A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
'U-571'
'Ulee's Gold'
'Unstrung Heroes'
'Up Close and Personal'
'Urban Legends: Final Cut'
'The Usual Suspects'
'U-571' (4/21/00)
Directed by Jonathan Mostow
Starring Matthew McConaughey, Harvey Keitel
There have been enough sub thrillers, from wars both hot and cold, that you can predict some of "U-571" from 20,000 leagues away. Surely the commander will shout maniacally to evade depth charges. Surely the torpedo tubes will jam ("Get those fish out of the boat before they blow!"). Still, director Jonathan Mostow ("Breakdown") has taken spare parts and built a lean, exciting action movie that actually floats. Lt. Andrew Tyler (Matthew McConaughey) and his men (Harvey Keitel, Jon Bon Jovi, etc.) board a broken-down Nazi sub and capture a secret coding device. Then their own boat sinks, and they're stuck on the German craft in enemy waters. The script is lame—"Drop it, you Nazi son of a bitch! DROP IT!"—but "U-571" works, thanks to the jittery handheld-camera work, the great, visceral sound editing and a few sneaky plot twists. Come on in. The water's fine.
JEFF GILES
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'Ulee's Gold' (6/16/97)
Directed by Victor Nunez
Starring Peter Fonda, Patricia Richardson
Ulee Jackson (Peter Fonda), the hero of Victor Nunez's "Ulee's Gold," is a Florida beekeeper and a Vietnam vet who has withdrawn into his work, barely connecting with the two granddaughters in his care. His son Jimmy (Tom Wood) is in prison for robbery; his daughter-in-law, a junkie, has run off, and he shuns the advances of his neighbors, clinging to an old-fashioned creed of self-reliance. But a call from his incarcerated son draws him back into the world: he's sent on a mission to rescue Jimmy's strung-out wife, Helen (Christine Dunford), and bring her home. But with her comes trouble: thugs who are looking for the stolen money her husband stashed away on Ulee's land. What's startling about this quiet, un-hyped-up film is how moving it is. "Ulee's Gold" possesses an attribute that's increasingly rare in American filmmaking, independent or Hollywood: call it soul. (on video)
DAVID ANSEN
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'Unstrung Heroes' (9/25/95)
Directed by Diane Keaton
Starring John Turturro, Andie MacDowell
The Lidz family in director Diane Keaton's first feature film would be considered eccentric in the best of times. They stand out like loony birds in Los Angeles at the end of the Eisenhower era. Dad Sid (John Turturro) is a wild-eyed inventor. His son Steven (Nathan Watt) wonders: "Is Dad from another planet?" No, but perhaps his crazy uncles are. Dreamy Uncle Arthur (Maury Chaykin) is an obsessive pack rat. Uncle Danny (Michael Richards) looks at the big picture — and sees conspiracies everywhere. The rock at the center Steven's life is his loving mother, Selma (Andie MacDowell). Thanks to everyone involved, the movie radiates a hundred pleasures. (on video)
DAVID ANSEN
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'Up Close and Personal' (3/4/96)
Directed by Jon Avnet
Starring Robert Redford, Michelle Pfeiffer
This love story set in the world of TV journalism is a pure example of Hollywood star power. In the minds of Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, who wrote it, this may also be a story about what it takes for a small-town girl to make it in the world of network news. It may touch on issues of journalistic integrity, and on the difficulty of maintaining standards in a sound-bite culture. But that's all window dressing. What it's really about is the chemical reaction set off between Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert Redford. In a love story, if your two stars don't click, all is lost. When they do — as they do here — nothing else matters. (on video)
DAVID ANSEN
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'Urban Legends: Final Cut' (9/28/00)
Directed by John Ottman
Starring Jennifer Morrison, Matthew Davis, Joseph Lawrence
In "Urban Legends: Final Cut," a killer takes--once again--to a college campus. But this time around, he's skipping the sorority girls and focusing on the film majors.In a sequel to 1998'S financially successful "Urban Legend," a maniac bludgeons a budding cinematographer, electrocutes two geeky effects guys and hangs a sound technician in a bell tower. You will note that none of these deaths is based on an urban legend. But the killings occur during a shoot of a script based on urban legends, as the film students vie for the school's prestigious film award, The Hitchcock.
The movie is unfortunately too brutal and humorless even to be enjoyably bad. It possesses an inflated sense of self with its self-conscious references to other films of the genre, territory the "Scream" series claimed five years ago. It also features overly obnoxious characters and plenty of implausible behavior (the ostensible heroine neither goes to the police nor warns her friends that there might be a BKOC). A cameo by the original movie's zesty villainess, Rebecca Gayheart, spices things up a bit. But, overall, it's not exactly the stuff of movie legend.
JANE HOGAN
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'The Usual Suspects' (8/28/95)
Directed by Bryan Singer
Starring Kevin Spacey, Stephen Baldwin
In an age when all movie genres are being subverted, postmodernized and deconstructed, film noir is a tough genre to mess around with. For many, noir is the key American movie type, and the most fun when it's done right. This one's done right. Here's an intelligent movie with no special effects. You have to pay close attention, to listen hard to its cross-fires of dialogue. It's a tough movie about five tough guys who meet in a jail cell. The collision of these five felons — played by Gabriel Byrne, Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollak, Benicio Del Toro and Kevin Spacey — sets off a story line that's the most convoluted since Humphrey Bogart's classic "The Big Sleep." (on video)
JACK KROLL
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