Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 15, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg Free February 2001 Opening this weekend DOWN TO EARTH Garden Polo Portage Chris Rock pays a standup comedian who dies and is brought up to heaven before his In an effort to give him a second the authorities in heaven Chazz Eugene Levy transplant him into the body of a newly murdered millionaire who happens to be Regina King is Rocks leading lady in this remake of Warren Beattys 1978 film Heaven Can Wait itself a remake of Here Comes QUEER CITY FESTIVAL A selection of gay and lesbian film and video from Canadas independent film From Queer City Cinema in Saskatoon and Video Thursday through screenings at and RECESS SCHOOLS OUT Polo Vital A group of kids bands together to save summer vacation from their nasty school who plans to nate holidays by gasp establish ing year round ROCKS AT WHISKEY TRENCH Canadian filmmaker Alanis ins look at the 1990 Mohawk crisis and its lingering effects 10 years Runs Monday through SWEET NOVEMBER Grant Polo A workaholic executive Keanu Reeves and a free spirit Theron are intrigued by each but not ready to commit so they settle on an unconventional courtship and agree to go their separate ways at months of expects to fall in T Now playing The following movies have been previously reviewed by Free Press movie critic Alison Gill unless otherwise AMAZING JOURNEYS Amazing Journeys tells of one of natures most interesting phenomena Experience the life and death journeys of grey monarch red crabs even CASTAWAY Grant Polo Despite some strange and awkward lit tle this is a curiously com pelling Tom Hanks plays Chuck a FedEx troubleshooter stranded on a South Pacific island com alone no no kooky monkey no flashbacks or voice over narratives or even Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis take some real risks as we watch Chuck struggle for He solves the basic physical challenges by turning into a hunter gatherer Hanks dropped 25 kilos but his emotional and spiritual journey is much harder to make and much harder to convey on CHOCOLAT Grant Polo When a mysterious woman Juliette Binoche sets up a chocolate shop in a dour French the result is a sin fully rich movie pleasure if a trifle too sugary CIRQUE DU SOLEIL JOURNEY OF MAN Filmed on location at various natural and historical landmarks around the Journey of Man follows the stages of human development from birth to Each stage is intro by an act from Cirque du Soleil performers the Montreal based per forming founded in is now a worldwide artistic production organi THE COLOR OF PARADISE Iranian Majid Majidi creates a joyful film by focusing onan blind boy named Mohammad who has an absolutely clear vision of the worlds his father cannot see anything beyond his own bad This is an paradox of the blind boy who is truly visionary and the sighted man who cannot or will not open his eyes but ist treatment of it is so delicate and sure that we see it Plays Monday through EMPERORS NEW GROOVE Polo got its groove back with a very funny family A spoiled South American boyking the voice of learns some life lessons when Hes turned into a llama and rely op a earth peasant John Goodman to sur THE GIFT CROUCHING HIDDEN DRAGON Grant Polo A jolt of pure movie this spectacular epic melodrama combines hypnotic martial arts fight scenes with deli cate emotional Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh play roaming warriors who want to hang up their swords but are pulled back into the life by the actions of a reckless girl Zhang In with suspects the worst in the disappear ance of a local The everyday drama is but it doesnt take a psychic to see the outcome of the pre supernatural HANNIBAL Garden Grant Polo Portage Ten years ago we saw Hannibal Anthony Hopkins through a glass darkly and he Was a haunting Now we see him in full light and The sequel to The Silence of the Lambs is grotesque but not but not a without the HEAD OVER HEELS A regular girl Monica Potter room ing with four supermodels wonders about her judgment in especially after she thinks she sees her dream boat date a miscast Freddie committing a This roman thriller never takes though the reallife models are surprisingly MISS CONGENIALITY Sandra Bullock is a tremendous good sport as homely FBI agent Gracie snorting and gallumphing around and getting spinach in her teeth as she prepares to go undercover at the Miss United States beauty Her so so material lets her as this tries too hard to be liked by 0 WHERE ART THOU Portage Lots of the little jokes but the big one a retelling of Homers Odyssey through the misadventures of three luckless fugitives in the deep South seems George Tim Blake Nelson and John give it their but the Coen brothers The Big Lebowski have fallen off that thin wire they have stretched between whimsy and IN PARIS In a time when true family movies are the keep their broad appeal with an effervescent sequel that sees the kids and their hapless parents heading to SAVE THE LAST DANCE Polo A dancer from the suburbs Julia Stiles gets some urban edge when she transfers to an inner city school and meets hiphop master Sean Patrick Good perfor mances and even better dance scenes Thelp to elevate the cliched SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE Northman This mordantly fictionalized riff on the filming of 1922 horror classic Nosferatu pretends that the tyrannical director John at his most exquisitely amoral hired a real vampire Willem Dafoe to play his putting the necks of cast and crew in A narrow but quite perfect little exercise in film SAVING SILVERMAN Polo its comedy as two emotionally stranded somewhere in Grade 5 Steve Zahn and Jack Black conspire to keep their marginal ly more functional friend Jason Biggs from marrying a from hell Amanda But its good teenage boy comedy crude but weirdly SNATCH Polo Guy Ritchies haywire heist flick involves loads of colourful and near ly incomprehensible characters from Londons underworld colliding in a trainwreck of dou coincidence and plain bad furious and recklessly this is a farce with a bad atti tude and a good cast Brad Beni cio Del Toro and a gang of tough British character THIRTEEN DAYS This compressed political thriller features tight ensemble work by some character actors who immerse us in the backroom pow and Cold War paranoia of the 1962 Cuban missile Too bad about Kevin a distracting presence as political adviser Kenny TRAFFIC Grant Polo Just say yes to this scathingly intelli visually arresting examination of the international drug Director Steven Soderbergh takes a morally complex story with a dozen central characters faultless performances from Benicio Del Catherine Don Cheadle and others and makes it addictively VALENTINE All the cliches in this slasher flick have been spoofed in Scary Movie and the Scream and now done to as four young women are stalked by a killer in a Cupid THE WEDDING PLANNER Grant Polo Vital Jennifer Lopez learns that weddings can be planned but love cant when she falls for Matthew the of her next big nuptial production This easy comedy hits every in the but whats romance without cliches WHAT WOMEN WANT Mel Gibson is in fullon dreamboat mode as a sexist ad executive whos about to get his comeuppance when he develops the magic ability to read womens Helen Hunt is more than his match in a romantic comedy that starts out with fabulously kooky screwball energy only to deflate in the last The Spirit of is and well in The Volunteer Centre invites you to TEER ARDS central performance from Cate Blanchett as a smalltown psychic who V are Volunteer Service Award Volunteer Service Award youths and community groups ors Volunteer Service Award organization in the City of Winnipeg Ie MTS Pioneers Business Award Golden Hand Award for Media The Royal Bank Local Hero Award for individuals or groups Deadline February Awards will be presented at the 18th Annual Volunteer Awards Luncheon April The Manitoba Lotteries Corporation is the presenting sponsor of the For further information contact Cindy Carewell at 4775180 The free Press Wete there for yoM
