Reviews

An exciting, amazing and deeply moving story of a heroic escape from an icy trap in Antarctica. In all, it takes Shackleton and his crew about two years to make it back to civilization. What they overcame to get there is beyond belief. This film should not be missed.

On the heels of `Run Lola Run,' a major international success, its star, Franka Potente, appeared in a medical thriller called `Anatomy' (2000). Its American distributor, Sony, dropped it into eight theaters one weekend; it grossed a ludicrous $5,725 (not a misprint) and was relegated to video. How could that happen? `Anatomy' must be one dog of a movie! But it's not. Far from it. This is a fine, creepy chiller in the mold of `Coma.' Potente plays a medical student chosen for special anatomy training at a school founded by her ailing grandfather, to whom she is close, but who is estranged from her father, also a doctor. Her father's motivation becomes evident as she learns, to her horror, what's really going on at Grandpa's school. As with virtually all movies of this type, credibility suffers as the climax nears. (The solutions are never as interesting or believable as the puzzles.) But that's no reason to miss the fun of getting there.

Ian McKellen played the villainous Magneto in last year's hit ``X-Men,'' but the millions who lined up to see that movie have no idea just how joyfully evil McKellen can be. To witness the limits of McKellen's malevolence, you must rent ``Richard III'' (1996).

It's a 1940-ish interpretation of the Shakespeare play, with England depicted as a fascist state awash in the blacks and reds symbolic of Nazi Germany. McKellen's Richard is the younger brother of King Edward IV, and scheming to become king by any means necessary.

The movie has as high a body count as a slasher film, but Freddy Krueger seems saintly compared with the sadistic Richard. Also in the first-rate cast are Annette Bening as Queen Elizabeth and Robert Downey Jr. as her brother, an early, gruesome victim of Richard's plot.

Michael Mann's accomplishments as a film director have given respectability to a man heretofore known mostly as the creator of television's ``Miami Vice.'' He's been justly recognized for his work on ``Manhunter,'' ``The Last of the Mohicans'' and ``The Insider.'' What you may not know is that he made a very good movie in 1981, three years before ``Miami Vice.'' That was ``Thief,'' starring James Caan, Tuesday Weld, James Belushi and Robert Prosky. It was made in the dark, dazzling style that would become Mann's trademark. Caan gives one of his best performances as the ice-cool master burglar who hopes to haul in enough from one big heist to allow him to settle down with his wife (Weld) and adopted son. Of course, those dreams never come true in movies. His underworld contacts, unaware of a dark, scary side to his character, try to cheat him. The film is slow in spots (you have to get through the stuff about love and family), but builds to a rip-roaring climax.

Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels seem tailor-made for movies, but there have only been a few. One of the best, oddly enough, is barely recognizable as one of McBain's police procedurals. ``High and Low'' (1963), directed by Japan's legendary Akira Kurosawa, focuses as much on the victim of the crime -- a botched kidnapping -- as on the cops' pursuit of the kidnapper. Toshiro Mifune plays a shoe-company executive who ransoms his chauffeur's son, who was mistaken for his own son by the kidnapper. Mifune thus loses the capital he needs to beat back a cabal of greedy colleagues fed up with his refusal to cheapen their products to increase profits. Instead of taking control of his company, he loses everything. As his life unravels, the police launch a full-bore offensive to catch the kidnapper, even after the boy is recovered unharmed. Kurosawa's best known for his costume dramas (``Ran,'' ``Yojimbo''), but this is one of his best movies.

this is one of the most boring movies ever made. brutally dull. my sister and i saw "l'argent" in a theater in new york when it was originally released, to glowing reviews by the local critics. we could barely sit through it. the experience made us forever skeptical of reviews of arty foreign films. in straining to find the art, they may not notice that the movie is actually crap, not art.

Don't read another word about this movie. Just go see it, and let Atom Egoyan reveal its secrets to you in his own, brilliant way. Bob Hoskins has never been better (and that's saying something). As his true nature becomes more and more evident, slowly and tantalizingly, the movie becomes seriously scary. The musical score works beautifully, enhancing and massaging your growing fear for Felicia.

a real hoot, unintentionally. sidney portier's character is so sweet and lovable you want to smack him. nothing about this movie rings true. and it's boring to boot.

"the big sleep" is right. it just about put me there. there's not a character in this movie that you could care about in any way. nor is the "mystery" even remotely intriguing. the movie is well-acted, directed and photographed, but the plot and characterization are horrible.

Like most documentaries, "Hands on a Hardbody" will never play in most cities. My wife and I saw it in New York, in a nearly full theater, and the movie was an enormous hit with that audience. Too bad it won't get wider distribution. Documentaries also face obstacles to wide video distribution. So when it's about to be released on video, make sure you pressure your local video store to stock it. It's a wildly funny, yet sympathetic look at the 24 contestants in a Texas Nissan dealership's promotion in which the last person to keep a hand on a hardbody truck gets to keep it. The previous winner, who is interviewed for the movie (and is a contestant once more, much to the resentment of others), lasted more than 80 hours. When only a few are left and someone else drops out, he says it is an "exhilarating" feeling, one he can only compare to killing his first deer. He acts as though this simple endurance contest is the Super Bowl, saying, "If you can't play with the big dogs, get up on the porch with the puppies." Obviously, he's the villain of the piece. Everybody else is appealing in his or her own way. There are many memorable characters. Like the toothless guy who helped his toothless wife prepare for the contest by shutting off the air-conditioning in the house. He's got a 20-ton unit, big enough to cool a Kmart, he says. It can cool the house to 12-below-zero! As the credits rolled, my wife said, "That's the funniest movie I've ever seen."