|
Feature Stories
|
|
|
Written by Mike Schulz
|
|
Tuesday, 05 March 2002 18:00 |
|
With the Academy Awards a few weeks away – they’re scheduled to air on ABC on Sunday, March 24, at 7:30 p.m. – the nominees are currently basking in the publicity, visiting Entertainment Tonight and E! Television, making the requisite statements about how they feel lucky to be in the company of their fellow nominees, and how they feel undeserving of such an honor.
|
|
Reviews
|
|
|
Written by Mike Schulz
|
|
Tuesday, 26 February 2002 18:00 |
|
 QUEEN OF THE DAMNED
Granted, the new year is only eight weeks old, but I already have a nominee for Best Guilty Pleasure of 2002: the Anne Rice adaptation Queen of the Damned. I’m not suggesting the movie is great, or even good, but this tacky amalgam of vampire clichés, hard rock, and MTV posturing is a surprisingly deft and confident work, and about a hundred times more fun than the pompous, enervated Interview with the Vampire.
|
|
Reviews
|
|
|
Written by Mike Schulz
|
|
Tuesday, 19 February 2002 18:00 |
|
 JOHN Q.
In Nick Cassavetes’ soapbox-lecture-cum-thriller John Q., Denzel Washington stars as blue-collar worker John Archibald, a middle-aged Chicagoan struggling with tight finances but deeply in love with his wife, Denise (Kimberly Elise), and a great father to their only son, Mike (Daniel E. Smith). While rounding the bases at a little-league game, Mike collapses, and it’s revealed that Mike’s heart is three times the size it should be; unless the Archibalds can come up with the enormous fee required for a heart transplant, Mike will die. The Archibalds do have health insurance, but because their insurance company recently switched to an HMO (cue the duh-duh-dun music), their coverage is no longer sufficient for Mike’s operation, and when all of their other money-raising options have been eliminated, John arms himself, takes the hospital’s emergency room hostage, and announces that, yes, Mike will be getting that transplant.
|
|
Feature Stories
|
|
|
Written by Mike Schulz
|
|
Tuesday, 12 February 2002 18:00 |
|
ALI (in theatres): Covering Muhammad Ali’s personal and professional life from 1964 to 1974, Michael Mann’s biopic has everything except what it can’t live without: a reason for being. You really have no better understanding of Ali after seeing the film than you had before; director Mann, along with his topnotch cast and crew, has dedicated an enormous amount of time, money, and talent to a technically adept yet vacuous experience.
|
|
Reviews
|
|
|
Written by Mike Schulz
|
|
Tuesday, 05 February 2002 18:00 |
|
 THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO
The best reason to see the latest remake of The Count of Monte Cristo is the source material. You can easily shrug off the movie’s unimaginative staging, corny laugh lines, and obtrusive score for the chance to enjoy an opulently designed adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ audience-grabbing tale; it’s the sort of story that was once called “a ripping good yarn.”
|
|
|
