MOVIES RELEASED AUSTRALIA JULY 2002
3 JULY
(Alien-sci fi- comedy- action-whatever)
Men In Black 2 (PG): National. UIP. Sci-fi-action-comedy. 88 mins. Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Lara Flynn Boyle, Rip Torn, Rosario Dawson, Patrick Warburton, Brad Abrell, Paige Brooks. D: Barry Sonnenfeld (Men In Black). Agent J (Smith) needs some serious help so he is sent to find Agent K (Lee Jones) and restore his memory. More alien-busting "comedy" action, that this time revolves around a interplanetary war, and Will Smith's smart ass remarks.
4 JULY
(Bend it? You can shove it.)
Bend It Like Beckham (PG): Selected. Icon. Comedy. UK. 113 mins. (Sydney Film Festival 14 & 18). Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Kulvinder Ghir, Shaznay Lewis, Juliet Stevenson D: Gurinder Chadha (What's Cooking?). Set in Hounslow, West London and Hamburg, the film follows two 18 year olds with their hearts set on a future in professional soccer. Heart-stopping talent doesn't seem to be enough when your parents want you to hang up your football boots, find a nice boyfriend and learn to cook the perfect chapatti.
Importance of Being Earnest (PG): National. Buena Vista. UK/ USA. Drama. Reese Witherspoon, Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Judi Dench, Frances O'Connor, Tom Wilkinson, Edward Fox, Anna Massey. D: Oliver Parker (An Ideal Husband). Two young gentlemen (Rupert Everett & Colin Firth) living in 1890s England use the same pseudonym ("Earnest") on the sly, which is fine until they both fall in love with women using that name, which leads to a comedy of mistaken identities...
The Piano Teacher (R): Selected, Sydney. Melbourne August 29. Drama. France. Isabelle Huppert. D: Michael Haneke (Funny Games). Adapted from Elfriede Jelinek's own novel "The Piano Teacher", the film is a stunning look at how a middle-aged woman, a piano professor at the Vienna Music Conservatory, is gradually being self-destructed. Erika Kohut, who had a weird love-hate relationship with her mother, was torn by her emotions to music and her dark desires.
5 JULY
Fond Memories Of Cuba (PG): Selected. Ronin Films. Opens 5 July at Valhalla. July 25: Melbourne. Documentary. D: David Bradbury. About Cuba. But not Gooding Jnr, thankfully.
11 JULY
("Wacky" and "funny" smart-ass teen comedy.)
Big Fat Liar (G): Selected, Brisbane. National: July 11. UIP. Comedy. 87 mins. Alex Breckenridge, Amanda Bynes, Amanda Detmer, Paul Giamatti, Frankie Muniz. D: Shawn Levy (Just Married). After a young boy's school essay erroneously finds its way into the hands of a Hollywood producer who turns the idea into a hit film, the boy travels to Los Angeles to claim his cred.
(The undead saves Snipe's near dead career).
Blade 2 (MA): National. Roadshow. 108 mins. Action/ thriller. Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Ron Perlman, Leonor Varela, Norman Reedus, Thomas Kretschmann, Luke Goss, Tchecky Karyo. D: Guillermo del Toro (The Devil's Backbone). A new blood virus that turns humans and vampires alike into monsters called Reapers. Blade forms an uneasy alliance with the vampire council in order to combat the Reapers who feed on vampires.
Last Orders (M): Selected, Syd/ Melb/ Brisb. Columbia. 110 mins. UK. Drama. Bob Hoskins, Ray Winstone, David Hemmings, Michael Caine, Hellen Mirren, Tom Courtenay. D: Fred Schespi (I.Q.). It's a long life, so you need life-long friends. Last Orders is a funny and moving film about four old friends and, most of all, the man, Jack Dodds (Caine), whose "last orders" have set them on a journey.
Unfaithful (MA): National. Fox. Drama. Richard Gere, Diane Lane, Oliver Martinez, Chad Lowe, Margret Colin, George F Miller. D: Adrian Lyne (Lolita). When a jealous husband kills the adulterating wives conquest, the wife (Lane) and their marriage are re-ignited. However there's that pesky matter of that corpse to get rid off.... (Sneaks from 6th and 7th July).
18 JULY
(Its so in the mix and keeping it real.)
