MOVIES RELEASED JANUARY 2003

 

1 JANUARY   

The Hot Chick (M): National, 144. Buena Vista. Comedy. Rob Schneider, Matthew Lawrence, Sam Doumit, Michelle Branch, Robert Davis, Adam Del Rio, Anna Faris, Melora Hardin, Alexandra Holden, Andrew Keegan, Leila Kenzle, Megan Kuhlmann. A popular yet mean-spirited teenage girl (Rachel McAdams) wakes up one day to find herself turned into a man in his 30s (Rob Schneider). Along the way to finding out how she ended up like that (and how to get back into her own body), she discovers how shallow and cruel she's always been.

 

 

 

Master of Disguise (PG): National, 134. Columbia. Comedy. Dana Carvey, Jennifer Esposito, James Brolin, Bo Derek, Robert Loggia, Robert Machray, Edie McClurg. D: Perry Andelin Blake (debut). Pistachio Disguisey (Carvey), a sweet-natured Italian waiter at his father Fabbrizio's (Brolin) restaurant, can't figure out why he compulsively mimics his customers and desires to change his appearance. What he doesn't know yet is that these traits are part of the Disguisey family secret legacy.  (One more wafer?)

 

 

Two Weeks Notice (M): National, 249. Roadshow. Comedy. Sandra Bullock, Hugh Grant, Mark Feuerstein, Dana Ivey, Robert Klein, Alicia Witt. D: Marc Lawrence (debut). Explores the question of whether it's ever too late to say 'I love you'. The story revolves around Lucy Kelson (Bullock), a brilliant but neurotic attorney, and her client (Grant), who is "charming, irresponsible and fabulously wealthy." Witt plays a young Harvard graduate who also represents Grant's character.

 

 

 

 

 

9 JANUARY  
Catch Me If You Can (M): National, 296. UIP. Thriller. Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Amy Adams, Brian Howe, Frank John Hughes, Ellen Pompeo, Jennifer Garner. D: Steven Speilberg (1941). Frank W. Abagnale lived a life of crime from 1964 to 1966, using his amazing abilities of forgery (cashing in millions of dollars) and subterfuge to assume many altar egos, going so far as taking on the identities of an airline pilot, a doctor, a professor, and even an assistant attorney general.

 
The Last Waltz (PG): Selected, 1- Sydney. Chapel Films. 118 mins. Doco.  

 

 

 

 
Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams (PG): National, 249. Buena Vista. Action fantasy. 100 mins.  Daryl Sabara, Alexa Vega, Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Cheech Marin, Danny Trejo. D: Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi). The world is in trouble again and no one can save it except the Cortezes, but only if they all work together.  Sure, Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni (Daryl Sabara) got their parents out of a big jam on their last assignment. And they've got awesome spy genes. But are they ready for the hugest adventure of their lives - for far wilder inventions, even cooler gadgets and much higher stakes?  Rhetorical, they've even got a third one coming! 

 

 

 

 

16 JANUARY  
8 Mile (M): National, 217. UIP. Drama. 110 mins. Eminem, Kim Basinger, Brittany Murphy, Mekhi Phifer, Eugene Byrd, Taryn Manning, Omar Benson Miller. D: Curtis Hanson (LA Confidential). The people of Detroit, USA, know 8 Mile as the city limit, a border, a boundary. It is also a psychological dividing line that separates Jimmy Smith Jr (Eminem) from where and who he wants to be. 8 Mile is a provocative examination of a critical week in Jimmy's life.  Loosely based upon the true story of Marshall "Eminem" Mathers III, who will will collaborate with Dr Dre on the soundtrack.

 

 

Analyse That (M): National, 186. Roadshow. Comedy. 95 mins. Robert De Niro (Paul Vitti), Billy Crystal (Dr. Ben Sobel), Lisa Kudrow (Laura Sobel), Yogi Berra (cameo), Cathy Moriarty-Gentile. D: Harold Ramis (Caddyshack). As the movie opens, Paul Vitti (De Niro) is in prison, with the story then following what happens as he's let out. Undoubtedly, he'll be needing to see his analyst, Dr. Ben Sobel (Crystal), but what may surprise him is that now, Sobel is the one who needs an analyst, as the stress of taking over the family practice following the death of his father bears down on him.
The Country Bears (G): Selected, 25- Syd/ Melb, Perth, Brisb/ Adel.  88 mins. Buena Vista. Family Comedy. Christopher Walken, Haley Joel Osment, Diedrich Bader, Julianne Buescher, Charles S. Dutton, Daryl Mitchell. D: Peter Hastings (debut).  "They're legends. Bearly". The movie is a satire of Behind the Music rock & roll bands. Beary, a young bear raised by a human family in a world wear humans and talking bears coexist, attempts to trace his roots. He meets up with the Country Bears, a long-since broken-up band, a parody of bands like the Eagles. Beary helps the Country Bears reunite for one final concert, while searching for who he truly is.

 

 
Like Mike (G): National, 154. Fox. Comedy/ Family. 99 mins.  Lil' Bow Wow, Morris Chestnut, Jonathan Lipnicki, Eugene Levy, Anne Meara, Matt Geiger, Jesse Plemons, Julius Ritter, Brenda Song.   D: John Schultz (Drive Me Crazy).  Calvin Cambridge (Wow), a 14-year-old orphan who harbours dreams of becoming a famous basketball player, but whose diminutive size and limited skills make the goal a nearly unattainable fantasy. When he starts wearing a pair of old sneakers with the faded initials "M.J." inside, he begins to display amazing abilities on the court and eventually has the opportunity to join an NBA professional basketball team.

