Galway Advertiser 2002/2002_08_29/GA_29082002_E1_066.pdf 

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Galway Advertiser August 29 2002

[ents] Quick ^Ucs
A weekly guide to what's on at the cinema compiled by UNA SINNOTT
INSOMNIA: Tease thriller which places Al Pacino as a weary insomniac LAPD detective investigating the murder of a teenager in smalltown Alaska. Robin Williams appears in an uncharacteristically sinister role as the prime suspect who gradually wears down the increasingly disillusioned Pacino. WINDTALKERS: John Woo's fast-paced World Wai II epic based on the real-life Navajo marines whe created an indecipherable code based on their native language. Nicholas Cage and Christian Slater play (he battle - hardened sergeants who must protect theii charges, and kill them if they are in danger ol falling into enemy hands. THE SWEETEST THING: Best friends Cameron Diaz and Christina Applegate are far from sweet in this smutty romantic comedy. The film lakes the wellworn route of libidinous young people on a road trip, complete with Monica Lewinski style mishaps and an endless stream of genital jokes, including the rather bizarre THE Penis Song. Very funny. THE GURU: East meets West in this engaging musical comedy. The lovely Jimi Mistry (EAST IS EASTI stars as an Indian dance instructor who becomes a sexj guru lo the Manhattan hoi polloi. features Heather' Graham. Marisa Tomei. cross-cultural misconceptions, and some great Bollywood-style dance routines. REIGN OF FIRE: Futuristic fantasy flick in which a band of tough mavericks set out toridthe world of fire breathing dragons. THE X FILES director Rob | Bowman delivers some breathtaking computcr1 generated action, while the camp send-up of the 1 .heroes takes the edge off all the inevitable macho
.posturing.

C I N E M A REVIEWS

Reign of Fire
THE M A N w h o brought fighting Scots to the Curragh in RRARE HEART recently unleashed ravening dragons on the
W k k i o w Gap.

Morgan O Sullivan is the Irish co-producer of Reign of Fire, and he and his Ardmore based company World 2000 had already worked with Spyglass on The Count of Monte Christo, shown earlier this year. With a cast and crew of more than 1000, as well as an army of workers building huge sets in the Wicklow Gap, this was an entirely different beast. On top of thai, foot and mouth struck, slap bang in the middle of the shoot. But whatever the problems, they have brought the making of action movies back to Ireland. I like dragons, the bigger, the uglier, the more fire breathing the better. I'm probably the only one who was a tiny bit sad when Smaug was killed at the end of Tolkien's The Hobbit. The beauties in Reign of Fire are fantastic, and were money well spent. This is no intellectual examination of evolution or survival of the fittest. Quite simply in the words of Rob Bowman "It's a ride". Bowman has brought all his X Files experience to bear on creating a post-apocalyptic world wnerc man is fighting to hold last refuges from the terror above. But don't be disappointed if there is not enough fire and destruction; there is no large scale devastation of London sequences as shown in the poster. Starring Christian Bale and Matthew McConaghey the acting is of the "I'm more macho than you" variety. Bowman keeps the pace going with enough heightened emotion and sense of danger, and the romantic interest of ex-

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Bond Izabella Scorupco as the daredevil helicopter pilot was a nice touch. Gerard Butler as Creedy gives the whole thing a trademark Irish black humour vibe. In present-day London, 12-year-old Quinn inadvertently wakes an enormous fire-breathing dragon from its centurieslong slumber. Twenty years later, much of the world has been scarred by the beast and its offspring. The dragons are extremely intelligent, highly evolved... and they don't like sharing the planet. As a fire chief, Quinn (Bale) is responsible for warding off the beasts and keeping a small community alive as they eke out a meagre existence. Into their midst comes a hotshot American, Van Zan (McConaghey as you have never seen him before), who says he has a way to kill the beasts and save mankind - a way Quinn has never seen done. Watch for the moment when Van Zan and his crew arrives and Creedy asks what is worse than dragons? Michele Viney

