The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 47

THE OTTAWA CITIZEN ARTS MOVIES FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1997 D13 Don't trust movie that spells combat with -r 1 irrmnrnnun-- a i ft 1 n- r- 1 I it' 41 fin i Mortal Kombat: Annihilation Starring: Robin Shou, Talisa Soto, Brian Thompson, Irina Pantaeva Directed by: John R. Leonetti Rated: AA Playing at: Britannia, World Exchange, Kanata, Orleans, St Laurent, Vanier, Cinema 9 By Steven Mazey The Ottawa Citizen Take the worst elements of martial arts movies, the worst elements of science fiction movies, the worst elements of computer animation and the cheesiest sets and special effects this side of Ed Wood. Mix them together and you have something called Mortal Kombat Annihilation, a movie whose loud noises, bright colors and flying reptiles might hold some appeal to very young children who have not yet developed the ability to speak in sentences. For anyone else, it is a test of endurance, a staggeringly inept thing that sets new standards in bad writing, bad acting, bad directing, bad action scenes and bad hair. And that's just the first five minutes.

For the uninitiated, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is a sequel to a movie called Mortal Kombat. Rule number one: Don't trust a movie that spells combat with a K. As the sequel opens, a narrator gives a refresher course for the benefit of those of us who missed the first movie, although it all seems far too complicated to bother trying to follow. It has something to do with a group of fearless fighters who have saved Earth from destruction by defeating a nasty group of warlords in a tournament known as Mortal Kombat. But wouldn't you know it, the head meanie has decided to ignore the rules, so he and his band are back to fight the good guys all over These characters, from Mortal KombatiAnnihilation, are called The Army of Darkness.

Things to do this weekend KANATA CHRISTMAS Celebrate the start of the Christmas season in Kanata tonight The annual Christmas in Kanata program begins I at 6:30 p.m. with a tree-lighting cere- mony at Kanata Recreation Complex, 100 Walter Baker Place. Children can bring an environmentally friendly or-l nament and receive a gift from the I mayor. After the ceremony, festivities inove inside, where there will be pub-l lie skating, barbershop singing, pho-l tographs and stories with Mrs. Claus and a Santa's workshop craft area for families.

Entertainment by Roy Camp- bell and Circus Delights starts at 8 pan. OTTAWA WOOD SHOW Polish your knowledge of wood at this weekend's Ottawa Wood Show. The ninth annual show in Aberdeen Pavilion covers all aspects of woodwork- ing. It also features family workshops, a make-a-toy contest, woodturning I competitions by the Valley Woodturn-; ers and the 10th annual Capital Carv-lng Competition by the Outaouais Carving Club. Show hours are 1-9 pjn.

today, 10 a.m, to 6 p.m. tomorrow and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free for children under 12.

Coupons Worth $1 off admission are available at I TD Bank branches. Aberdeen Pavilion is at Lansdowne Park on Bank Street. MILL OF KINTAIL I Discover the unique crafts of the Amaryllis Artisans Group at the Mill of Kintail conservation area and Itnuseum this weekend. About 16 local artists will show their work from noon 'to 9 p.m. today and 10 am to 5 p.m.

to- morrow and Sunday. Admission is $1. Hot apple cider and baked treats will I be available. The Mill of Kintail is on Concession Road 8, north of Almonte. STUDENTS AND ART lA new exhibit at the Ottawa Art Gallery shows how local students re- spond to works by famous Canadian Artists, including members of the Group of Seven.

Thirteen visual arts students from Canterbury High School were invited to choose a piece from the gallery's Firestone Collection and create works that address the themes raised by the masters. See the results in the exhibit, Re-view: Students interpret the Firestone Collection, at the Ottawa Art Gallery, 2 Daly until Feb. 1. The opening reception is at 2 p.m. tomorrow.

Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday and noon to 5 p.m Saturday and Sunday.

TRIVIA NIGHT Test your knowledge of trivia tonight at the World Trivia Night competition. The third annual event in the Civic Centre salons is a fund-raiser for the Champions for Children Foundation of Ottawa-Carleton and the Orleans Kiwanis. You can assemble a team of up to 10 and show up at 6 p.m. to register. The fee is $100 a team Prizes will be awarded to the top 50 teams.

