Movies May 2003

MAY 2003 RELEASES IN AUSTRALIA

MAY 1
	Anita And Me (M): Selected. Can/ Syd/ Bris + Gold Coast/ Adel/ Melb + Geelong/ Perth. Hoyts. 35 screens. Comedy. 92 mins. UK. Chandeep Uppal, Anna Brewster, Ayesha Dharker, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kathy Burke, Lynne Redgrave, Mark Williams, Max Beesley, Meera Syal, Zohra Segal, Kabir Bedi, Christine Tremarco. D: Metin Hüseyin (Tight Trousers). Meena, a 12-year-old living in a mining village in the English Midlands in 1972, is the daughter of Indian parents who've come to England to give her a better life. This idyllic existence is upset by the arrival in the village of Anita Rutter and her dysfunctional family. Anita is 14, blonde and beautiful - exactly what Meena thinks she wants to be. She becomes part of Anita's world, but events do not run smoothly. Meena's growing up - and that brings plenty of changes.
	Marie-Jo And Her Two Lovers (M): Selected, Melb/ Syd. Sharmil Films. 4 screens. . 129 mins. Melbourne;- Cinema Nova, Palace. Sydney:- Dendy Opera Quays, Palace Verona. Drama. Subtitled- French. Ariane Ascaride, Gérad Meylan, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Julie-Marie Parmentier. D: Robert Guediguian (The Town Is Quiet). Having reached middle age, a woman must choose between the two men in her life. Marie-Jo has two loves: Daniel, her husband and Marco, her lover. They are impossible to live, yet life goes on because all three know there is no way out. The knife blade Marie-Jo presses into her wrist isn't an answer.
	The Nameless (R): Selected. Imagine Entertainment. 1 screen. Sydney- Hoyts, Broadway. Subtitled. Italy. Horror thiller. Emma Vilarasau, Karra Elejalde, Tristan Ulloa. D: Jaume Balaguero.
	Russian Ark (G): Selected, Syd/ Melb/ Adel. Potential. 5 screens. 99 mins. D: Aleksandr Sokurov (The Knot). Told in one fluid shot, a tale which floats like a dreamlike journey through the majestic spaces of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, engaging real and imagined characters from Russian and European history. The nameless protagonist, a 19th-century French diplomat, guides the audience through a lost, sumptuous dream that was the Enlightenment period. The film, staged among some of the Western Art tradition's greatest masterpieces, climaxes in a pageant of color, motion, and music. For Sokurov, the Hermitage--home to generations of Romonovs and repository of so much Russian history--is the ark of the Russian soul, guarding it affectionately until the world sees better days.
	Silicon Tears (M): Selected, Melb. Roadshow. 1 screen (Westgarth, Northcote). Comedy/ Musical. 105 mins. Greek:- subtitled. Aka Crying Is From Heaven. D: Thanasis Papathanasiou, Michalis Reppas. This is the story of two Greek families, named Delafrangas and Bisbikides. The former family is very wealthy & lucky, the latter very poor and continually struck by fate. Poor but honest Martha is in love with Giakoumis, a young builder and bouzouki organist, but all her dreams fall apart when posh Tzela "steals" the love of her beloved one... A couple of flash backs, following their families roots back to WW2 and the Turkish domination, and a hidden secret will unfold the story's ending...

MAY 8
	Adrenaline Rush: The Science of Risk (G): Selected, Syd. Imax. 1 screen (Imax Darling Harbour). Doco. Fifteenth century Europe was a lot of drudgery, violence, back breaking labor and hardship for the great majority of souls of the time. On any given day you might get gored by your ox, catch the plague, go to the barber for a bleeding or be invited to the Spanish Inquisition - you took a serious risk every time you climbed out of your straw bed to greet the day. And still, there were restless minds like Leonardo da Vinci's, eager to push the envelope of normal human experience. The Big Movie ADRENALINE RUSH connects the dots between da Vinci's dauntless imagination, modern day thrill seekers and the specifically human need to court risk. ADRENALINE RUSH balances a genuine thirst for fun against a need to deliver educational content to the field trip crowd - and it all goes down pretty smoothly. This Large Format film is X GAMES with a brain or the thinking man's JACK ASS - it reminds you of the cool kid who still manages to get his homework in on time.
	Alexandra's Project (MA): Selected, Can/ Syd/ Bris/ Adel/ Melb/ Perth. Palace. 24 screens. Australia. 103 mins. Helen Buray, Gary Sweet. D: Rolf De Heer (Dingo). An adult thriller about a marriage gone wildly awry. Alexandra (Buday) has spent a lot of time planning her project, as her husband Steve (Sweet) is about to find out. He finds the tape and finds it.. interesting to say the least.
