Leaving golden sun for the silver screen glow

Thriller — The Village (July 30)

M. Night Shyamalan is becoming the new Hitchcock of Hollywood — The Sixth Sense has become a staple suspense film of the late ’90s and The Village looks to follow in Sense’s footsteps. With a plot that includes “mythical creatures” and an all-star cast including Joaquin Phoenix and Sigourney Weaver, if Shyamalan’s script and direction are as sturdy as his previous works, the film looks to be the biggest thrill ride of the summer. — Olga Robak

Honorable mention: The Bourne Supremacy, the second installment of the Bourne trilogy opens only one weekend before The Village.

Animated — Shrek 2 (May 21)

Before Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc. and Ice Age incorporated subtle adult humor into a seemingly childish film, Shrek paved the way. Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz and the annoying Eddie Murphy are all back to reprise their roles from the original. This time, Shrek 2 boasts a very talkative Puss in Boots that steps on the Donkey’s (Murphy’s) toes. With a strong following and a summer lacking any “real” animated competition, 2004 could be the year of the Shrek. — P.S.

Honorable mention: Garfield: The Movie is the green ogre’s biggest challenger for the summer’s animated crown.

Urban — Soul Plane (May 28)

Sure, Roseanne made him who he is today, but Tom Arnold is looking to expand his horizons. And what better way to do that than star in a movie with Snoop Dogg? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you’ll be cruising at the comfortable altitude of weed-induced humor, your flight attendants will be happy to serve you a dose of attitude and, if the plot is too much for you, sickness bags will be located in the seat pocket in front of you. Enjoy your flight! — O.R.

Honorable mention: Jamie Foxx and Gabrielle Union star in a story about becoming a best-selling author in Breakin’ All the Rules.

Oscar Buzz — The Stepford Wives (June 11)

Nicole Kidman could be looking at Oscar nomination number three for The Stepford Wives in which she stars alongside Bette Midler and Matthew Broderick. A remake of the 1974 film, it has a suspenseful plot and a few musical numbers that just reek of Academy gold. The Stepford Wives will only be snubbed at next year’s ceremony is if it’s complete garbage, as the voters will recognize even a half-decent performance. — P.S.

Honorable mention: Jude Law, Gwenyth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie practically spells out Oscar for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

Action — Spiderman 2 (June30)

The web-slinger set records and kicked the comic book film production into hyper-drive when Spiderman grossed more than $114 million its opening weekend. Spiderman 2 is hoping to prove that double the action and computer-generated graphics will lead to twice the gross. But our spider-sense tells us Spiderman 2 will fall short of the original despite a very appealing trailer. The sequel will no doubt be the movie to beat this summer as fans are already salivating from the recent release of Spiderman 2’s theatrical trailer. — Pablo Saldana

Honorable Mention: Brad Pitt put his spin on Greek mythology with the epic Troy, while Hugh Jackman battles the supernatural forces of Transylvania in Van Helsing.

Kids — Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (June 4)

After an almost two-year hiatus, the little wizard with John Lennon glasses and ruffled hair is back, and in the company of Ron and Hermione, of course. The adaptation of the third novel — in which convicted murderer Sirius Black is after Harry — will star, in addition to old favorites, Gary Oldman as Sirius and Emma Thompson as professor Trelawney. The film will also open on the IMAX screen, providing fans with an all-encompassing experience. — O.R.

Honorable mention: Mandy Moore is planing to steal the boys wizard’s magic with Saved!

Prequel — The Exorcist: The Beginning (Aug. 20)

In 1973, The Exorcist scared the nation as moviegoers embraced the demonic picture while religious groups condemned the film. No matter what side of the argument you’re on, there’s no denying The Exorcist is one of the best horror films ever made. After two failed sequels, producers have decided a change of a pace is necessary and an Exorcist prequel was developed. The Exorcist: The Beginning can’t possibly be any worse than The Exorcist II: The Heretic but it has a long way to go before approaching the original shocking story of possession and what will always be arguably known as the scariest film of all. — P.S.

Honorable mention: The Exorcist is the only option.

Comedy — Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (June 18)

Remember the time when Marcia got hit in the nose with a ball? Christine Taylor may not have been the original Brady daughter, but starring opposite husband Ben Stiller and funnyman Vince Vaughn, she’s found her own opportunity to get smacked in the face. Giving their favorite childhood sport a spin, the two Hollywood comedians will make sure you “grab life by the ball.” — O.R.

