CRITIC'S CHOICE
COMEDY
While I was visiting my GP last week for a checkup, she asked for movie tips. I recommended those dark masterpieces No Country for Old Men or There Will Be Blood. Nope, she said, she only wants to see films that will cheer her up. Well, I'm happy to report that Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is just what the doctor ordered.
This delightful champagne cocktail of a comedy, based on a 1938 novel by Winifred Watson, is about Guinevere Pettigrew (McDormand), a prim, unwed English governess who, acting as a sort of Mary Poppins for adults, straightens out the life of a ditsy American actress (Adams) who's busily juggling three bedmates. In the process, Miss Pettigrew herself gets a makeover, loosens up and finds love, all in the shadow—this is London, 1939—of the coming war.
Adams is having a blast here, appropriating Marilyn Monroe's breathy purr and Carole Lombard's wackiness while adding a goofy charm all her own. McDormand, always a pleasure to watch, gives the film genuine heart and soul.
Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows | R |
CRIME
If this nifty crime thriller is to be believed—and it's based on a true story—high British government officials plotted a major London bank robbery in 1971 to recover embarrassing steamy photos of Princess Margaret. Only the bush-league blokes (led by a steely Statham) recruited to rifle the bank's safety deposit boxes didn't know what their real target was until it was too late. Solidly directed by Roger Donaldson (Thirteen Days), Bank Job is a propulsive, no-frills crime drama that efficiently gets the job done—and well too.
Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, Maura Tierney | R |
COMEDY
Will Ferrell must be on a mission to see how many sports he can bumble his way through on film. He has ice-skated clad in spangled spandex in Blades of Glory, circled NASCAR tracks in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and booted a soccer ball in Kicking & Screaming. Now, squeezed into short shorts, he dribbles a basketball in the semi-amusing Semi-Pro. It's 1976 and Ferrell plays an owner-coach-player desperate to keep afloat his ragtag American Basketball Association team (the ABA was briefly an alternative league to the NBA). More extended sketch than full-fledged movie, Semi-Pro is most memorable for its disco-laden sound track, loud leisure suits and epochally bad hair.
The Bourne star goes on a long, strange trip with Jessica Lange and Kathy Bates in the road film Bonneville.
HOW WERE JESSICA AND KATHY AS CAR MATES? Our personalities are quite different. Jessica's political, Kathy has a wicked sense of humor and I'm the good girl.
WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO GO ROAD-TRIPPING? I'd love to go to the Badlands, to the Dakotas, then over to the Pacific Northwest.
AND YOU'RE IN ANOTHER ROAD FILM I just did a big action picture called Death Race. I play the diabolical warden of a penitentiary. And now I'm working on a sweet film playing with puppies. It's great to have variety.
Newcomers Strait and Belle, both 21, find romance among woolly mammoths in the fantasy epic 10,000 BC.
NICE DREADS IN THE MOVIE!
STRAIT: After five months with the dreads,I was all dreaded out.
BELLE: I wouldn't get them in real life, but I loved it.
WHAT WAS IT LIKE WEARING ANIMAL SKINS AND BEING COVERED IN DIRT?
BELLE: They sprayed [mud] on us every day, but sometimes it wouldn't come off. Then we'd go to dinner and people are looking at you like you're the dirtiest person.
SO 10,000 B.C. OR 2008 A.D.?
STRAIT: Six months of 10,000 B.C., I experienced it; it was fine. I really enjoy my toothbrush.
BELLE: It was enough. We like our hygiene.
PREHISTORIC TIMES SOUND ROUGH.
STRAIT: Yeah, it was no Central Park. It's like, "Where's the bike path?"
DID YOU LIKE SHARING YOUR SCREEN TIME WITH WOOLLY MAMMOTHS?
STRAIT: Divas! Divas! All those mammoths.
BELLE: They take up a lot of room too.
STRAIT: And they don't care!
The insult comic extraordinaire, 82, lays down the law in Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project, a new DVD celebrating his 52 years in Hollywood.
1 DITCH THE GLITZ I live a pretty normal, non-showbiz life. When I am not up onstage, I'm at home watching the Lakers or going to see movies with the wife. I never went out looking for glory.
2 STAY SPONTANEOUS In all my years doing this, I've never written down anything. My whole act is off the top of my head. To be my age and be as fast as ever is a great feeling.
3 KEEP YOUR EGO IN CHECK, BUT LET YOUR ALTER EGO RUN WILD I just got finished doing [the voice of Toy Story's] Mr. Potato Head for this fantastic 5-ft. doll at Disneyland. I just took the grandchildren to see it and they were mesmerized. They tell everybody that their Pop-Pop is Mr. Potato Head.
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!
