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HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
By MATT SOERGEL
Morris News Service
OPEN SEASON 3 1/2
stars: A genuinely amusing
computer-animated story
about a domesticated griz
zly (Martin Lawrence) and
a wacky mule deer (Ashton
Kutcher) gathering the
eccentric residents of the
forest to fight back against
hunters in a non-lethal
way, of course. It’s brisk,
unpretentious and pleasant
ly warped, bopping along on
great Paul Westerberg songs.
PG.
THE SCIENCE OF
SLEEP 3 1/2 stars: The
more playful among the art
house crowd should love
this funny and melancholy
bit of extreme whimsy from
Michel (Eternal Sunshine of
the Spotless Mind) Gondry.
Gael Garcia Bernal stars
as a young man who’s hav
ing a hard time distinguish
ing between sleep and wake
fulness, which complicates
work and romance. R.
THE GUARDIAN 3
stars: Kevin Costner’s a
gruff, legendary instructor
of rescue swimmers, while
Ashton Kutcher’s a promis
ing protege.
You’ve seen this kind of
thing before (An Officer and
a Gentleman, anyone?), but
it’s done well here, with less
fuss and fury than you might
expect. Plus it’s about time
someone made a movie about
the Coast Guard. PG-13.
FACING THE GIANTS 2
1/2 stars: A Baptist church
in Albany made this earnest,
Christian-themed movie
about an underdog football
team.
It’s pretty good, and its
message should resonate
quite movingly with many.
PG.
FLYBOYS 2 1/2 stars:
A rousing yarn about Yanks
who flew flimsy planes for
the French before the U.S.
entered World War I. It’s
incredibly corny and blissful
ly, stubbornly out of current
fashion. That shouldn’t be
a problem for many. James
Franco, Jean Reno and some
well-staged mid-air battle
scenes star. It’s good fun.
PG-13.
FEARLESS 2 1/2 stars:
Jet Li has said this is his
last martial-arts movie. If
so, it’s not a bad way to go
out, as a graying, noble hero
fighting a worthy opponent.
Set in China 100 years ago,
the film feels thoughtful and
philosophical, preaching the
uselessness of vengeance.
But don’t worry c there’s
still a good bit of fighting.
PG-13.
ALL THE KING’S MEN
2 stars: The grandest seem
ing so-so movie you’re likely
to see this year. Sean Penn
throws himself into his role
as a hell-raising Louisiana
politician, but every time the
film moves away from him c
and it does that a lot c it bogs
down in murky subplots. For
all its period detail, it feels
half-formed, never coming to
sweaty, breathing life. PG
-13.
THE LAST KISS 3 stars:
Zach Brass heads this smart
ensemble look at the various
ways people mess up their
love lives. He’s a 29-year-old
guy flirting with a college
student, though he already
has a perfect, pregnant girl
friend. R.
GRIDIRON GANG 2 1/2
stars: The Rock is a tough
coach guiding a football
team of teenage criminals.
It’s based on a documentary
about a real team and is best
when it stays hard-bitten
and realistic. It slips when it
goes all Mighty Ducks on us.
Still, it works. PG-13.
HOLLYWOODLAND 2
1/2 stars: Ben Affleck gained
some weight to play TV’s
old Superman, Diane Lane
is his older lover and Adrien
Brody is a down-and-out pri
vate eye looking into Supe’s
mysterious death. It looks
great, and it stays interest
ing and often witty for a long
while, though it eventually
does runs out of gas. R.
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Leonardo DiCatrio, left, Martin Sheen, center, and Mark Wafilberg star in ‘Departed.’
‘Departed’ an extraordinary cat-and-mouse game
By MATT SOERGEL
Morris News Seri’ice
So Jack Nicholson strolls
up to a restaurant bar in
The Departed with blood
splattering his shirt, blood
up to his elbows, then pro
ceeds to have a conversation
as if nothing were amiss.