Windtalkers
field after a serious injury in the role of 'babysitter'. His mission, along with s e x n " l o v e c o m e d y THE SWEETEST Peter Ox Henderson (Christian Slater), THING; INSOMNIA, t h e t h i r d film f r o m is to protect two new recruits, both r i g h t f u l l y a c c l a i m e d d i r e c t o r Navajo code talkers, used specifically C h r i s t o p h e r N o u n ; a n d WINDTALKERS, to deliver coded messages on the J o h n W o o ' s n e w u l t r a - v i o l e n t radio. Although Enders resents the seemingly non-combative nature of his Of the three, Windtalkers will likely mission, he and his charge, Ben get the largest audiences, due to Woo's Yahzee (Adam Beach), eventually strong reputation as a director. Woo's develop respect for each other as their work elicits one of two reactions; you unit inches up the Japanese island, in either love it or hate it. His enthusiastic an attempt to seize it for the US. use o f violence in his films has Any suggestion that Windtalkers is a become his trademark, and sensitive exploration of masculine Windtalkers i s , if anything, more friendship is blown out of the water at violent than earlier films such as the first of the many battle scenes. It is Fate/Off OR Mission Impossible 2. Any impossible to discuss this film without storyline, like a spectator's stomach, referring to its violence; the scenes has lo be pretty strong to survive the featuring Enders et al simply talking to endlessly recurring shoot-em-up each other are few and far between amid all the blood and gore. Cage has Windtalkers is set in World War II, completely abandoned his sensitive during the battle of Saipan in 1943. beginnings in Moonstruck and even Nicolas Cage slars as embittered Wild at Heart to embrace the persona veteran Joe Enders, returning to the first smelted in Con Air. His bleep
T H I S t h r e e W E E K s e e s t h e r e l e a s e o f v e r y d i f f e r e n t f i l m s ; b a d - t a s t e

Black Knight: Awful comedy in which Martin Lawrence plays an amusement park gofer who is catapulted into 14th century England after suffering a head injury. Lawrence overacts unashamedly while delivering a tedious tirade of one-liners. THE SUM OF ALL FEARS: Apocalyptic action romance, with Ben Affleck as CIA agent Jack Ryan. Ryan must woo his girlfriend and foil a neo-nazi plan to detonate a nuclear weapon during the Superbowl. in that order of priority. A disturbing plot, top-notch special effects, and Morgan Freeman make up for the stale romance.
HEAVEN:
T o m T y k w c r . fashions a director o f t h e quirky d r a m a

Run

Lola Run.
T u r i n Blanche!! S h e

surreal,

m o o d y

s e t in ( a t e

a n d t h e l u m i n o u s p l a y s a teacher

T u s c a n turned

c o u n t r y s i d e , unlikely

assassin. y o u n g

e s c a p e s police c u s t o d y w i t h t h e h e l p o f a

p o l i c e m a n . Filippo. a n d l o v e a n d fate

intertwine.

baring performance here convincingly cancels out his facile return to sentimentality in last year's risible Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Quirky Christian Slater, however, manages to inject some wry humour into his character Oz among all the shooting. The two Navajo roles, Yahzee and Charlie Whitehorse, are seriously underwritten, giving Beach and Roger Willie little to work with. What you think of Windtalkers depends on your reaction to onscreen violence. If it's something that provides a welcome adrenalin rush, you may well enjoy Woo's latest offering. If, however, battle scenes only give you a headache, like me, you may want to pass. Be warned, though, if you're tempted to g o see The Sweetest Thing instead. Despite the presence of Cameron Diaz, this film has enough gross-out moments to rival any John Woo film. Katie Moylan

Spy kids II:
a n d Juni w h e r e M r they

Undercover, u n d e r a g e s p y s travel t o a m y s t e r i o u s w i t h

C a r m e n island,

C o n e z h a v e

l o c o n t e n d B u s c c m i ) .

m a d scientist altered W o r s e

Pink

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g e n e t i c a l l y skeletons.

creatures,

a n d s w o r d

w i e l d i n g

still, their p a r e n t s d e c i d e l o g o l o o k i n g

for them.

MEN IN BLACK 2:
J o n e s w h i c h learn s e e s u p K

Will

S m i t h

a n d T o m m y M I B

L e e

f o r this

brilliant

s e q u e l , o u t o f |

( L e e J o n e s ) returning w i p e d

c o m i n g

retirement h a v i n g film.

a n d

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h i s m e m o r y

at the e n d o f t h e o n c e m o r e

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t h e w o r l d e x c e l l e n t

m o v i e

s p e c i a l

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without sacrificing plot for special le.