Film Fanatics: April 2001

by Emma King-Farlow

News and Reviews

Movie megastar Tom Cruise won the 'Top Kids Role Model' award at the 'Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards' in Santa Monica recently. Actress Cameron Diaz was the winner of the rather charming 'Best Celebrity Burper' category!
There's a rumour going around that Ben Affleck is keen to run for political office in America because he believes he's good at delivering 'long speeches'!
Apparently Whitney Houston was so keen to meet Russell Crowe that she persuaded her 8-year-old daughter Bobbi to go and ask him for an autograph so that she had an excuse to talk to him. Nice to know that even the famous themselves get starstruck at times!
Rowan Atkinson, star of - among other things - Mr Bean, Blackadder and The Thin Blue Line, will apparently play the baddie in the forthcoming movie version of Scooby Doo. Ex Home And Away actress Isla Fisher (Shannon) is thought to be playing Mary Jane, the love interest for Shaggy, played by Matthew Lillard. Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) will play Daphne; Fred will be played by Gellar's real life fiancé Freddie Prinze Jr and bookish Velma will be played by Linda Cardellini. It seems that the eponymous hound will be entirely computer generated.

BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY (15):

Helen Fielding's best-selling book about self-conscious singleton Bridget Jones is brought to life on the big screen. The film has been out for a while now, so the reviews have almost all been and gone, but I couldn't ignore a British movie that has made it to No. 1 in the box office charts both here and in the US, so I've tracked a few down.

The Times (Part 2): "Renee Zellweger is utterly disarming as the foot-in-mouth diarist with the large bottom and the caustic wit."

The Evening Standard (Hot Tickets): They give the film an 'Excellent' rating, though they do comment that it is more of a "girls' fantasy; may baffle the guys."

Heat: "You'll laugh, but more importantly you'll care. Hugely pleasurable."

THE MEXICAN (15):

You'd think that a film starring both Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, as well as The Sopranos' James Gandolfini, couldn't possibly fail. You'd be wrong.

Heat: "Brad goes off to Mexico on a job for his criminal boss; irate girlfriend Julia heads off to Vegas and is kidnapped by gay assassin James Gandolfini. Not as gripping as the star names might suggest."

The Times (Part 2): "The bottom line is that Roberts and Pitt are too big for this movie.what goofy charm The Mexican might have had is undermined by the vision of these two Hollywood giants stomping about in the foreground. You try to ignore it and go with the movie, but you can't. An uneasy mix of romance, comedy and violence."

The Evening Standard (Hot Tickets): "The many moods of this shaggy-dog story rattle like beans in maracas - romantic odyssey, Mobland heist, road melodrama.. 'Eclectic' is maybe the word for an unclassifiable movie like The Mexican, though maybe it's not the first the makers thought of".

The Daily Mail: "The Mexican constitutes 124 of the longest, most meaningless minutes I've spent in a cinema." Go on, tell us how you really feel!

CAPTAIN CORELLI'S MANDOLIN (15):

Adapted from Louis de Bernieres' international bestseller, the film is set on a Greek island during the Italian occupation of World War II, where Captain Antonio Corelli (Nicolas Cage) falls in love with a local girl, Pelagia (Penelope Cruz), who is unfortunately already engaged to an island fisherman, Mandras (Christian Bale). The general consensus seems to be that the film looks absolutely beautiful but the accents are terrible, the casting (and acting) could have been better and as a whole it is rather different to the book upon which it was based.

Heat: "Fans of this modern strain of self-consciously classy movie-making will have their pleasure sensors stroked, but don't blame yourself if you find the whole experience just a teensy bit dull."

The Times (Part 2): "In [some] all-too-brief scenes, Madden's direction is as crisp as a snapped biscuit, whereas elsewhere it's as wet as a paper bag in a rainstorm, and twice as useless...Too much emphasis has been placed on a couple it's impossible to care about. The last thing the world needs is another fudged love story set against a backdrop of war."

The Evening Standard (Hot Tickets): "John Madden's attempt at an epic romance shows up poorly against its obvious template, The English Patient: it is old-fashioned filming-by-numbers, burdened by a cast reciting their (dud) lines without conviction, and finally doomed by the giant miscasting of the wearisomely one-note Cage, an actor without a spark of romantic charisma in looks or (ersatz Italian) tones."

The quiz

Just how much of a film fanatic are you? Answer these questions, add up your scores and find out!

Easy (one point for each correct answer):

Who wrote the book Captain Corelli's Mandolin, recently adapted for the big screen?
Can you name one of the two other big British romantic comedies, also starring American actresses in central roles, that screenwriter Richard Curtis (Bridget Jones's Diary) was responsible for?

Less Easy (two points for each correct answer):

David Boreanaz, currently appearing in scary slasher movie Valentine, is better known as which brooding TV vampire?
Which British actress donned a monkey suit for the already much talked about remake of Planet Of The Apes, due to be released in August?

Difficult (three points for each correct answer):

In which month will Harry Potter fans finally get to see the young wizard immortalised on UK Cinema screens?
Kate Beckinsale is about to hit the big time, starring in a huge Hollywood blockbuster that will be released in the UK in June. What is it called?

(Answers at bottom of page.)

Film chart

Obviously the audience figures only become available after the event so the film chart will always be a couple of weeks behind. Sorry!

UK BOX OFFICE (week ending 29 April)

Bridget Jones's Diary
The Mexican
Spy Kids
Exit Wounds
The Hole
Rugrats In Paris: The Movie
Miss Congeniality
One Night At McCool's
The Tailor Of Panama
Save The Last Dance

quiz answers:

Louis de Bernières
Four Weddings And A Funeral or Notting Hill
Angel
Helena Bonham-Carter
November
Pearl Harbor (sic)

How did you do?

0-4 points: Who needs film when you can listen to the radio, eh?

5-8 points: You're a fan alright, but you're not a fanatic yet.

9-12 points: Move over Spielberg, there's a new man in town!