Also this issue: After the Fall In a plague-ravaged England, old prejudices persist. -Cindy Fuchs Earth Angel Rivers and Tides paints a hypnotic portrait of an artist whose material is nature itself. -Sam Adams Screen Picks -Sam Adams Continuing Shorts Repertory Film Showtimes

June 26-July 2, 2003

movie shorts

New Shorts

CHARLIE’S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE

Even if you enjoyed the first movie, the words "A film by McG" might take you aback, and with what turns out to be good reason. Sifting through the wreckage that is Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, a reasonably adept coroner might conclude that there’s a world of difference between giving a music-video hack with a flair for cheesecake and dirtbike races a pre-written script to direct and putting said hack in charge before the script’s even been written. It’s pretty clear, in fact, that Full Throttle’s script was never written, lurching as it does from one thunderous set piece to the next without so much as a "meanwhile…" to bridge the gaps. The crashingly obvious wall-to-wall music ("Surfer Girl" and "Misirlou" for a beach scene) is so loud it often obscures the dialogue, which might be counted a blessing. Given the desperate attempts to convince the public that the movie’s stars are friends in real life, you’d think the film might spend a little more time letting them interact: it never again reaches the dizzying heights of an early moment when the three -- Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu, as if you needed to be told -- spontaneously start dancing to MC Hammer’s "U Can’t Touch This." Basically, the whole movie plays like the fake montage at the beginning of scenes from past "episodes," only there’s no way to catch up on what you missed. --Sam Adams (AMC Orleans; Bridge; UA 69th St.; UA Cheltenham; UA Main St.; UA Riverview)

THE HARD WORD

Start with your usual cops-and-robbers thriller, complete with a spider web of deceit and betrayal and the tried-and-true "one last score." Toss in an Australian flavor, meaning harsh accents, some (thankfully subtitled) Cockney rhyming slang, and a few nice shots of Sydney and Melbourne. A grizzled Guy Pearce (who looks like he was punched in the face before every take) and vampish Rachel Griffiths (both Aussies working at home, for those fooled by L.A. Confidential and Six Feet Under) are the marquee names in Scott Roberts’ diverting noir, which focuses on three brothers, fresh out of jail, who soon learn their only real chance for freedom is to pull off their biggest heist yet. The sense of déjà vu is the movie’s biggest fault, but the cast is game, injecting their camaraderie with a crude, black sense of humor that keeps the film from dragging between the thievery and gun battles. Though (and perhaps because) we know something will go wrong and the body count will be high, the climactic heist held my attention for every second. If you know what you’re getting yourself into and don’t set your expectations too high, The Hard Word will offer a diverting night’s worth of bloody, criminal entertainment. --Marc Berzenski (Ritz at the Bourse; Ritz 16)

JETLAG

Working against her usual role, Juliette Binoche is here a fluttery beautician, inclined to wear much makeup and caught up in an abusive relationship with Sergi López (stunning as the psycho killer in With a Friend Like Harry…). By chance (or rather, by cell-phone-as-meet-cute device), she meets chef-turned-frozen food mogul Jean Reno at the airport; when he stands up for her in front of villainous López, their coupling is imminent but put off by a series of coincidences and evasions. Both yearning for connection but afraid of commitment, they keep meeting (still cute) as their planes are delayed. Directed by Danièle Thompson, from a formulaic romantic-comedy script she co-wrote with her son Christopher, the film offers few surprises: She finds he’s not so gruff as he pretends, and he appreciates that she’s actually very earnest. That, and when he spills salad dressing on her and she’s forced to take a shower, she emerges from the bathroom in terry robe and makeup-less, that is, as fabulous as Binoche usually looks. --Cindy Fuchs (Ritz Five; Ritz 16)