Honorable mention: Will Ferrell extends his comedic resume with Anchorman and hopes to recapture the success of Elf and Old School.

Friends till the end

Everyone has one form of escapism or another, whether it’s a CD, movie or a TV program. When the days are long, it’s there to provide relief from whatever happens in the subsequent 24 hours. Television gets the brunt of public scrutiny because many Americans view the tube as an educational outlet. What many seem to forget, is that TV is about entertainment and being able to get drawn into situations. Entertainment is generally viewed as trivial and meaningless by some, but, for a large portion of the public, it has strong personal resonance.

With just three episodes left of my escape, Friends has become an aid for me to help overcome numerous obstacles. TV is just the ultimate vacation where school, work and arguments don’t matter. It’s a place to turn when pressure becomes too overwhelming to handle.

As a child, it was great knowing that a half-hour show would transform my world from one filled with stress to one of careless fun. For the past 10 seasons, Friends has been there to make me feel normal. No matter what happened in the past six days, Chandler, Monica, Rachel, Ross, Phoebe and Joey could help put it aside, even if just for a short time.

Friends has been a constant through many difficult times in my life — my parents’ constant fighting, loss of one of my best friends and finding myself in a strange city. Friends is not the best show ever, but each character reflected an element of my personality and a perfect life one could only wish for.

My father is an uneducated man who always tried to push a love for sports into both of his sons. My brother, Manuel, played baseball, basketball and football and was my father’s image of perfection. Since I wasn’t athletically inclined, my father viewed me as a distant second. But the creators of Friends gave me a chance to see what a good father could have been: Ross loved his son Ben and his infant daughter Emma equally.

In my darkest hours, Friends brought a rare smile to my face while a childhood friend was dying in front of my eyes from pancreatic cancer. It was an emotional time and the sextet was there to supply the necessary laughter needed for my recovery.

Friends would again be there for me as it came time to start college. In search of independence, USF was the perfect choice, leaving my buddies and relatives behind in the search of self-discovery. Moving to Tampa with no one to talk to besides a few people from high school, my first semester was a personal struggle. Through it all, season nine was the background of my freshman year. Friends was a way for the same faces I’ve seen for the last nine years to make me feel at ease drowning in a sea of more than 30,000 students.

Not only have the painful moments escaped, but the joyous ones — getting my license, my first pet and the numerous shenanigans with my pals — have been intertwined with some of the Friends episodes.

With an approaching May 6 finale, emotions are rising to the surface as a big chapter in my life comes to a close. What will happen with Ross and Rachel? What does the future hold for married Phoebe? All these questions will be silenced when the final curtain drops on Friends. As the actors take their final bows, the countless laughs will live on through syndication and the DVD releases.

My childhood memories are littered with the 230 plus episodes and countless laughs shared with the Friends that are just too good to be true.

Escapism ties to us all. One thing that remains true is that we all look to what we could’ve been or more often what we should’ve been.

Under the radar

Hedwig and the Angry Inch
(USA, 2001)

A beautiful story of a man (or a woman, however you want to look at it), searching for lost love and stolen songs. This rock musical of gender questionable character started as an off-Broadway play and can still be seen on stage in certain locations. It includes edgy music and an even edgier subject matter: an East Berlin transvestite who tries to capture fame in the United States after an ex-lover steals her music. The film was not a box office hit but scored big with devoted fans and was even considered the next Rocky Horror Picture Show. Whether that is true, only time will tell. — Olga Robak

Shattered Glass
(USA/Canada, 2003)

The film gives the true story of Stephen Glass, a reporter for The New Republic who fabricated more than two dozen articles. Shattered Glass is a straightforward drama balanced with solid direction and a cast of talented actors. Peter Sarsgaard’s performance was one of the best supporting roles of 2003, perfectly capturing the essence of Chuck Lane, then-editor of The New Republic. The film excellently demonstrates the heights Glass achieved and showed how it all began to unravel because of Forbes’ Online magazine. Shattered Glass beautifully captures an infamous event in the history of journalism and Glass’ fictional brand of the news lead to his subsequent humiliation. — Pablo Saldana

The Red Violin
(Le Violin Rouge, Canada,1998)

An intricately woven story about a famous musical instrument that switches hands over the span of three centuries. Without overrmoralizing it discusses the demise of music and its transformation into a purely profitable medium rather than an artistic outlet. The film makes elegant transitions between the several locations in which the action takes place. The plot is linked by flashbacks to a young mother who learns her fate through a tarot reading. The Red Violin stars Samuel L. Jackson in one of his softer roles but also one of his stronger ones. — O.R.