The competition starts at 7:30 p.m. Up to 200 teams are expected. VISIT THE ANIMALS The Agriculture Museum's exhibits are closed until the end of February, but you can still visit the animals in the barns. They're open daily (except Pec. 25) from 9 a.m.

to 5 p.m. and admission is free. Milking takes place at 4 p.m. each day. The Agriculture Museum is at the Central Experimental Farm, corner of Prince of Wales and Experimental Farm drives.

SANTA CLAUS IN NEPEAN Santa Claus will be in Nepean tomorrow morning. Nepean's first Santa Clans parade starts at 11 a.m at Hem- ingwood Way West and Centrepointe Drive, and travels along Centrepointe to end at Nepean Civic Square at noon. The Barrhaven and Nepean Lions Clubs and Nepean firefighters will collect donations of non-perishable food and cash for Nepean's emergency food-service program BOOK SALE The Ottawa Pub ic Library is holding a book sale this weekend at its main library. The library's Ex Libris bookstore is selling its surplus books tomorrow and Sunday. You'll find a selection of fiction, biographies, children's books, large-print publications, French-language volumes and some audio cassettes.

Prices start at 25 cents. Jhe sale is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow and 1-5 p.m. Sunday at the main library, 120 Metcalfe St.

Proceeds go towards expanding the new consumer health collection. ARTS UPDATE See and Hear the World: Radio Tari-fa brings the sounds of Spain, Africa and the Middle East to the Canadian Museum of Civilization at 8 p.m. tonight. Tickets at $23, $18 for seniors, 1(14 for students and $12 for children 12 and under, are available at the museum box office and, with surcharges, through TicketMaster, 755-uu. European Union Film Festival: The festival begins at 7 tonight and runs to Dec 4 at the National Library of Canada, 395 Wellington St.

Admission: $7 per film. Information: 992-9988. One World film festival: See works about development issues by independent film and video-makers this weekend. The festival is at Club SAW, 67 Nicholas starting at 6 p.m. tonight and 11 a.m.

tomorrow and Sunday. Day passes are $8 at the door. Information: 238-4659. "I wanted to flesh out the charaters and give them more depth, and I wanted the fights to be consistently bigger and better," is how first-time director John Leonetti describes his aims for the sequel. Set in a dark, gloomy moonscape world where computer-generated purple clouds whirl overhead, the movie follows the battles between good guys and bad guys over the future of the universe.

The good guys have a variety of extra powers that take them far beyond simple Bruce Lee kicks and chops. There's a man-from-Glad lookalike who can send sparks shooting out of his eyes and who speaks as if he's seen one too many lone Ranger movies. "Alone you are vulnerable. If you can work together as a team, you can AT THE fun thanks to Al Pacino's lip-smacking performance as the head of a legal firm who seems devilish, even for a lawyer. Keanu Reeves plays a young legal hotshot recruited and seduced by the firm, who comes to learn the secrets of the law, and in passing, why so many guilty people get off these days.

Rideau Centre, Gloucester Fairytale: A True Story It might be true, but only two little girls know for sure. Frances (Elizabeth Earl) and Elsie (Florence Hoath) photographed fairies at the bottom of their Yorkshire garden and convinced famous author Arthur Conan Doyle (Peter OToole), and millions of others, that their story was true. Harvey Keitel plays Doyle's friend Harry Houdini. A magical, enchanting movie for older children and adults set in England during the dark days of the First World War, with a finale to melt the hardest heart. (Chris Cobb) Britannia, Gloucester The Full Monty AA An uneven but likable comedy from England about unemployed steelworkers in Sheffield who try to make money as strippers.

