Leading Ladies: January 21, 2005
Heading to the movies this weekend? Find out what's worth your time according to the top women film critics at the nation's best publications. Every Friday morning we'll give you the female perspective on what to expect when the curtain rises.
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Assault on Precinct 13
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne, John Leguizamo, Drea de Matteo
Director: Jean-François Richet
Rating: R
The evidence is in, and the rap sheet on the remake of John Carpenter's cult favorite '70s cops vs. gangsters drama is well, less than arresting. The charge, according to our Leading Ladies: Remake director Richet fell down on the job of keeping the action in this action flick interesting. Says Salon's Stephanie Zacharek, "No matter how hard some of its actors work to resuscitate it, Assault on Precinct 13 is as lifeless as a corpse on a slab." The New York Daily News's Jami Bernard agrees, preferring "the Carpenter version, which, frankly, had more suspense," and the Washington Post's Ann Hornaday sums it up, saying the movie "breaks the first and only commandment of remakes: Thou shall at the very least do justice to the original, or thou shall not be made at all."
As for the movie's few redeeming qualities, Zacharek says "Hawke is much better here than the material warrants"; L.A. Weekly's Ella Taylor says the anti-cop baddie is "played with customary cool menace by Laurence Fishburne"; and USA Today's Claudia Puig concurs, saying there are "some stirring performances among the predictable portrayals."
Female consensus: The perps are interesting, but the remake is another case of a good movie gone bad.
Are We There Yet?
Stars: Ice Cube, Nia Long, Jay Mohr
Director: Brian Levant
Rating: PG
Rapper turned actor Ice Cube also gets a frosty reception from the Leading Ladies this week, as he stars in this kid-friendly flick about a guy so eager to impress a single mom that he agrees to take her kids on a road trip in his SUV. Says the Philadelphia Inquirer's Carrie Rickey, Cube's "charm is about the only thing that carries the movie, 96 manic minutes of two obnoxious children holding hostage their caretaker." The Dallas Observer's Melissa Levine says the movie is a "big, boring failure of slapstick and degradation," with dialogue that is "nothing more than rehashed sitcom fare," and USA Today's Claudia Puig says the movie simply "is not worth the ride."
Female consensus: The good news is, the kids will probably like it. The bad news is, that means you're going to have to see it.
In limited release: Berlin Film Festival winner Head-On is definitely not this season's feel-good film. Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwarzbaum says the suicidal-couple drama is "propelled by ferocious sex, nasty violence, and coy interludes of traditional Turkish love songs warbled by a folk band on the banks of the Bosporus." Watermarks, a documentary about championship-winning Jewish women swimmers at an Austrian athletic club, "makes for a necessary corrective to Leni Riefenstahl's grudgingly admired Olympic myth-mongering," says the Village Voice's Laura Sinagra. Director Siegrid Alnoy's debut, the workplace drama She's One of Us, "displays the humiliating aspects of workplace culture, particularly its sense of forced camaraderie . . . [but] jettisons nuanced, thoughtful observations for obtuse, overarching ideas about corporate evil," says the Village Voice's Melissa Anderson.
Seen these films? Tell us what you think.
Find out about last week's releases: Elektra, Racing Stripes, Coach Carter, The Green Butchers, Appleseed and The Chorus.