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Indian TV show "Who Wants to Be a
Millionaire?,’ Slumdog Millionaire,
winner of the Golden Globe for Best
Drama, would be a near perfect adapta
tion of that unwritten classic from
one of literatures most popular mack
daddies. Given the circumstances,
Oscar winners director Danny Boyle
and screenwriter Simon Beaufoy (The
Full Mont/) have merely adapted
Indian author Vikas SwarupS 0 & A
into an uncommon feel-good movie
that accomplishes its uplifting objective
without resorting to clingy cliches that
leave the emotions sugar-sticky from
their manipulative fumblings.
STREET FIGHTER: THE LEGEND
OF CHUN-U (PG-13) This contender
for worst movie of the year wouldn't be
vying for the title had it gone straight
to DVD like a weil-behaved bad movie
should. The only people it might
remotely interest, fans of the Street
Fighter Videogames, would be better off
staying at home playing Street Fighter
IV. The flick is dangerously unhip when
it's trying to be “cool.’
TAKEN (PG-13) Recently retired "pre
venter." Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson),
has given up his dangerous, globetrot
ting profession to be closer to his
teenaged daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace,
"Lost"). Shortly after turning 17, Kim
asks her dad for permission to travel
to Paris for the summer. Well aware
of the dangers lurking in the shadows-
of the City of Lights. Bryan reticently
agrees. As soon as you can translate “I
told you so" into French, Kim and her
pal have been kidnapped by human
traffickers from Albania. Bryan goes all
commando on Paris, threatening to tear
down the Eiffel Tower if he has to. You
can easily imagine how this venge
ful mission goes, but director Morel
makes the trip feel fresh and new. It's
a quick, tough movie that your parents
might even enjoy thanks to the toned-
down, PG-13 violence.
TWILIGHT (PG-13) Fortunately.
Twilight Isn't the unmitigated disaster
I anticipated. Thanks to a writer and
director who took the Romeo and Juliet
courtship of a vampire and a human
seriously, the film rises above giggle-
inducing dialogue, groan-inducing
vampire super-speed and strength, and
a simplistic makeup-and-snarl depic
tion of its central monsters.
VALKYRIE (PG-13) This much
maligned, high profile, potential disas
ter is actually a tightly-wound historical
thriller, a B-movie working above its
pay grade due to A-list talent. Injured in
North Africa and recovering in Berlin,
Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom
Cruise) is approached by a clandestine
organization of soldiers and politicians
looking to rid sacred Germany of its
greatest threat, Adolf Hitler. It is strange
pulling for Nazis. Thankfully, Valkyrie's
conspirators are the good ones, and
their scheme is a fascinating, largely
untold story from this extremely over
mined era.
THE VELVETEEN RABBIT (G)
Jane Seymour, Tom Skerritt and Ellen
Burstyn lend their voices to this new
animated adaptation of the classic chil
dren's book by Margery Williams.
WALTZ WITH BASHIR (R) A lead
ing contender for the recent Academy
Award for Best Foreign Language
Film (it lost to Departures but won the
Golden Globe, as well as five Israeli
Film Academy Awards), Ari Folman's
animated documentary on Israel's
early-’80s invasion of Lebanon is cer
tainly the most original war movie I've
ever seen. Long on striking imagery
but short on historical context, anyone
(including yours truly) without prior
knowledge of the conflict will require
30 or so minutes to acclimate. Still,
the animation by David Polonsky will
capture the eye. while the mind pieces
the story together. After a meeting with
a friend, director Folman realizes he
lacks any memories of his combat
experience. He sets out to speak with
numerous people—former comrades,
a war reporter—and remember what
his memory has chosen to forget. A
shocking, painful, original experi
ence, the animated Waltz with Bashir
will leave an indelible mark upon its
audience. Strangely, the image that
may linger longest is not animated; it
is archival footage of the aftermath at
the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps,
where 3000 Palestinian civilians were
massacred by Israel’s allies. Lebanese
Christian Phalangists. Fortunately, the
audience can awake from Folman's
nightmarish, dreamlike recollections,
although he cannot.
WATCHMEN (R) See Movie Pick.
WHEN A WOMAN ASCENDS THE
STAIRS (NR) 1960. Keiko Yashiro
(Hideko Takamine) is a geisha known
as Mama. On the wrong side of 30. she
must decide what to do with her life.
Should she get married, become a kept
woman, or borrow money to buy a bar
of her own? Mikio Naruse's beautiful
* classic examines this still-thriving
profession with all its promises and
pitfalls. Part of the Japanese Film
Festival at UGA supported by the
Center for Asian Studies and the Japan
Foundation.
THE WRESTLER (R) Academy
Award-nominee Mickey Rourke may
be the best thing in The Wrestler, but
he's also the worst. His performance.
■ the best of last year and one of the
strongest in recent memory, is so bril
liant that it eclipses the overall excel
lence of acclaimed filmmaker Darren
Aronofsky's fourth feature. The Wrestler
leaves 2008's squared circle with the
championship belt held high in the air
as blood streams down its beaten face.
No othef film matched its virtuality, its
seeming recreation of a real person.
Drew Wheeler
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