Ali G Indahouse (MA): National. UIP. Comedy. UK. 87 mins. Ali G (Sacha Baron Cohen), Orlando Bloom, Kellie Bright, Charles Dance, Michael Gambon, Martin Freeman, Rhonda Mitra. Director: Mark Mylod (debut). The plot involves Ali being set-up as a Parliamentary candidate for Staines by the Deputy PM (Charles Dance), who hopes to embarrass the Prime Minister and further his own leadership ambitions. Needless to say Ali is duly elected, and goes on to discover a plot to build a new airport terminal over Staines. Annoying English bloke that gets along with Madonna and thinks he's funny (don't they all?)
Bad Company (M): National. Thriller. Buena Vista. Drama. Chris Rock, Anthony Hopkins, Gabriel Macht, John Slattery, Peter Stormare. D: Joel Schumacher (Falling Down). When a Harvard-educated CIA agent is killed during an operation, the secret agency recruits his twin brother (Rock), an African-American street-wise hustler with no idea what's coming for him. The CIA wants the twin to finish a project his brother was working on. But this street-wise twin has absolutely no experience, so the agency sends in an experienced agent (Hopkins) to train the twin how to act and talk like a real CIA agent.
The Conversation (M, 1974): Selected, Sydney. Re-release. Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Frederic Forrest. D: Francis Ford Copolla (Supernova). Thriller. A paranoid and personally-secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that a couple he is spying on will be murdered.
Devdas
(PG): Selected, Hoyts. Musical. 182
mins.
Dirty Deeds (MA): National. Hoyts. Comedy/ Crime. 98 mins. Bryan Brown, John Goodman, Toni Collete, Tim Draxl, Andrew S Gilbert, William McInnes, Sam Worthington, Sam Neil, Gary Waddell. D: David Caesar (Idiot Box). Period film flick set in Australia, and about the American (Goodman) who is sent down here to look after the criminal interests.
Unfair Competition (M): Selected, Melbourne. Palace. Drama. 110 mins. France/ Italy. Subtitled- Italian. Diego Abantuano, Sergipo Castellitto. D: Ettore Scola (The Family). A story about the Jewish living during the Italian fascism, the racial laws of 1938.
24 JULY
The Venus Factory (R): Selected, Valhalla. Tomahawk Productions. 83 mins. Australia. Comedy. Aka The Venus Factory (1998), Staring Duncan Wiley. Jenny Apostolou, Marie-Claire Aston, Melissa Bell (III), Susie Benton (II), Tony Bonner, Robert Carlton, Jodie Dry, Alan Flower, Teo Gebert, Erick Mitsak. D: Glenn Fraser (Boy). This tale of the porn industry, telling of one rising star and his naked ambition. Ambition Gets Naked.
25 JULY
Bully (R, 2001): Selected, Sydney/ Melbourne. Becker. Drama. Brad Renfro, Nick Stahl, Rachel Miner, Bijou Phillips, Michael Pitt, Kelli Garner, Leo Fitzpatrick, Daniel Franzese. D: Larry Clark (Kids). Based on a true story. Naive teenagers plot to murder one of their own, who has been too much of a bully to them
Gleaners And I (M): Selected, Syd/ Melb. Potential. Documentary. 82 mins. France- Subtitled. D: Agnes Varda (Lions Love). An intimate, picaresque inquiry into French life as lived by the country's poor and its provident, as well as by the film's own director, Agnes Varda. The aesthetic, political and moral point of departure for Varda are gleaners, those individuals who pick at already-reaped fields for the odd potato, the leftover turnip. Like turnips in the picking basket, these are they days of their lives.
Road Kill (MA): National. Fox. Thriller. Paul Walker, Steve Zahn, Leelee Sobieski, Jessica Bowman, Stuart Stone, Brian Leckner, Jim Beaver, Satch Huizenga, Basil Wallace, Kenneth White, Luis Cortes, Jay Hernandez. D: John Dahl (Rounders). Three young people on a road trip from Colorado to New Jersey talk to a trucker on their CB radio, then must escape when he turns out to be a psychotic killer.
The Sweetest Thing (MA): National. Fox. Columbia. Comedy. Cameron Diaz, Thomas Jane, Christina Applegate, Selma Blair, Parkey Posey, Jason Bateman. D: Roger Kumble (Cruel Intensions). In what has been described as a bawdy comedy, a sexy club-hopper (Diaz) finds that she must educate herself on the correct etiquette (sexiquette?) of wooing a man when she finally meets her Mr. Right (Jane) and has no idea what to do about it...
28 JULY
Uprising (M): Selected, Astor July 28- August 4. Chapel Distribution. 163 mins. D: Jon Aviel.