	Honesty (PG): Selected, Syd/ Melb. Yu Enterprises. 2 screens. 102 mins. (Syd: Reading Market City, Haymarket). (Melb: Chinatown Cinema). Serious Tsang was an endangered species, the kind of man who did not smoke, did not drink, did not gamble and never visited a brothel, who has just inherited 20 million dollars. Didi is a club hostess whose club is being closed. Her only hope is to become the wife of new millionaire Serious Tsang.
	Kilimanjaro: To The Roof of Africa (G): Selected, Melb. IMAX. 1 screen (Melb Imax Carlton Gardens). 40 mins. D: David Breashears (Everest). Join a band of trekkers as they journey through rugged terrain and extreme conditions to look out from Africa’s highest point in David Breashears' latest mountain adventure large-format film, Kilimanjaro: To the Roof of Africa. Photographed in the world’s largest and most evocative motion picture format, this film takes its viewers to the expansive slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro where they can experience the exceptional climates and landscapes of this mystical mountain.
	National Security (M): National. Columbia. 146 screens. Comedy. 120 mins. Matthew Lawrence, Steve Zahn, Colm Feore, Eric Roberts, Bill Duke, Timothy Busfield, Wayne Morse. D: Dennis Dugan (Saving Silverman). Earl Montgomery (Lawrence), a bombastic police academy reject, and Hank Rafferty (Zahn), a disgraced, mild-mannered cop, can't seem to escape each other. They met on opposite sides of the law during a routine traffic stop that escalated out of control; now as lowly security guards they're thrown together to bust a smuggling operation. Despite facing resistance from the police department's Lt. Washington (Duke) and Detective McDuff (Feore)-and from each other-Earl and Hank begin to unravel the sophisticated scheme led by Nash (Roberts) and his band of thugs.
	Spider (MA): Selected, Syd/ Bris/ Adel/ Melb/ Perth. Columbia. 8 screens. Horror. Ralph Fiennes, Gabriel Byrne, Miranda Richardson, Lynn Redgrave. D: David Cronenberg (Videodrome). Spider (Fiennes) is a strange and lonely man. After a long period in a mental institution, he returns to the streets of the East End of London where he grew up. The sights and sounds and the smells of those streets begin to awaken the deeply buried memories of his childhood. At the centre of these memories is the great trauma of losing his mother, a trauma which occurred, he believes, because his plumber father, Bill Cleg (Byrne), murdered her in order to move a prostitute, Yvonne (Richardson), into the house in her place.
	Whale Rider (PG): National. Buena Vista. 203 screens. 105 mins. Keisha Castle-Hughes, Rawiri Paratene, Vicky Haughton, Cliff Curtis, Grant Roa. D: Niki Caro. The whales are listening. On the east coast of New Zealand, the Whangara people - or Whangara Kiwi - believe their presence there dates back a thousand years or more to a single ancestor, Paikea, who escaped death when his canoe capsized by riding to shore on the back of a whale. From then on, Whangara chiefs - always the first-born, always male - have been considered Paikea's direct descendants.
	Who Is Cletis Trout (M): Selected, Can/ Syd/ Bris/Adel/ Melb/ Perth. UIP. 35 screens. 93 mins. Comedy. Christian Slater, Tim Allen, Portia de Rossi, Richard Chevolleau, Billy Connolly, Richard Dreyfuss, RuPaul. D: Chris Ver Weil (Waiting Game). While in prison, Trevor Finch (Slater), an ex-convict specializing in identification falsification, meets a magician and jewel thief, Micah (Dreyfuss). Together, they bust out and take on new identities, planning to dig up a pile of diamonds that Micah buried under a tree. Unfortunately, their plans are foiled when Finch chooses to use the name Cletis Tout. Cletis Tout was journalist who sold unflattering pictures to scandal sheets, and the mob is after Tout--now Finch, thinking he's the real Tout--because he gave the press incriminating pictures of a gangster murdering a prostitute.

MAY 15
	Open Hearts (MA): Selected, Syd. Icon. 4 screens. 114 mins. Drama. Denmark: Subtitled. Sonja Richter, Mads Mikkelsen, Paprika Steen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Stine Bjerregaard, Birthe Neumann, Niels Olsen, Ulf Pilgaard, Ronnie Hiort Lorenzen, Pelle Bang Sørensen, Anders Nyborg, Ida Dwinger, Philip Zandén. D: Susanne Bier (Credo). A young engaged couple in Copenhagen, Cecille (Richter) and Joachim (Kaas), finds their relationship changed forever when Joachim is hit by a car and paralysed. As Joachim's doctor, Niels (Mikkelsen) consoles Cecille, they grow closer and become romantically involved, which also threatens his marriage to Marie (Steen), who was secretly the person who actually hit Joachim to begin with.
