Rating: NNNNN
New releases
amores perros (2000, Columbia TriStar), dir. Alejandro González Iárritu w/ Emilio Echevarría, Gael García Bernal. A horrific car accident affects the lives of various Mexico City inhabitants in this superb drama infused with a nasty streak — both people and dogs are treated badly, and the characters are brought face to face with their varying abilities to feel compassion. First-time filmmaker Iárritu is brave and brash. He showcases beauty’s ugly underside and celebrates the grace within a seemingly senseless act. NNNN
Big-screen rating: Amores Perros is especially good at showing how nihilism and faith can coexist. NNN (CB)
beautiful creatures (2001, Alliance Atlantis), dir. Bill Eagles w/ Rachel Weisz, Susan Lynch. Blond bombshell Petula (Weisz) and ex-junkie Dorothy (Lynch) run into trouble trying to dispose of Petula’s dead boyfriend’s body. Abused chicks get even in this dark comedy that draws its humour from the ways the women stumble about subverting male stereotypes. Weisz (The Mummy movies) looks smashing as a platinum blond, and the dye job does her a world of good, lightening her usually stern screen presence. NNN
Big-screen rating: NNN (IR)
heartbreakers (2001, MGM/UA), dir. David Mirkin w/ Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt. Weaver and Love Hewitt star as a mother/daughter con team who plan to dupe a tobacco billionaire (Gene Hackman) to pay a hefty IRS bill. When will this lifeless comedy end? It just keeps going and going…. Weaver struggles in the role of femme fatale con artist and Love Hewitt bores as the arrogant daughter who falls in and out of love with a bartender (Jason Lee). It’s Hackman who makes the film watchable, playing a phlegmatic, liver-spotted Romeo. NN
Big-screen rating: Suffers from a failure of nerve — it’s black comedy with a redemptive ending. NNN (JH)
the mummy returns (2001, Universal), dir. Stephen Sommers w/ Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz. This sequel to 1999’s surprising blockbuster tops up the special effects, which aren’t all that great, and drains away the swashbuckling fun. It’s seven years later, and Rick and Evelyn (Fraser and Weisz) are now married with a son, who latches onto a golden bracelet that will awaken the dreaded Scorpion King (WWF’s The Rock). The movie is simply a string of large-scale action sequences that are devoid of heart. NN
Big-screen rating: The Mummy was goofy, loose-limbed fun. This feels like work. NN (JH)
Also this week
Hoop Soldiers
Tremors 3
Upcoming
October 9
Bridget Jones’s Diary, The Circle, One Night At McCool’s
October 16
Angel Eyes, Cats & Dogs, The Crimson Rivers, Rat
DVD pick of the week
the godfather collection (1972,1974, 1990, Paramount), dir. Francis Ford Coppola w/ Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Andy Garcia. Together, Godfather I and II make for the perfect American story — and one of the richest cinematic experiences ever. Mario Puzo’s novel turned a familiar crime story into complex family melodrama, but it was Coppola who elevated it to tragedy with a magisterial editing rhythm, lighting scheme and music to match. The unfortunate third Godfather is also included here.
Extras: Audio commentaries by Coppola, extra scenes, screen tests, trailers, photo gallery, a 73-minute documentary on all three films, plus docs on Godfather I, Gordon Willis’s cinematography and Nino Rota’s music. 715 minutes total. NNNNN
Cameron Bailey