The film goes for laughs about the men's less-than-perfect bodies and their awkward dancing while also trying to make serious comments about the effects of long-term unemployment. The mix of tones doesn't always work, but the unaffected actors give the film an appealing freshness. (Steven Mazey) World Exchange Gattaca 12 PG A futuristic thriller about genetic engineering that seems itself cloned from Brave New World. Ethan Hawke plays an "invalid," an inferior being born in the natural way, who must pose as an engineered "valid" to avoid being cast as a second-class citizen. The film is so coldly made that even his affair with Uma Thurman generates no heat; a murder investigation based on a discovered eyelash takes it beyond even sci-fi belief.

Vanier The Hanging Garden AA A piece of Nova Scotia magic realism from writerdirector Thorn Fitzgerald about a young gay man (Chris Leavins) who goes home after 10 years to attend the wedding of his sister (Kerry Fox), visit the rest of his squabbling and earthy family, and bury the ghosts of his past. The film sense of the past and present all happening at once, and the matter-of-fact acceptance of it, gives the movie the mystical quality of an Alice Munro story. World Exchange The Ice Storm AA Ang Lee's beautifully realized and sterile study of vacant lives in suburban cut during the Nixon years. Neighbours are having affairs, their teenage children are sexually confused, and the climactic wife-swapping party is as cold as the storm of the title that covers everyone. Sigourney Weaver is fine as a bitchy adulteress and Christina Ricci is great as a teenager coming of age.

This is satire with bite, but it's very chilly going. World Exchange In and Out PG Just before his wedding, a small-town high school teacher (Kevin Kline) is revealed as gay when a former drama student mentions It during his Academy Award acceptance speech. The comedy is broad and it sometimes uses stereotypes for laughs, but not a minute is meant to be taken seriously, and it's often very funny. (Steven Mazey) Vanier I Know What You Did Last Summer AA From the makers of Scream, a more straightforward teen horror movie, although played with a slightly lighter touch than Its Friday the 13th progenitors. Four young people accidentally kill a man, and are then stalked by a monster In a rain slicker who seems to know whjt they did.

TV stars Jennifer Love Hewitt and Sarah Micnelle Gellar head the cast of attractive do much," he says solemnly. His team includes a woman who manages to do all her high kicks, twirls and chops while wearing a slinky white tank top and short shorts, and another woman who wears a scary leather bustier that looks like it was scavenged from Madonna's garage sale. Also on their side is Princess Kitana, who is 10,000 years old but doesn't look a day over 25. The bad guys include Sheeva, described in the press kit as "a four-armed female fighting machine," and Cyrax "a cyber-Ninja with a rocket launcher built into his chest." But none of this is as fun as it sounds. Even judged by the modest standards of martial arts movies, Mortal MOVIES young people who are forever screaming and running down the wrong back alley.

Orleans, St. Laurent, Vanier, Cinema 9 The Jackal An overwrought and underdeveloped adventure, based on the superior 1973 movie, about an intenational terrorist called the Jackal (Bruce Willis) who is a master of disguise but always looks like Bruce Willis in a wig. Richard Gere plays the Irish terrorist who helps FBI agent Sidney Poitier track him down; the movie is meant to get its thrills form its ingenuity, but all it has is lucky guesses, most of them made in Gere's odd Irish accent. World Exchange, Kanata, Orleans, St. Laurent, Westgate, Cinema 9 Kiss The Girls AA Morgan Freeman plays a police detective searching for his niece who has been kidnapped by a serial killer named Casanova, and Ashley Judd is a doctor who helps him, in this psychological thriller based on the best-selling novel by James Patterson.

Despite the subject matter, the film is too fas- tidious to engage us: there's no great villain at its heart, so the chills don't linger. Vanier The Little Mermaid The 1989 animated classic, restored and digitized, and with those same great tunes, including the Oscar-winning Under the Sea. The film, which marked the debut of Disney's new generation of artists and its first collaboration with the songwriting team of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, returns to the screen just a week before the Fox studio makes its foray into full-length animation with Anastasia. Britannia, Gloucester, Promenades The Living Sea A documentary that celebrates the power of the ocean, with underwater views of sea life along with scenes of surfing in Hawaii, deep-sea diving in the Philippines and riding with the Coast Guard in rough seas. Music by Sting; narration by Meryl Streep.