	Shiner (R): Selected, Syd/ Bris/ Adel/ Melb/ Perth. Becker. 20 screens. Drama. 99 mins. Michael Caine, Martin Landau, Frances Barber, Frank Harper, Matthew Marsden, Andy Serkis. D: John Irvin. Stars Michael Caine (Academy Award Nominee for Best Actor, The Quiet American) as Billy 'Shiner' Simpson, a small time boxing promoter with big ideas who is determined that today is going to be his big day as his son Eddie is about to fight for a boxing world title and make him a millionaire.

MAY 16

The Matrix Reloaded (M): National. Roadshow. 482 screens. 136 mins. Sci-fi action. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Monica Belluci, Daniel Bernhardt, Jada Pinkett Smith, Matt McColm, Harold Perrineau Jr., Harry Lennex, Stuart Wells. D: Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski (Bound). Sequel to the mega-hit of 1999. Neo, Morpheus, Trinity, and the rest of their crew continue to battle the machines that have enslaved the human race in the Matrix. Now, more humans are waking up out of the matrix and attempting to live in the real world. As their numbers grow, the battle moves to Zion, the last real-world city and center of human resistance.

MAY 22
	Armaan (M): Selected, Melb/ Syd/ Perth. MG Distribution. 6 screens. India. Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Kapoor, Preity Zinta, Gracy Singh, Randhir Kapoor, Anupam Kher. D: Honey Irani. Armaan is the story of Dr.Sidharth Sinha(Amitabh Bachan) - Dedicated his life to build a hospital. And sacrificed his love for his son, Akash. Armaan is the story of Dr.Akash Sinha (Anil Kapoor)- A respected neuro surgeon, who wants to help realize father's dream, but fate has something else planned for him. Armaan is the story of Dr.Neha Madhur (Gracy Singh)- A Skilled Anesthetist - A woman, who will never let her personal life or emotions, get in the way of her profession. Armaan is the story of Sonia Kapoor(Preity Zinta) - Daughter of the 10th richest man in the world, she has everything she desires, except what she wants most, Love.
	Barber Shop (M): Selected, Syd/ Melb/ Perth/ Bris/ Adel. Fox (MGM). 15 screens. 102 mins. Comedy. Ice Cube, Eve, Cedric The Entertainer, Troy Garity, Sean Patrick Thomas, Anthony Anderson. D: Tim Story (The Firing Squad). Studio: MGM. A smart comedy about a day in the life of a barbershop on the south side of Chicago. Calvin (Cube), who inherited the struggling business from his deceased father, views the shop as nothing but a burden and waste of his time. After selling the shop to a local loan shark, Calvin slowly begins to see his father's vision and legacy and struggles with the notion that he just sold it out. Sequel is on the way for this unlikely hit.
	The Crime Of Father Amaro (MA): Selected, Syd/ Melb/ Brisb. Columbia. 10 screens. Drama. 120 mins. Mexico. Subtitled- Spanish. Gael García Bernal, Sancho Gracia, Ana Claudia Talancón, Damián Alcázar, Angélica Aragón, Luisa Huertas, Ernesto Gómez, Andrés Montiel. D: Carlos Carrera (Under A Spell). Recently ordained a priest, 24-year-old Father Amaro (Gael García Bernal) is sent to a small parish church in Los Reyes, Mexico, to assist the ageing Father Benito (Sancho Gracia). Benito, for years a fixture in the church as well as the community, welcomes Amaro into a new life of unseen challenges. Opens May 29: Adelaide. June 5: Perth.
	Horseplay (M): National. Buena Vista. 99 screens. Comedy. Australia. 100 mins. Marcus Graham, Tushka Bergen, Abbie Cornish, Jason Donovan, Amanda Douge, Bill Hunter (I), Dean Measor, Robert Menzies, Krista Vendy. D: Stavros Kazantzidis (Russian Doll). Set around the Melbourne Cup. Lovable rogue Max MacKendrick (Marcus Graham), a 41-year-old race horse owner with a pathological need to win, gets caught swapping and is banned from racing and the track for life. Forced to eat humble pie, Max takes a job from his father-in-law and things get progressively worse from there.
	Kiss Me Deadly (TBA, 1955): Selected, Melb ACMI. 22 May to 29 May only. Chapel Films. 1 screen. Re-release. One dark night, sleazy private eye Mike Hammer picks up a girl on the highway, wearing only a trenchcoat. Soon his car is run off the road; while he's semiconscious, the girl is tortured to death. Telling the police nothing, Hammer pursues the killers himself despite threats, bribes, and bombs. He encounters strange clues, a stranger young lady, and at last an extremely deadly secret.
