Rating: NNNNN
DOGVILLE (Lars von Trier) – See review, page 84. 178 min. NN
(JH) Opens Apr 2 at Grande – Yonge, Varsity, Varsity V.I.P..
HELLBOY (Guillermo del Toro) – See review, page 84. 132 min. NNNN
(JH) Opens Apr 2 at 401 & Morningside, 5 Drive-In Oakville, Beach Cinemas, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Elgin Mills, First Markham Place, Grande – Steeles, Grande – Yonge, Paramount, Queensway, Rainbow Fairview, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, SilverCity Newmarket, SilverCity Richmond Hill, SilverCity Yorkdale, Silvercity Yonge, Varsity, Varsity V.I.P., Winston Churchill. HOME ON THE RANGE (Will Finn, John Sanford) is harmless but forgettable, a corn-pone animated story about three cows (Roseanne, Judi Dench and Jennifer Tilly) who must save their farm from a yodelling cowboy outlaw (Randy Quaid). Yup, that’s the plot, y’all. Cuba Gooding Jr. as the voice of wannabe badass horse Buck gives what proves to be his best performance in years. Not particularly inspired, with bland country songs by kd lang and Bonnie Raitt, this isn’t likely to revive the House of Mouse any time soon, but at 76 minutes it will go by fast, so for parents and kids, as the song goes, seldom will be heard a discouraging word. 76 min. NNN
(Lori Fireman) Opens Apr 2 at 401 & Morningside, Canada Square, Coliseum Mississauga, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Elgin Mills, First Markham Place, Grande – Steeles, Interchange 30, Kennedy Commons, Queensway, Rainbow Fairview, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, SilverCity Mississauga, SilverCity Newmarket, SilverCity North York, SilverCity Richmond Hill, SilverCity Yorkdale. THE PRINCE & ME (Martha Coolidge) stars Julia Stiles as a pre-med student who falls for Danish prince Luke Mably, not knowing anything about his royal roots. See review online at www.nowtoronto.com. 111 min. Opens Apr 2 at 401 & Morningside, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Elgin Mills, First Markham Place, Grande – Steeles, Paramount, Queensway, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, SilverCity Mississauga, SilverCity Newmarket, SilverCity North York, SilverCity Richmond Hill, SilverCity Yorkdale, Silvercity Yonge. THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED ( Kim Bartley, Donnacha O’Briain) is a once-in-a-lifetime scoop. Barkley and O’Briain were shooting a doc about Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s popular anti-globalist president, when the opposition staged a coup against him. The filmmakers were actually inside the presidential palace filming Chavez’s cabinet ministers as they waited for the army to start bombing. It’s incredibly dramatic, and not without context. They piece together a fascinating look at how Venezuela’s oil-company-controlled mainstream media manipulated the public. And it’s exhilarating when the good guys win in the end. Still, a film about the way the media manipulate facts to serve political ends needs to be extra-scrupulous in the way it presents its own facts. Even a single image of Chavez appearing less than saintly would have been reassuring. 74 min. NNN
(Wendy Banks) Opens Apr 7 at Revue (see Rep Cinemas, page 102) SEDUCING DR. LEWIS (Jean-François Pouliot) tells the story of a remote, impoverished Quebec fishing village whose inhabitants, desperate to make their island attractive to industry, go to ludicrous lengths to convince a polished Montreal doctor to move there. It’s picturesque, and some of the country-mouse shtick is genuinely funny. However, the doctor is a clumsy caricature of a city slicker – he plays cricket, ferchrissakes – which degrades the film’s potentially rich satire to slapstick. And the notion that a crooked businessman (who demands massive bribes to locate his factory there) could be the town’s saviour seems weirdly optimistic – as does the camera’s fawning over the island’s unspoiled beauty, come to think of it. If you can ignore all that, it’s heartwarming. 109 min. NN
(Wendy Banks) Opens Apr 2 at Bayview, Cumberland, Rainbow Market Square. WALKING TALL (Kevin Bray) is no longer the story of Buford Pusser, redneck ex-marine who returns home to East Nowhere, Tennessee, and finds himself at war with the hillbilly mafia over illegal gambling and drugs. In this Walking Tall, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson plays an ex-special forces type who returns home to the Pacific Northwest to fight illegal gambling’s effects on his town. Phil Karlson, who directed the original, had a tabloid sensiblity and knew how to punch up a B movie premise. Bray is a young slickster with generic action moves, and this Walking Tall is a series of generic action set-ups. Someone might find the vehicle that will let Johnson become this decade’s defining big action star. He’s large, mobile and has an interesting face – careers have been built on less – but a few more pictures like this and he’s a direct-to-video guy. 86 min. NN
(JH) Opens Apr 2 at 401 & Morningside, 5 Drive-In Oakville, Beach Cinemas, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Elgin Mills, First Markham Place, Grande – Yonge, Interchange 30, Paramount, Queensway, Rainbow Fairview, Rainbow Woodbine, SilverCity Newmarket, SilverCity Richmond Hill, SilverCity Yorkdale, Silvercity Yonge, Varsity, Winston Churchill.
