Movieline Online

THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH: Having already put Mick Jagger’s rock-n-roll mystique to good use in Performance six year earlier, director Nicolas Roeg found the ultimate embodiment of all-things extraterrestrial in David Bowie, casting him in the title role of a visiting alien who conquers then eventually succumbs to the American dream. Or so a critical reading of the film suggests. Based on the novel by Walter Tevis, Roeg’s approach to adapting the material is not unlike Kubrick’s metaphysical take on Arthur C. Clarke’s text of 2001, following the same linear path but with no identifiable road signs or landmarks. The Man Who Fell to Earth is one of the ‘70s last truly laudable experiments in auteur cinema, alternating between cynical social satire and pointedly honest human emotions. As he did in Don’t Look Now, Roeg captures relationships in their most raw form; sex as a contradiction of sensual sterility, love as a necessary byproduct. Indeed, Bowie’s earthbound ET buys and sells peopl...

FEARLESS: When this Jet Li spiritual epic hit theaters in 2006 it was a headscratcher for American fans used to seeing the star paired with the latest gangster rapper in some hip-hop monosyllabic action flick. Fearless, however, will be very familiar to anyone familiar with Jet Li’s earlier work or even the kung-fu crossover Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Li plays the role of Huo Yuanjia, the real-life founder of the Jin Wu Sports Federation, which united Chinese martial artists at a time when foreign rule ridiculed the native athletes. While this culminates in a four-on-one battle by film’s end, director Ronny Yu breaks the rest of his film into easy to swallow chapters. First, Yuanjia’s arrogant quest to become the top fighter in his province, involving some amazing choreography high atop a wooden structure. Second, his eventual fall from grace and spiritual penance spent farming in the rice fields of a quiet country community. And third, his return to the ring ...not for personal v...

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA – PRINCE CASPIAN: Just so you understand my personal bias, I wasn’t much of a fan of the first Narnia installment, detailing the adventures of four British siblings who fall through a magical wardrobe into a kingdom full of talking animals, white queens and a lion Jesus voiced by Liam Neeson. Its heart seemed in the right place, but the resulting battles and lessons learned seemed so bland, the entire affair would have been more at home on the BBC. The sequel shifts the focus onto hunky Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) who seeks to regain his throne from a duplicitous uncle by inspiring all the displaced Narnians to rebel against the ruling authority. The end result is, you guessed it, more battles! Jaguars, pigs, centaurs, and rodents go toe to toe (or hoof to hoof, as the case may be) against an army of bad guys with a pretty impressive body count. Director Andrew Adamson may have a knack for producing computer generated beasties on a budget, but his fight sequenc...