	The Life of David Gale (MA): National. UIP. 155 screens. 130 mins. Kevin Spacey, Laura Linney, Kate Winslet, Gabriel Mann, Rhona Mitra, Leon Rippy D: Alan Parker (Evita). This is the story of what happens when Dr. David Gale (Spacey), a Texas professor and advocate for the elimination of the death penalty, is falsely accused and convicted of the rape and murder of another activist, Constance Harraway (Linney) and ends up on the state's notorious death row himself. The movie unfolds in a series of flashbacks, as Gale tells his story to a reporter (Winslet) visiting him on death row.
	Liquid Bridge (M): National. Intertropic Films. 29 screens. Australia. Drama. 103 mins. Ryan Kwanten, Simone Kessell, Jeremy Sims, Tony Bonner, Jarrod Dean, Carmen Duncan, Barton Lynch. D: Phil Avalon. Oz surfing movie, inspired by Big Wednesday. A young up and coming professional surfer (or so he wishes as he works in his dads garage as a mechanic) finds trouble and jail when his manager uses him to smuggle drugs whilst traveling.
	Ned (MA): Selected, Syd/ Bris/ Adel/ Melb/ Perth. Icon. 9 screens. Comedy. 82 mins. Nick Flint, Damon Herriman, Josef Ber, Felix Williamson, Jason Donovan, Andrew Daddo, Cornelia Francis, Johnny Cass, Michela Banas. D: Abe Forsythe (short: Drunken Rumble Story). A spoof about the Ned Kelly legend. Ned Kelly, an icon of Australian history and culture, is a prime subject for a drama of mythical proportions. As if in comic relief of this prospect, Ned goes against this grain and pokes irreverent fun at Australia's popular hero, and pretty much everything else along the way! Ned hijacks history and turns the Kelly legend on its iron helmeted head!
	Phone Booth (M): National. Fox. 202 screens. 85 mins. Thriller. USA. Colin Farrell, Forest Whitaker, Katie Holmes, Radha Mitchell and Kiefer Sutherland. D: Joel Schumacher (The Lost Boys). Studio: 20th Century Fox. A phone call can change your life but for one man it can also end it. Set entirely within and around the confines of a New York City phone booth, PHONE BOOTH follows a slick media consultant (Farrell) who is trapped after being told by a caller, a serial killer with a sniper rifle that he’ll be shot dead if he hangs up.
	Warren Miller's Storm (G): Selected, Melb. Simon Dickie Management Australasia. 3 screens. 93 mins. Doco. D: John Teaford (debut). Handful of shows per city, tours the country finishing on 12th July for the final show at Perth. From the greatest innovator and crowd pleaser in mountain films, comes an all-new film packed with evermore impressive action cinematography from around the globe featuring Antarctica- Warren Miller's "STORM". Skiers, snowboarders, loyal Warren Miller fans, will find all the essential powder, cliffs and exotic destinations that keep audiences returning annually. And for the newest generation of snowriders, "STORM" never fails to deliver today's most cutting edge athletes and action. Wherever snow falls, a Warren Miller camera is there to catch it, bringing the magic of snowriding to the big screen. Warren Miller's "STORM" transports viewers from Steamboat's world famous champagne powder to the striking, colossal peaks of Alaska and from the legendary ski town of Aspen to the glorious Austrian Alps.

MAY 29
	Balzac & The Little Chinese Seamstress (M): Selected, Syd/ Bris/ Melb. Hopscotch. 10 screens. Comedy. 111 mins. France/ China, subtitled. Xun Zhou, Kun Chen, Ye Liu, Suang Bao Wung, Xiong Xiaoi. D: Sijie Dai (The Eleventh Child). Film director Dai Sijie adapted his international best selling book “Balzac and the Chinese Seamstress” into this visually lush story of life in a remote Chinese village in the early 1970s. Two teenage best friends, Luo and Dai, are sent to a far-flung outpost for Maoist “re-education”. Sons of “reactionary intellectuals”, the boys keep their spirits up after arduous work in the fields by telling each other stories. Upon meeting the beautiful daughter of the local renowned tailor, they both instantly fall in love with her. So when they come across a secret hidden stash of “subversive” books – by Flaubert, Tolstoy, Hugo, and the most compelling of all Balzac – their courtship with the Little Seamstress includes entrancing her with stories of the classics of European literature. But as she begins to learn more about the world around her, the Little Seamstress and the village itself begins to change and the boys realize that by expanding her horizons they may actually lose the girl they love.
