FEBRUARY 2004 CINEMA RELEASES IN AUSTRALIA

 

5 FEBRUARY  
Beyond Borders (MA): Selected. Roadshow. 126 mins. Drama. Angelina Jolie, Clive Owen, Noah Emmerich, Teri Polo, Linus Roache. D: Martin Campbell (The Sex Thief). Beyond Borders is an epic tale of the turbulent romance between two star-crossed lovers set against the backdrop of the world's most dangerous hot spots. Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie stars as Sarah Jordan, an American living in London in 1984. She is married to Henry Bauford (Linus Roache) son of a wealthy British industrialist, when she encounters Nick Callahan (Clive Owen) a renegade doctor, whose impassioned plea for help to support his relief efforts in war-torn Africa moves her deeply.

 
The Cooler (TBA): Selected. UIP (Uni). Drama. USA. William H Macy, Alec Baldwin, Maria Bello, Shawn Hatosy, Paul Sorvino. D: Wayne Kramer. Bernie Lootz (William H. Macy) is the unluckiest guy in Vegas. From a failed marriage to an estranged son to a lost cat, everything Bernie touches turns bad. Once upon a time, Bernie was a troubled gambler with markers all over town, including a big tab at the Shangri-La casino run by his friend Shelly Kaplow (Alec Baldwin). When Bernie couldn’t pay the debts, Shelly saved Bernie’s life by covering them, but then disabled Bernie by kneecapping him, causing Bernie to walk with a limp. Also, Shelly made Bernie work the floor of the Shangri-La, allowing Bernie the chance to pay off his debt day by day over the course of many years. Shelly recognized that Bernie’s luck was so bad it was contagious, so Shelly made Bernie the casino’s “cooler.” All it takes is Bernie’s mere presence at a hot table to kill the winning streak. If he should so much as touch the dice, you’re looking at the Las Vegas version of a nuclear winter.  

Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (TBA): National. UIP. Comedy. David Spade, Jenna Boyd. D: Sam Weisman.  

In the reverse rags-to-riches story of DICKIE ROBERTS: FORMER CHILD STAR, writer/actor David Spade's string of infectious laughs turn into waves of compassion. Former child star Dickie Roberts (Spade) has wound up working as a valet, dodging insults and lamely making attempts to regain his former glory with the help of his equally down-and-out agent, Sidney Wernick (Jon Lovitz). His buddy, the real-life recovering child star Leif Garrett, tells Dickie about a role in a Rob Reiner film that could revive Dickie's acting career. But Reiner is not convinced Dickie, whose mother and father left him at an early age, knows enough about normal life to nail the role. Dickie shows his commitment to the craft by moving in with a hired surrogate family to replicate the idea of childhood, but does not win points with his new Mom (Mary McCormack) when he introduces her kids to repugnant table manners, irreverent behavior, and foul language.

Jeepers Creepers 2 (M): National. Fox. 104 mins. Horror. Jonathan Breck, Ray Wise, Nicki Lynn Aycox, Drew Bell, Billy Aaron Brown, Kasan Butcher, Lena Caldwell, Marieh Delfino, Luke Edwards, Thom Gossom Jr., Josh Hammond, Justin Long (cameo). Returning home from a Championship game, a group of varsity basketball players, cheerleaders, and coaches become stranded on the infamous East 9 Highway - only it's the cunning Creeper who has actually crippled the bus. As its 23 horrifying days of flesheating come to an end, the Creeper has embarked on its final voracious feeding frenzy in Poho County. As night falls, the terrified group of young athletes must fight their own fears and prejudices and come together in a seemingly hopeless struggle against a winged nightmare, hellbent on stockpiling as many victims as it can on the ultimate night of its grizzly, ritual feast.

 

 

12 FEBRUARY   
Big Fish (TBA): National. Columbia. Drama. Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Jessica Lange, Danny DeVito, Helena Bonham Carter, Steve Buscemi, Billy Crudup, Alison Lohman. D: Tim Burton (Batman). In the heartwarming film "Big Fish," director Tim Burton ("Batman," 'Edward Scissorhands") brings his inimitable imagination on a journey that delves deep into a fabled relationship between a father and his son. Edward Bloom (Finney) has always been a teller of tall-tales about his oversized life as a young man (McGregor), when his wanderlust led him on an unlikely journey from a small-town in Alabama, around the world, and back again. His mythic exploits dart from the delightful to the delirious as he weaves epic tales about giants, blizzards, a witch and conjoined-twin lounge singers. With his larger-than-life stories, Bloom charms almost everyone he encounters except for his estranged son Will (Crudup). When his mother Sandra (Lange) tries to reunite them, Will must learn how to separate fact from fiction as he comes to terms with his father's great feats and great failings.

