Movie preview

This week - Collateral - Shrek 2 - Stupeur et Tremblements

Collateral

Director: Michael Mann

Heavyweight director Michael Mann has done an excellent job with this action thriller. Those who liked the tension in his movie "Heat" will doubtlessly also find this just as intriguing. The basis of the movie is familiar, but its approach is quite singular. Filming most of the movie on video at night gives it a rough, convincing feel and look. "Collateral" is an action-movie with substance. Mann has taken a simplistic, almost hackneyed storyline and made it into a riveting, atmospheric film. It's exciting to see Tom Cruise cast against type, and he effectively nails his complex character. Jamie Foxx also gives a compelling, convincing performance and the two actors exquisitely depict the weird and intense relationship between a killer and a cabdriver during one unforgettable night in the pulsating city of Los Angeles. (Julie Vinten)

Director Michael Mann ("Heat," "The Insider," "Ali") delivers an elegant, convincingly realistic thriller that never fails to intrigue and excite. Max (Jamie Foxx) is struggling to make ends meet as a taxicab driver in Los Angeles. He has big dreams of running a fleet of limousines one day. Along comes Vincent (Tom Cruise), who turns out to be a professional assassin, hired to eliminate five people in one night. Both actors give knock-your-socks-off performances to sustain this film's jazz-intense rhythm. However, it's Foxx who easily steals the show, even with bootylicious Jada Pinkett Smith along for the ride. L.A. looks absolutely stunning (most particularly from the air). If your pulse isn't beating like a drum by the end of this film, you are definitely not among the living. (Laimons Juris G)

Shrek 2

Director: Adamson, Asbury

The Green One is back in this solid follow-up to DreamWorks' 2001 smash-hit animation feature. The first part is unquestionably superior to this one, but this is still a good sequel to a great movie. Naturally it isn't as intriguingly fresh and original as first time around, but the filmmakers have successfully mixed enjoyably the now-familiar elements from the first movie with new, interesting characters and settings. The jokes are not all spot-on, but at least they aren't recycled from the original, and "Shrek 2" offers plenty of belly laughs. The delightfully hilarious character of Puss-in-Boots, voiced by Antonio Banderas, is a great addition to the original cast. On the whole, this is an ambitious and well-made movie, which offers good entertainment for the young and old alike. (Julie Vinten)

The roly-poly green ogre Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) and the love of his life Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) return. Some vivacious new characters are introduced, including an enjoyably hilarious Puss In Boots (Antonio Banderas). You won't easily forget this lovable little kitty and his sad, pleading eyes. In a surprise twist, the Fairy Godmother is the villain. In a mere 25 days after its release, "Shrek 2" became the highest-grossing animated film of all time. To date it has earned more than half a billion dollars. This spunky and spirited family frolic is chock full of pop-culture references, movie lampoons and familiar foot-tapping tunes. The wonderfully sweet message is basic: learn to love yourself for who you are. Fairy tales will never be the same happily ever after. (Laimons Juris G)

Stupeur et Tremblements

Director: Alain Corneau

This very unpleasant, tedious and visually uninventive comedy is based on an autobiographical novel by the Belgian author Amelie Nothomb. Amelie (Sylvie Testud) begins work as a translator in a firm in Tokyo where all the Japanese are vicious individuals dishing out mental torture to the naive European girl. But then she is really so ignorant and awful, it's difficult to feel any empathy with her. Amelie puts up with the abuse, almost embracing it, and develops a strange, masochistic love for her vindictive, female superior, a relationship she compares with that of the camp commandant and the PoW in "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence." The movie is too one-sided to be a study of the clash between Eastern and Western cultures, and when all's said and done, it's quite incoherent and pointless. (Julie Vinten)

According to ancient Japanese tradition, anyone approaching the emperor did so only with "Fear and Trembling" - the English translation of the film's meaningful title. This is a splendid French bon-bon directed by Alain Corneau, based on the semiautobiographical prize-winning novel by Amelie Nothomb. Returning to the land of her birth, a petite Belgian woman (Sylvie Testud) finds a job in Tokyo. Hired as an interpreter she upsets the higher-ups when she demonstrates her knowledge of Japanese while serving coffee to some company clients. A series of misunderstandings, via Amelie's boss Miss Fubuki (Kaori Tsuji), aptly demonstrate the very real differences between East and West. For the Japanese the way something is said is just as important as what is actually said; form is often more important than content. (Laimons Juris G)