The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • H6

Filename: H6-MORE-AJCD0302-AJCD created: Mar 1 2007 Username: SPEED2 AJCD0302 Friday, Mar 02, 2007 MORE 6 AJCD 6 Cyan Magenta Yellow Black H6 Friday, March 2, 2007 4 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ajc.com 6 Cyan Magenta Yellow Black AJCD Filename: H6-MORE-AJCD0302-AJCD created: Mar 1 2007 Username: SPEED2 In case you know that was about the supernatural, where all kinds of impossible things happen, you learn pretty fast even before Johnny head turns into a burning skull. because we meet Johnny when played by Matt Long, and in love with Roxanne (Raquel Alessi) and both 17 But her dad want her to have anything to do with him. Flash-forward, and Johnny and Rox meet again, only now 43 and 32 and nobody seems to notice this magical time warp even though you look at them and think father-daughter, not high school sweeties. Even worse, while young Johnny seemed like a normal enough kid, he grows up to be Nicolas Cage. And this Johnny martini glasses full of jelly beans and listens to the Carpenters all the time because Nicolas Cage.

Nicolas Cage seem to realize that you get to chew up scenery like Jack Nicholson unless you ARE Jack Nicholson, or if had 12 Oscar nominations and three wins like had. Nic has only had two nominations and one win, and he got THAT Oscar for playing a drunk in Las In Hollywood, if you even AUDITION for the role of a drunk (or a hooker or a challenged they give you an automatic Oscar nomination. So Oscar really count. Besides which, he was up that year against Richard Dreyfuss, Sean Penn wearing a skunk on his head and some dead Italian guy, so it exactly the toughest win in the history of the Oscars, OK? Anyway, my point is that Nic Cage is not Jack Nicholson, and he try to pretend he is with all the goofy he pulls on-screen. Like with the jelly bean-sipping and the Carpenters-listening.

But while on the subject, Jack Nicholson needs to tone down his Jack Nicholson act a little, too, know what I mean? But Jack looked good Sunday night with his shaved head, and I hear acting in a movie, playing a guy with cancer. Playing somebody sick in Hollywood is as as playing a challenged hooker, so he might as well clear the mantel for Oscar No. 4. Oh, wait, the cancer part reminded me I got so carried away talking about Nic and Jack that I forgot to tell you the most important part. And that is that See, Johnny Blaze is a stunt cyclist who sells his soul to the devil to keep his dad from dying of cancer.

Peter Fonda plays Satan. And I know about you, but think twice about making a heal-my-daddy deal with a guy who looks like about two minutes from a dirt nap himself. Anyway, turns out that in exchange for the deal, when ever the Devil needs to track down some runaway demon, head bursts into and he has to track them down on his awesome chopper. That sounds a whole lot better than it turns out on-screen, because the movie was directed by Mark Steven Johnson, the guy who made the heinous which looks like a Spielberg next to There are exactly two cool things about this movie. One is Sam Elliott as this cemetery caretaker, and Sam has the coolest voice of anybody in movies.

The second cool thing is Eva Mendes as the Love Interest (for Johnny, not Sam, sorry to say). Eva has got the kind of purity that been corrupted by acting lessons. She need to act, since Nic Cage is doing the job of 14 camera hogs. But no matter what he does, your eyes stay on Eva, on account of the two major weapons got right below her neck. While running around on-screen and going at himself in the mirror (no, for real, he does), she just stands there, heroically lifting-and- separating.

She steals every scene without saying a word. And a good thing, because the script sounds like it got written by a handful of 12-year-olds who got paid in ice cream and Playboys. Like when somebody gets a shock and goes, then you just know a demon is gonna pop up behind them and go, even Is that hilarious, or what? And like when Johnny wakes up after his night as burning-skull man, the caretaker goes, When cool-as-hell Sam Elliott has to say that, wrong in Hollywood. Worst of all, this scene where Eva gets stood up for dinner and she gets drunk and grabs a waiter and goes, you think Only somebody who hit puberty yet could write a line like that for Eva Mendes am I right? Like Nic Cage needs a aming skull to overact Sony Pictures Jordy Purlky who has a LOT in common with Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and Bigfoot, brings his B-movie perspective to all kinds of every Friday in Movies More. E-mail your questions or comments to Please include your name and phone number.

Jordy Purlky Jr. opens his mailbag and responds to his legions of fans (and a few misguided detractors) online at www.accessAtlanta.com (click on Movies). Naked breasts: Zilch-arooney. Dirty words: Nope. Best lines: know it sounds weird, but it looked good on An eyewitness, talking about Ghost appearance.

The rest: Directed by Mark Steven Johnson. Rated PG-13 for horror violence and disturbing images. At metro theaters. 1 hour, 54 minutes. MOVIES MORE Serial-killings tale lacks focus, payoff tor David Fincher.

But is also a hard movie to digest. Staying true to Continued from 1 its real-life scenario, the gets mired in the inevitable red tape of police investigations, switches focus enough times to make you think three movies instead of one, and, because the case remains unsolved, stumbles to a rather conclusion. Oh, and at 2 hours, 34 minutes in length, it seems to last as long as the Oscars. Paramount seems to know what it has with this movie. Originally planned to open last fall, it got bumped to an early March release.

So, since not a summer or a fall Oscar contender, what it ends up being is a kind of throw-it-up-on-a- screen movie in the hope that somebody watches. The cast is huge, which presents its own focus problem. Gyllenhaal plays fresh-faced cartoonist Robert Graysmith at the San Francisco Chronicle, where Paul Avery is the hotshot crime reporter. Ruffalo portrays real-life cop David Toschi. All become obsessed with the self-named Zodiac, a sinister killer who taunted the Bay Area with pronouncements sent in notes, letters and ciphers to the Chronicle and other media outlets.

Downey is easily the best thing going on in the movie. His performance crackles with the kind of energy and immediacy that demands a attention. When not onscreen, you miss him terribly. Technically, the movie seems on track. This is a period piece, and the looks mostly authentic.

The cinematography is especially adept, with muted, even drab colors that bathe in a kind of sinister, cheerless gloom. Think Silence of the But then again, thinking about a movie as good as or own previous like and or even the Zodiac-inspired with its scenes for Clint Eastwood, is a problem. Those just demonstrate how here for but the goods. Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures Anthony Edwards (left) and Mark Ruffalo play cops investigating the Zodiac killings.

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