Bovie Movie

In this romantic drama, Kevin Costner stars as a strong, silent and sensitive boat builder living in North Carolina, who’s tracked down by newspaper researcher Robin Wright Penn after she finds a heart-rending love letter to his late wife in a bottle on the seashore. Her hard-nosed reporter’s edge soon softens as she decides to learn more about the man and his solitary life. Although the inevitable happens — with a twist! — the beauty of director Luis Mandoki’s intelligent tear-jerker (adapted by Gerald DiPego from Nicholas Sparks’s bestseller) is how all the emotions ring true. A richly rewarding tribute to the human spirit, this is irresistibly warm-hearted stuff, with an absolutely brilliant scene-stealing performance from Paul Newman as Costner’s grizzled father. 

Buckles are truly swashed and derring-do effectively done in this 12th-century adventure, which simply sets out to entertain handsomely and does so with a great deal of dash, flash and panache. Kevin Costner is more “Indiana Hood” than the Locksley lad of yore and Alan Rickman is a joy to behold as the panto-styled Sheriff of Nottingham, while Morgan Freeman’s cultured Moor — Robin’s early saviour — is a commanding, though unlikely, medieval presence. But it’s director Kevin Reynolds who deserves the most praise for disguising such overfamiliar events with imaginative staging and a constantly roving camera, and turning in such an enjoyable popcorn epic. And, yes, this is the film where Bryan Adams sings (Everything I Do) I Do It for You during the final credits. 

The Cuban Missile Crisis — a key event in the Kennedy presidency — is brought to life in this fascinating drama starring Kevin Costner and directed by Roger Donaldson (who also collaborated on the thriller No Way Out). In October 1962, President John F Kennedy (a mesmerising performance by Canadian actor Bruce Greenwood) was faced with the prospect of a nuclear showdown, following the discovery of Soviet missile bases in Cuba. Costner, who played district attorney Jim Garrison in JFK, is superb as Kenny O’Donnell, a real-life adviser to the President. Part history lesson and part political drama, Donaldson’s film is surprisingly gripping and powerful, despite the essentially static nature of the story. Although the outcome of the crisis isn’t in doubt, this is mesmerising viewing, featuring superb performances from an ensemble cast that also includes Steven Culp as attorney general Robert Kennedy. 

Sarah Huttington, recently engaged, goes home to Pasadena with fiancé Jeff for a family wedding. She hears a rumor that “The Graduate” (book and movie) are based on her family. Did her grandmother and her mom have flings with the same man just before her parents married? Is she a strange man’s child; does this explain why she doesn’t fit in? Was her mother happy? Is she too facing a loveless marriage? Where can she seek answers: her mother’s dead, her father’s a pleasant naïf. Ask her salty grandma? Better to ask the man in the triangle, the real Benjamin Braddock. With Jeff’s blessing, Sarah heads for San Francisco, looking for the key to her past and to her future.

Demian Lichtenstein utilises the brusque visual and verbal style of Reservoir Dogs in this tired crime comedy thriller. He also over-indulges in the camera pyrotechnics that characterised his time as a director of commercials and pop videos. Kurt Russell (who played Elvis Presley in the 1979 TV movie Elvis) gets to dress like the King once more, as the leader of a gang planning a raid on a Las Vegas casino. Kevin Costner, meanwhile, attempts to rekindle his career, playing determinedly against type as a foul-mouthed sociopath. On the whole, this is a crass and calculatingly excessive bid for cult kudos. 

This comedy drama from writer/director Mike Binder is a funny, sympathetic account of a middle-aged woman facing up to being dumped by her husband. Joan Allen gives a superb performance as the abandoned wife who seeks solace in the bottle while venting her bitterness on her four teenage daughters. But it’s to her credit that, for all her character’s faults, Allen still manages to make you care for her. Binder also elicits a terrific performance from Kevin Costner as a former baseball star who becomes Allen’s drinking buddy, eventual lover and a surrogate father to her children. Although it gets a little treacly at times, there’s a neat — if somewhat melancholic — twist in the tale. As for Binder himself, he has a lot of fun as the most appalling character in the movie: a 40-something producer who preys on younger women. 

Actor/director Kevin Costner’s skill with westerns was proven by his masterpiece Dances with Wolves. This doesn’t aspire to the epic scope or profound themes of that movie, but it’s still a beautifully crafted, well-acted example of the genre that only very occasionally lurches a little too close to cliché for comfort. It’s set in a fascinating transitional period of frontier history, as the traditional free-ranging cattlemen and their herds were harassed and attacked by settled ranchers. But Costner finds most of the film’s interest in the subtle relationships between the main characters. He is impressive as the taciturn Charley, whose Civil War memories haunt him, and Diego Luna (of Y Tu Mamá También) and Abraham Benrubi are likeable as the younger team members. But it is Robert Duvall’s restrained, dignified performance as Boss Spearman, the gruff de facto father to the “family” of travelling cow-pokes, that’s the movie’s real treat. Gorgeously shot, robustly written and solidly sentimental, this will be a delight for those who like their westerns on the traditional side. 

Kevin Costner’s directorial debut, the first western to win the best picture Oscar for 60 years, is a heartfelt attempt to create a frontier epic and to atone for Hollywood’s shameful depiction of native American life. Costner himself plays the depressed, battle weary Union officer John Dunbar, a Civil War hero who, given the choice, opts for a remote posting in South Dakota to see the frontier before it disappears. After befriending the Sioux Indians he decides to join them, and marries Stands with a Fist (Mary McDonnell), a white woman also adopted by the tribe. Although the film is three hours long, Costner directs his pet project with a clear passion for the subject, and in so doing proves that epic westerns can still work if their heart is in the right place, the characters are real, and the cinematography is stunning — take a bow Dean Semler, another deserving winner of one of the seven Oscars awarded to Costner and co. Costner demythologises the westerns made by such directors as John Ford (for instance, much of the dialogue is in the Lakota Sioux language) to re-create the genre and present a wistful and poignant look at a way of life and a people that have all but disappeared. Admirably supported by fellow Oscar nominees Graham Greene, as Kicking Bird, and the brilliant McDonnell, Costner gives Dunbar an essential decency with which viewers cannot fail to empathise, right up until the moving climax. This is a marvel from beginning to end. 

In this hugely entertaining load of old baloney, Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston fall in love, she trilling all the while, amid a highly charged atmosphere of jealousy and death threats. Director Mick Jackson created a wildly successful film, much to several critics’ snooty chagrin, by teaming two megastars with a daft but jaunty script, a loud rock soundtrack and a few well-staged exciting moments. Costner is a trifle stern, but Houston makes a very creditable acting debut, and the result is great fun. 

In this disappointing and belated attempt to cash in on the success of supernatural dramas such as The Sixth Sense, Kevin Costner stars as an ER doctor based in Chicago who is devastated by the death of his pregnant wife Emily while on a Red Cross mission in Venezuela. Costner becomes convinced that his wife is trying to contact him from “beyond” after hearing about the near-death experiences of one of her former patients. The recurrence of dragonfly images — Emily had a similar mark on her back — and an encounter with Linda Hunt’s eccentric nun send Costner off on a jungle adventure. Sadly, neither the understated performance of Costner nor a welcome cameo from Kathy Bates can rescue this schmaltzy misfire.