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giving one of his better performances
m a white. Travolta mostly elicits
eye-rolling, ticking of! traits—crazed
eye-popping to maniacal cackling to
uncontrollable rage—from the dime-
store baddie grocery list Excitingly *
suspenseful as Pelham is, the film
grows exhausting by the time the case
is closed by its unlikely, out-ot-shape
hero
TAKING WOODSTOCK ;R) This
slight Ang Lee historical comedy, his
first American language film since
Brokeback Mountain, grew on me
as! watched it. It’s nowhere near as
funny as it thinks it is, and the 60s
cliches (the awesome Emile Hirsch
gets saddled with the post-traumatic
stressed Vietnam vet) abound Still, the
story of how Woodstock came to be
thanks to the help of interior designer
Elliot Teichberg (writer-comedian
Demetri Martin, who grows as an actor
right there on the screen) Living with
his parents for the summer at their
Catskills motel, Elliot brings together
concert promoter Mitchell Lang (a very
cool Jonathan Groff) and dairy farmer
Max Yasgur (the always loveable
Eugene Levy) to save what becomes
the most important music festival of all
time. Lee might disappoint some view
ers by withholding Woodstock's key
ingredient, the music, but most people
know it by heart. What they don't know
(if they, like me. haven’t seen Michael
Wadleigh’s Oscar-winning 1970
documentary) is how the music festival
came to be.
THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE (PG-
13) I wont speak for fans of Aubrey
Niftenegger’s beloved bestseller; I
have no clue as to whether or not it’s
a good (ie.. faithful) adaptation of
the love story of Henry (Eric Bana), a
regular guy with a genetic predisposi
tion for time travel, and Claire (Rachel
McAdams), the lovely lady who falls in
love with grown-up naked him at the
age of six As critics and sci-fi nuts
love to point out, Niffenegger's time
travel premise is flawed, paradoxical
and perfect for her passionate story
Bana and McAdams are pretty Tears
will be shed The Time Traveler's Wife
should please romance (unkies pining
lor their next chance to pine.
TRANSFORMERS REVENGE OF
THE FALLEN (PG-13) The millions
trekking to the theater to witness over
two hours of robotic mayhem are
going to get their money's worth and
their socks rocked by Transformers
Revenge ol the Fallen. The only people
who won t like it probably didn't really
want to gorge on a gigantic robot
civil war anyway, and there's as little
wrong with that as there is with being
so stoked you have to see it all unfold
at midnight the day before the movie
officially opens Please don’t mistake
Transformers. Rotf for a good movie
But as childhood wish fulfillment, the
new Transformers cant be beat
TYSON (R) Controversial filmmaker
James Toback (Black and White)
returns to documentaries tor the first
time in a decade with this chronicle
of his pal, former heavyweight boxing
champion Mike Tyson Tyson's leg
endary infamy ever increases, maybe
Toback, who s known him since the
late 80s, can shed actual illuminat
ing light on one of modem sports’
most mercurial figures With TysonS
recent cameo in June's smash hit. The
Hangover, what better time to reflect
man toe present? Winner of the Regard
Knockout Award at Cannes
UP (PG) Seventy-eight-yea'-oid Carl
Fredncksen (v Edward Asner) and
his late wife Elite, always dreamed
of traveling to South America After
Ellie's death. Carl floats his house to
the fabled Paradise Falls via several
thousand helium balloons Carl and
a young stowaway, lonely Wilderness
Explorer Russell (v. Jordan Hagai),
confront the wilderness for the first
time, encountering a mythical bird,
a talking dog named Dug (voiced
by co-director and screenwriter Bob
Peterson), and Carl s childhood hero,
lost adventurer Charles Muntz (v.
Christopher Plummer) With its odd
old protagonist (Cart's in better shape
than Jack LaLarme) Up is bound to
be the year s most unconventional
blockbuster Every minute of the film,
co-direcfed by Pete Doctor (Monsters,
Inc.) and Peterson, bursts with creativ
ity and ingenuity In Dug. the worn-out
anthropomorphic animal sidekick is
imaginatively reinvented to produce the
film's freshest, biggest laughs
Drew Wheeler
THE LATEST DEATH OF HORROR
HALLOWEEN II (R) Writer-director Rob
Zombie's reimagining of the first Halloween
excellently psychoanalyzed the Captain Kirk-
masked serial killer Michael Myers, the sort of
abused piece of white trash for which Zombie
has a soft spot. The first half, when Michael
was a kid, is an exploitative masterpiece of
a short film. The rest of the film adequately
unveiled the scary world lurking just beyond
the suburban street
lights. The isolated
sequel seems more
rural, working-class
nightmare—Texas
Chainsaw Massacre—
than Halloween's
middle-class terror.
H2 starts out pretty
terrifyingly. Picking up
almost directly where
the first film ended,
a bloodied Laurie
Strode (Scout Taylor-
Compton), Michael's
baby sister, stumbles
away from the slaugh
ter. A seemingly dead
Michael (the hulking Tyler Mane) is dumped
into the back of the coroner's van, while
Sheriff Lee Brackett (Brad Dourif) deals with
the aftermath.
To the surprise of no one but the soon-
to-be-dead coroner's men, Michael isn't dead
and continues his spree at the hospital where
Laurie was taken. The hospital opening is a
nice homage to the Carpenter-scripted 1981
sequel. From here, the film jumps ahead a
year, and Zombie goes from aping the excus
able Halloween 2 to the atrocious late-'80s
fourth and fifth sequels.
In this H2, Zombie again tries to get inside
the head of a killer, showing us the white-clad
visions of Michael's mother, Deborah (Sheri
Moon Zombie), that keep him hunting his sis
ter, but unlike the charismatic Firefly clan of
House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects,
Michael is a personality-less killing machine.
He's more silent Jason than loquacious Freddy,
a movie monster whose remake I think would
have suited Zombie's psycho sympathies. His
interest in having a psycho protagonist leads
him to turn original hero, Dr. Loomis (Malcolm
McDowell), into a cold,
money-grubbing public
ity hound, haranguing
reporters one minute
and being interviewed
in front of the Myers
home the next.
Zombie shows no
maturity in his fourth
feature. His dialogue
is peppered with
Neanderthal Tarantino
pop cultural refer
ences strung together
by f-bomb adjectives.
Much of the action
looks to have been
shot by a convulsing
cameraman, with the sole illumination coming
from strobe lights. Muddying the waters was a
myopic editor who also lacked a strong sense
of cause and effect. I may sound a bit harsh,
but H2 is hard to watch.
H2 is an unlikable film with unlikable
characters. The film takes itself too seriously,
and while too many horror films nowadays
are tokey, jokey disposables, slasher pics are,
ultimately, meant to entertain. All the death
and scares should, in the end, leave the audi
ence jazzed about what they've just seen.
The relentless, exploitative H2 just left me
exhausted and depressed.
Drew Wheeler
Scout Taylor-Compton
BAYOU GRILL
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