Bovie Movie

Director Terry Gilliam adroitly applies his Monty Python sensibilities upon the “career” of famed German prevaricator Baron von Munchausen. Played herein by John Neville, the baron is seen quelling a war that he himself started, flying into the stratosphere on the back of a cannonball, ballooning to the moon, exploring the innards of a volcano, being swallowed by a whale….In short, all of Munchausen’s fabulous lies are here presented as “truth,” played out in full view of nonplussed witnesses Eric Idle, Charles McKeown, Jack Purvis, and Sarah Polley. Fringe benefits include several loving medium shots of jaybird-naked Uma Thurman as Boticelli’s Venus and an extended unbilled cameo by Robin Williams — that is, by the head of Robin Williams — as the King of the Moon. Filmed under considerable duress on a budget eventually exceeding 45 million dollars, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen never quite caught on with moviegoers, though it has enjoyed a lucrative afterlife on videocassette.

The tale of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table is always ripe for retelling. In this rendition, the sexy Richard Gere is Sir Lancelot, threatening to supersede the aging King Arthur (Sean Connery) by winning the love of his young wife Guinivere (Julia Ormond). This update of the age-old legend succeeds on the strength of Gere’s happy-go-lucky sex appeal, Ormond’s gorgeous period costuming, and Connery’s unbeatable wry nobility. The script focuses on the triangle of the three principals: the older man’s reluctance to relinquish his love and power to the younger man destined to supplant him; the young woman torn between her loyalty to her aged husband and her love for his rival; the young man balancing the demands of loyalty to his sovereign with the rewards of true love. This beautiful production forgoes the legend’s usual elements of magic and fantasy, leaving Merlin the Magician completely out of the picture.

Sylvain White’s horror sequel I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer concerns four friends who decide to keep it to themselves after they see a mutual friend die during a dangerous stunt. One year after the incident, all four friends are getting scary messages from somebody who seems to know the group’s secret.

Disney’s animation team dipped into the rich well of ancient mythology for this musical comedy. The son of Greek gods Zeus (voice of Rip Torn) and Hera (Samantha Eggar), Hercules (voice of Josh Keaton) is stolen as a boy by the minions of Hades (voice of James Woods), lord of the underworld. Forced to live among humans, Hercules is turned into a half-god and half-mortal after drinking a forbidden potion brewed by Hades’ right hand men, Pain (voice of Bob Goldthwait) and Panic (voice of Matt Frewer). Now Hercules has the remarkable strength of a god, but is trapped in the body of a human, and before he learns how to use his power properly he goes through a typically adolescent awkward period. In order to become a god and return to his home on Mount Olympus, Hercules must prove himself a true hero on Earth. With the assistance of Philotes (voice of Danny De Vito), a plucky satyr known as “Phil,” the grown-up Hercules (voice of Tate Donovan) learns to use his strength to his advantage and becomes a famous and benevolent protector of those around him, successfully battling a variety of gods and monsters. However, Hades, wanting to cut Hercules down to size, sends his secret weapon after him — Megara (voice of Susan Egan), a seductively beautiful woman under Hades’ control, who is to win Hercules’ heart and render him helpless against the forces of the underworld. Acclaimed British cartoonist Gerald Scarfe served as production designer for this project, while Alan Menken wrote the musical score. Incidentally, for the Spanish language version of the film, Latin pop singer Ricky Martin provided the singing voice of Hercules, two years before he became a chart-topping sensation in America with his hit single “Livin’ la Vida Loca.”

One of the great stories of doomed love is given a new screen interpretation in this historical drama. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, King Donnchadh (David O’Hara) of Ireland has become the de facto ruler of England, but one of his underlings, Lord Marke (Rufus Sewell), dreams of uniting British forces with an eye toward self-rule. One of Marke’s most valuable allies is Tristan (James Franco), Marke’s protégé, who has become a brave warrior since he was rescued by the lord after his parents were murdered by Irish forces during a battle. While Marke and Tristan dream of banishing Ireland’s presence in England, Tristan has a secret he’s been hiding from Marke — after suffering serious wounds during a hard-fought battle, he was rescued and nursed back to health by Isolde (Sophia Myles), King Donnchadh’s daughter, and the two fell deeply in love. But the couple were separated after Tristan returned to England, and when King Donnchadh attempts to quell the British uprising by staging a tournament among the nation’s greatest warriors, with an extreme and rather personal surprise in store for Tristan.
Tristan & Isolde was directed by Kevin Reynolds, and produced in part by Ridley Scott, who attempted to bring the story to the screen back in the 1970s.

Near the end of The Usual Suspects, Kevin Spacey, in his Oscar-winning performance as crippled con man Roger “Verbal” Kint, says, “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” This may be the key line in this story; the farther along the movie goes, the more one realizes that not everything is quite what it seems, and what began as a conventional whodunit turns into something quite different. A massive explosion rips through a ship in a San Pedro, CA, harbor, leaving 27 men dead, the lone survivor horribly burned, and 91 million dollars’ worth of cocaine, believed to be on board, mysteriously missing. Police detective Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) soon brings in the only witness and key suspect, “Verbal” Kint. Kint’s nickname stems from his inability to keep his mouth shut, and he recounts the events that led to the disaster. Five days earlier, a truckload of gun parts was hijacked in Queens, NY, and five men were brought in as suspects: Kint, hot-headed hipster thief McManus (Stephen Baldwin), ill-tempered thug Hockney (Kevin Pollak), flashy wise guy Fenster (Benicio Del Toro), and Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), a cop gone bad now trying to go straight in the restaurant business. While in stir, someone suggests that they should pull a job together, and Kint hatches a plan for a simple and lucrative jewel heist. Despite Keaton’s misgivings, the five men pull off the robbery without a hitch and fly to Los Angeles to fence the loot. Their customer asks if they’d be interested in pulling a quick job while out West; the men agree, but the robbery goes horribly wrong and they soon find themselves visited by Kobayashi (Pete Postlethwaite), who represents a criminal mastermind named Keyser Soze. Soze’s violent reputation is so infamous that he’s said to have responded to a threat to murder his family by killing them himself, just to prove that he feared no one. When Kobayashi passes along a heist proposed by Soze that sounds like suicide, the men feel that they have little choice but to agree.

