Bovie Movie

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. 

Steve Carell’s show-stopping turn in the 2003 Jim Carrey vehicle Bruce Almighty was the spark of creation for this biblically themed comedy. Carell here reprises his role as vain newscaster Evan Baxter, who has only just been elected to Congress when he’s visited by God (Morgan Freeman) and instructed to build an ark. Carell’s everyman quality and impeccable comic timing serve him well as he struggles to convince the world that the end is nigh, although there’s nothing here as riotously funny as that one “nervous breakdown” scene in the first film. Director Tom Shadyac struggles with a thin premise, and there are some uninspired running jokes, such as the miracle of the eternally growing beard — a gag that does indeed seem to drag on forever. Wanda Sykes has all the best lines as Baxter’s sassy assistant, but it’s Carell’s geeky charm and a bagful of CGI tricks that just about keep this afloat. 

A huge comet is on a collision course with Earth in director Mimi Leder’s science-fiction disaster movie, which gains a certain amount of credibility by highlighting the human side of the impending catastrophe. The frightening scenario focuses on TV reporter Téa Leoni, who stumbles upon the story while tracking down what she thinks is a Presidential indiscretion, and astronaut Robert Duvall, who leads a mission to intercept the threat in space. The chilling gravity of the situation is hauntingly evoked by the national lottery that’s put in place to choose who will “survive” in an underground retreat. Leder adds gripping immediacy to executive producer Steven Spielberg’s loose remake of Rudolph Maté’s 1951 movie When Worlds Collide and caps it all with a spectacular display of epic destruction. 

Steven Spielberg’s lengthy historical courtroom drama has its moments of pure visual poetry, but it fails to ignite the same moral outrage that Schindler’s List so poignantly evoked. In 1839, a shipload of slaves heading for America overpower their captors, killing all but two crew members needed to navigate them back to Africa. Betrayed, intercepted and charged with murder, the slaves’ only hope for justice lies with the Abolitionist movement and an inexperienced lawyer. Anthony Hopkins and Matthew McConaughey lead the all-star cast, and there’s an amazing debut by Djimon Hounsou as the leader of the slaves. Although flawed, this chilling portrayal of outright racism further reveals Spielberg’s skill as an expert film-maker unafraid of tackling heavy political issues. 

A career criminal who has been deformed since birth is given a new face by a kindly doctor and paroled from prison. It appears that he has gone straight, but he is really planning his revenge on the man who killed his father-figure and sent him to prison.

A mish-mash of characters and situations from several superior courtroom dramas, Carl Franklin’s military-themed legal thriller squanders its quality cast on the most formulaic of scripts. Ashley Judd plays a successful attorney whose life is thrown into chaos when her husband (Jim Caviezel) is exposed as a former soldier accused of the murder of eight civilians during the civil war in El Salvador. Morgan Freeman is thoroughly wasted as the alcoholic lawyer who educates Judd in the peculiarities of military law. The stars manage to re-create the easy chemistry of their first pairing, in Kiss the Girls, but Franklin, once responsible for the taut film noir One False Move, never gets a firm grip on a script that trundles along without ever reaching the dramatic peaks one would expect. Worst of all, the key ingredients of any courtroom drama — unexpected revelations and reversals — are very obviously signposted so the outcome is utterly lacking in suspense. 

This small, unassuming movie went up against the big guns of Hollywood and emerged with a best picture Oscar and a hefty profit. Based on the 1987 one-act play by Alfred Uhry, it charts the deepening relationship between an elderly widow and her black chauffeur in Atlanta. Miss Daisy, played by the Oscar-winning Jessica Tandy, is a strong-willed former schoolteacher whose independence is curtailed when she crashes her new car and cannot get insurance on another. So her son (Dan Aykroyd) arranges a permanent chauffeur, the widower Hoke, played by Morgan Freeman. Although Miss Daisy is Jewish and regards herself as without racial prejudice, Hoke must gradually win acceptance and put up with her tirades from the back of the gleaming Hudson. The story covers the years from 1948 to 1973 — a period of racial strife and the civil rights movement — attaining the status of allegory in the process. But Australian director Bruce Beresford, who was unaccountably left out of the Oscar nominations, does not push things over the edge; although we see and hear events about Martin Luther King and the violence of the period, this remains a character study, and a superb one. Tandy ages from 72 to 97 and comes across as a stubborn, tetchy but extremely likeable woman. And Freeman, who was in the Broadway stage version, adds layers of irony and wit to what could so easily have been a role of suffering saintliness. 

After the taut little thrillers Memento and Insomnia, director Christopher Nolan spread his wings with the gloriously epic Batman Begins. It’s a distinctly classy comic-book yarn and Christian Bale imbues the Caped Crusader with beguiling dignity — even in silly pointy ears. Nolan does away with the hyper-stylised visuals imprinted on the franchise by Tim Burton and the knockabout comedy baddies subsequently employed by Joel Schumacher. Instead, he offers a darker, more gripping psychological portrait of Bruce Wayne and his painful evolution into Batman. Bursts of adrenaline-pumping action relieve all the brooding, although the plot sometimes creaks under the strain of so much going on. It also lacks a truly terrifying villain, but a sterling cast (including Liam Neeson, Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman) stands persuasively for lofty ideals as a climate of fear threatens to bring down Gotham City. Batman Begins swoops you up and doesn’t let go till the end. 

With a cast that includes Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Lopez, you’d expect this drama from Cider House Rules director Lasse Hallström to provide a modicum of entertainment. Sadly for the audience, that’s not the case. Redford plays curmudgeonly Rocky Mountain rancher Einar Gilkyson who spends most of his time either working alone on his spread or taking care of his bedridden best friend Mitch (Freeman). But when the widow (Lopez) of Einar’s dead son (the unfinished life of the title) shows up at the ranch with a granddaughter that Einar never knew he had, routines are interrupted, tensions arise and the inevitable home truths are soon uttered. With its appallingly mawkish and turgid script, saccharine score, overegged performances and perpetually golden-hued cinematography, this must rank as the worst film that Hallström has made for production company Miramax. 

Now, here’s a weird one: martial arts star Jet Li plays a sort of human Rottweiler, who has been raised and kept caged like an animal, and is only unleashed when gangster Bob Hoskins needs him to do the one thing he knows — fight. Set in Glasgow (though you’d scarcely credit it from the accents), this has Li rediscovering his humanity, courtesy of the relationship he builds with blind piano tuner Morgan Freeman. As with most Li films, the best bits are the action bits: they’re fast, brutal and with a feel of the real about them. Unlike most Li films, the in-between bits are quite good, too — odd, but interesting. While this will appeal mainly to his hardcore fans, there’s some potential interest for a wider audience, and this is certainly Li’s most interesting non-Hong Kong work to date.