REVIEWS IN A HURRY for 2004 - H Back to Reviews in Hurry for 2004 - A				Henry V (1989, 138 min, PG13) **** - Directed by Kenneth Branagh, starring Kenneth Branagh, Derek Jacobi, Brian Blessed, and Paul Scofield.  Rousing, exciting, and accessible adaptation of Shakespeare’s play shows young and pious King Harry (Branagh, in perhaps his finest hour) beset from all sides by treachery, doubt, and the French.  The war in France is a muddy, bloody, dirty business, in which Henry finds himself hanging friends for stealing from churches, fighting tremendous odds, and questioning his own motives, culminating in a brilliantly shot and saddening battle scene, as depressing as anything in “Saving Private Ryan.”  Oscar-winning costumes and nominations for Best Director and Actor. The Hours (2002, 114 min, PG13) *** - Directed by Stephen Daldry, starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, and Julianne Moore.  Oscarbait drama based on the novel by Michael Cunnigham succeeds despite being so overwrought.  Troubled women in three different eras are connected by the novel “Mrs. Dalloway:”  the book’s depressed author Virgina Woolf (Kidman), a 1950s housewife asking “is this all there is?” (Moore), and a present day editor reaching middle-age with little to show for it (Streep).  Oscar for Actress Kidman and multiple nominations including Picture and Director. House of Games (1985, 102 min, R) ***1/2 –Directed by David Mamet, starring Lindsay Crouse and Joe Mantegna.  Almost unnervingly sterile noir about an uptight psychiatrist (Crouse) drawn into the world of a sneaky con man (Mantegna), but who’s playing whom?  As always, Mamet’s dialogue creates a universe of its own; one of his theories of dialogue is that it should never repeat anything about that story that you can already see from the images. The House of Mirth (2000, 140 min, PG) **1/2 – Directed by Terence Davies, starring Gillian Anderson, Dan Akroyd, and Eric Stoltz.  Well-made, good-looking, but painfully stiff adaptation of Edith Wharton’s classic novel.  Lily Bart (Anderson, in a fine non-“X-Files” performance) is almost too old to marry when she realizes she can either marry a questionable and financially unstable lawyer (Stoltz) for love or any number of other gentlemen for security.  Her indecision is her downfall. How to Kill Your Neighbor’s Dog (2001, 108 min, R) *** - Directed by Michael Kalesniko, starring Kenneth Branagh and Robin Wright-Penn.  A former boy wonder playwright (Branagh) struggles through a new play, self-pity, and pack after pack of cigarettes.  The movie’s highpoint is just listening to Branagh hating himself and the world so magnificently.  “Your Neighbor’s Dog” is perhaps a veiled biography of Branagh himself, who was touted as “the next Olivier” in 1989, but whose career has cooled somewhat since then. The Hustler (1961, 134 min, B&W, NR) **** - Directed by Robert Rossen, starring Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, George C. Scott, and Piper Laurie.  On the subject of films about pool, “The Van Hoffmann Bros. Big Damn Book of Sheer Manliness” has this to say:  “there’s ‘The Hustler’ and only ‘The Hustler.’”   A selfish young shark named Fast Eddie (Newman) learns the price and discipline of winning through an ordeal of suffering and degradation.  Gleason is the nation’s reigning champ, Scott is the Machiavellian crook who tries to harness Fast Eddie, and Laurie is the woman he loves.  Pay close attention, you might miss a lot.  Oscars for Art Direction and Black & White Cinematography.
	Hamlet (1996, 242 min, PG13) **** - Directed by Kenneth Branagh, starring Kenneth Branagh, Derek Jacobi, Julie Christie, Kate Winslet, and Brian Blessed.  Director-screenwriter-actor Branagh has always been a little bit on the loud side, and here he finally goes over the top:  a star-studded and visually magnificent four-hour adaptation of “Hamlet” that includes every single line of Shakespeare’s dialogue.  The young prince (Branagh) is visited by the spirit of his late father (Blessed), claiming that he was murdered by his own brother, the new king (Jacobi).  Before he can act, Hamlet is plagued by doubts of the ghost’s veracity and his own sanity.  Inventive production design creates an anachronistic universe somewhere between czarist Russia and medieval England.  Branagh’s “Acting!!!” may be an acquired taste, but once you’ve acquired it, it has the same charm as a Shakespeare-in-the-Park festival or a spaghetti western. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002, 161 min, PG) *** - Directed by Chris Columbus, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson.  Sequel to the vastly successful “The Sorcerer’s Stone” finds Harry and his friends (Radcliffe, Grint, and Watson) getting into more trouble and derring-do at wizard school.  New additions to the large ensemble cast of overacting Brits includes Kenneth Branagh as a phony, self-obsessed professor. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004, 142 min, PG) *** - Directed by Alfonse Cuaron, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson.  Third installment of the “Harry Potter” films finds new director Cuaron (“Y Tu Mama Tambien”) shifting the balance from special effects and the supernatural more toward the disillusionment of the teenage years.  An escaped criminal (Gary Oldman), a new professor (David Thewlis), and demonic prison guards play into Harry’s (Radcliffe) continuing investigation into his parents’ demise. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001, 152 min, PG) *** – Directed by Chris Columbus, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson.  Colorful and whimsical adaptation the children’s novel by J.K. Rowling following the exploits of an orphaned boy (Radcliffe) at wizard school.  Harry makes friends, enemies, and explores the mysterious demise of his parents.  The enormous and talented British supporting cast, including Maggie Smith, Richard Harris, and John Cleese, and a vast array of special effects help things along.  Oscar nominations for production design. Heat (1995, 183 min, R) **** - Directed by Michael Mann, starring Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and Val Kilmer.  Cops-and-robbers on a grand scale.  De Niro is the thief, Pacino is the detective, and for three hours they play cat-and-mouse across LA, as well as suffer troubled relationships with women and their colleagues.  Writer-director Mann photographs the largeness of the metropolis beautifully and paints LA not as a depraved place of sin, but as a morally neutral arena for the two men’s existential combat. Hellboy (2004, 122 min, PG13) *** - Directed by Guillermo Del Toro, starring Ron Perlman and John Hurt.  Bursting with the tongue-in-cheek wit lacking in lesser comic book movies, “Hellboy” tells the story of a demon (Perlman) with a huge gun and an even huger forearm who fights against the forces of evil instead of for them.  The movie cheerfully includes clockwork Nazis, portals into Hell, surgery addicts, secret government agencies, and every other Saturday morning, comic book, and video game extravagance it can get its gleeful hands on.