In the Mood for Love
(Fa yeung nin wa, Hong Kong, 2000)

Wong Kar-Wai stands alone on a particular perch in the cinematic pantheon. His contributions thus far have been flattened by their meandering tone and lack of any manageable attempts at humor. Happy Together was wrecked by its insipid conception of what can drive an erstwhile lover to retreat from socialization. That said, its characters did possess wit and thereby hint at Kar-Wai’s potential as a director, which comes to fruition with In the Mood for Love. It is easy enough to outline a film involving a man and a woman whose spouses have an affair and involve themselves in a illicit relationship with each other, it’s a different matter to experience it. — Adrian Dowe

Waking Life
(USA, 2001)

Waking Life is less a movie and more a philosophy class. The film’s animated look pulls viewers into a 140-minute lecture on life and what it all boils down to. In the film, a man encounters a multitude of characters with their own perceptions and views on the meaning of human existence. Waking Life dares to make viewers think and is in stark contrast to most films, which are only taken at face value; the film demands more and delivers many scenes that should deepen the average viewers understanding of life. The visuals are filled with bright, bold colors that underline each character’s own self discovery. — P.S.

Run, Lola, Run
(Lola Rennt, Germany, 1998)

Subtitles are never fun, especially for audiences with short attention spans or college students looking for a break from the insane amount of reading assignments, but Run, Lola, Run is the exception. This suspense thriller comes to life with vibrant direction and engages audiences despite the difference in language. Lola strives to raise money to save her boyfriend’s life, but the plot is far secondary to the clever images and a great cast. Sure, Run, Lola, Run is in another language, but the film is simply the best German export since the Volkswagen Bug hit U.S. shores. — P.S.

East is East
(United Kingdom, 1999)

When Bend It Like Beckham came out, the American audiences went Brit crazy, completely overlooking a cleverer production from only a few years back. Beckham’s Sikh family has its quirks, but it’s the traditional Pakistani father of the Khan family and all his children in East is East that gives edge and humor to the culture shock. Set in the ’70s, the film deals with issues relevant at the time, such as women’s empowerment and homosexuality, all in its own comical way. — O.R.

Irreversible
(France, 2002)

Though director Gaspar No�’s tribute to the mores of revenge makes for a brutal assault upon the senses of the average viewer, there is something to be said for a film whose plot arc unfolds in reverse from the fulcrum of a one-take rape scene. While it is easy to sympathize with Vincent Cassell’s character after his sister is raped and to hope that everything is meant to be a protracted dream sequence, the movie’s moral context serves as a reminder of how horrid the real world can be at times. No� achieves the unthinkable here as anyone managing to be forewarned can never be prepared for a face-off with what could be tomorrow’s leading story on the evening news. — A.D.

Amores Perros
(Mexico, 2000)

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu garnered universal praise and a Best Foreign Picture nomination for his visually stunning flick, Amores Perros. Inarritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga created a complex story in which all the characters are connected by a tragic accident. The film explores the dark depths of love, redemption, revenge and loss with an eye on each character’s progression through a wide range of emotions. Think 21 Grams, without big name stars, a multi-million-dollar budget and English. The first time was the charm as Amores Perros is a piece of motion picture perfection with no flaws, and a directorial vision of something uniquely real. — P.S.

Buena Vista Social Club
(Germany/USA, 1999)

This documentary follows a group of Cuban musicians reunited by Ry Cooder, a legendary American guitarist, trying to bring the group to life. The Cubans, living in near poverty and almost forgotten by the same people who enjoyed their music in previous decades, reminisce about their musical endeavors while the film artfully shows their world. The musical journey takes the Cubans from Havana to Amsterdam to Carnegie Hall in New York City. All the while, director Wim Wenders uses his artful eye to bring out the beauty of the music and the atmosphere that surrounds it, accentuated by the antiquated feel of Havana. — O.R.

No Man’s Land
(Nicija Zemlja, Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2001)

The film won the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award in the same year that the French darling Amelie was nominated, causing an uprising among the yuppie art film lovers. But most of those people missed this film, an important piece of art both politically and socially. It takes place in no man’s land, literally, between the Bosnian and Serb frontlines, while the Balkan war is being fought. Two soldiers of opposite sides are stuck in a trench and must survive each other and everyone else’s attempt to rescue them. The film is an important commentary that blames everyone for the trouble in former Yugoslavia through a cynical, sometimes even funny, script and poignant filmmaking. — O.R.