Drumline (PG): Selected.  Fox. Comedy. Nick Cannon, Zoe Saldana, Orlando Jones, Leonard Roberts, Gregory Qaiyum, Jason Weaver, Earl Poitier, Candace Carey, Shay Roundtree, Omar J. Dorsey, Miguel Gaetan, J. Anthony Brown, Angela Gibbs, Tyreese Burnett, Brandon Christopher Hirsch.  D: Charles Stone III (True). 

Charles Stone III's crowd-pleasing drama spotlights the previously unheralded world of university marching bands--more specifically, the cutthroat world that energizes Southern black campuses. Devon Miles (Nick Cannon) is a Harlem teenager who receives a full scholarship to attend Atlanta A&T University based on his excellent percussion talents. However, making the transition from hip-hop street drumming to the drumline of the school's legendary marching band is more challenging than Miles expected. For one, the band director, Dr. Lee (Orlando Jones), is determined to reclaim the national championship using old-school tactics, even though his traditional beliefs appear to be leaving A&T in the dust. 

Under The Tuscan Sun (M): Selected. Buena Vista. 112 mins. Comedy. Diane Lane, Sandra Oh, Lindsay Duncan, Raoul Bova. D: Audrey Wells (Guinevere).  Frances Mayes (Lane) is a 35-year-old San Francisco writer whose perfect life has just taken an unexpected detour.  Her recent divorce has left her with terminal writer’s block and extremely depressed, and her best friend, Patti (Oh), is beginning to think she might never recover.  “Dr. Patti’s” Rx:  10 days in Tuscany.  And it’s there that, on a whim, Frances purchases a villa named Bramasole – literally, “something that yearns for the sun.”  The home needs much restoration, but what better place for a new beginning than the home of the Renaissance?  As she flings herself into her new life at the villa in the lush and beautiful Italian countryside, Frances makes new friends among her neighbors, but in the quiet moments, she is fearful that her ambitions for her new life – and a new family – may not be realized… until a chance encounter in Rome throws Frances into the arms of an intriguing Portobello antiquities dealer named Marcello (Bova). 

 

 

15 FEBRUARY
A Fistful Of Dollars (TBA): Selected, Melb. Astor, Melb. 1 screen. Chapel Distribution. 1964. Double bill. From 15 Feb- March 6. Clint Eastwood. D: Sergio Leone. 101 mins. The first true Spaghetti Western follows the exploits of a nameless drifter (Clint Eastwood) who wanders into a town torn apart by greed, corruption, and revenge. The clever, tough-talking gunslinger then plays the town's two feuding families off each other to his own benefit. As members of each family are planted in the ground, the gold in his pockets gets heavier and heavier. This violent remake of Akira Kurosawa's YOJIMBO made Eastwood a star, and sparked two sequels--FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE and THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY--to form what is now referred to as the Man with No Name trilogy. All three films starred Eastwood, featured Ennio Morricone's distinctive musical compositions, and were directed--in a wonderfully gritty style--by Sergio Leone. Although the film was not released in the United States until 1967, it was produced and released internationally in 1964.
For A Few Dollars More (TBA): Selected, Melb. Chapel Distribution. 1 screen. Melb Astor. Western. USA. Double bill.  From 15 Feb- March 6. 1967. In the second film in Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Western trilogy (A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS being the first and THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY the last), the Man with No Name (Clint Eastwood) teams up with gunslinger Colonel Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef) in order to extract reward money from Indio (Gian Maria Volonte), a mean and vicious bandit. There is little doubt as to No Name's financial intentions in the hunt, but Mortimer seems to be driven by something a bit deeper. A series of flashbacks (which would become a Leone signature device) provides the background for Colonel Mortimer's anger and desire for revenge. Morricone's score combined with Leone's trademark long and lingering shots bring the viewer ever closer to the human side of the Man with No Name. Although the film was not released in the United States until 1967, it was produced and released internationally in 1965.

