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Beyond the Blockbusters - Winter 2002-2003 List
It's the Rage
Packed with actors we know and love—Joan Allen, David Schwimmer, Andre Braugher, Anna Paquin, Jeff Daniels and more. This film is not only a showcase of faces but also a treatise on the evil of guns, a bit of a cautionary tale mixed with a display of great actors in bad roles. Not a great movie, but worth checking out. [R]
Murder in the First
Kevin Bacon and Christian Slater star in this fact based story of an Alcatraz inmate befriended by the lawyer who has been appointed to defend him after he kills a fellow convict. [R]
Office Space
Dilbert comes to life in this raucous tale of a cubicle dweller whose career takes off after he's hypnotized into not caring about work. [R]
The Royal Tenenbaums
Gwyneth Paltrow fans, please don't hate
me. This is her greatest acting, her best role yet. A quirky
comedy, a quirky family, with another star studded cast—Gene
Hackman as the title hero, Royal Tenenbaum, Angelica Huston
as his estranged wife. Gwyneth pouts her way through the
movie as one of the Tenenbaums' genius offspring. And Bill
Murray plays her lover. Then there is Ben Stiller as her
brother, another genius, another neurosis. Are you interested
yet? On top of all that, it IS funny and at times even warm
and fuzzy. [R]
Sleepers
Disturbing account of four men who seek revenge on the guard who abused them when they were boys in a brutal reform school. [R]
Tremors
Good old-fashioned B-movie fun as people marooned in an isolated gas station do battle with giant, deadly worms. It’s Dune without the unintentional laughs. Reba McIntyre is a hoot as a survivalist. [PG-13]
Swept Away
Okay, so I haven't seen this movie in 25 years. But with a remake out
I can almost bet the original is better—even if the new one stars Madonna.
Here's what I remember of the first one—Lina Wertmuller directed
it. One of the greatest Italian directors of all time (name the other one)!
The movie was a shocker—offensive,
appalling. Wertmuller said it was a movie about the class struggles, a Marxist
statement of some sort. Viewers saw it as misogynistic. I thought it was so different
and so challenging and if nothing else you have to think any movie able to evoke
so much vitriolic rhetoric has to be worth seeing. (For you subtitle-challenged
folks, it's in Italian!) [R]
The Wind and the Lion
Sparks fly as Moroccan warrior Sean Connery kidnaps gutsy American Candice Bergen and her children, drawing President Theodore Roosevelt and the United States Marines into the fray. [PG]
Yanks
Old time love story about three American GIs and the British women they fall in love with on the eve of the D-Day Invasion. [R]
Young Frankenstein
I've been nostalgic for Mel Brooks—early Mel Brooks. This spoof on horror films is one of the cleverest movies ever made. And what can I say about the cast? Peter Doyle plays the monster, Gene Wilder the doctor, Madeline Kahn the bride, Marty Feldman, Cloris Leachman.... On the box it says, "The scariest comedy of all time." You've seen it, take it home again. You'll be glad you did. [PG]
O.K., they're not movies, but they're still good
The House of Eliott
Two spunky English sisters left penniless after their father's death struggle to make it in the fashion industry. 
Reckless
A young doctor pursues a beautiful older woman. The catch is she's married...to his boss.
Six Feet Under—Complete First Season
Sometime in February 2003, the first season of Six Feet Under will hit your video shelves. Run, stampede, pay off your library fines, push old ladies to the ground, do whatever it takes to get your hands on this video series. By far the best thing on television since Twin Peaks.
Last updated: March 18, 2010