Canadian Museum of Civilization Imax Mad City i2 AA A Johnny-come-lately satire of the manipulative news business that makes the same points as Network, Broadcast News and a host of earlier movies. Dustin Hoffman plays an aggressive TV reporter and John Travolta is a jobless man who becomes the centre of a big news story in a drama that is almost as manipulative as the media it is exposing. Gloucester The Man Who Knew Too Little V2 PG A good idea turned cartoonish: Bill Murray Is a naive American in England who gets involved in a game of street theatre that becomes real. Murray acts movie spy cool because he thinks he's pretending, and the real-life assassins are amazed by his bravery and smarts. It's Inspector Clouseau tailored for Murray's brand of smarmy charm, but it would help if it made more sense and if there was more than one joke.

Capitol Square, Britannia, Cinema 9, Promenades Mission To Mir A giant-screen tour of Russia's Space Station Mir, a weightless home in space since 1986, that shows how Americans have cooperated in the space program. Canadian Museum of Civilization Imax One Night Stand AA Mike Figgis's new film is a strange concoction about an idvertislng man (Wesley Snipes) who has a one-night stand with a mysterious woman (Nastassja Kinski) while on an out-of-town trip. The film Is about how his life Is changed, but It gets its emotional impact In a subplot about a gay friend (Robert Downey Jr.) with AIDS. The tidy resolution may bother some people. Vanier Red Corner AA A slow-moving adventure starring Richard Gere as an American In China who Is tortured, beaten and Imprisoned for a murder he didn't commit.

As usual, however, Gere Kombat: Annihilation is a dud. Leonetti overdoes everything, and the movie is a mess of garish special effects, overblown camerawork and choppy editing that breaks every action scene into a thousand pieces. He gets far too carried away with computerized special effects, which aren't nearly as impressive as he seems to think they are. Last night's preview screening of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation was preceded by a demonstration by an Ottawa martial arts school Several young people screamed loudly while punching and kicking small squares of wood that were held for them in mid-air. The five-minute demonstration was vastly more entertaining than the 86 minutes that followed on-screen.

plays Gere, so it's impossible to take any of it seriously. (Calgary Herald) Britannia, Promenades Seven Years In Tibet PG A simplistic attempt to put a human face on the Tibetan tragedy. Brad Pitt is Heinrich Harrer, the cutest Nazi in history, who stumbled into Lhasa during the Second World War, became a tutor to the young Dalai Lama, and emerged a spiritually reborn man. The movie gives us the country through Western eyes and the banality of its viewpoint diminishes the larger issues. Nice scenery, though.

Vanier Starship Troopers 2 An attractive young cast, of the kind usually seen in teen horror movies, battles giant insects in this futuristic sci-fi adventure that appears to be trying to be cheesy on purpose. Directed with excess by Paul Verho-even, the film is violent and slimy and it gets its excitement in the creepiness of the huge bugs that stalk through the computerized galaxy, impaling people. Rideau Centre, Kanata, Orleans, St. Laurent, Westgate, Cinema 9 The Sweet Hereafter AA Atom Egoyan's film version of the Russell Banks novel about the aftermath of a schoolbus accident is both haunting and almost mythic. Ian Holm is wonderful as a lawyer trying to come to terms with loss by affixing blame, and he is supported by a great cast.

But the movie's technical mastery and structural trickiness pull us back from the emotions: we never feel as moved as we should. Capitol Square SwitchBack AA Yet another cat-and-mouse game with yet another obsessed cop (Dennis Quaid) chasing yet another serial killer. This plot though, is even more ludicrous than most, and the most interesting parts of the film take place off-screen: the motivations, the psychology, the sense. Danny Glover co-stars as a former railroad man who may hold the secret of his search. Britannia, Vanier The Wlngsof the Dove AA This freely adapted version of the Henry James novel has been turned into a costume drama of subtlety and intelligence.

