THE CHOSEN ONE

THE WORLD'S FASTEST INDIAN (Magnolia Pictures)
Starring Anthony Hopkins, Diane Ladd, Paul Rodriguez, Bruce Greenwood, Chris Lawford, Phoebe Falconer, Greg Johnson, Craig Hall, Lana Antonova, Chris Bruno, Jessica Cauffiel, Patrick Flueger, Walt Goggins, Joe Howard, William Lucking, Laurel Moglen, Scott Michael Morgan, Steve O'Neill, Chris Williams
Written and Directed by Roger Donaldson (Species, The Recruit, Cadillac Man, The Bounty)
Rated PG-13 for brief language, drug use and a sexual reference
REVIEW

This week's pick is another movie that took me by surprise, because for the longest time, I really thought it was about an “Indian” or Native American, who was really speedy. Actually, it's about an eccentric New Zealander named Burt Munro, who set a land speed record on his souped-up vintage motorbike in the late '60s. What's so nice about this biodrama is that it features a truly wonderful performance by Anthony Hopkins, who turns Burt into one of his most lovable characters in quite some time, and director Roger Donaldson, who also wrote the movie, does a great job mixing the humor with some amazing speedway footage. It's the type of movie that can be appreciated both by an older audience and older kids, who should both enjoy Burt Munro's antics and adventure.

Recently, I spoke to Donaldson, who told me how this dream project came together.“This film spanned my whole career as a filmmaker,” he told me. “It started out as one of the first films I made, as a documentary, and the real guy just stuck with me. I could never forget this guy, and when I started making feature films a few years later, I just thought there was something about this character that would say a lot for me personally about my own experience of coming to America, as well as be a connection to a character who I had met and the extraordinary stories he had to tell about how people you would least expect to help him had really helped him a lot. There was something about this guy that managed to drag the best out of people, rather than the worst.”

“ Documentaries are hard to really tell it honestly,” he admitted when asked to expand upon his reasons for revisiting his earlier work. “When I look at the documentary that I made this film about and I look at this film, I see the handwriting on both movies. It's hard to put into words what that is, but they have a common theme. I like relationships and the way people interact with each other. I think the feature gets to explore Burt in more depth in a way, and it becomes my own observation as much as Burt's observation.”

“ There's something about Burt wanting to go fast that's a little bit of a zen sort of experience that doesn't make a lot of sense other than to say that you've done it,” Donaldson continued. “That's the purpose behind mountaineering and those pursuits that puts one in contact with danger. I think people love to get in touch with their mortality in a way, and I'm personally fascinated by that quality about males, particularly, but women seem to have it, too, more and more.”

Of course, any time there's a movie like this, one wonders how much of it is real and how much is artistic license.” The movie is not all fact, but it's inspired by fact,” Donaldson told me, “so there are things in the movie that I find very important that I get right. Burt's bike is a replica down to the last nut and bolt to where everybody thinks why would you want to make it like that? To recreate that bike in its entirety was very important to me. What I wanted to be true to was the spirit of this guy.”

Fortunately, he was able to reunite with one of the world's greatest actors to bring Burt Munro to life. “Anthony's an awesome actor,” he agreed. “We made The Bounty together many years ago, and we were ready to kill each other after that experience, but what I did recognize is that he is a genius actor, and to do that part so convincingly, he gave an enormous amount of himself, and he always does. Once he was on board, the film became a reality, and he took this character and ran with it. I don't know any other actor that could have done with it what he's done with it. For me, he's found the heart and soul, the subtlety and the nuance in the character. I was lucky to have Anthony in my film.”

The World's Fastest Indian will open in select cities on Friday. You can also read my full interview with Sir Anthony Hopkins here.

NEW THIS WEEK:

The Super Bowl on Sunday certainly won't help any of these movies in their opening weekends

SOMETHING NEW (Focus Features)
Starring Sanaa Lathan, Simon Baker, Mike Epps, Donald Faison, Blair Underwood, Alfre Woodard, Jenifer Lewis
Directed by Sanaa Hamri (debut); Written by Kriss Turner
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Rated PG-13 for sexual references
Tagline: “She had it all under control. Except her heart.”
Story: Kenya McQueen (Sanaa Lathan) is a career woman working at an accounting firm, and too busy to get her personal life in order, but she agrees to a blind date, and ends up meeting a good-looking landscaper (Simon Baker), but OH MY GOD!!! He's white!!! What are her friends and family going to say!?! What is she going to do!?!? (Sorry. I'll calm down now.) Obviously, Kenya's friends have something to say about her new beau, but will Kenya listen to them or listen to her heart?

