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Movies & TV Movies & TV Reviews

Opening This Week

Rating: NNNNN


CHARLIE’S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE (McG) 101 min. N (JH) Opens Jun 27 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, Humber, Paramount, Queensway, Rainbow Fairview, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, SilverCity Newmarket, SilverCity North York, SilverCity Richmond Hill, SilverCity Yorkdale, Silvercity Yonge, Varsity, Winston Churchill.

LEGALLY BLONDE 2: RED, WHITE & BLONDE (Charles Herman-Wurmfeld) brings back Reese Witherspoon as unlikely attorney material Elle Woods. 86 min. Opens Jul 2 at 401 & Morningside, Beach Cinemas, Coliseum Mississauga, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Elgin Mills, First Markham Place, Grande – Steeles, Kennedy Commons, Paramount, Queensway, Rainbow Fairview, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, SilverCity Mississauga, SilverCity Newmarket, SilverCity North York, SilverCity Richmond Hill, SilverCity Yorkdale, Silvercity Yonge, Uptown.

OWNING MAHOwNY (Richard Kwietniowski) is the Leaving Las Vegas of gambling addiction. Philip Seymour Hoffman stars as Dan Mahowny, the unprepossessing Toronto banker who embezzled over $10 million in the early 80s to fuel his habit. Mahowny is a pure addict, and this film’s strength is that it focuses on the gambling as obsessively as he does. There’s a vicarious thrill in watching Hoffman hunch over a table in a sordid Atlantic City casino, eyes fixed on the cards, huffing and wheezing as he loses millions of misappropriated dollars. Everything and everyone is meticulously ugly and dreary in that early-80s Toronto way – even Minnie Driver, who manages to be convincing as the long-suffering, deluded girlfriend. 105 min. NNNN (Wendy Banks) Opens Jun 27 at Bayview, Varsity.

SINBAD: LEGEND OF THE SEVEN SEAS (Patrick Gilmore, Tim Johnson) features the voice of Brad Pitt as the Arabian adventurer in this animated version of the mythical story. 86 min. Opens Jul 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 Fairview, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, SilverCity Mississauga, SilverCity Newmarket, SilverCity Richmond Hill, SilverCity Yorkdale, Silvercity Yonge, Varsity.

TOGETHER (Chen Kaige) has deeper roots in The Jazz Singer than it does in Chen’s Yellow Earth. Having directed a string of respected Chinese art films (Farewell My Concubine, Temptress Moon), Chen now gives us a backstage male weepie about Xiaochun, a violin prodigy who, due to his rustic dad and lack of connections, has to fight to get noticed in Beijing’s cutthroat classical music scene. This is a handsome film full of great music but with very little soul. It condemns corrupt artists and tastemakers on the way to a glossy, rousing finish. See interview, page 107. 116 min. NN (CB) Opens Jun 27 at the Varsity.

TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES (Jonathan Mostow) lets us know that Ahnie’s back and he’s the only one who can save us. 109 min. 401 & Morningside, Beach Cinemas, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Elgin Mills, First Markham Place, Grande – Steeles, Paramount, Queensway, Rainbow Fairview, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, SilverCity Newmarket, SilverCity North York, SilverCity Richmond Hill, SilverCity Yorkdale, Silvercity Yonge, Uptown, Winston Churchill

28 DAYS LATER (Danny Boyle) comes across as a slightly different take on Richard Matheson’s The Last Man On Earth if you’re into old-school science fiction or a shameless rip of Resident Evil if you’re not. Within a month, a mysterious virus released in London reduces England to a handful of living human survivors on the run from ravening packs of infected zombies. Shot quick and dirty on digital video by the director of Trainspotting and The Beach, 28 Days Later is many things, including an allegory about England’s reluctance to get involved with the EEC (honest – Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland have said so in interviews) and 112 minutes of cleverly constructed nasty thrills. The best performances are in support, by Christopher Eccleston as a dodgy military man and, in a rare sympathetic role, Brendan Gleeson as a dad just trying to muddle through. 112 min. NNNN (JH) Opens Jun 27 at Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, First Markham Place, Grande – Steeles, Kennedy Commons, Paramount, Queensway, SilverCity Mississauga, SilverCity Newmarket, SilverCity Richmond Hill, Varsity.

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