And only when he’s done
does he turn to a hench
man and say, in the most
offhand manner: “Jimmy,
bring the mop.” Nicholson’s
played the devil before, and
while he claims no partic
ular provenance over the
underworld here, you can
still smell the sulfur that
lingers around his Francis
Costello, the seedy king of
Boston’s Irish mob. A goa
teed satyr, he’s decrepit,
menacing, foul of mouth
and reeking of corruption
- Nicholson gets this flam
boyant role so right, in so
many ways.
And just wait until you
see his imitation of a rat;
it’s worth the ticket right
there.
He’s the comic center
piece of Martin Scorsese’s
The Departed, which man
ages to be darkly hilarious
- it really is funny - as well
as tense, complicated and
bloody, bloody, bloody.
Scorsese has a dream
cast and a crack crew: His
regular editor, Thelma
Schoonmaker, keeps the
crime yarn hopping
it moves, and you’d bet
ter hang on - through the
shortest two-and-half hours
you’ll spend this year. And
William Monahan’s script
is rich in earthy insults,
florid profanity and decid
edly incorrect speech; his
dialogue has real sting, a
Reel Releases
Automobiles have great movie history
By STEVEN UHLES
Morris News Sendee
In the past week, I’ve had
the good fortune to witness
- as opposed to participate
in - not one but two car
accidents.
Both were fender-bend
ers of the common rear
end varietal and everyone
involved was able to walk
away uninjured.
Still, the few unexpected
seconds when life shifts
from mundane to the bump
and crunch of metal colli
sion has a way of altering
perception.
Although only a passive
observer, I found myself
not only driving with a bit
more care but also consid
ering how a car collision is
a great metaphor for life in
our automobile age. Here
are a few favorites:
THE BLUES
BROTHERS
(1980)
Extravagant and perhaps
a little indulgent, the finale
of this comedy about a pair
of musical “brothers” fea
tures the destruction of no
ENTERTAINMENT
At A Glance
The Departed
4 out of 4 stars
Who’s it for? If you can
handle the violence, this is
a scorching, fine movie. And
Scorsese’s fans will be happy
to see him back in the crimi
nal underworld.
Credits: Starring Leonardo
DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack
Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg,
Alec Baldwin, Vera Farmiga
and Martin Sheen.
Running time; 2 hours, 29
minutes.
Family guide: A strong R.
Much bloody violence, strong
profanity, sexual situations.
real snap to it.
The Departed is based,
pretty faithfully, on a fine
Hong Kong thriller, Infernal
Affairs (a great name, that
is), whose twisty plot pro
vides a great framework for
Scorsese to work his magic.
It’s good to see him
delighting in this genre
stuff, with menacing thugs
and burly cops, with stake
outs and showdowns and
shootouts.
He gives it all a twist,
though; the exaggerated
conventions of the silly
action movies are not for
him. Here, the violence is
sudden and nasty. There’s
a beautifully staged chase
on foot - at walking speed.
And he can find incredible
menace in the simple sound
of a cell phone buzzing.
The plot has something
about stolen microproces
sors and a foreign govern
ment that wants to buy
them, but that’s just the
McGuffin; it doesn’t really
fewer than a dozen specially
constructed “Bluesmobiles”
and nearly three times as
many police and civilian
cars, including a Ford Pinto
dropped from a crane.
FEARLESS
(1993)
A criminally overlooked
film, Fearless features Jeff
Bridges as an air crash
survivor whose brush with
death causes him to read
just his view of the world.
In a pivotal scene, he inten
tionally wrecks a car so his
unwilling passenger can
share his experience. Of
course, there was little risk
of injury : His chosen ride
was a Volvo.
THE GREAT
GATSBY
(1974)
The third and best
known adaptation of F.
Scott Fitzgerald’s enduring
work, Gatsby stars Robert
Redford as a hollow Long
Island aristocrat who takes
the blame for the hit-and
run of an acquaintance’s
mistress.
matter. The Departed is
really a cat and mouse game
or better yet, a cat and
rat game -- about two men
whose lives are nothing but
deception. And though nei
ther of them knows who the
other is, they’d dearly like
to find out.