Escaping TV Land

Name: Matthew Perry

Claim to fame: The sarcastic Chandler Bing from Friends.

Resume: Perry has worked with some of Hollywood’s leading ladies, such as Salma Hayek, Elizabeth Hurley and fellow TV alumni Neve Campbell. But, despite the pleasant company, Perry’s film career has fizzled, producing duds (Fools Rush In), mildly funny romantic comedies (Three to Tango) and one completely unwatchable flick (Serving Sara). A few words of wisdom: Stick to primetime. Maybe a few more West Wing appearances or even a recurring guest spot on Matt LeBlanc’s Friends spin-off, Joey, would help a bit.

Latest projects: He rejoins Bruce Willis and Amanda Peet in The Whole Ten Yards, a sequel to their 2000 hit comedy.

–Pablo Saldana

Name: Hillary Duff

Claim to Fame: She’s played TV’s Lizzie McGuire since 2001 and got her big break on-screen in Agent Cody Banks (also starring TV’s teen royalty Frankie Muniz).

Resume: As the Lizzie McGuire incarnate — both on the small and silver screen — Duff has made a fortune that now branches out into the music world with Metamorphosis, her debut album.

Latest projects: The recent Cheaper by the Dozen (released on DVD on Tuesday) was a smash in theaters and an advancement in Duff’s career. Up next is A Cinderella Story, a modernization of the classic fairly tale, prepped for prepubescent girls dreaming of a prince charming in the form of horny 14-year-olds.

–Olga Robak

Name: Elisha Cuthbert

Claim to Fame: It takes more than just parts as extras to get onto the cover of Maxim, it takes one of the lead roles on the hit series 24. And a nice rack appeal.

Resume: She’s had small roles in several movies, including Old School and Love Actually, but nothing major, that is if you don’t count starring in Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Latest projects: The Girl Next Door, in which she plays a porn star, looks to be a disposable comedy with lots of cleavage, nudity and suggestive language. What a great opportunity.

–Olga Robak

Name: Jennifer Love Hewitt

Claim to Fame: Her first big role was in Sister Act 2, but it wasn’t until Party of Five, that the starlet got her big break.

Resume: Her impressive list of films include I Know What You Did Last Summer, it’s cleverly titled sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, Heartbreakers and The Tuxedo. She’s also made the crossover to music. With three albums to her name, the elevator music won’t be stopping anytime soon.

Latest projects: Garfield: The Movie — Garfield, the laziest cat in the world, jumps, dances and runs. Not even JLH’s presence can save this movie.

–Olga Robak

Name: Jennifer Garner

Claim to Fame: Yes, that was her in Dude, Where’s My Car? but the Oscar invitations didn’t start coming until Alias made its way from dull to dull with big ratings.

Resume: After landing a role in Daredevil, Garner grabbed the attention of Hollywood writers who designed Daredevil’s spin-off movie, Elektra, just for her. Garner’s also done a recruitment video for the CIA. She does play a spy, you know.

Latest projects: In an attempted twist on Big’s plot, the brilliant minds in some Hollywood think tank came up with 13 Going on 30, Garner’s first leading role.

–Olga Robak

Name: Christina Applegate

Claim to Fame: She first came into the spotlight as the dim-witted Kelly Bundy on the dysfunctional family sitcom, Married … With Children.

Resume: In 1991, Applegate left the small screen for her motion picture debut in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead. The film was ignored by audiences and, a few supporting roles later, Applegate returned to the sitcom format with Jesse. Even with those setbacks, Applegate seemed poised to score a hit film starring alongside Cameron Diaz (The Sweetest Thing) and Gwyneth Paltrow (View From the Top). To the surprise of no one but her, both flicks ultimately tanked.

Latest Projects: Will movie patrons turn out for Anchorman starring funnyman of the moment, Will Ferrell and a still unproven Applegate? For her career’s sake, hopefully they will.

–Pablo Saldana

Name: Sarah Michelle Gellar

Claim to fame: She was television’s hottest supernatural hunter for seven years in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Resume: Gellar gained some exposure in All My Children before landing the biggest gig of her short career: Buffy, the kicker of undead ass. While her small screen characters made Gellar a household name, poor choices in film roles — Simply Irresistible and Harvard Man — led to failures at the box office. Gellar didn’t escape her TV image until she stepped into the devilish role of Kathryn in Cruel Intentions.