Helena Bonham Carter is a spirited woman at the turn of the century who needs money to buy her freedom, Linus Roache is her unsuitable lover and Alison Elliott is a rich, dying American who befriends them. The du-plicitous love triangle is a bittersweet study of the Jamesian themes of innocent America and fading Europe. Somerset Repertory BYTOWNE Today to Wednesday, The End of Violence; today to Thursday, The House of Yes; Saturday, Wings of Desire, Kiss Me Guido; Thursday, Shall We Dance? MAYFAIR Today, Mrs. Brown, Shall We Saturday, Supercop, Jackie Chan's First Strike, Operation Condor; Sunday to Tuesday, Mrs. Brown, Shall We Wednesday, The Graduate, Midnight Cowboy; Thursday, Mrs.

Brown, Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. CANADIAN FILM INSTITUTE Tonight, Elles; Saturday, Character; Sunday, Ant Street; Monday, Portugal; Tuesday, La Vie De Boheme; Wednesday, Like It Never Was Before; 1 hursday, The Eliminator. Ratings key Excellent: Good: Average: Fair: Poor: All reviews by critic Jny Stone unless otherwise stated New in town Anastasia PG The big new animated movie (from the Fox studio) is a technical masterpiece but something of a letdown in the magical storytelling department. This is a version of the tale of the lost Romanoff princess in which an orphaned teenager (voiced by Meg Ryan) is reunited with her long-lost grandmother (Angela Lansbury) and finds true love (with John Cusack). But a low-rent villain in Rasputin (Christopher Lloyd) and a poorly paced story keep the film from being great.

World Exchange, Kanata, Orleans, St. Laurent, Westgate, Cinema 9 The End of Violence AA Win Wenders' new movie is a meditation on the nature of violence in society that is so oblique and artificial you can barely stand it. Bill Pullman stars as a movie producer who is abducted into a new life and Gabriel Byrne plays a surveillance expert who monitors Los Angeles with video cameras. Everything in the film appears to be synv bolic. ByTowne Cinema, today to Wednesday The House of Yes A black comedy about incest and Jacqueline Onassis.

Parker Posey stars as Jackie-O, a woman with a fetish about the Kennedys and an unhealthy yearning for her brother (Josh Hamilton). And when he comes home for Thanksgiving with his new love (Tori Spelling, right out of it), the stage is set for oddness. It's bizarre but very funny, and it showcases Posey to great effect. ByTowne Cinema Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil AA It has a great opening half-hour in the bizarre and beautiful city of Savannah, but then Clint Eastwood's adaptation of the best-selling novel about a sensational murder trial devolves into a conventional courtroom drama. John Cusack is mostly bland as a reporter investigating Savannah society and Kevin Spacey is smooth but unremarkable as an antiques dealer who shot his lover.

Capitol Square, Gloucester Mortal Kombat: Annihilation AA In a continuation of the original film, the feared Emperor of Outworld comes in person with his extermination squads to battle the fearless fighters again. (Steven Mazey) Britannia, World Exchange, Kanata, Orleans, St. Laurent, Vanier, Cinema 9 The Rainmaker PG Matt Damon plays the Idealistic law school graduate who takes on an evil life insurance company in Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of John Grisham's bestseller. Britannia, Rideau Centre, Gloucester, Promenades Still in town Bean PG Rowan Atkinson's cult creation, the misanthropic stumbler Mr. Bean, gets his own movie, and it's notable mostly for the fact that there are lots of Mr.

Bean routines in It. The film itself is a mess, with a contrived family drama interfering with the story of how Mr. Bean Is passed off as an art expert and creates havoc at a Los Angeles museum. Britannia, Kanata, Orleans, St. Laurent, Vanier, Cinema 9 Boogie Nights A profane, decadent, violent and hilarious tour de disco through the porn film Industry of the 1970s.

Film-maker Paul Thomas Anderson examines that druggy, dancing era through the experience of an innocent teenager (Mark Wahlberg) who becomes a porn star. The whlrlagig morality and crass decadence Is perfectly captured, and if the movie Is too long, its energy never flags. World Exchange The Devil's Advocate AA An overlong, overdone movie in an odd genre horrorlegal that is nonetheless.