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Patrick Warburton (left to right), Tim Allen, Ben Foster, Rene Russo and Zooey Deschanel are all tied up in the film "Big Trouble."

Mini Movie Reviews

OLYMPIAN STAFF, NEWS SERVICES

Originally published Friday, April 5, 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. Directed by Ron Howard. Universal Pictures, 129 minutes.

BIG TROUBLE

* * (PG-13)

- Stars: Tim Allen, Rene Russo, Stanley Tucci, Janeane Garofalo and Jason Lee.

- Playing: Capital Mall Cinemas and Yelm Cinemas.

- Synopsis: Small-time crooks, big-time killers and a missing atomic device can't rescue this flat adaptation of Dave Barry's novel. Neither can a stellar cast with only rare exceptions. Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. Touchstone Pictures, 85 minutes.

BLADE 2

* * 1/2 (R)

- Stars: Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Leonor Varela, Norman Reedus and Ron Perlman.

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

- Synopsis: This sequel to the violent 1998 vampire action film is an even more sadistic, rip-and-roar bloodbath. But, that said, it's also a pretty good movie. Wesley Snipes returns as the half-human, half-vampire warrior, determined to rid the world of bloodsuckers. Guillermo del Toro directs. New Line, 118 minutes.

CLOCKSTOPPERS

* * 1/2 (PG)

- Stars: Jesse Bradford, French Stewart and Michael Biehn.

- Playing: Capital Mall Cinemas and Yelm Cinemas.

- Synopsis: A Nickelodeon movie about a teen who finds a wristwatch that allows him to stop time. Aimed squarely at the 10-year-old audience; parents, beware of having to sit through this one. Directed by Jonathan Frakes. Paramount Pictures, 94 minutes.

DEATH TO SMOOCHY

* 1/2 (R)

- Stars: Robin Williams, Edward Norton and Catherine Keener.

- Playing: Lacey 8 Cinemas.

- Synopsis: This tale of the downfall of kids' TV personality Rainbow Randolph (Robin Williams) is a crushing disappointment and a failure for nearly everyone involved. Directed by Danny DeVito. 100 minutes.

E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL

* * * 1/2 (PG)

- Stars: Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore and Dee Wallace.

- Playing: Lacey 8 Cinemas.

- Synopsis: Steven Spielberg's most personal and touching fantasy adventure returns, all spiffed up with a bit more footage. Universal, 120 minutes.

FILMS BY BILL BROWN

* * * (not rated)

- Stars: Bill Brown and other townsfolk.

- Playing: 8 p.m. April 5 at Capitol Theater with Olympia Film Society.

- Synopsis: Personable, funny and punk -- Lubbock, Texas, filmmaker Bill Brown brings an assemblage of short films, including "Confederation Park," "Buffalo Common" and "Hub City," as well as zine renderings and wayward meanderings to the Capitol Theater. For mature audiences.

HIGH CRIMES

* * (PG-13)

- Stars: Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd.

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

- Synopsis: Ashley Judd stars as an attorney defending her husband, an ex-military operative accused of a civilian massacre in El Salvador. Morgan Freeman plays a shaggy-dog lawyer who helps her out. Judd and Freeman, reuniting for the first time since "Kiss the Girls," project an agreeable camaraderie that makes the excess of thriller cliches in "High Crimes" more tolerable. A little. 115 minutes.

ICE AGE

* * * 1/2 (PG)

- Stars: Animated, with the voices of Ray Romano, John Leguizamo and Denis Leary.

- Playing: Capital Mall Cinemas, Shelton Cinemas and Yelm Cinemas.

- Synopsis: Three prehistoric animals embark on a quest to return a human infant to his tribe in this fresh, funny and richly imagined animated comic adventure. Directed by Carlos Soldanha and Chris Wedge. Twentieth Century Fox, 85 minutes.

KANDAHAR

* * * * (not rated)

- Stars: Nelofer Pazira, Hassan Tantai and Sadou Teymouri.

- Playing: April 6-11 at Capitol Theater with Olympia Film Society.

- Synopsis: Based on a true incident, this movie exposes the profoundly backward social system of Afghanistan under the Taliban as experienced by two sisters -- one a journalist returning to her birthplace to prevent her maimed and despondent sister from committing suicide. Contains mature themes. Directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf.

NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VAN WILDER

* * (R)

- Stars: Ryan Reynolds and Tara Reid.

- Playing: Capital Mall Cinemas and Yelm Cinemas.

- Synopsis: This story of a perennial undergrad who doesn't want to leave college is long on vulgar gross-out jokes -- and enough of them are wildly funny to make it entertaining. Directed by Walt Becker. Artisan Entertainment, 95 minutes.

PANIC ROOM

* * * (R)

- Stars: Jodie Foster.

- Playing: Lacey 8 Cinemas and Yelm Cinemas.

- Synopsis: Competent thriller about a divorcee (Jodie Foster) who buys a New York brownstone equipped with an impenetrable bunker. On their first night in the home, she and her daughter use the room to escape burglars. To their dismay, the bad guys refuse to leave, and a standoff begins. Foster is solid and director David Fincher paces the story with precision, but they both battle a convoluted script. Columbia Pictures, 110 minutes.

THE ROOKIE

* * * 1/2 (G)

- Stars: Dennis Quaid, Brian Cox and Rachel Griffiths.

- Playing: Lacey 8 Cinemas and Yelm Cinemas.

- Synopsis: The unlikely but true story of baseball's oldest rookie -- and how he got there -- told in an affecting, sometimes-poetic tale. John Lee Hancock directs. Disney, 129 minutes.

STORYTELLING

* * * (R)

- Stars: John Goodman, Julie Hagerty, Selma Blair, Leo Fitzpatrick, Robert Wisdom and Paul Giamatti.

- Playing: April 6-11 at Capitol Theater with Olympia Film Society.

- Synopsis: This movie tells two stories. "Fiction" depicts a college co-ed who cheats on her boyfriend when she sleeps with their frustrated creative writing professor. "Non-fiction" portrays a dysfunctional family embroiled in the making of a documentary about getting into college. Directed by Todd Solondz.

THE TIME MACHINE

* * * (PG-13)

- Stars: Guy Pearce, Orlando Jones and Samantha Mumba.

- Playing: Lacey 8 Cinemas.

- Synopsis: A modestly engaging time travel adventure, with filmmaker Simon Wells substituting romance, action and stunning visual effects for the more science-oriented logic and socio-political concerns of his real-life great-grandfather, H.G. Wells. Dreamworks, 96 minutes.

WE WERE SOLDIERS

* * * (R)

- Stars: Mel Gibson and Sam Elliott

- Playing: Lacey 8 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. Randall Wallace is the film's writer-director. Paramount, 138 minutes.

Star guide

Superior * * * *

Good * * *

Fair * *

Poor *

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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