Latest Projects: Gellar scored again with Scooby Doo 2: Monster’s Unleashed, which recently opened at number one at the box office. While on TV she kills demons, but on the silver screen Gellar has been slayed by a disgruntled fisherman, a ghost-faced murderer and now she’s lining up to become mincemeat yet again in The Grudge.

–Pablo Saldana

Name: John Stamos

Claim to fame: In Full House, Stamos played a cool uncle with a love for everything Elvis. His likeable TV character made him at instant celebrity.

Resume: With numerous small supporting roles, Stamos never made the full transition from TV uncle to movie star stud. He made one wise career decision by marrying Rebecca Romijn. Stamos has Romijn pulling in the big bucks, though, while he focuses on long distance phone commercials.

Latest Projects: Stamos is hoping to bring home the bread in the upcoming romantic comedy, Knots.

–Pablo Saldana

Prince & Me rides on the coattails of others

Romantic comedies are easy sells and may come with a built-in target audience, but The Prince & Me might be below the standards of its intended demographic. The movie sticks strictly with the romantic formula, not so much as even daring to tread a road less traveled.

Julia Stiles is a talented young actress who has yet to take on a challenging role. Instead, she wants to be America’s sweetheart. Too bad the competition is stiff with slightly better actresses, such as Reese Witherspoon and Kirsten Dunst, all rivals for the coveted sweetheart spot.

The Prince & Me is sprinkled with a few laughs that come mostly from cultural stereotypes and the film’s supporting cast. The flick is the realization of every prepubescent girl’s fantasy, with some clever instances of independent woman attitude.

In the quiet backroads of the country, a small town girl, Paige Morgan (Stiles), wants to save the world and isn’t looking for love. Across the big pond in Denmark, a young prince Edvard (Luke Mably) stirs up controversy placing negative attention on the royal family. After the latest catastrophe, Edvard is influenced by a Girls Gone Wild-esque commercial to attend a college in Wisconsin.

The filmmakers want audiences to believe the two leads aren’t right for each other, but despite it all, love finds a way. The plot continues to unfold predictably without any surprises. It’s filled with humorless moments where the same romantic comedy jokes are recycled and reused once again.

The Prince & Me is a highly glossed-over fable of a lonely small town girl who finds her real-life prince charming and still achieves her imposing goals. If screenwriters would’ve taken a less obvious route, the film could’ve been a decent date film rather than a forgettable piece of celluloid that blends in with the hordes of other disposable romances.

Stiles does her best with her underwritten character, which is the sign of a good actress. She just needs to work on knowing when to say no or hire a new agent.

Should she ever want to stand out among her rivals, maybe gaining a few pounds and getting a decent script could be enough to help her secure the industry’s recognition. Hey, it worked for Charlize Theron.

Comic flick goes to Hell

Tired of all the masculine heroes such as X-Men, Spiderman and Batman? Here comes a hero with seemingly dark origins and a less than manly name, Hellboy. In the past few years, comic book heroes have opted away from the suffering industry and headed for the lucrative silver screen, bringing popcorn entertainment to a new level of excess.

The explosions are bigger, the storylines are more elaborate and the heroes are two-dimensional without creating any real “connections” to audiences. Batman rose from the ashes of the Superman franchise to reignite a pop culture obsession.

But the ’90s weren’t the time of larger-than-life action heroes: subsequent Batman pictures failed to capture the magic of the original, but this fiasco only slowed the inevitable.

Hellboy is an average addition to the latest trend. The film’s unbelievable story is suited only for the pages of a corner comic store, and it’s constant eye-candy is hard to swallow.

Throw in a cheesy romantic subplot, and Hellboy is clearly following a massively successful blueprint launched by a blind avenger (Daredevil) and a daywalker (Blade).

In Hellboy, Nazis attempt to release the seven demons of chaos but the all-good American forces arrive in time to stop the apocalypse. But not before Hellboy managed to slipped through. A grizzled scientist (Jeffrey Tambor) raises the escapee as his own son despite the chiseled horns, bright red tan and a hand of stone. His father grooms the unusual child for a career in crime fighting, and, along the way, Hellboy joins the ranks of Bigfoot and Nessy in tabloid mythology. But this time the conspiracy is real — the FBI has a bureau dedicated to paranormal activity. The demons are restless and want out, so they empower Rasputin (Karel Roden) to make Hellboy reopen the portal.

