The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • Page 148

ClO VIES The Sun Thursday, November 25, 1999 Page 27 1 Capshaw's character, who never warms up enough for the audience to care about her search for intima- cy. (Ann Homaday) PG-13 89 minutes l2 Sooth Part Bigger, Longer and Uncut (ParamoumVVHS and DVD, 1999), from director Trey Parker and co- creator Matt Stone, the guys behind the TV series, is one of the most consistently rude and childish films to hit theaters in quite some time. It's also a sharp piece of social satire that is a hoot to boot In the sparsely animated story, the boys' imitation of the profanity in a Canadian movie gets the entire town mobilizing for war against Canada. (Milton Kent) 80 minutes A Midsummer Night's Dream fox. VHS and DVD, 1999), Michael Hoff- man's enchanting adaptation of the William Shakespeare play.

Is very nice and often Inspired especially in its focus on a relatively minor character, Nick Bottom. A hammy amateur actor who is changed into an ass during the evening in question, Bottom, as portrayed by Kevin Kline, emerges as more than an amusement; Kline's wonderful performance draws out his pathos as well. Michelle Pfeiffer is seductively ethereal as Titania, the Fairy i Queen. When these two are nesting literally in her bewitched forest, youH never want the spell to break. (Ann Hornaday) PG-13 115 minutes got a children's film with messages that parents may enjoy having their children hear.

(Chris Kaltenbach) PG 90 minutes 172 limbs (Columbia TriStar. VHS, 1999). the 12th film from American master John Sayles, stars David Strathairn in a rare starring role as a fisherman living in Southeast Alaska whose life turns around when he meets a congenially optimistic lounge singer (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio). "Limbo" looks to be the usual Sayles fere intersecting stories set in an emblematic American community, in this case the final frontier until it takes an extreme turn. The last half of this harrowing, terrifying film is a meditation on risk, self-deception and the power of narrative to shape and give sense to experience, and the ambiguous ending is breathtaklngly on point.

(Ann Hornaday) 126 minutes The Love Letter (DreamWorks, VHS and DVD, 1999) features Kate Cap-shaw as a middle-aged New England bookstore owner whose discovery of an anonymous love letter throws her and her neighbors into a tizzy of mistaken identities, romantic misunderstandings and, finally, true love. As much as "The Love Letter" hews to conventions of lightweight summer romances, it does succeed in taking some unexpected turns, and Ellen DeOeneres generates a steady current of crackling humor. The problem is The following movies were scheduled tor release on VHS and DVD this week: Autumn Tale (usa, vhs. i998, the fourth and final installment in Eric Rohmer's "Four Seasons" series, stars Marie Riviere and Beatrice Romand as two middle-aged French women who find unexpected romance late in life. As ripe and rich as its setting in France's Cote du Rhone countryside, "Autumn Tale" features no supernatural effects or violent outbursts, but it Is spectacular nonetheless.

Rohmer has found actors with feces of extraordinary depth and expressive-. ness, and he films their conversations with the discreet attenttve-ness of the most seasoned and compassionate observer. (Ann Homaday) PG 112 minutes Entrapment (Fox, vhs and dvd, 1999), a high-tech thriller starring a still-suave Sean Connery, could have been the sophisticated cat-and-mouse game that "Mission; Impossible" so desperately wanted to be, were It not hoist on its own pretentious, preposterous petard at every turn. Connery exudes grizzled elegance as the legendary art thief Mac MacDougal, but Catherine Zeta-Jones, as the plucky Insurance investigator who tries to apprehend him for a theft, turns in a lightweight if lovely perfor-I mance. Visually dazzling, narratively challenged.

(Ann Hornaday) PQ-13 110 minutes "A Midsummer Night's Kevin Kline stars as a minor character elevated to a more central role in this Witch Project" has re-written the rules for movie terror, De Bont's hackery Jsnt Just ridiculous, Ifs Irrelevant (Ann Hornaday) PG-13 117 minutes The fron Giant (Warner, VHS and DVD. 1999), a delightfully straightforward animated story about a lonely boy and the alien he befriends, manages to be both cool and old-fashioned. It has enough science fiction and war toys for kids and enough unforced sentimentality and hero worship for adults. Throw In pleas for tolerance and peacefull co-existence, and you've The Haunting (DreamWorks, VHS and DVD, 1999), a remake of the 1963 horror classic, stars the estimable LIU Taylor in the Julie Harris role of the childlike, impressionable woman brought to a haunted house for an experiment. Taylor has the same ethereal naivete as Harris, but there all similarity ends.

Director Jan De Bont, as he did in the "Speed" movies and "Twister," turns "The Haunting" Into a special-effects extravaganza, reducing what should be a taut psychological spooker into a risible cartoon ride. At a time when The Blair Fincher's signature kinetic style and distressed look, this bleak tale spiked through with biting humor and social commentary turns out to be a gimmick that will strike film-goers as el- ther an Intriguing twist or a huge cop-out. (Ann Hornaday) 135 minutes 'Flawless' is obvious, stereotypical, leaden and unconvincing. And it's not nearly as outrageous as it thinks it is. Robert DeNiro is the proud former security guard HMD her own.

(Ann Hornaday) PG-13 116 minutes Fight Club, David Fincher's engrossing movie about an anonymous middle-management type (Edward Norton) who embarks on a fatal friendship with a pop anarchist (Brad Pitt) dedicated to upping the new entertainment-consumer order, will generate controversy for its brute violence and nihilist philosophy. But in reality, the movie isn't all that important. Filmed with I (HNIBM CINiMA HOm HUNT VAUIY 12 IOSWS WHfTI OWWGS MiUS MICK 14 It CI. (443) WHWW etNEULCMCMA inn kukih hoyti wist nursut 14 brnmm MO (4NB4SWW LOfWI COUHMIA QMS MM Uo IM.t (4II)H0U I MOAi CWBIAI KL All 14 (4I0)UMJM tC TMUTRH stcuorrv souuc Mil) MMMDIt HUB 7 7, if sf Jl sJtiamik qua WMf T3 ThBUnnkigiying when you sndyour family sw'Pokemon The flnt Movie and mail in your ticket f. stiA, please be assured that there art enough Trading Card Game Cards for evoy ticket purchased.

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