	Basic (MA): National. Icon. 156 screens. Thriller. John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Connie Nielsen, Brian Van Holt, Timothy Daly, Giovanni Ribisi, Taye Diggs, Roselyn Sanchez, Andy Garcia, Cristián de la Fuente, Harry Connick Jr., Nick Loren, Chris Byrne, Dash Mihok, Tyrese. D: John McTiernan (Die Hard). Set in a Panama basic training camp and centers on Hardy, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent (Travolta) who is brought in to investigate the mysterious disappearance of West (Jackson), a legendary Army Ranger drill instructor, and several of his cadets during a training exercise gone horribly awry.
	Lizzy Maquire (G): National. 29 May: Tasmania. (June 26 VIC/ QLD. July 3: NSW, SA, WA). Buena Vista. 6 screens. 94 mins. Family Comedy. Hilary Duff, Adam Lamberg, Robert Caradine, Hallie Todd, Jake Thomas, Yani Gellman, Alex Borstein. D: Jim Fall. Disney’s “The Lizzie McGuire Movie” serves up the comic foibles of lovable Lizzie McGuire and her pals Gordo, Kate, and Ethan, who all pack their bags and plan to live la dolce vita while on a class trip to Italy. Once there, Lizzie is mistaken for Isabella (who is part of an Italian pop duo) and begins to fall for Paolo (Isabella’s handsome Italian pop star former boyfriend). When Lizzie’s mom, dad, and annoying brother Matt get wind of this, they all jet their way to the boot country. In the meantime, Lizzie is transformed from the gawky teen to a beautiful pop star, Gordo struggles to understand his true feelings for her, and a whirlwind of surprising events force Lizzie to find the true meaning of friendship. Disney’s “The Lizzie McGuire Movie” brings a new kick to the old world in this hilarious comedy.
	Old School (MA): National. UIP. 178 screens. 91 mins. Comedy. Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, Ellen Pompeo, Juliette Lewis, Craig Kilborn, Leah Remini. D: Todd Phillips (Road Trip). Three longtime friends who grow disillusioned with the current state of their lives and decide to recapture the glory days of college. When one of the three moves into a house just off campus, they throw a huge party that winds up being a tremendous success. They hatch a scheme to start their own fraternity…and since they’re not located on campus they won’t be confined to the rules, regulations, and community service requirements of a typical frat. The added bonus, of course, will be that the pledges can serve as slaves. Yadda, yadda, yadda, hilarity ensues.
	Piglets Big Movie (G): Selected, Tasmania. (June 26 QLD/ VIC. July 3 NSW/ SA/ WA) Buena Vista. 6 screens. 75 mins. Animated. USA. V: John Fiedler, Jim Cummings, Ken Sansom, Peter Cullen. Piglet, Winnie the Pooh, Christopher, Tigger, Eeyore, Rabbit, Kanga and Roo. “Piglet’s Big Movie” brings “the little pink guy” to center stage for a story of friendship and appreciation as the gang from the Hundred Acre Wood learns that it doesn’t take somebody big to do big things. Piglet gets that inferior feeling that it when his friends begin a “honey harvest” and he is told that he’s too small to help. When Piglet disappears, the others use his scrapbook as a map to find him – and in the process discover that this “Very Small Animal” has been a big hero in a lot of ways. After an eventful search and a dramatic climax, Piglet once again demonstrates how large an influence he has been on his pals. The film features several new songs written and performed by Carly Simon, including “If I Wasn’t So Small” (The Piglet Song), the heartfelt “Mother’s Intuition” and the enchanting “With a Few Good Friends.”
	Secretary (MA): Selected, Can/ Syd/ Bris/ Adel/ Melb/ Perth. UIP. 14 screens. 111 mins. Drama. Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Spader, Lesley Ann Warren, Jeremy Davies, Patrick Bauchau. D: Steven Shainberg. Lee Holloway (Gyllenhaal) has a few strikes against her when she applies for a secretarial position at the law office of E. Edward Grey (Spader). First, she was released only recently from a mental institution; second, after one day back with her dysfunctional suburban family she has succumbed to her secret obsession - self-mutilation. Somehow, she gets the job anyway.
	Waking Up In Reno (M): Selected. Can/ Syd/ Bris/ Gold/ Sun/ Adel/ Melb/ Perth. Roadshow. 40 screens. 91 mins. Billy Bob Thornton, Natasha Richardson, Charlize Theron, Patrick Swayze. D: Jordan Brady. A lively comedy about two couples who drive to Reno for a fun-filled vacation only to discover that their relationships are ridden with dysfunction and infidelity.