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loose final act. Directed by Clin!
Eastwood. (Beectrwood. Carmike)
THELMA & LOUISE (R) 1991.
Director Ridley Scotfis saucy aid darkly
comedic “feminist flick’ tags along with
an unhappy waitress (Susan Sarandon)
and an unhappy housewife (Geena
Davis) as they escape their mundane
lives in Arkansas and take off across the
country in a '66 Thunderbird. With
Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen,
Christopher McDonald and Brad Pitt.
Showing Thursday, 8/24. (Tate)
WHAT LIES BENEATH (R) Is it a
ghost story or a murder caper? Who
knows? This weak thriller starts out like
a creepy love letter to Hitchcock but suf
fers from too many preposterous con
trivances and eventually ends up like a
Friday The 13th sequel. Michelle Pfeiffer
and Harrison Ford are apparently a
wealthy, h^ipily married Vermont
couple, but trouble comes after their
(laughter's exit to college. The film effec
tively builds up to some very frightening
moments but unfortunately relies too
heavily on the new trick ol startling the
audience with a loud, sudden blast of
orchestral accent. Directed by Robert
Zemekis. (Beechwood, Carmike)
X'MEN (PG-13) Based on the popular
Marvel Comics comic book series,
director Bryan Singer's (The Usual
Suspects) latest is an entertaining but
slightly unbalanced first entry in what is
certain to become a sci-fi superhero
franchise. At the center of the story are
Rogue (Anna Paquin), a confused
young woman afraid of her power to
absorb the memories of others by touch
and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), a gruff
tough guy with a complicated past, keen
senses and a skeleton enhanced by
unbreakable metal. The good guys, led
by Professor X (Patrick Stewart), include
Jear. Grey (Famke Janssen), Cyclops
(James Marsden), and Storm (Halle
Berry). The villains are led by Professor
Xls old friend-tumed-fiend Magneto (Ian
McKellan), and include Toad (Ray Park),
Sabretooth (Tyfsr Mane) and Mystique
(Rebecca Romiin-Stamos). Fans will
love this. Others may frown in contu
sion. Ends Thursday. (Carmike)
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MY BRAIN OR YOURS?
THE CELL (R) If you can imagine a Marilyn
Manson or Nine Inch Nails music video—with all
of the expected horrorshow devices and torture
chamber footage amped up to the nth degree—
stretched into a confusing, two-hour crime flick
with a decent cast and a relentless series of
sprawling special effects, you'd be pretty close
to the idea of The Cell. This visually stunning,
problematic thriller from first-time feature film
director Tarsem (AKA Tarsem Singh) makes
weird use of science fiction, serial murders, vir
tual reality and spotty psychology in an
attempt to create a decidedly modernistic cine
matic journey. The results, unfortunately, are
varied.
Tarsem, working from a script by Mark
Protosevich, borrows heavily from the tones,
visual elements and storylines of such recent
thrillers and dramas as Seven, The Silence Of The
Lambs, The Matrix and Stir Of Echos. The rookie
filmmaker (Tarsem previously worked on televi
sion ads and music videos, including R.E.M.'s
"Losing My Religion") sets the whole thing up
as a mind trip fantasy, then a cop movie, then a
psychedelic descent into a hellish nightmare
and back out again. One wishes the overly ambi
tious director had concentrated on one angle in
particular rather than running circles around
some damned fascinating cinematic notions.
Jennifer Lopez, who proved herself in the
recent Out Of Sight, stars as Catherine Deane, a
young, soft-spoken LA. child psychologist (with
amazing makeup and nails) who has a talent for
connecting with troubled clients. She is
recruited for a project in which experimental
technology is used to establish a link between
her mind and that of a little boy who is
comatose from advanced schizophrenia. Using
an experimental technique called the "neurolog
ical synaptic transfer system," she's able to
enter his subconscious while donning strangely
erotic-looking virtual reality gear. These ses
sions take place in a sci-fi laboratory, with
earnest scientists (Marianne Jean-Baptiste of
Secrets And Lies and Dylan Baker of Happiness)
monitoring through plate-glass windows.
In a stunning opening scene, the amazing,
lush imagery and the luring "what if?" factor of
venturing into the mind of someone in a coma
instantly reels in the audience.
Enter the parallel crime story. The FBI is des
perately chasing a seriously deranged serial
killer named Carl Stargher (Vincent D'Onofrio in
yet another madman role), a local schizophrenic
who tortures, drowns, and "bleaches" his female
captives, then reconstructs them to look like
dolls. Stargher walks around with steel rings
hanging from his back (hov/d they get there?)
and likes to hover over his victims, suspended
by chains.
Gung-ho agent Peter Novak (Vince Vaughn)
has been tracking this killer for months. When
the FBI team finds the body of the latest victim,
Novak somehow deciphers the killer's ritual and,
using slim dues and brilliant lab work (the griz
zled character actor James Gammon has some
fine scenes here), figures out that the latest
victim has only hours to live before a clockwork
mechanism brings about her death.
They find Stargher, but in a coma, and they
enlist Catherine and the sdentists, of course.
Enter the endless, Marilyn Manson-style
freak show video montage. Tarsem pumps things
up with some wild imagery in the first couple of
"mindtrips" using slow and fast photography,
bizarre sets and costumes, and a running S&M-
in-Oz theme. As Catherine tip-toes into the
killer's subconscious, the film treats the viewers
to numerous frightening flashbacks into his vio
lent, twisted childhood. When things get rough,
Novak persuades Catherine's team to let him join
her in Starghei's subconscious. And things get
rougher—esperially for the attentive moviegoer.
Altogether, it's an uneasy debut horn a bud
ding director witn some enormous ideas.
Ballard Lesemann
THURSDAY
Shooter Special
FRIDAY
Afternoon SUPER Happy Hour
247 EAST BROAD STREET
WEDNESDAY
Happy Hour All Night
AUGUST 23, 2000 FLAGPOLE 03