Matt Damon is Colin
Sullivan, an ambitious,
clean-cut kid recruited by
Costello to infiltrate the
State Troopers. The plan’s
been in the works since he
was a preteen, and now he
graduates from the acad
emy, gets his badge, and
worms his way deep into
the cops’ bureaucracy.
Leonardo DiCaprio, mean
while, is Billy Costigan Jr., a
young state trooper who’s
recruited to go way, way
undercover to work his way
into Costello’s gang. Soon
he’s running drugs, beating
up Costello’s enemies, get
ting deeper into the life of
thuggery. And all the while,
Costello is sniffing around;
he smells a rat somewhere.
The story focuses on this:
Colin and Billy, these two
Boston Irish kids, are not
that different from each
other (they even fall for the
same woman, a psychiatrist
played by Vera Farmiga).
They’ve taken different
paths in life, but they kind
of look alike. They’re both
rats. And there are plenty of
people who’d like to exter
minate them.
It’s a convoluted, rich plot
that goes back decades, but
The Departed is so sure
footed it all makes sense,
even as it races along
DiCaprio is believably des
perate as a cop trying to
stay sane as his double life
Beautifully shot and
acted, this film becomes
more essential with each
passing year.
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goes by, month after month.
And Damon is perfectly
loathsome as a hollow, cra
ven man whose whole life
is a lie; he looks boyish still,
but that’s fading fast.
They’re surrounded by a
fine, colorful bunch of good
guys, bad guys and some in
between guys.
Martin Sheen is low-key
and fatherly as the cop who
recruits Billy for his danger
ous double life, while Mark
Wahlberg is ferociously
funny as Sheen’s surly, abu
sive partner. Alec Baldwin,
now that most dependable
of supporting actors, has
some great scenes as anoth
er aggressive state trooper .
Costello, meanwhile, can
lean on an array of thugs
worthy of Lock, Stock and
Two Smoking Barrels. Chief
among them is the brutal
Mr.
French (not his real
name), played by a bearded
Ray (Sexy Beast) Winstone,
and a dim Irishman named
Fitzy (David O’Hara).
The film is packed with
great characters, but don’t
get attached to any of
them: It’s not giving away
too much to say that the
departed in the title refers
to the “faithful departed”
at a funeral -- and there
will be many, many who’ve
departed by the time this
energetic, pitch-black tale
is done.
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2006
Web Watch
By RICH RAY ’
Morris News Service
Clusty.com
Like other metasearch
engines, this site queries
several top search engines
to deliver results. However,
what makes Clusty.com
unique relates to what
happens after you search.
Instead of delivering vol
umes of search results in
a seemingly never-ending
list, the search tool places
similar results into clus
ters. Not only can this
method help you view
results by topic (to hone
in on what you’re really
looking for), you can also
discover unexpected rela
tionships between items.
www.clusty.com.
Pixelsurgeon.
com
In addition to finding
creative and off-the-beat
en path content culled
from the Net, this regu
larly-updated and cut
ting-edge offering fea
tures reviews of movies,
games and music. You’ll
also find interviews with
designers, musicians,
filmmakers and artists, as
well as Web-based exhi
bitions of artwork from
around the globe. Click
the Competitions link to
find ways to win DVDs,
soundtracks and more.
www.pixelsurgeon.com.
Create a logo
This free graphics gen
erator can help you cre
ate a free logo (for your
company, Web site, group,
etc.) without much effort.
Create a logo on the fly,
and download your cre
ation in the file format of
your choice. The site also
enables Web designers to
create buttons for their
sites and to download
from over 1,r200 available
fonts, www.cooltext.com.
For sale today
The aim of this Web
based store and commu
nity is to sell “cool stuff
cheap.” However, as many
retail sites add products
to their online invento
ry, the folks at Woot.com
refuse to sell more than
one product at a time. A
new product (usually a
consumer electronics item
at a bargain price) is post
ed for sale each day until
the supply runs out. Find
out what’s on sale today.
www.woot.com.
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