
Shannon - Amazon.com
DVD from Fox Home Entertainme
starring Javier
Bardem, Juan
Diego Botto, Laura
Morante
directed by John
Malkovich
Published: 03 February, 2004 |
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Gosford
Park finds director Robert Altman in sumptuously fine form indeed.
From the opening shots, as the camera peers through the trees at an opulent
English country estate, Altman exploits the 1930s period setting and whodunit
formula of the film expertly. Aristocrats gather together for a weekend
shooting party with their dutiful servants in tow, and the upstairs/downstairs
division of the classes is perfectly tailored to Altman's method (as employed
in Nashville and Short Cuts) of overlapping bits of dialogue and numerous
subplots in order to betray underlying motives and the sins that propel
them. Greed, vengeance, snobbery, and lust stir comic unrest as the near
dizzying effect of brisk script turns is allayed by perhaps Altman's strongest
ensemble to date.
First and foremost, Maggie Smith is marvelous as Constance, a dependent
countess with a quip for every occasion; Michael Gambon, as the ill-fated
host, Sir William McCordle, is one of the most palpably salacious characters
ever on screen; Kristin Scott Thomas is perfectly cold yet sexy as Lady
Sylvia, Sir William's wife; and Helen Mirren, Emily Watson, and Clive Owen
are equally memorable as key characters from the bustling servants' quarters
below. Gosford Park manages to be fabulously entertaining while exposing
human shortcomings, compromises, and our endless need for confession. --
Fionn Meade - Amazon.com
Monster's Ball
starring Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry
Listed under Prison Movies
The
Gift
starring Cate Blanchett, Katie Holmes, Keanu Reeves, Giovanni Ribisi
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