The Quiet American (M): National, 61. Buena Vista. Drama. 101 mins.  Brendan Fraser, Michael Caine, Jean Reno, Hai Yen Do, Rade Serbedzija, Tai Yen Do, Quang Hai, Nguyen Thi Hieu. D: Phillip Noyce (The Saint). Saigon, 1952, a beautiful, exotic, and mysterious city caught in the grips of the Vietnamese war of liberation from the French colonial powers. New arrival Alden Pyle (Brendan Fraser), an idealistic American aid worker, befriends London Times correspondent Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine). When Fowler introduces Pyle to his beautiful young Vietnamese mistress Phuong (Hai Yen) the three become swept up in a tempestuous love triangle that leads to a series of startling revelations and finally - murder.

 

 

23 JANUARY  

Chicago (M): National, 157. Buena Vista. Musical. Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, John C. Reilly, Christine Baranski, Dominic West, Lucy Liu, Taye Diggs, Mya, Queen Latifah.   D: Rob Marshall (1999 TV's Annie movie). "A flash of leg, the taste of gin, the smell of corruption, and things that go bump in the night. Anywhere else it would be a crime, but this is Chicago." Murderesses Velma Kelly (Who blanked out and killed her cheating husband) and Roxie Hart (Who killed her boyfriend in a jealous rage) strive for fame at any costs including scandal and lies in 1920s Chicago.
I Spy (M): National, 158. Columbia. Comedy. Eddie Murphy, Owen Wilson, Famke Janssen, Malcolm McDowell, Gary Cole, Viv Leacock. D: Betty Thomas (28 Days). Based on the 1960's television series I Spy. It's hate at first sight when CIA super-agent Alex Scott (Owen Wilson) is unwittingly paired up with undefeated middle-weight champion Kelly Robinson (Eddie Murphy) to track down the Air Force's missing stealth bomber, the country's new top secret weapon. The fate of the free world is in their hands. Now if they can only stop fighting with one another long enough to track down the real enemy.. the Hollywood producer who greenlights all these crap re-makes. 

 

 
 

Making Venus (MA): Selected, 1-  Brisbane Schonell. Gil Schrine Films. Doco. 70 mins. Australia. Jason Gooden, Julian Aggers, Glenn Fraser, Dennis Whitburn. D: Gary Doust. February 20:- Sydney Valhalla.  Making Venus is a documentary that combines candid interviews and an observational documentary style.  Ultimately a character piece, it documents the journey of the producers, Jason and Julian, cursed with too much money and too little knowledge. 

The Man From Elysian Fields (MA): Selected, Syd/ Melb/ Perth/ Brisb/ Adel. Palace. 10 screens. 106 mins.  Andy Garcia, Mick Jagger, Julianna Margulies, Olivia Williams, James Coburn, Anjelica Huston.   D: George Hickenlooper (The Big Brass Ring). Byron Tiller (Andy Garcia) is pushed to his limit when his latest novel is rejected by his publisher and he can't even get back his old job in advertising to support his new family and nascent career. When Luther Fox (Mick Jagger), the dapperly outfitted head of a very upscale male escort service recruits him, Byron begins servicing Andrea Allcott (Olivia Williams). 

 

 

 

30 JANUARY 

  
Frailty (MA): Selected, 81- Can/ Bris/ Adel / Melb/ Perth. UIP. Thriller. 96 mins. Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, Matthew O'Leary, Derk Cheetwood, Jeremy Sumpter, Powers Boothe. D: Bill Paxton (Fish Heads). What would you do if your single, loving, upright father came into your room as a child, and told both you and your little brother that God had just delivered a message to him, and that you were all "super-heroes" in a sense, placed on this Earth to get rid of certain "demons", disguised as human beings? What if he then showed you a list of 7 people who you all needed to murder, in order to achieve God's will?

 

 

One Hour Photo (M): National, 157. Fox. 96 mins. Thriller. Robin Williams, Connie Nielsen, Michael Vartan, Gary Cole, Erin Daniels, Carmen Mormino, Andrew A Rolfes, Eriq La Salle. D: Mark Romaek (Paradise Falls). A young suburban family (Nielsen plays the mother; Vartan, the father) finds themselves the objects of obsession of an employee (Williams) at their local one-hour photo lab after they drop some family photo's off there... (La Salle plays a cop investigating the photo shop) . The third of William's psycho roles of 2002 (Death To Smoochy, Insomnia, and this).
Standing In The Shadows Of Motown (G): Selected, 10- Syd/ Melb/ Perth. Hopscotch. Documentary. 116 mins. In 1959, Berry Gordy Jr. gathered the best musicians from Detroit's thriving jazz and blues scene to begin cutting songs for his new record company. Over a fourteen year period they were the heartbeat on every hit from Motown's Detroit era. By the end of their phenomenal run, this unheralded group of musicians had played on more number ones hits than the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Elvis and the Beatles combined - which makes them the greatest hit machine in the history of popular music.

 

Would I Lie To You? 2 (M): Selected, 2:- Sydney (Chauvel and Valhalla). Eclectic Releasing. Comedy. 105 mins.  France- Subtitled:- French, Arabic. The film is basically about the Jewish "pieds noirs" ( ex-inhabitants of the Algerian French and their descendants ) ; various comic situations arise when the family of clothiers try to sell models to a clothing discount store, called Euro Discount ( how original ) and who's boss is none other than Daniel Prévost, who played the tax inspector "Cheval" in Le Diner des Cons. Anyway there's a lot of fast-talking and pied-noir humour, as well as some romance, lots of lying ( hence the title ) and beautiful women.