Hellboy isn’t even a secondary character in the comic universe, but most studios have already bought the rights to those chased-after heroes. The coming seasons don’t show a slight trace of this trend letting up: films such as The Punisher, The Fantastic Four and The Green Hornet will all battle for a spot atop of the box office.

But despite the popular notion, to the contrary not all comic-inspired films are Hollywood fluff. Movies such as Road to Perdition and From Hell — both published as graphic novels — prove that adaptations don’t have to be trivial. The films can actually be decent dramas.

Hellboy singles itself out from its predecessors by not allowing the material to become too serious, adding clever dialogue and keeping a distinct sense of situational humor.

The plot and performances take a back seat to a 100-minute showcase of what the latest and greatest special effects have to offer.

A key element to the success of these types of films is escapism, a return to a more innocent time when comic books were popular and the best remedy for any parental scoldings was reading your idol’s latest predicaments.

But if that’s the case, Hellboy has a rather marginal following and lacks the mass crossover appeal of his fellow peers. So, what’s left for the hell spawn? An audience that’s willing to take a few risks might leave with a mild surprise on their platter: A film with a mean serving of action along with a side of witty humor.

New Dawn breaks

Now that the sawdust has finally cleared from last year’s dull Texas Chainsaw Massacre, here comes a horror remake that, while not up to par with the original, can hold onto the guts of the story.

What sets the Dawn of the Dead remake apart from the original are the drastic changes of the film’s details. Still, the remake stays true to the original Dawn’s theme — a message of adversity in a hopeless world.

Dawn has a high-gloss feel and special effects that would’ve blown minds in the ’70s but seem too unrealistic to be scary and too serious to be a spoof.

The film is kept afloat by a surprisingly believable cast of little-knowns that string together this fast-paced film about a zombie apocalypse. In George A. Romero’s 1979 classic, four unlikely strangers form a strong bond with one another to survive in a zombie-overrun world. In Zack Snyder’s remake, almost all the elements of Romero’s original vision are gone with the exception of a shopping mall.

The movie opens in what is a seemingly serene neighborhood, but by morning havoc strikes and zombies clean out an entire city. Ana (Sarah Polley) returns home after a long day’s work to the loving arms of her boyfriend. One peaceful night later, and her comfortable lifestyle takes a devesting turn for the worse. Fleeing a city that has been overtaken by the undead, Ana encounters four others, and, as a group, they barricade themselves in a shopping mall. As the film progresses, the group becomes larger to accommodate the new horror rule where body counts are larger and deaths are more gruesome.

The original Dawn’s quintessence captured the interactions between characters and their dependence on one another to survive. The remake faithfully keeps this important part intact while satisfying a bloodthirsty audience that has become increasingly harder to impress or surprise.

The film carefully straddles the line between a flashy horror comedy and a slice of theatrical cheese.

Mixing Resident Evil’s style with the flesh-eaters from 28 Days Later, Dawn’s highly stylized execution doesn’t give audiences a moment to catch a breath as every moment brings another attack, killing or dismemberment. The fast pace is a big difference when compared to the slow grind of the original where zombies moved at a snail-like speed and deaths were creative but few.

Dawn takes a shocking turn as the first zombie baby is born on-screen and silenced with a single gunshot. But underneath all the gore and carnage is a drama about surviving the impossible and having to say goodbye. That’s what makes zombie pictures interesting, not the body count or special effects, but this surreal world where living is a privilege not to be taken lightly.

Dawn is nowhere near as cutting edge as the original, but merits inclusion into the Dead franchise. The film is a strong piece of solid entertainment chock full of clever laughs and frights.

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind takes a radical approach to mending a broken heart: essentially brain damage.

The film is not novel or clich�d as it takes a very brutal and direct look on the effect love has on hermit Joel Barish. And how maybe the anguish and heartache of his break-up are just half of a perfect circle.

Eternal Sunshine centers around the saying “‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” The film is triumphant over the hordes of “been there, done that” romances, because it answers one of life’s most important questions: how do we find love and hold on to it?

Charlie Kaufman’s screenplay is flawless. One minute he chimes in with his known blend of quirky, dark humor and then next focuses on the beauty within society’s imperfections.