Washington Irving’s tale of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman gets a few new twists in a screen adaptation directed by Tim Burton. In this version, Ichabod (Johnny Depp) is a New York City detective whose unorthodox techniques and penchant for gadgets make him unpopular with is colleagues. He is sent to the remote town of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of bizarre murders, in which a number of people have been found dead in the woods, with their heads cut off. Local legend has it that a Hessian ghost rides through the woods on horseback, lopping off the heads of the unsuspecting and unbelieving. Ichabod refuses to believe in this legend, convinced that there must be a logical explanation for the murders. In time, Ichabod becomes smitten with a local lass, Katrina Van Tassel (Christina Ricci), who is the sweetheart of the burly Brom Bones (Casper Van Dien), and he becomes determined to capture the murderer to prove his bravery and win her heart. Christopher Walken, Jeffrey Jones, and Christopher Lee highlight the supporting cast; Lee’s appearance is particularly apt, since Burton has cited the Hammer films of the 1960s as a major influence in making this film. Andrew Kevin Walker and Tom Stoppard contributed to the screenplay.

New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson fulfills his lifelong dream of transforming author J.R.R. Tolkien’s best-selling fantasy epic into a three-part motion picture that begins with this holiday 2001 release. Elijah Wood stars as Frodo Baggins, a Hobbit resident of the medieval “Middle-earth” who discovers that a ring bequeathed to him by beloved relative and benefactor Bilbo (Ian Holm) is in fact the “One Ring,” a device that will allow its master to manipulate dark powers and enslave the world. Frodo is charged by the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) to return the ring to Mount Doom, the evil site where it was forged millennia ago and the only place where it can be destroyed. Accompanying Frodo is a fellowship of eight others: his Hobbit friends Sam (Sean Astin), Merry (Dominic Monaghan), and Pippin (Billy Boyd); plus Gandalf; the human warriors Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) and Boromir (Sean Bean); Elf archer Legolas (Orlando Bloom); and Dwarf soldier Gimli (John Rhys-Davies). The band’s odyssey to the dreaded land of Mordor, where Mount Doom lies, takes them through the Elfish domain of Rivendell and the forest of Lothlorien, where they receive aid and comfort from the Elf princess Arwen (Liv Tyler), her father, Elrond (Hugo Weaving), and Queen Galadriel (Cate Blanchett). In pursuit of the travelers and their ring are Saruman (Christopher Lee) — a traitorous wizard and kin, of sorts, to Gandalf — and the Dark Riders, under the control of the evil, mysterious Sauron (Sala Baker). The Fellowship must also do battle with a troll, flying spies, Orcs, and other deadly obstacles both natural and otherwise as they draw closer to Mordor. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) was filmed in Jackson’s native New Zealand, closely followed by its pair of sequels, The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003).

A terrifying legacy haunts a single mother in this sequel to the frightening box-office hit The Ring. Hoping to leave their terrifying experiences in Seattle behind them, Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) and her son, Aidan (David Dorfman), move to the small town of Astoria, OR, where Rachel takes a job writing for the local newspaper. When Rachel learns of an unexplained murder, which occurred after a teenager watched a strange videotape with his girlfriend, she suspects her past is following her and she begins looking into the case. Rachel believes that the otherworldly Samara has come back; however, as she tries to convince others of the young girl’s powers, her own son falls ill and is hospitalized, and Rachel’s stories fail to convince either Dr. Emma Temple (Elizabeth Perkins), who suspects Rachel is guilty of child abuse, or David Rourke (Simon Baker), one of Rachel’s colleagues who fears for Aidan’s safety. Also starring Sissy Spacek, The Ring 2 was directed by Hideo Nakata; it was the first English-language project for the Japanese filmmaker, who previously made Ringu, the picture that was the basis for The Ring.

Inspired by a familiar Chinese folk tale, this $90 million animated Disney drama follows the adventures of a young woman in ancient China. Character animator Tony Bancroft and 17-year Disney veteran Barry Cook (Captain EO, Tron, Trail Mix-Up) formed the directing team with production design by Hans Bacher (Balto), and work on the film began 2 January 1995 under the working title The Legend of Mulan. While the merciless Shan-Yu (Miguel Ferrer) leads invading Huns over the Great Wall, young Mulan (Ming-Na Wen, with singing by Lea Salonga) sees a matchmaker about her matrimonial future. Mulan’s views on accepted marriage traditions prompt the ballad, “Reflection,” as she hopes for a recognition of her true self. To repel the Huns, a man from each family is required to join the Imperial Army. When Mulan’s elderly father Fa Zhou (Soon-Tek Oh) volunteers, she objects. He warns, “I know my place. It is time you learned yours.” Mulan, however, cuts her hair, dresses as a man, and is ready for military camp, prompting the concern of her First Ancestor (George Takei), who converts an inanimate incense burner into the 18-inch high comedic dragon Mushu (Eddie Murphy). With Mushu hidden in her clothing, she joins a group of raw recruits under the command of Captain Shang (B.D. Wong, singing by Donny Osmond). During an ambush by the Huns in a mountain pass, Mulan steps in to turn defeat into a victory. Mulan was the first Disney feature from the company’s 200,000-square-foot Orlando facility (now known as Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida).