Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Alfred Molina, Rosemary Harris
Spider-Man may be a superhero, but he doesn't know squat about doing laundry. Rule No. 1: Always separate your whites from your colors. Otherwise, as his alter ego Peter Parker learns the hard way after putting his bright red Spidey suit through the wash cycle at a Laundromat, your undershorts and crew socks turn pink.
This endearing scene and others like it, which emphasize the fallible human behind the mask, are the secret to the enormous appeal of this buoyant Spider-Man sequel, which tops the 2002 original. Spider-Man 2 picks up the webslinger's story two years later. Parker is now a college student behind on his sleep, classwork and rent because his crime-fighting duties keep getting in the way. He's conflicted about whether he even wants to continue as a superhero, mostly because being one prevents him from declaring his love for Mary Jane Watson (Dunst), the neighbor girl he has adored since childhood. Conflicted, that is, until Dr. Otto Octavius (Molina), a once-noble scientist turned evil, threatens to blow up much of New York City.
For summer popcorn fun, this movie has it all: special effects, romance, action and humor. Director Sam Raimi (who also did the first Spider-Man) deftly balances the elements. In sequences now light years beyond those in the original, Spidey swings through Manhattan's steel canyons with a trapeze artist's grace. Maguire, who just keeps getting better, has real chemistry with Dunst, while Molina, even with four giant metal arms protruding from his back, gives his villain oodles more humanity than is typical of comic book knaves. (PG-13)
ACTION
Fahrenheit 9/11
CRITIC'S CHOICE
No one could ever accuse Michael Moore of being wishy-washy, not with the industrial-strength point of view his movies boast. In his latest, a blistering blitzkrieg against President George W. Bush, Bowling for Columbine's director attacks the current Administration for being lax on terrorism prior to Sept. 11, 2001, and then using the subsequent fight against evildoers as a pretext for invading Iraq.
Fahrenheit 9/11 is provocative, often funny, unapologetically one-sided and, yes, highly entertaining. This is accomplished agitprop. Moore (see page 69) savvily mixes archival and fresh news footage with interviews to spotlight what he considers to be the Bush Administration's failings. He makes merciless fun of Bush for his pre-9/11 fondness for vacations and stumble-bum speaking style and shows a spooked-looking President continuing to read to a grade-school class—for nearly seven minutes—after learning that the nation was under attack on that fateful morning. But Moore also questions why the offspring of the poor and working class make up the majority of soldiers fighting in Iraq and why only one member of Congress has a child on active duty there.
The film, which nabbed the top award at the Cannes Film Festival, is sure to infuriate audiences—some will direct their wrath at Bush, others at Moore. (R)
DOCUMENTARY
Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner, Gena Rowlands
A courtly older gent at a nursing home reads aloud from a handwritten journal to a faded blonde beauty. The woman (Rowlands) can't remember much these days, but the man (Garner) is hoping his tale will penetrate her mental fog. It's a love story about a comely pair just before World War II. Noah (Gosling) is a local boy toiling in the sawmill in Seabrook, N.C., while Allie is a rich girl spending the summer in this small town. The two meet, fall head over heels for each other, and then, well, things get complicated. What's the relationship between the older duo and the younger pair? One guess.
The Notebook is an unabashedly romantic tale that teeters close to melodrama. Based on a bestselling novel by Nicholas Sparks, it plays like a Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just that you have to be below a certain age or have a high tolerance for mush not to wince at the forced plot twists and mooning looks. What saves Notebook, or at least lifts it above itself, are the hints of hard-won grit that both Gosling and Garner inject into their characters. (PG-13)
ROMANTIC DRAMA
Two Brothers
Kids age 6 and older will greatly enjoy this wholesome, adventure tale of twin tiger cubs in an Asian jungle who are separated and raised in captivity in the early 1900s. Their assorted owners include a treasure hunter (Guy Pearce), a circus owner, a young boy and a cowardly prince. The real stars here are the talented tigers, who out-act most of their human costars. Too bad the Academy Awards don't hand out annual statues to the best four-legged performer. (PG)
White Chicks
Call it a guilty pleasure. This dumb, raunchy comedy, in which real-life brothers Shawn and Marlon Wayans (see page 73) play African-American FBI agents who go undercover as a couple of squealing, Beverly Hills blondes named Brittany and Tiffany, had us laughing out loud repeatedly. Typical joke: When Brittany-in-drag is mugged, he chases down the thief as if making the game-saving tackle at the Super Bowl. "It's not just a bag," he explains to the quaking culprit. "It's Prada." (PG-13)
The Terminal
Tom Hanks gives a luminous performance in an entertaining comic drama about a foreign visitor stuck at a U.S. airport for months. (PG)
The Mother
An older widow (Anne Reid) at loose ends takes up with a younger carpenter (Daniel Craig) in this superb British drama. (R)
- Contributors:
- Leah Rozen.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