Kaufman has shifted focus from creating a portal into a movie star’s mind (Being John Malkovich) to twin brothers who live life differently (Adaptation) to making a romance that has depth and is a total original. But the films have one common thread — imaginative dialogue and visuals. Ideas and shots that would normally seem unrealistic or out of place come together to create a strong movie that explores more than the average flick could ever do.

Jim Carrey ditches physical comedy, and his uncanny ability to overact every scene, only to embrace a role that is intriguing due to an awkwardly attractive charisma he gives to his character, Joel. Thanks to Kaufman, Carrey gives a dazzling performance that very few actors could nail.

Kate Winslet is vibrant as Clementine, a rebellious bookstore employee whose mood changes as frequently as her hair color. She and Carrey have an undeniable chemistry that makes Kaufman’s somewhat ridiculous premise of memory-erasing work.

Joel is a guy who doesn’t take risks: from his dull lifestyles to the women he chooses to fall in love with, he plays everything straight. Joel is disaffected, lonely and perfectly content with his life until he meets Clementine, a beauty that completely alters his perspective on life. She forces Joel to take a stroll down the wild side pushing him into strange situations as he begins to fall in love with her.

Joel’s conservative nature and Clementine’s liberal personality clash often throughout the film. A heated argument later, Clementine opts for Lacuna’s radical new memory erase procedure. Joel soon learns of her decision and seeks the same.

The most visually satisfying moments come as Joel refuses to let the memory of Clementine go and technicians struggle to permanently seal them.

Director Michel Gondry, has worked alongside Kaufman before (2001’s Human Nature), who is still largely known as a groundbreaking music video director.

His direction compliments the Kaufman-esque world with bedrooms in the middle of a sandy beach and houses bursting with water. Gondry never distracts from the main purpose of supporting the script and the talented actors.

Despite limited screen time, Kirsten Dunst is fantastic as a receptionist at Lacuna. She uncovers a disturbing secret that eventually affects all characters in the film. Dunst delivers her most honest performance since Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, nearly a decade ago.

Elijah Wood and Mark Ruffalo are a pair of blundering technicians at Lacuna who work well off each other. By prentending to be Joel, Wood becomes Clementine’s rebound after she’d removed Joel from her memories.

Eternal Sunshine is nothing short of brilliant film, packed with stunning visuals. It’s smart, has a meaningful script and a cast of Hollywood’s elite with career best performances only add to it.

Eternal Sunshine is a film that stays with you weeks after seeing it and that provokes you to look past the surface.

An early milestone in a year crammed with the sight of urban dance (You Got Served) and entrapped in religious controversy (The Passion of the Christ), Eternal Sunshine is 2004’s first great film.

Taking Lives from other scripts

First there was the Tomb Raider franchise then Beyond Borders and now Angelina Jolie adds Taking Lives as another dud to a rather unflattering career of wrong choices.

If it was just one bad film, Jolie could be forgiven. But since winning an Academy Award in 1999, she insists on starring in films that are poorly written and a complete waste of what once was good talent.

Taking Lives is flawed because its premise is heavily influenced by other suspense thrillers and the supposed twist is completely predictable. The film plays like a CitiBank identity theft commercial –someone is killing people and then assuming their lives.

Jolie and Ethan Hawke give their underdeveloped characters some life but that can’t help Taking Lives. The film almost literally rips its “original” idea from every cop drama and thriller of the last five years.

FBI profiler Illena Scott (Jolie) is called to Montreal to help solve a series of strange murders believed to be linked to one man, Martin Ashner. But Illena isn’t the typical profiler, instead of using facts, she relies on her intuition to catch killers.

Martin, who apparently faked his own death in the ’80s, is now bent on finding a new life. The Canadian police captain, Lee Claire (Tcheky Karyo), and detectives Paquette (Oliver Martinez) and Duval (Jean-Hugues Anglade) are all supporting Illena in her effort to find the elusive killer.

The murderer’s identity is discovered after the man’s mother (Gena Rowlands) runs into her son. A tough childhood with a loveless mother and becoming a witness in the death of his twin brother apparently led Martin to his life of crime.

James Costa (Hawke) is the only person who can help Illena track down Martin before he strikes again. James witnessed one of the murders and saw the man who did it. Illena believes that James might be next on the killer’s list and tries to trap him.

Jolie gives a notable performance showing signs that she just might be on the track to recovery, but there is only so much depth she can give to a shallow character.

