Also this issue: Time After Time Decades and stories intertwine in The Hours. -Cindy Fuchs Poetry at 90 mph Maverick filmmaker Sam Fuller, in his own words. -Sam Adams Screen Picks -Sam Adams Continuing Repertory Film Showtimes

January 16-22, 2003

movie shorts

New

A GUY THING

Jason Lee is engaged to Selma Blair. But when he takes Tiki dancer Julia Stiles home after his bachelor party, it appears that the impending wedding is probably a bad idea. Toilet- and sex-related hijinks follow. Written by Greg Glienna, the film borrows heavily from his own Meet the Parents, from the in-law-to-be jokes (her rich parents: James Brolin and Diana Scarwid; his tacky ones: Julie Hagerty and David Koechner), to the pet trouble (here, a scary dog belonging to Stiles' psycho ex, Lochlyn Munro), to the stressful efforts to hide mistakes from the relentlessly clueless Blair. (To be fair, she's charming as the girl who will lose the guy.) As the romantic lead struggling to rise above tedious plot and diarrhea humor, Lee is best when he reminds you of Banky (his character in Chasing Amy), puzzling over his sexual desires (he's strangely enamored of the male dance instructor).--Cindy Fuchs (AMC Orleans; Roxy; UA 69th St.; UA Cheltenham; UA Grant; UA Riverview)

KANGAROO JACK

(Not reviewed.) A haiku:

"He stole the money

And he's not giving it back."

Because he stole it.

(AMC Orleans; UA 69th St.; UA Cheltenham; UA Grant; UA Main St.; UA Riverview)

LAN YU

Stanley Kwan's prismatic drama refracts time like light off shards of a broken mirror. The narrative frequently jumps forward without warning, often skipping over major events, leaving the audience to divine a given scene's context based on internal clues or simply its own intuition. The effect is like trying to keep up with a friend whom you always bump into when you're doing something else. Kwan crams what feels like an epic into 86 minutes, encompassing perhaps a decade in the relationship between Machiavellian businessman Chen Handong (Hu Jun) and virginal student Lan Yu (Liu Ye), whose romance should last, the former says, only until they "know everything about each other." Kwan's style, while entrancing, seems more complex than the story requires, but as a device for pulling the audience into a story it might otherwise write off, it does the trick. --Sam Adams (Ritz at the Bourse)

NATIONAL SECURITY

It's a fairly cheap ploy to give your throwaway action comedy such a hot-button name, but don't be fooled, Mr. Ashcroft: National Security is the name on the shoulder patches of night watchmen/ wannabe cops Martin Lawrence (Earl) and Steve Zahn (Hank), who have been impelled by the buddy-movie gods to team up in spite of their mutual enmity to bust a ring of dirty cops while trying to clear their own good names. Zahn's at his best when he gets to play the unhinged dumb guy, but Lawrence is the big first-weekend draw: ergo, Earl gets to be the not-so-wisecracker (sample dialogue: "You have the right to shut the hell up."), and Hank merely the glowering straight-man cracker. There's something comforting about the warm, nostalgic '80s (and yeah, '70s and '90s) quaintness of black-white crimefighting banter and airborne cars lovingly slo-moing through warehouse siding, but Earl's unrepentant, unfunny racism puts the damp in Security's blanket. --Ryan Godfrey (Cinemagic; UA 69th St; UA Cheltenham; UA Grant; UA Main St.; UA Riverview)