Mini Movie Reviews

OLYMPIAN STAFF, NEWS SERVICES

Originally published Friday, March 1, 2002

A BEAUTIFUL MIND

* * * * (PG-13)

- Stars: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris.

- Playing: Lacey 8 Cinemas.

- Synopsis: Russell Crowe delivers a virtuoso performance as the tormented, brilliant mathematician John Forbes Nash.

BIG FAT LIAR

* 1/2 (PG)

- Stars: Frankie Muniz, Paul Giamatti and Amanda Bynes.

- Playing: Capital Mall Cinemas and Yelm Cinemas.

- Synopsis: A small, thin comedy about a high-school student who gets revenge when his homework is stolen by a movie producer and transformed into a movie.

BLACK HAWK DOWN

* * (R)

- Stars: Tom Sizemore, Sam Shepard, Josh Hartnett and Eric Bana.

- Playing: Lacey 8 Cinemas.

- Synopsis: A gritty, tough re-enactment of a U.S. mission in Somalia in 1993 that went drastically wrong -- and the heroism of the men involved. But its racial politics are muddled and unsettling.

THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO

* * * (PG-13)

- Stars: Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce, Richard Harris.

- Playing: Lacey 8 Cinemas.

- Synopsis: Alexandre Dumas' swashbuckling tale of betrayal and revenge.

CROSSROADS

* * (PG-13)

- Stars: Britney Spears and Dan Aykroyd.

- Playing: Lacey 8 Cinemas.

- Synopsis: Three teen-age girls drive cross-country after high school graduation.

DRAGONFLY

* * (PG-13)

- Stars: Kevin Costner, Kathy Bates, Ron Rifkin and Susanna Thompson.

- Playing: Capital Mall Cinemas and Yelm Cinemas.

- Synopsis: Part "Sixth Sense," part haunted-house thriller and part new-age inspirational, "Dragonfly" takes about 85 minutes to get to a satisfying punch line but without coherence or momentum.

THE ENDURANCE

* * * 1/2 (not rated)

- Stars: Sir Ernest Shackleton and 27 explorers.

- Playing: March 4-7 at Capitol Theater with Olympia Film Society.

- Synopsis: This documentary uses original photography, newly shot images and interviews with descendants to chronicle the two-year expedition to traverse Antarctica begun by explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew in 1913.

40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS

* 1/2 (R)

- Stars: Josh Hartnett and Shannyn Sossamon.

- Playing: Lacey 8 Cinemas.

- Synopsis: A young man gives up sex for Lent -- and then meets the woman of his dreams. Great setup, but weak writing keeps it from being nearly as funny as it should be.

GOSFORD PARK

* * * * (R)

- Stars: Alan Bates, Clive Owen, Emily Watson, Helen Mirren, Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Jeremy Northam and Ryan Phillipe.

- Playing: Yelm Cinemas.

- Synopsis: A British period piece full of eccentric characters who provide an endless list of suspects when one of them is murdered during a country-house weekend gathering in 1932.

I AM SAM

* * * 1/2 (PG-13)

- Stars: Michelle Pfeiffer and Sean Penn.

- Playing: Yelm Cinemas.

- Synopsis: A heartfelt drama about a mentally disabled father who fights to maintain custody of his precocious little girl.

IN THE BEDROOM

* * * 1/2 (R)

- Stars: Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson.

- Playing: Yelm Cinemas.

- Synopsis: Spacek and Wilkinson shine as grief-stricken parents, and first-time director Todd Field puts himself on map with grace and subtlety.

JOHN Q

* * 1/2 (PG-13)

- Stars: Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall and Ray Liotta.

- Playing: Lacey 8 Cinemas.

- Synopsis: Washington plays a frustrated but underinsured father who takes over a hospital after they refuse to give his dying son a heart transplant.

LANTANA

* * * 1/2 (R)

- Stars: Anthony LaPaglia, Geoffrey Rush and Barbara Hershey.

- Playing: March 3-7 at Capitol Theater with Olympia Film Society.

- Synopsis: This unconventional murder mystery depicts a group of married men and women who discover how their lives are intertwined when one of them vanishes.

LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING

* * * * (PG-13)

- Stars: Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen.

- Playing: Lacey 8 Cinemas and Yelm Cinemas.

- Synopsis: Peter Jackson's vivid and imaginative retelling of the first part of the J.R.R. Tolkien fantasy trilogy about a young Hobbit who tries to save Middle Earth by destroying an all-powerful ring of evil.

THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES

* * (PG-13)

- Stars: Richard Gere, Laura Linney and Alan Bates.

- Playing: Yelm Cinemas.

- Synopsis: Richard Gere dives into "X-Files" country for this story about a reporter trying to uncover paranormal activities in a West Virginia town.

OKIE NOODLING

* * * * (not rated)

- Stars: Red and Jerry "Catfish" Rider.

- Playing: 7:30 p.m. March 3 at Capitol Theater with Olympia Film Society. Director Brad Beesley will be on hand to present film. Tickets are $5 general and $3 for OFS members.

- Synopsis: Brad Beesley's award-winning documentary chronicles the tradition of bare-handed catfish catching from its roots as an American Indian hunting technique to its present-day status in rural subcultures. Suitable for all ages.

QUEEN OF THE DAMNED

* * (R)

- Stars: Aaliyah.

- Playing: Lacey 8 Cinemas and Yelm Cinemas.

- Synopsis: The late, widely adored R&B star Aaliyah may have the title role in "Queen of the Damned," but the movie turns out to be a calling card for Stuart Townsend, the actor who plays the vampire Lestat.

RETURN TO NEVERLAND

* 1/2 (G)

- Playing: Capital Mall Cinemas and Yelm Cinemas.

- Synopsis: Uninspired sequel to Disney's 1953 classic "Peter Pan." The animation looks 50 years old, which would have been OK had a Golden Age story accompanied it. Instead, we get rehashed characters and situations that play like the direct-to-video movie this should have been.

SNOW DOGS

* * 1/2 (PG)

- Stars: Cuba Gooding Jr.

- Playing: Shelton Cinemas.

- Synopsis: Predictable children's film about a Miami dentist (Gooding) who inherits a dogsled team and heads to Alaska. While there, he butts heads with a gruff local (James Coburn). Should be fun for the kids, but not parents.

SUPER TROOPERS

* * (R)

- Stars: Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Marisa Coughlan.

- Playing: Capital Mall Cinemas.

- Synopsis: "Super Troopers" aims to be a sort of "Airplane" on the open road. And it has an authentic, low-budget look that recalls the worst '70s B-movies, even though it's set today.

A WALK TO REMEMBER

(PG)

- Star rating: Not reviewed.

- Stars: Mandy Moore and Shane West.

- Playing: Shelton Cinemas.

- Synopsis: Jaded high schooler Shane West falls for Mandy Moore in a coming-of-age story set in North Carolina.

WE WERE SOLDIERS

* * * (R)

- Stars: Mel Gibson and Sam Elliott.

- Playing: Lacey 8 Cinemas, Shelton Cinemas and Yelm Cinemas.

- Synopsis: A bloody true-life story of Americans' first major confrontation in North Vietnam, a 1965 battle that saw 400 Americans heroically hold out against 2,000 Vietnamese for three days.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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