BY LOIS WADSWORTH
Josh Keyes (Aaron Eckhart)
and Beck Childs (Hilary
Swank) try to figure out
who’s boss and how
to save the ship.
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WHAT A GIRL WANTS* AGENT CODY BANKS
(PG)
(PG)
1:30, 4:20, 7:40, 10:20
1:10, 4:05
PHONE BOOTH* (R)
BRINGING DOWN THE
HOUSE (PG-13)
12:25, 2:20, 2:45, 4:35, 5:05, 7:20,
7:55, 9:40, 10:15
A MAN APART* (R)
1:00, 3:55, 7:45, 10:30
THE PIANIST* (R)
ROB MCEWAN. PARAMOUNT PICTURES, 2002
12:10, 3:25, 6:50, 10:10
BASIC* (R)
1:25, 2:15, 4:25, 4:55, 7:30, 8:00,
10:05, 10:35
HEAD OF STATE*
(PG-13)
1:35, 4:10, 7:15, 9:45
THE CORE* (PG-13)
12:00, 3:15, 7:15, 10:30
PIGLETS BIG MOVIE
(G)
12:15, 2:30, 4:45
A VIEW FROM THE TOP
(PG-13)
1:40, 4;15, 7:20, 9:55
1:05, 3:40, 7:10, 10:00
CHICAGO (PG-13)
12:40, 3:35, 7:00, 9:55
DREAMCATCHER (R)
12:05, 3:30, 7:05, 10:25
LORD OF THE RINGS
TWO TOWERS (PG-13)
12:30, 4:30, 8:30
OLD SCHOOL (R)
7:35, 10:05
TEARS OF THE SUN (R)
7:10, 10:10
THE HUNTED (R)
2:00, 4:40, 7:50, 10:25
SNEAK PEEK:
WHAT A GIRL WANTS (PG) AT 7:30PM ON
SATURDAY.
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Rash Journey
MOVIES 12 - SPRINGFIELD
Jump-start the core.
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
(PG-13)
MAID IN MANHATTAN
(PG-13)
THE CORE: Directed by Jon Amiel. Written by Cooper
CHARLY (PG)
PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (R)
DAREDEVIL (PG-13)
THE 25TH HOUR (R)
Lane and John Rogers. Producers, Cooper Lane, David
Foster, Sean Bailey. Cinematography, John Lindley.
Production design, Philip Harrison. Editor, Terry Rawlings.
Costumes, Dan Lester. Visual Effects Supervisor, Gregory
L. McMurry. Composer, Christopher Young. Starring Aaron
Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Delroy Lindo, Stanley Tucci and
Tchéky Karyo, with D.J. Qualls, Richard Jenkins, Bruce
Greenwood and Alfre Woodard. PG-13. 135 minutes.
A
howler from start to finish, The
Core is a movie to enjoy for its stu-
pendous stupidity. Its premise is
such nonsense that it makes disaster flicks
like Twister look positively brainy. But
here’s the good thing: If you are worried
about the state of the world we live in — and
who isn’t? — this foolishness will take your
mind off your troubles for most of a couple
of hours. Guaranteed.
The first pseudo-scientific
crapola
you’re asked to accept
as realistic is that the
Earth’s inner core has
just stopped rotating.
The first pseudo-scientific crapola you’re
asked to accept as realistic is that the Earth’s
inner core has just stopped rotating. The
planet’s electromagnetic field begins to fail
in dramatic, sudden waves of catastrophic
events. Lest you think you have wandered
into a remake of Hitchcock’s The Birds, one
of the first mini-cataclysms is a scene in
London’s Trafalgar Square with dead pi-
geons careening from the skies with such vi-
olence that tourists, for gods’ sake, are pum-
meled and left addled and panicked.
OK.
Next, a tousled-haired, brown-sweater-
wearing science professor, geophysicist Josh
Keyes (Aaron Eckhart), lectures away in a
hall empty but for a few students. Suddenly,
two stone-faced refugees from Men in Black
interrupt class. He is to go with them. Turns
out he and his buddy, French atomic
weapons expert Sergei Leveque (Tchéky
Karyo), must “pass a test” devised by spooks
in suits. Keyes correctly solves the mystery
of why a number of people suddenly
dropped dead at the same instant in Boston.
But because this movie has so few moments
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of real discovery, I will leave it to you to be
awed by his reasoning.
Meanwhile, a nail-biting re-entry drama
plays out in the skies. Onboard the space
shuttle, the heroine of the day is Major
Rebecca “Beck” Childs (Hilary Swank). Her
commander, Robert Iverson (Bruce
Greenwood), ignores her until almost the
last second, at which time she saves the ship
and crew from fiery death. Then she’s repri-
manded by NASA and out of a job.
So far, the body count is only a few dead
pigeons. Try to imagine a world-wide
calamity of such proportions in which no
one dies! That’s like hoping that no one gets
killed in a war.
The military soon gets involved. Gen.
Thomas Purcell (Richard Jenkins) summons
Keyes and Leveque to Washington to meet
with Childs and Iverson as well as a truly
outrageous, dandy scientist, Conrad Zimsky
(Stanley Tucci). They travel to remote Utah
to meet with Zimsky’s estranged colleague,
“Braz” Brazzleton (Delroy Lindo). Braz has
created a monster machine that can bore
holes deep into rock. It’s made of a super
metal he calls Unobtainium. This is the first
overt example of a dry-as-bone humor that
the “crew” may be in on.
