Movieline Online

THE FLICKS: When it comes to “creature features,” movie critics can be just plain brutal. Other than Alien (which received its fair share of bad press when it was released...only later becoming the 500-pound gorilla of monster movies), the genre is often unfairly convicted without a trial – not to mention a jury of its peers. Such is the case with recent additions Creep and The Cave, two (admittedly) flawed films that still have a great deal to offer discerning fans of things that go bump in the dark. Why bother to lump both movies together, besides the fact that you’ll run into the titles alphabetically under the “horror” section? Well, they both take advantage of the horrors genre’s greatest asset; a tool filmmakers have been using since the days Roger Corman had to find a way to make his $20 monster costumes actually look frightening. They trap their expendable characters somewhere tight, cramped and out-of-the-way. Then they turn off the lights. Creep comes with a low-budget “video...

THE FLICK: Although it has all the trappings of a typical genre film, La Scorta proves to be much more slippery than its logline would lead you to believe: four reluctant cops assigned to protect an upstart Judge and his family from the constant threat of the local Mafioso. And while Ennio Morricone’s score would have you believe this is a homegrown take on The Untouchables, director Ricky Tognazzi surprisingly avoids action scenes at every opportunity, preferring to create an atmosphere of constant paranoia and imminent danger. So much so that when something “explosive” actually does happen, the impact is at once tragic and cathartic. A descendent of the poliziotteschi – in spirit, if not execution, since the film shuns the standard exploitation elements that made such 70’s Italian fare so viscerally enjoyable – La Scorta follows its main characters with a loose, unstylized approach. Each member of the “escort” has their backstory...family, friends, something to humanize these working...

THE FLICK: Based on the novel by John Le Carre, the weightier flip-side of “lit-lite” espionage authors like Robert Ludlum, The Constant Gardener is a film that’s easy to walk away from. There’s no Bond-esque opening action scene. In fact, there are no action scenes, period, by Hollywood standards. None of the characters are particularly likeable or even sympathetic for much of the running time. And the script does all it can to keep you at a distance from the truth behind its political plotting until the film is almost half over. Yet, it’s all a set-up. Like a cinematic con game, when director Fernando Mierelles pulls the big switch-a-roo, you never see it coming. And by the film’s few final shots, the audience has gone through the same emotional ringer as lead character Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), who re-discovers his wife’s moral piety (and marital fidelity) only after her death. An unlikely couple from the start, Justin’s marriage to Tessa (Rachel Weisz) seems to take a backseat...

THE FLICK: Filmmakers love formulas. It gives them a starting point, a built-in audience, a category on the shelf at Blockbuster. But it’s films like The Desert of the Tartars that leave a more lasting impression, leading the viewer down an unfamiliar path and covering their tracks behind them. It’s both a frightening and exhilarating experience, challenging what we expect from cinema and how we feel about ourselves. Lt. Drogo enters the military with great expectations, only to find himself stationed at a remote outpost on the edge of the desert where he and his fellow officers stand guard against an enemy force none of them has ever laid eyes on...a mythical army of Tartars rumored to exist somewhere in the wasteland beyond. With no armies to fight and no challenges to face, the soldiers lose themselves in rules, regulations and the drudgery of daily life along with fantasies of their own military success against a conquering force that may or may not exist. Filling out its cast with...