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, it's time to rollout a few romantic date movies, and there's no audience that has made the most out of the genre than the “urban” female audience who turned movies like Waiting to Exhale, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, and last year's Diary of a Mad Black Women, into such big hits. Basically, this one is Jungle Fever in reverse, although one has to assume that first time director Sanaa Hamri's directorial debut is probably going to be a little lighter and less confrontational than Spike Lee's drama. Of course, this premise has already been used for comedic effect in last year's pseudo-remake Guess Who, which pitted Ashton Kutcher against Bernie Mac, but this is probably going to be geared more towards African-American women. It stars Sanaa Lathan, who may be remembered as the butt-kicking heroine of 2004's Alien vs. Predator, but before that, she starred in the urban comedy Brown Sugar, which did very well in 2002, earning almost $11 million in a busy weekend. Whether or not Lathan made much of a mark in that movie, she has another impressive supporting cast including Mike Epps, Donald Faison of “Scrubs,” Alfre Woodard of “Desperate Houswives”, and Blair Underwood, who was last seen on “Sex in the City.” Her love interest Simon Baker also has a bit of genre experience, having appeared in last year's Land of the Dead and The Ring Two. Focus Features sneak previewed the film two weekends in a row, which should help the word-of-mouth at getting its intended audience into theatres, although even women tend to get sidelined by the Super Bowl, so this may do most of its business on Friday. There's also a good chance that many women might wait and force their boyfriends or husbands take them to see it on Valentine's Day. Oh, the things we do for love.

Why I Should See It: This could be a cute romantic comedy, although it's obviously targeted towards African-American women.
Why Not: If you're not an African-American woman, the chance of being interested in this story is about as likely as me joining the Oprah Book Club.
Projection: $7 to 9 million opening weekend on its way to roughly $30 million total.

WHEN A STRANGER CALLS (Sony/Screen Gems)
Starring Camilla Belle, Brian Geraghty, Tommy Flanagan, Tessa Thompson, Clark Gregg, Derek de Lint, Kate Jennings Grant, David Dennan
Directed by Simon West (Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, The General's Daughter, Con Air); Written by Jake Wade Wall (debut)
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Remake
Rated PG-13 (for intense terror, violence and some language)
Tagline: “Every babysitter's nightmare becomes real...”
Story: A night of babysitting turns into a night of terror for high school student Jill Johnson (Camilla Belle) who starts getting terrifying calls from “a stranger” asking whether she's checked the children. When she calls the police, she discovers that… wait a second. Isn't that like the big spoiler for the movie? Why is this “plot twist” already known from the trailers, plot descriptions, etc.? ::sigh::

Just when you thought it was safe to watch your neighbors' kids, the horror remakes return with an updated version of the 1979 B-movie horror thriller that has been used to terrify and prank babysitters for years. This one really may be pushing the limit of remakes, since the only reason the original was so good and was so scary was because of the big plot twist, which almost everybody knows, and this version gives it away in the commercials and trailer. Heck, Wes Craven even spoofed the movie in the opening scene of his horror franchise Scream, and threatening phone calls have now become a horror movie cliché. While the original movie starred Carol Kane from the TV show “Taxi”, this one features talented young actress Camilla Belle, who was last seen in Rebecca Miller's indie drama The Ballad of Jack and Rose alongside Miller's husband Daniel Day Lewis. (You might recognize the scarred face of the Stranger as Tommy Flanagan from Gladiator, Braveheart and other films.) On the other hand, director Simon West will forever be remembered and mocked for his tragically bad summer blockbuster Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and the screenwriter is now working on a remake of The Hitcher. (Is nothing sacred!?) As discussed in last week's “The Battle Cry,” the movie isn't being screened for critics, which seems to be Screen Gems' new policy, and after releasing movies like The Cave, Boogeyman and Darkness Falls, who can blame them? Unlike Underworld: Evolution, which had a guaranteed audience from the legion of fans of the original, this might be too great an insult for horror fans, and will likely appeal only to the key target demographic of teens who will see it because it's PG-13. Of course, the Super Bowl will probably cut into its business, since guys will probably watch that instead of this.

Why I Should See It: You've never seen the original, which besides the premise, wasn't really that good to begin with.
Why Not: Because the trailer pretty much gives away the whole movie!
Projection: $13 to 15 million opening weekend on its way to just over $35 million.

THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA (Sony Pictures Classics)
Starring Tommy Lee Jones, Barry Pepper, Julio Cedillo, Dwight Yoakam, January Jones, Melissa Leo, Vanessa Bauche, Levon Helm
Directed by Tommy Lee Jones (debut); Written by Guillermo Arriaga (21 Grams, Amores Perros)
Genre: Drama, Adventure
Rated R for language, violence and sexuality
Story: Rancher Pete Perkins (Tommy Lee Jones) promises to give his Mexican friend a proper burial when he's shot and killed by a border patrolman (Barry Pepper), and he decides to get a bit of revenge on his killer at the same time.
(Mini-Review: Rating: )

The actor who won an Oscar for searching every doghouse and outhouse in The Fugitive teams with the Mexican co-writer of 21 Grams and Amores Perros for his directorial debut, which takes him on a trip across Texas and Mexico to get revenge for a murdered friend. It's a very different revenge flick, but a great vehicle for Jones, who actually takes a backseat to his co-star Barry Pepper (The 25^th Hour) a bit. Those who enjoy tales of the modern West and have strong constitutions for violence may want to check out this film, as it opens in limited release after its Oscar consideration run last December.