Here, the film could have taken a wild,
satirical direction, as much of the laughable
dialogue suggests would be a reasonable
thing. But director Jon Amiel sticks with the
plan, and a deadly serious adventure drama
ensues. Once the “terranauts” are launched
on their trip to Earth’s inner core, you can
only pray, in vain, for a rapid conclusion to
the whole charade. A number of preposter-
ous heroics and noble sacrifices later, you
can still count on the dialogue for a few
chuckles.
The real heroes of the film are the actors,
who sacrifice their dignity and risk their rep-
utations to mouth inane sentences that
should never have been spoken. Is the film a
metaphor for the unexpressed anger and
anxiety just below the surface in today’s so-
ciety? I don’t know. But as Zimsky says,
“Three months, and we’re back in the stone
age. A year, and we’re fried.”
Now playing at Cinemark and Cinema
World, The Core is heartily recommended
for its irrelevance to reality. Or not.
ew
[11:30], 2:00, 4:35, 7:10, 9:40
[11:45], 2:15, 4:45, 7:20, 9:50
[11:30], 2:00, 4:35, 7:15, 9:55
[12:30], 2:50, 5:20, 7:50, 10:25
[12:15], 3:25, 6:55, 10:10
DARKNESS FALLS (PG-13) THE HOT CHICK (PG-13)
[12:35], 2:55, 5:25, 7:45, 10:20
[11:35], 2:10, 4:50, 7:25, 10:05
HARRY POTTER:
CHAMBER OF SECRETS
(PG)
WILD THORNBERRYS
(PG)
[11:55], 3:20, 6:50, 10:15
JUST MARRIED
(PG-13)
[12:05], 2:25, 4:40, 7:05, 9:30
TWO WEEKS NOTICE
(PG-13)
[11:40], 2:05, 4:30, 7:00, 9:45
[12:25], 2:45, 5:15, 7:35, 10:00
*TIMES IN [ ] SHOWING ONLY FRIDAY
THROUGH MONDAY.
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*PHONE BOOTH – R (2:40) 4:40 6:40 [8:40]
HUNTED – R (2:20) 4:30 6:50 [9:10]
*CORE – PG-13 (2:30) 5:30 [8:30]
*BASIC – R (2:50) 4:59 7:10 [9:20]
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2:55 5:10) 7:40 9:50
HEAD OF STATE (PG–13) ★ DIG ✔ Fri. - Sun. (12:30 2:50 5:05)
7:25 9:40
A MAN APART (R) - ID REQUIRED DIG ✔ Fri. - Sun. (12:15
2:45 5:15) 7:45 10:15
WHAT A GIRL WANTS(PG) DIG ✔ Fri. - Sun. (11:50 2:20 4:45)
7:10 9:35
BASIC (R) - ID REQUIRED DIG ✔ Fri. - Sun. (12:20 2:35 4:55)
7:20 10:15
THE CORE (PG–13) DIG ✔ Fri. - Sun. (12:05 3:00) 7:00 10:00
SPIRITED AWAY (PG) DIG Fri. - Sun. (12:45 4:30) 7:15 9:55
CHICAGO (PG–13) DIG Fri. - Sun. (12:00 2:30 5:00) 7:30 10:10
ALBANY CINEMAS 7
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541-928-7469
A MAN APART (R)- ID REQUIRED DIG ✔ Fri. (2:00 4:40) 7:20 10:05
Sat. & Sun. (11:20 2:00 4:40) 7:20 10:05
BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE (PG–13) DIG Fri. (2:10 4:40) 7:10 9:40
Sat. & Sun. (11:40 2:10 4:40) 7:10 9:40
WHAT A GIRL WANTS(PG) DIG ✔ Fri. (1:50 4:25) 7:00 9:35
Sat. & Sun. (11:15 1:50 4:25) 7:00 9:35
BASIC (R) - ID REQUIRED DIG ✔ Fri. (2:40 5:05) 7:30 9:55
Sat. & Sun. (12:15 2:40 5:05) 7:30 9:55
HEAD OF STATE (PG–13) ★ DIG ✔ Fri. (3:00 5:20) 7:40 10:00
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SPIRITED AWAY (PG) DIG
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Sat. & Sun. (12:00 2:30 5:00) 7:30 10:00
CHICAGO (PG–13) DIG
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Fri. (4:00) 7:00 9:50
Sat. & Sun. (12:30 4:00) 7:00 9:50
Times For 4/4 thru 4/6 © 2003
( ) – FRI – SUN EARLY SHOWS
*PHONE BOOTH - R (12:50 2:50) 4:50 6:50 8:50
*CORE – PG-13 (12:30) 3:30 6:25 9:20
*BASIC – R (12:40 3:00) 5:10 7:20 9:30
*PIANIST – R 5:35 8:40
*VIEW FROM THE TOP – PG-13 6:20
*DREAMCATCHER – R (12:10) 3:10 6:10 9:10
HUNTED – R (12:20 2:40) 4:59 7:15 9:35
BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE – PG-13 (1:40) 4:10 6:40 9:00
CHICAGO – PG-13 (WINNER 6 ACADEMY AWARDS
INCLUDING BEST PICTURE) (1:10) 3:50 8:30
*PIGLET’S BIG MOVIE – G (1:50) 3:40
www.catheaters.com
AVALON
C I N E M A
2nd & Jackson • Corvallis
R
THE QUIET AMERICAN
STARRING MICHAEL CAINE & BRENDAN FRASER
“A film of delicate interpersonal dances. Caine
makes us watch as his character awakens to the
notion that to be human is eventually to have to
choose. It’s a sight to behold.”
-- Brent Simon, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
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EUGENE WEEKLY APRIL 3, 2003 21