February 10, 2022 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
©
Shelton Mason County Journal. All rights reserved. Upgrade to access Premium Tools
PAGE 20 (19 of 46 available) PREVIOUS NEXT Jumbo Image Save To Scrapbook Set Notifiers PDF JPG
February 10, 2022 |
|
Website © 2025. All content copyrighted. Copyright Information Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Request Content Removal | About / FAQ | Get Acrobat Reader ![]() |
Page A20 - Shelton7Mason County Journal -‘ Thursday, Feb. 10,
Review: Quirky flicks for something different on Feb. 14
continued from page A- 19
mob and the cops.
Slater has never been
cooler,‘Arquette has never
been more adorable, and their
love affair remains endear-
ing and earnest, even as each
plot twist grows ever more
improbable and adrenaline—
driven, thanks to Quentin
Tarantino’s cra'ckerjack script
and the sharklike momentum
of Tony Scott’s direction.
The supporting cast is
insanely overqualified, but
watch Out for James Gan-
dolfini, six years before “The
Sopranos,” as a hauntingly
meditative hitman.
’The Crow’
I’ve mostly opted for films
that feature their romances
in the present tense, and rela-
tively central to the plot, with
fairly uplifting resolutions.
The romantic relationship
in 1994’s “The Crow” is over
before the film even starts,
as Eric Draven and his fian-
cée, Shelly Webster, are left
for dead on Devil’s Night in
Detroit, the day before their
wedding ~— “Who the f_
gets married on Halloween
anyhow?” “Nobody” —— and
one year before Eric returns
from the dead as the Crow.
But the emotional heft of
Brandon Lee’s performance
as Eric is how he invests
every gesture with an encom-
passing grief over having lost
the one person in the world
he loved the most.
Whether he’s playing the.
Crow as vengeful or remorse-
ful, Lee comes across at every
moment as bone-tired just
from the effort of being alive.
You see it in the small—
est details, such as when
the deeply underrated Ernie
Hudson, as the one cop on his
side, asks Whether he’s going
to vanish into thin air again.
When Lee replies, “I thought
I’d use your front door,” his
voice is practically choking
back sobs, and his eyes are
glassy with unshed tears.
This is a man whose lost
love has left him hurting so
much that you feel relieved
for him when he’s finally able
to lay down and die a second
time. A
Besides being tragically
romantic, “The Crow” is also
a perfect Halloween film, so
like 1993’s “The Nightmare
Before Christmas,” it’s sea-
sonally versatile.
’The Fifth
Element’
Writer-director Luc Bes-
son delivered in 1997 what
should have been the live-
action sequel to the 1981
animated classic “Heavy
Metal,” transporting us to a
Inside seating available.
or Order to go at
_ "360.761.0677
far-future outer space packed
with enough background
mythology for a dozen sci-fi
franchises.
An evil force prophesied by
the ancient Egyptians has re-
turned from the far reaches of
the cosmos to destroy Earth
in the 23rd century. All that
stands in its way are a shell-
shocked war veteran turned
taxi driver named Korben
Dallas (Bruce Willis marks
“The Return of Bruno” to this
list) and a girl without a past
named Leeloo (the ethereal
Milla Jovovich) who tells'him
she’s “The Fifth Element” of
legend:
This is one of the few
action-romance films where
both halves of the couple pull
equal duty in fighting scenes
and emotional breakdowns.
Jovovich’s Leeloo is a flawless
combatant who is nonetheless
horrified by war, and Willis’
Korben Dallas is a reflexiver
effective soldier who'has to get
over his own emotional dam-
age to open his heart to Leeloo.
And acclaimed French
filmmaker Mathieu Kasso-
vitz has a hilariously random
cameo as an inventive but ill—
fated mugger.
’Ever After:A ,
Cinderella Story’
As a decade, the 19905
wore its revisionarysPirit on
its sleeve. This radical rein-
terpretation. of “Cinderella”
from 1998 makes its motives
clear by setting the age-old
fairy tale in Renaissance-era
France and transforming its
put-upon servant girl turned
princess into a self—rescuing
damsel in distress, whom
we see espousing ideas that
would have been almost
anachroniStically progressive
for that time.
Years before Disney’s '
direct—to—Video animated
sequels did the same in the
20005, Drew Barrymore’s
Cinderella successfully re-
deems one of her two “ugly
stepsisters,” played by future
“Yellowjackets” star Melanie
Lynskey, even as her wicked
stepmother (Anjelica Huston,
clearly having the time of her
life in the role) and her other
stepsister are consigned to a
deservineg dire fate for their
mistreatment of her.
And Barrymore’s Cinder-
ella not only effects her own
release, after being sold to
a lecherous old landowner
played .by Richard O’Brien
(“Say hello, Riffl”), but she
also broadens the mind of
her Prince Charming (al-
most-Wolverine Dougray
Scott).
All this, and we get to see
Leonardo da Vinci (no, re-
ally) makethis Cinderella’s
gossamer-winged dress for
the ball.
’Warm Biodies’
When I heard this 2013
film described as “Twilight”
with zombies instead of vam-
pires, I must admitI gritted
my teeth. But What I actually
got when I watched it was a
delightfully canny, moving
twist on “Romeo and J uliet”
that manages to justify its
“Power of Love” ending.
In the years since he
starred in 2002’s “About
A Boy,” Nicolas Hoult has
learned how to weaponize
his alien strangeness into a
winningly guileless charm.
He puts this to good use as
a zombie named “R,” who’s
understandably discon-
tented with the ennuiof his
existence, not to mention'
“conflicted about” those he’s
killed, when his heart liter-
ally starts beating again after
he falls in love with a human
girl named Julie, played by
Teresa Palmer.
Just as zombie plagues
spread like viruses, so too
does the resurgence of life
and human emotions start to
spread through the zombies,
as a result of the love that
grows between R andJulie.
Bonus points to Rob
Corddry as R’s zombie best
friend “M,” and Lio Tipton as
Julie’s friend Nora, both of
whom supply plenty of laughs
on the side (“Now you’re sup-
posed to say ‘I’m pretty too.’ ”)
_11 1 W. Cota St. in Shelton o M-Th '1 1-8 Fri-Sat 11—9 {Closed
Sunday,
inside the 40et8 Veterans Club. Membership not required to eat at Tasty
Bites! l"