Roger Ebert Movie Review - 01/29/10, 10:18

Roger Ebert Movie Review

Weekend Box Office: January 22-24, 2010

Avatar tops the box office with $34.9 million

Daily Box Office: Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Avatar tops Wednesday's box office with $3.1 million

"Edge of Darkness" (R, 117 minutes). When a Boston cop (Mel Gibson) sees his daughter murdered, his search for the killers leads him to a sinister, shadowy corporation and its oily chairman (Danny Huston). An intriguing free agent (Ray Winstone) materializes, with unexplained knowledge about the case. The corporation seems recycled from a Bond movie and the action scenes are boilerplate CGI, but Gibson and Winstone have some nice moments. Two and a half stars.

The Chaser / ***1/2 (No MPAA rating)

"The Chaser" (Adults, 124 minutes). An expert serial killer film from South Korea and reminder of what a well-made thriller looked like in classic says. Its principal chase scene involves a foot race through the deserted narrow nighttime streets of Seoul. No exploding cars. The climax is the result of everything that has gone before. Not an extended fight scene. This is drama, and it is interesting. An ex-cop turned pimp chases a serial killer, as a prostitute's life hangs in the balance. Notre: Very violent. Three and a half stars

The Third Man / **** ()

"The Third Man" (1949), which begins a weeklong run at the Music Box, is one of the greatest of all films, and one of the most entertaining. Carol Reed's cynical, bleakly comic story perfectly catches the postwar moment when the Cold War was beginning to take shape; in the divided city of Vienna, separated into British, American, French and Russian zones, he finds suspicion and mistrust.

35 Shots of Rum / **** (No MPAA rating)

"35 Shots of Rum" (Unrated, 99 minutes). About four people who have known each other in way or another for a long time, and how their relationships shift in a way that was slow in the preparation. They live across the hall from one another in a Paris apartment building--a train engineer, a clerk in music store, a taxi driver, a rootless young man. Their likes are contended but not complete. Director Clair Denis has long been interested in the people of France's former colonies in East Africa, and now considers those who are Parisians. A delicate study of human affection. Four stars

Tooth Fairy / ** (PG)

"Tooth Fairy" (PG, 101 minutes). Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson stars as a pro hockey played nicknamed the Tooth Fairy because of the dental damage he wreaks. But when he nearly destroys a young girls' faith in the Tooth Fairy, he's sentenced to a term in Fairy Land where he meets the Head Fairy (Julie Andrews), the armorer (Billy Crystal) and a social worker (Stephen Merchant), who towers over The Rock, and he ain't short. With Ashley Judd as the hero's g.f. Good cast, limp screenplay, direction by the numbers. Two stars

Extraordinary Measures / ** (PG)

"Extraordinary Measures" (PG, 105 minutes). An efficient formula picture, lacking characters with depth, content to hit all the usual marks. Brendan Fraser and Keri Russell play the parents of two children with Pompe disease, given less than a year to live. He seeks out an eccentric Nebraska scientist (Harrison Ford) who is working on a controversial cure. He turns out to be an irascible eccentric. Together, they try to fund a biotech startup before time runs out for the kids. In real life, the colorful Nebraskan was from Taiwan, and the $300,000 annual cost for life isn't covered by most U.S insurance companies. The film lacks the bravery of the parents. Two stars

Gigante / *** (No MPAA rating)

"Gigante" (Unrated, 88 minutes). A very tall, large, strong, lonely security guard in a huge supermarket becomes fascinated with a cleaning woman he follows on his video monitors. Soon he follows her in life, everywhere. He is too shy to speak, but he is certainly resourceful. Newcomer Horacio Camandulle is the shy giant, Leonor Svarcas plays the object of his desire. An exercise in voyeurism; we want him to ask her out almost more than he does. From Uruguay, in Spanish with English subtitles. Three stars

Great Movie: The Hairdresser's Husband (1990)

The hairdressing shop is their ocean liner, their lives are a cruise around the world. They will sail the Nile, kiss in the shadows of the Great Pyramids, see the sun set on every earthly paradise, and it will always be exactly like this. Perfect. "The Hairdresser's Husband" (1990) tells the story of two romantics besotted with love, living in a French hairdressing salon, she reading magazines on her perch by the widow, he working crosswords on the red leather bench, the sunlight flooding in. The yellows, blues, tropical colors. The exotic music he dances to. Occasionally at some unheard signal their eyes meet and they smile in shared bliss.

Movie Answer Man: Answered by Zuzu herself:
The color of Zuzu's petals

Q. In a recent Answer Man, you got into a discussion of what color Zuzu's petals were in "It's a Wonderful Life." Why don't you ask Zuzu? Karolyn Grimes, the actress who played her, now lives in Carnation, Wash. She travels the country and makes appearances at Christmas shows and always includes her most famous movie line in the autograph, "Every time a bell rings, another angel gets his wings." R.S. Lindsay A. I did indeed ask Zuzu herself, and Karolyn Grimes replied: "I guess it is time to tell all. My rose was a burgundy color. Not a fancy rose at all, but to a little girl in the dead of winter, I guess it was very beautiful, especially if you won it. Wonder what I did to win that rose??? "The film is timeless -- it applies to yesterday, today and tomorrow. We can all identify with the fellow whose dreams never quite work out the way he envisioned for himself. But in the end, we reflect on our own lives and realize that we have touched others and truly made a difference. We also are reminded, once again, what really are the most important things in our lives: faith, family and friends. "There is a needlepoint sampler on the wall of the Bailey Building and Loan, in George's office. When there is a run on the bank, before he goes out to address the people, he pauses a moment and looks at the portrait of his father, and under it is a needlepoint sampler that says, 'All you can take with you is that which you've given away.' Too bad our bankers of today can't learn something from that."