Mark L. Falconer Video Page

DOUBLE TAKE-George Gallo (who wrote MIDNIGHT RUN) gets another shot

at directing with this fast-paced action-comedy about a yuppie businessman (the

talented-and unlucky in picking projects-Orlando Jones) and a street hustler

(Eddie Griffin) on the run. A handful of laughs here (as well as a modest debt

owed to SILVER STREAK), but nothing special. In an apparent attempt to

maintain a PG-13 rating, there are several scenes of people firing guns at

other people-but almost no one is hit by the bullets from the guns. Sort of

like the edited-for-TV version of THE WILD BUNCH which appeared on CBS

THIRTEEN DAYS-A docudrama about the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 which

mythologizes the Kennedys (played here by Bruce Greenwood-surprisingly

good as JFK-and Steven Culp as RFK) and aide Kenny O'Donnell (Kevin

Costner-still in Movie Star Purgatory) as sober, churchgoing leaders of

the Free World who successfully joust with the Soviet government and

eager-to-fight U.S. military leaders such as General Curtis LeMay (Kevin

Conway). A reasonably engrossing film-and a better piece of flagwaving

STATE AND MAIN-David Mamet, rebounding from the artistic disaster of

THE WINSLOW BOY, delivers one of the funniest comedies of the 21st-

century so far-an amorality play about what transpires when a Hollywood

film crew invades a small New England town. With Alec Baldwin, Sarah

Jessica Parker, Julia Stiles, Philip Seymour Hoffman (as the naif screenwriter),

Clark Gregg, William H. Macy (the film's director), David Paymer and the

inevitable Rebecca Pidgeon (good here). Worth renting.

GET CARTER (2000)-Sylvester Stallone's remake of the classic 1971 Mike Hodges

film about a hitman (played in the original film by Michael Caine) who returns

to his hometown on a mission of revenge. Generally disastrous-Stallone

eliminates the amoral nihilism of the original and substitutes a "redemption"

story in its place (apparently, he also thought that casting Caine-in a small role,

Miranda Richardson, young-flavor-of-the-moment Rachael Leigh Cook,

Alan Cumming and a ravaged-looking Mickey Rourke would make the film

resemble COP LAND-it doesn't). Flashily directed by Stephen Kay-the final nail

in this film's artistic coffin. Avoid-unless you're a diehard Stallone fan who has

LOVE AND BASKETBALL-The (slightly overlong) debut feature from TV-trained Gina

Prince-Bythewood (whose husband, Reggie Rock Bythewood, wrote GET ON THE

BUS) is a TV-movie in subject matter (young woman and young man from suburbia

come of age on-and off-the basketball court) and approach, but it's safe to predict

that the consistently engrossing LOVE AND BASKETBALL will be a cut above most TV-movies that you, the potential renter, will sit through this season. With Sanaa

Lathan (impressive), Omar Epps, Alfre Woodard, Debbi Morgan and Dennis Haysbert.

MISSION TO MARS-Another in Brian De Palma's string of losers (RAISING CAIN,

SNAKE EYES). This puree of 50's/60's/70's sci-fi space adventure (stalwart,

cardboard characters, naked adoration of technology, can/do Americanism,

climax appropriated from the climactic scenes of a 1977 Steven Spielberg film)

might have been a watchable, perhaps even entertaining film (mixing storytelling

conviction and affectionate parody of the genre cliches of the past) if it had been

directed by someone like Joe Dante. Unfortunately, De Palma has no affinity

for feel-good sci-fi, making for a lengthy 113 minutes-with an occasional interesting

setpiece (the first Martian storm sequence-with a too-bloody-for-PG dismemberment

of an astronaut, the outer-space death of a key character, Tim Robbins and

Connie Nielsen's zero-gravity dance to Van Halen's DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY)

providing momentary respite from the general tedium. Of the other performances,

special mention must be made of Armin Mueller-Stahl's atypical hamminess and

Gary Sinise's failed attempt to simulate Spielbergian awe-and-wonder (the always-

reliable Don Cheadle gives the best performance here). Marginally rentable.

MAGNOLIA-Paul Thomas Anderson, following the critical success and moderate

boxoffice of BOOGIE NIGHTS, shoots the works with this three-hour Altmanesque

multiple-character story about people desperate for love and human connection. Anderson pours on the self-indulgence (worst of all: Jon Brion's score being allowed

to drown out some of the dialogue), but there are enough good performances (particularly from John C. Reilly, William H. Macy, Melinda Dillon, Julianne Moore and Philip Baker Hall) and genuinely affecting moments (the controversial scene where the

characters sing along to Aimee Mann's WISE UP) to make MAGNOLIA worth renting. And, of course, there's Tom Cruise's better-than-EYES WIDE SHUT showiness as a