Why I Should See It: Tommy Lee Jones directing and starring in a gritty modern Western seems like a good combination.
Why Not: There may be way too many similarities to Weekend at Bernie's.

WHAT THE BLEEP!? ­ DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE (Samuel Goldwyn)
Starring Marlee Matlin, Elaine Hendrix, Barry Newman, Robert Bailey Jr., John Ross Bowie, Armin Shimerman, Robert Blanche
Written and directed by William Arntz, Betsy Chasse, Mark Vicente ; Written by
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Documentary
Rated ?
Story: Amanda (Marlee Matlin) and the creators of What the Bleep Do We Know!? return with another adventure into the quantum field, exploring the hidden truths about the world through Amanda's contact with various characters.

If there ever was a movie that I just didn't get, then there's the original What the Bleep Do We Know!?, which I never got a chance to see when it came out a few years back. As much I tried to read and learn what the movie was about, it would usually just leave me scratching my head, because supposedly, it was a strange esoteric film, sort of a spiritual metaphysical docudrama in the vein of David O. Russell's I Heart Huckabees (which I also didn't get). So it's quite a surprise that with almost no real advertising or promotion, the first movie ended up making almost $11 million. No surprise that they decided to continue the ideas into this follow-up docudrama.

Why I Should See It: If you saw and liked the original, this is probably going to be more of the same.
Why Not: Because what the BLEEP do I know?

ALSO IN LIMITED RELEASE:

Jeffrey Reddick, co-creator of Final Destination, wrote the screenplay for the revenge-horror flick TAMARA (City Lights Pictures) about an unpopular girl (Jenna Dewan) killed in a prank, who returns after being buried to get revenge on those who plagued her. It opens in New York on Friday, and then in other cities on February 17. (Mini-Review: Super-sexy Jenna Dewan is the best reason to see this horror film that starts off like your typical cliche-ridden high school revenge flick, but then puts a few surprising twists into the mix. There's enough gore to appease fans of such, but it's more impressive for Tamara's unique methods of getting revenge. Unfortunately, there's a good 15 to 20 minutes towards the end where we don't see much of her, which is where the film falters a bit. Rating: 7/10)

Based on the Oscar Wilde play “Lady Windermere's Fan,” the 1930's romantic comedy A GOOD WOMAN (Lionsgate) stars Helen Hunt as a woman of ill repute who tries to find a new husband in Italy. It co-stars Tom Wilkinson and Scarlett Johansson, and opens in New York and L.A. REVIEW

Opening on Wednesday at the Film Forum in New York is the documentary WHO GETS TO CALL IT ART? (Palm Pictures) about the New York City pop art movement as seen by Henry Geldzahler, the Museum of Modern Art's first curator of Contemporary Art. Opening in a bunch of theatres in Utah is the Mormon-centric SUITS ON THE LOOSE (Halestorm Entertainment), a comedy about two military academy youths who go AWOL, steal a car belonging to Mormon missionaries and then try to pose like them to keep from getting caught. Danny Green's THE TENANTS (Millenium Films), based on Bernard Malamud's novel. It stars Dylan McDermott as a Jewish writer living in an old tenement building and trying to finish his novel, who gets into a heated feud with another writer in the building played by Snoop Dogg. It opens at the AMC Empire 25 on Friday before a DVD release on March 7. (Mini-Review: The passive-aggressive relationship between the two writers makes for an interesting premise, but Snoop Dog doesn't give that strong a performance compared to Dylan Mcdermot. The writing is generally bland and the interesting relationship quickly wears itself thin, as the movie turns into a thriller about a love triangle. Rating: 3.5/10)

At New York's Quad Cinema is THE TOLLBOOTH (Castle Hill Productions), starring Marla Sokoloff as a Jewish art school student, who must contend with traditional parents, along with her older sisters. (Mini-Review: Obvious humor and drama and bad Jewish accents are the main course for this glorified student film, which can't decide if it wants to be funny or poignant, tries too hard to be both, and ultimately ends up being neither. Really, we've seen this all before, mostly on bad TV sitcoms. Rating: 2/10) Also opening in Los Angeles this weekend is Everett Lewis' FAQS about a drag queen who brings a group of misfits together.