Also this issue: Frida, Be Me Frida is more about its director and secondary characters than its ostensible subject. -Cindy Fuchs The Player Campbell Scott is a smooth-talking smoothie, but is he happy? -Sam Adams Hotsy 'Qatsi Closing out the Koyaanisqatsi trilogy. -Sam Adams continuing Showtimes repertory film Screen Picks -Sam Adams

October 31-November 6, 2002

movie shorts

new

THE FATHER, THE SON

(Not reviewed.) A haiku:

Tony Luke Jr.,

Hope your movie’s healthier

Than your sandwiches.

(Ritz Five; Ritz 16)

FEMME FATALE

(Not reviewed.) A haiku:

When the movie stars

Antonio Banderas,

Haikus don’t suffice.

(Roxy)

FRIDA

See Cindy Fuchs’ review on p. 37. (Ritz East; Ritz 16)

I-SPY

At last, Eddie Murphy has found and committed to the role that makes him he most money. His version of Kelly Robinson, the tennis player/spy Robert Culp made famous on television, is (quite unbelievably) a champion middleweight boxer, as fast- and foul-mouthed as you’d expect. Teamed with Owen Wilson (pretending to be part of the boxer’s entourage), he heads to Budapest (one of the primary movie locations for evil doings) to find an invisible plane, stolen by Malcolm McDowell and now up for bids by especially wealthy evil-doers. The action is uninspired (car chasing, plane flying, some minor fighting), the spy-gadgets regular, the plot flaccid. The buddies argue, misbehave and engage in a little homoerotic lusting after fellow spy Famke Janssen, by way of a camera-contact lens that allows Murphy to see what Wilson sees, namely, her body in mid-strip. During this scene, Murphy plays Cyrano, ventriloquizing Wilson’s attempted seduction of his would-be paramour. But, as the shared perspective/split screen effect suggests, girlfriend is only a diversion: the real love story involves Wilson and Murphy, seeking a franchise and entertaining each other immensely.--Cindy Fuchs (AMC Andorra; AMC Orleans; UA 69th St.; UA Cheltenham; UA Riverview)

NAQOYQATSI

See Sam Adams’ review on p. 40. (Ritz Five)

QUITTING

(Not reviewed.) A haiku:

Young Chinese actor,

You should not be discouraged

Or turn psychotic.

(Ritz at the Bourse)

ROGER DODGER

See Sam Adams’ review on p. 39.(Ritz at the Bourse; Ritz 16)

THE SANTA CLAUSE 2

If the most original idea in the 1994 The Santa Clause was killing Santa, in Michael Lembeck’s 8-years-in-the-making sequel, it’s dressing up his till-now contented replacement, Tim Allen, as Plastic Fascist Santa, complete with military uniform, epaulets, an army of 8-foot wooden soldiers, and an fierce determination to give all kids coal for Xmas. The motivation is dual: Allen must tend to his son (Eric Lloyd), who’s been tagging school walls with pro-Christmas graffiti; and he must fulfill the Second Clause, which is to marry by Christmas Eve or the “de-santafication process” will rob all children of the holiday forever. His subsequent romancing of the son’s principal (Elizabeth Mitchell) is by the numbers, but the duplicate Santa he leaves at the plant, to look after the multi-culti elves’ last-minute toy production, is increasingly loony-tunes, occasionally even funny. The action split, however, means that the regular Santa story is more markedly tedious by comparison. The liveliest players get the briefest screen time. Santa’s fellow Legendary Figures include Aisha Tyler as Mother Nature (who oversees the wedding “by the power vested in me, by me”), Peter Boyle as Father Time, Art LaFleur as the Tooth Fairy (who so desperately wants a new name), Kevin Pollak as Cupid, and Michael Dorn (last seen as Worf, Star Trek’s Last Angry Black Man) as The Sandman. --C.F. (AMC Andorra; AMC Orleans; Baederwood; UA 69th St.; UA Cheltenham; UA Riverview)