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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 2002)
february 1.2ÛÛ2- jM t M t,45 : V '; : ft& te What's popped and what's flopped, a theater near you. dud, bottom of the bag You know what it’s like when you return from the video store with the wrong movie? That’s how this boxing biopic made me feel. “Wait a minute, I didn’t rent Malcolm X, The Hurricane and When We Were Kings !” Yet all three of those movies covered similar materi al much better than director/co-writer Michael Mann ever could. Great perform ances are wasted in his narrow yet inter minable focus on a life story that has yet to reach its final chapter. —Jim Radosta only if you’re really hungry good effort, pass the salt mmmm, tasty! < g > i?et the big tub o’ com pist Barbara Hershey counsels a gay patient, she begins to get second thoughts about her distant husband, Geoffrey Rush. Is he or isn’t he? -JR Russell Crowe gives another Oscar-worthy performance as a brilliant mathematician who overcomes schizophrenia to win the Nobel Prize. Ed Harris plays a government official who needs to borrow this tortured cranium to crack Commie codes, and Jennifer Connelly is stunning as the supportive wife. Director Ron Howard uses clever techniques to help us understand the couple’s suffering. -JR B lack H awk D own Director Ridley Scott succeeds at convinc ing us war is hell but fails in providing any context for a botched 1993 mission in Soma lia— with the exception of a cigar-chomping warlord and a few explanatory titles. O f course, consider ing this is a military movie, the hunks are on parade, including Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor and Ron Eldard. Attention! Possibly affected by overhype and ballyhoo, this epic comes off somewhat disappointing. Dia logue is unoriginal, characters are predictable, and three hours is half an hour too much. But as a simple adventure story it mostly delivers. Beau tiful, rolling hills; stunning Middle-Earth archi tecture; scary half-dead guys in black; extraordi narily cute hobbits. And, of course, the effects are mesmerizing (best giant octopus ever). Our friend Sir Ian McKellen is smashing as the wizard Gandolf. If you can get past all the female char acters (two) as pale, waifish tokens of goodness and romance, it’s worth a matinee. — Lisa Bradshaw <$><£> T he M an W ho W asn ’ t T here -JR Geoffrey Rush in Lantana — is he or isn’t he? I really wanted to like this sappy tearjerk- er, but the entire experience is excruciating: Am I supposed to laugh when Sean Penn (as a mentally challenged father) says something unbelievably moronic? Am I supposed to swoon when he and Michelle Pfeiffer (as his icy lawyer) start flirting with each other, even though he has the mental capacity of a 7-year-old? No, I cringe. -JR & W e ‘ RE HAVING THE <££><&<££> T he L ord of the R ings A B eautiful M ind I A m S am We're celebrating President's Day Monday, February 18 L antana This late arrival in the Oscar race shouldn’t be missed. Director Ray Lawrence orches trates a complex cast of couples in writer Andrew Bovell’s riveting examination of adultery, trust and deception. When thera- I’m not a big fan of the C oen brothers, so this is high praise. Billy Boh Thornton redeems himself after Bandits with a pensive performance as a quiet barber in this quirky film noir. Jon Polito adds comic relief as a “pansy” con artist who makes an inappropriate pass at Thornton. -JR O cean ’ s E leven Director Steven Soderbergh ( Traffic ) continues his winning streak and completes 2 0 0 l ’s solid T hief Trilogy: The Score, Heist and this remake of the 1960 Rat Pack caper. For gay audiences, what could be more appealing than a film united George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon? Also, Elliott Gould plays a fruity con man, and Vegas flick would be complete without a cameo from the ambiguously gay duo Siegfried & Roy. -JR BIGGEST EVER J ust O ut S ingles P arty at C rush ! See the F e b ru a ry 15 issu e o i Ju st O ut o r v isit W W W .JU ST O U T .C O M fo r co m p lete w h en a n d w h e re d e ta ils.