 

 

19 FEBRUARY  
Coral Reef Adventure 3D (TBA): Selected. Imax, Doco. Australia. 
One Perfect Day (TBA): National. Warner Bros (Roadshow). Australia. Drama. Dan Spielman, Leanna Walsman, Kerry Armstrong, Abbie Cornish. D: Paul Currie (debut). Filming: 18th March 2002 - 3rd May 2002. One perfect day tells the story of a 22 year old musical prodigy, Tommy Matisse (Dan Spielman) whose younger sister dies of an accidental drug overdose at a dance party. He embarks on a journey of self-discovery as he confronts his own beliefs to seek answers relating to his sister’s life and death.
Sin Eater (TBA): National. Fox. Thriller. Heath Ledger, Mark Addy, Seeta Indrani, Alessandra Costanzo, Shannyn Sossamon.  D: Brian Heldgeland (Payback).  When an excommunicated priest dies under mysterious circumstances, his protégée, Alex (Heath Ledger), is sent to Rome by Cardinal Driscoll (Peter Weir) to investigate. Like his late mentor, Alex is one of the last of a secret, ancient order, trained to face and exorcise demons, spirits, ghosts, and evil entities. Alex and his fellow priest, Tommy (Mark Addy), discover that a "sin eater," a mysterious being that literally eats sins to release the soul of those who the Catholic Church refuses to administer last rites (i.e. the excommunicated, suicides, etc.) exists and may have had a hand in the mysterious death. The two are ordered to track down the creature, William Eden (Benno Furmann). But is it a man or a beast? Is Eden compassionate and good, or evil and vindictive? Is he a threat to the church, or simply an embarrassment? 

Timeline (M): National. UIP (Para). 115 mins. Sci-fi.  Paul Walker, Gerard Butler, Frances O'Connor, Ethan Embry, Marla Welsh, Neal McDonough, Michael Sheen, Billy Connolly, Anna Friel, David Thewlis. D: Richard Donner (Lethal Weapon). Michael Crichton's novel opens on the threshold of the twenty-first century. It is a world of exploding advances on the frontiers of technology. Information moves instantly between two points, without wires or networks. Computers are built from single molecules. Any moment of the past can be actualized -- and a group of historians can enter, literally, life in fourteenth-century feudal France. Imagine the risks of such a journey.

 

 

 

26 FEBRUARY   
  Big Bounce (TBA): National. Warner Bros (Roadshow). Thriller. Owen Wilson, Morgan Freeman, Gary Sinise, Charlie Sheen, Sara Foster, Vinnie Jones, Bebe Neuwirth, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Harry Dean Stanton. D: George Armitage (Grosse Point Blank). Set on Hawaii’s stunning North Shore, a charismatic drifter (Wilson) forms a dubious alliance with a powerful local businessman (Freeman) while hooking up with a criminally-minded seductress (Foster) to double-cross a wealthy developer (Sinise) and his cohorts (Sheen, Jones).
  First Daughter (TBA): National. Fox. Comedy. USA. Katie Holmes, Marc Blucas. D: Forrest Whittaker. Katie Holmes plays first daughter Samantha Mackenzie, whose life in the spotlight begins to take its toll. Excited about her first year away at the University of Virginia, she demands to be allowed to go to college without having to be followed by a fleet of omnipresent secret service agents. She is elated when her father reluctantly agrees, and the chance to finally be on her own. But, without her knowing, her father assigns one of the youngest Secret Service agents to follow her around on campus disguised as a student anyway. Delighted with her boy-crazy, fun-loving, in-your-face roommate, Mia, Samantha is discovering the joys of college when she falls fast and hard for her gorgeous R.A., James Lansome. However, she feels betrayed when she learns James is none other than a Secret Service agent, put in place by her well-meaning, but overly protective dad.
The Human Stain (TBA): Selected. Buena Vista. Drama. Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman, Ed Harris, Gary Sinise. D: Robert Benton. THE HUMAN STAIN is the story of Coleman Silk (ANTHONY HOPKINS), a distinguished professor at a prestigious New England college whose professional life is shattered by allegations of racism and whose personal life is infected with the cancer of a lie he has been living for fifty years. His career and reputation in ruin, Silk begins a dynamic resurrection through two new relationships: one, a friendship with the writer Nathan Zuckerman (GARY SINISE) whom he intrigues with his story, the other a scandalous affair with a young woman (NICOLE KIDMAN). Directed by multiple Academy Award®-winner Robert Benton, ("Superman", "Kramer vs. Kramer", "Places in the Heart"), THE HUMAN STAIN is based on a book by Phillip Roth adapted for the screen by Nicholas Meyer. The film also stars Ed Harris.
Kill Bill - Volume 2 (TBA): National. Thriller. USA. Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen, Darryl Hannah, Vivica A. Fox, Sonny Chiba, Samuel L. Jackson. D: Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction). Uma Thurman's character, a pregnant assassin named the Bride, is shot by her boss, Bill, and her co-workers at her wedding (the wedding guests are also shot). She survives, though, waking up exceedingly angry after a five-year coma, and decides to hunt down and kill every single one of the assassins who were responsible, saving Bill for last.