Supporting roles from Hawke, Martinez and Kiefer Sutherland are good, but if the main character is poorly written then the supporting ones are obviously even worse. Hawke delivers, but his character is uninteresting. Martinez is underused — with limited screen time, there’s not much time for the audience to become acquainted with his character. Sutherland does well with what he’s been handed and shines in his few moments onscreen.

Taking Lives is not a horrible film, the premise has just been overdone. How many times can studio execs and filmmakers expect audiences to watch an old premise with a new cast? The same, supposedly surprising situations, present themselves and the characters are just caricatures of those that came before them. The film offers nothing more than a slightly modified version of other such flicks. The opening credits are nearly identical to that of David Fincher’s Se7en. The choice of dark, murky look to the film harkens back to Se7en with a handful of gruesome murders.

The premise of the movie echoes back to Se7en with select scenes straight from The Talented Mr. Ripley and, yes, even Sandra Bullock’s Murder by Numbers. Instead of taking risk to engage the audience, Taking Lives plays it safe by being a carbon copy of its predecessors.

With Taking Lives out of her system, maybe Jolie will try to return to movies with more substance that aren’t based on mediocre video game series. At one point, she was the next big thing, but an almost endless choice of bad films doesn’t deliver the promise from her roles in Girl, Interrupted and Gia.

Bland and unfunny, Mooseport disappoints

Welcome to Mooseport batters audiences with dry situational humor and an overabundance of clich�s. There’s only one reaction acceptable: Thanks, but no thanks.

On the surface, Mooseport seems a decent story: Gene Hackman and Ray Romano fighting over mayorship in a small hick town. But the film is as fresh as last December’s gallon of milk and as funny as Everybody Loves Raymond, and that’s not saying much.

Romano and Hackman are joyless in this tasteless comedy that treads ground covered many times before. Maybe Romano is still accustomed to hearing the sounds of pre-recorded laughter rather than the awkward silence of an audience caught in a cinematic car wreck.

Mooseport has only one stand-out performance: Maura Tierney playing a woman trapped between Romano and Hackman’s crosshairs. And that just won’t cut it.

After suffering a bitter divorce, former Mr. President, Monroe Cole (Hackman) retreats to his vacation home in Mooseport. While there, he looks into various financial endeavors such as a lucrative book deal and a multi-million dollar speaking tour. But the town council has different plans — they ask Monroe to be Mooseport’s mayor. He refuses until his eyes fix on the beautiful Sally (Tierney) and a firm NO becomes a subtle yes that makes the quiet town the center of a media frenzy.

NBC, Newsweek and all other major media outlets swarm Mooseport to catch Amercia’s most beloved president struggling in a close mayoral race against a local handyman.

There is one problem: Handy Harrison (Romano) has also chosen to run for mayor. To make matters worse, Sally is Harrison’s long-time girlfriend.

Monroe is stuck between a rock and a hard place as he, the former commander–in–chief, begins losing to the man who fixes his toilets.

What could’ve been a funny premise was instead turned into a cheesy dramedy with a tired love triangle formula.

Hackman delivers his most unsatisfying performance since 1990’s Loose Cannons, but worse yet, in Mooseport he seems uninterested with the character and the entire film.

He chimes in a few times during the film to give this mindless piece of celluloid trash some rare moments of comedy.

Making his feature film debut, Romano is as bland and boring as his character on Everybody Loves Raymond. Whereas his television show is salvaged by the supporting cast, Romano is completely unequipped to carry a movie on his own. Audiences just don’t want to hear an idiot struggling with the English language for longer than 22-minute increments (George W. Bush is enough for everyone).

Tierney reprises her role from Liar Liar as a woman in a relationship with a man that’s to immature and unable to commit. She provides depth, strength and a sense of independence to her character. If the screenwriters would’ve written more characters like this, Mooseport wouldn’t have been the disaster it is.

The film’s direction barely supports its paper-thin plot and switches approaches so often that it hinders the chance that audiences will care for the characters, disturbing any development.

With nothing going for Mooseport besides one solid performance, the film is agonizing to watch and too painful to remember.

Mooseport is an example of missed opportunities and underperformers (Hackman and Romano) that hand in a piece of commercial trash in hopes the public will dig in.

Mooseport, if shortened, would’ve played better as a 40-minute episode of Everybody Loves Raymond and it still wouldn’t be funny or original, but at least you could change the channel without losing a night at the multiplex.