Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

[Our Sunday Visitor, December 28, 2003]

What becomes a legend most’ The old answer, ‘fur,’ wouldn’t be as popular today as it was when Blackglama mink draped legendary stars like Lauren Bacall in a glamorous ad campaign. What makes something a legend, a classic, is not easy to identify, but the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy has got it, hands down. ’ The Return of the King’ is a crowning conclusion to the trilogy, and also arguably the best of the three films, though none are disappointments. That’s something that can’t be said of most movie-sequel series.

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The Last Samurai

[Our Sunday Visitor, December 28, 2003]

The Last Samurai

It turns out that guys are just as sentimental as the next guy, but what they get sentimental about is killing people. Run somebody through with a lance, shoot an arrow through a heart, slice a neck with a sword—pretty soon, everybody’s hugging and blubbering.

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Master and Commander

[Our Sunday Visitor, December 7, 2003]

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

The opposite of "chick flick" is "guy flick," the kind of film that's expected to appeal to "real men." It has predictable elements: big explosions, naked girls, and high-speed chases. "Master and Commander" is a different kind of guy flick, because it's more thoroughly about "real men," who have normal-size, realistic powers rather than superhuman ones.

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Elf, Matrix Revolutions

[Our Sunday Visitor, December 14, 2003]

Elf

Step up and shake hands with the movie that is going to be playing in the next room every Christmas for the rest of your life. "Elf" appears to have been planned with that small-screen destiny in mind: uncomplicated camerawork usually features one big image in the middle of the screen, an image you can identify without squinting even as far away as the refrigerator.

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Radio

[Our Sunday Visitor, October 26, 2003]

When a movie is set in South Carolina and involves a racial theme, I get my dukes up. I grew up in Charleston, and I'm well aware of sad history, but I've seen too many stories in which every character with a Southern accent is turned into a cloven-hoofed monster, for the sake of dramatic tension.

My dukes got mighty tired during the course of 'Radio,' as almost every character with a Southern accent treated Cuba Gooding's character with respect, affection, even big bear hugs.

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School of Rock

[Our Sunday Visitor, October 26, 2003]

School of Rock

Take a good look at those rolling eyebrows'you're going to be seeing them for a long time. In 'School of Rock' Jack Black inhabits his character, Dewey Finn, with such appealing manic energy that there's no question a comic star is born.

What makes Black such a winner' Probably his startling lack of self-consciousness.

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The Magdalene Sisters

[Our Sunday Visitor, September 14, 2003]
The Magdalene Sisters

You know how, when you're changing channels and land on an old movie, you can guess when it was made? Cinematic "looks" change with fashion, and it's easy to tell opulent, color-drenched early-60's style from the sparer 70's or smoky 40's. In "The Magdalene Sisters," a film about the "Magdalene asylums" operated by the Irish Catholic church, director Peter Mullan displays his genius for capturing the look that today's moviegoers crave-one that proclaims authenticity.

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Seabiscuit, Pirates of the Caribbean

[Our Sunday Visitor, August 17, 2003]

Seabiscuit

"Seabiscuit" is the best big-story, big-heart movie of the summer. You know the type: it has underdogs, or rather an underhorse, and three men drawn to him by a common dream. Strings and cymbals crowd the soundtrack to the point of bumping elbows, and the action goes to slo-mo, then to black-and-white. An unseen narrator solemnly drops stones into the pond: "It was the beginning and the end of imagination at the same time," and the middle too, I'll bet. Later, the Works Project Administration is described as "showing somebody really cared," which must be how it won the Strawberry Shortcake award.

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Spellbound and other Documentaries

[Our Sunday Visitor, July 20, 2003]

Spellbound

Last month the movie buzz was about "The Matrix Reloaded" and its "What is reality?" theme. Joke's on us, because movies are inherently unreal. From the time you step into that darkened auditorium, you're a guest of Tinsel Town.

But there's another kind of movie which sets out to challenge this assumption. Documentaries are based on the irrefutable premise that film can capture reality more truly than any other art form. The 1922 silent, "Nanook of the North" set an early high standard. It depicted the harshness of Alaskan life with such directness that reporters flocked to the tundra to interview the star. Too late: he had perished, starving to death on an ice floe. That's reality, brother.

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Finding Nemo

[Our Sunday Visitor, May 27, 2003]

Finding Nemo

You probably don't need any encouragement from me to see Pixar animation studio's new feature, "Finding Nemo." If you have kids in the house, they have been clamoring about it for weeks. You can't turn on a TV without seeing the dazzling colorful ads. You can't go to the store without passing mounds of Nemo plush toys. If you huddled on the floor with your arms crossed over your head, someone would still shove Nemo fast-food coupons under the door.

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