 

 

 

 

FEBRUARY 
Cold Creek Manor (TBA) Buena Vista. Thriller. Dennis Quaid, Sharon Stone, Stephen Dorff, Juliette Lewis. D: Mike Figgis.  Finally putting an end to their days as slaves to the hustle-bustle city life, Gothamites Cooper Tilson (Quaid) and his wife, Leah (Stone), pack up their kids and all their possessions and move into a recently repossessed mansion in the sticks of New York State. Once a grand and elegant manor, the house at Cold Creek is now a shambles, but Cooper and Leah have unlimited time to show the house the TLC that it desperately needs. All’s well until Dale Massie (Dorff), the house’s former owner, gets out of prison, looking to reclaim his birthright by any means necessary. There are two kinds of people in Cold Creek – those who come there, and those who are born there – and Dale quickly shows that one kind always comes out on top, particularly when the house hides a dark secret. aka The Devil's Throat. 
The Company (TBA): National. Roadshow. Drama. Neve Campbell, James Franco, Malcolm McDowell. D: Robert Altman.  Charts the ups and downs of life for members of a world-famous ballet troupe, the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago. This ensemble drama portrays the life of a company of ballet dancers, following several stories, but focusing on a young dancer (Campbell) on the verge of becoming a principal dancer, who finds herself distracted from the grueling study and practice she must go through by other interests.
Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind (TBA): National. Roadshow. Comedy. Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Victor Rasuk, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Wilkinson, Elijah Wood. D: Michel Gondry. Joel (Carrey) is stunned to discover that his girlfriend Clementine (Winslet) has had her memories of their tumultuous relationship erased. Out of desperation, he contacts the inventor of the process, Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Wilkinson), to have Clementine removed from his own memory. But as Joel's memories progressively disappear, he begins to rediscover their earlier passion. From deep within the recesses of his brain, Joel attempts to escape the procedure. As Dr. Meirzwiak and his crew (Dunst, Ruffalo, Wood) chase him through the maze of his memories, it's clear that Joel just can't get her out of his head.
Godsend (TBA): Selected. Hoyts Distribution. Robert DeNiro, Greg Kinnear, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos. D: Nick Hamm. In the tradition of Rosemary's Baby and The Others, this taut and gripping thriller tells the story of devoted parents who are willing to do anything to resurrect their murdered son. GODSEND stars Academy Award winner Robert De Niro, Academy Award nominee Greg Kinnear (As Good As It Gets, We Were Soldiers, Auto Focus), and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos (X-Men, Simone, Femme Fatale). The film is directed by Nick Hamm, best known for his success with the highly stylized British film The Hole. When Jessie (Romijn-Stamos) and Paul's (Kinnear) eight year old son Adam is tragically killed on his birthday, Richard (De Niro), a doctor on the forefront of genetic research, befriends his former student Jessie and her husband at the height of their mourning. He leads the couple in a desperate attempt to reverse the rules of nature and clone their son. 
Highway Men (TBA): Selected. Roadshow. When his wife is killed by a maniac, a man sets out on the road in his 1970s Plymouth Hemi-head Barracuda muscle car to find the man responsible. The murderer is a serial killer who hunts women using his massive green 1972 Cadillac Eldorado, as a way of expressing his rage about his place in the world, specifically at the woman who broke his heart. Mitra plays a professional singer who finds herself caught in a cat-and-mouse game between the serial killer and the vigilante hunting him down.  

 

 
Peaches (TBA): Selected. Hopscotch. Australia. Hugo Waving, Jacqueline McKenzie, Emma Lung, Sam Healy, Matthew Lenevez. D: Craig Monahan (The Interview). Shooting starts March 2003.  This is the story of teenage girl Steph, who is brought up by her fiery aunt Jude after her pregnant mother Jass and Vietnamese father are killed in a car crash.  The arrival of her late mother's diary reveals the colorful, sexy secrets of Jude and the foreman (Weaving) which allow Steph to reinvent her vision of the world.