february 1.2ÛÛ2- jM t M t,45
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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.