LA Weekly from Los Angeles, California • 72

WTOfflilFILM cludes Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Stellan Skarsgaard and Jonathan Pryce isn't just the way they admit fear in the heat of violence, but the consummate professionalism with which they go about their jobs, a consummate is entirely beside the point in Ronin, a film in which the mechanics of plot are far less interesting, and vital, than the interior landscape of men who exist outside the law. What's exciting about these characters the strong cast in lit- if W. -u FCU Steve Martin, Rebecca Pigeon and Ben Gazzal Everyone plays their role (and the roles within their roles) to perfection, and writer-director Mamet keeps us guessing what's what and who's who right up until the final minute. This a warmer, more mature cousin to the ice-cold cleverness of House of Games, a morality play whose core suggests no one can never prove hi innocence in this life; one can only be true to oneself. (Sunset tOa.m.) FXF) 1 STAR TREK: INSURRECTION With its plot conflicts, its vid- game-reminiscent setups and its prominent pcs tioning of a 12-year-old in the cast, the ninth Trek movie explicitly stalks kids, and probably snares neither them nor their parents.

Director Jonathan Frakes, who also helmed the last Tiei epic, First Contact, grapples with a similarly boneheaded story (space hippies bogart the fountain of youth) but can't get it airborne this time. Romances are stoked and abandoned, characters lack complexity, momentum stalls. Still, the capable Next Generation crew generates some chuckles, and for sheer painterly impact, this is the most impressive Trek yet. show casing fantastic spacecraft, brilliant explosions and upchuckable alien baddies. As for the love interest: Forget her, Picard, she's a stiff.

Tits aren't everything. (Citywide (GB) Newsweek calls (Down In The Delta: professionalism that finds an analogue in the way Frankenheimer directs this tough, satisfying film. (Pacific's North ridge MU THE RUGRATS MOVIE The first of Nickelodeon's "Nicktoons" out of the cinematic gate, fluffs featuring every-baby Tommy, fiery-haired Chuckie, precocious twins Phil and Lil, and their 4-year-old tormentor. Angelica makes its feature debut. Kicking off as the Pickles family awaits the arrival of Tommy's new baby brother, the story segues quickly into adventure, in which daddy Stu's invention a gadget-riddled go-cart spirits the little ones into a spooky, perilous forest.

Though it hits a few roadblocks along the way, The Rugrats Movie delivers enough excitement and style to keep the kids glued to their seats, and the rest of us happily amused. The animation is souped up slightly, as is Mark Mothersbaughs blissfully quirky music, here augmented by original songs and covers from hip guest stars; 'This World Is Something New to Me features a maternity ward full of babies with the voices of Patti Smith, Lou Rawls, Laurie Anderson, Lenny Kravitz, Iggy Pop and the B-52's, just to name a few. (Citywide) HZ RUSH HOUR The idea of pairing action star Jackie Chan, whose facility for English lags far behind his physical skills, with a comic who speaks 'American' in this case, loudmouth homeboy Chris Tucker seems a good one. Chan's talents have always hewn closer to those of the great silent comics, anyway. The problem with Rush Hour, however, is that the film isn't a partnership, it's a Chris Tucker movie with Chan as straight man.

And though funny for a spell, Tucker's shtick wears tissue-thin by the end of the movie. Director Brett Ratner is Tucker's buddy, which may account for the prime positioning Tucker receives in this East-meets-West bonder about two cops trying to solve an international kidnapping, but it doesn't explain die criminal underuse of Chan, a far superior comedian who deserves at the very least one great action scene, as opposed to the handful of tussles he gets here. (Selected tofersj(H-DD) SAVING PRIVATE RYAN If Steven Spielberg's emotional intelligence matched his visual genius, his honorably flawed new film might qualify for one of the greatest-ever American WWII movies. Saving Private Ryan begins with a sequence depicting, in horrifically intimate shorthand, the Allied invasion of Normandy. Although Spielberg has racked up his share of pointless frights, in Saving Private Ryan THIS YEARS SOUL FOOD! Wesley Snipes shines! FUNNY AND HMTWARMING! Maya Angelous directorial debut is a triumph! Perfect performances from Alfre Woodard and Wesley Snipes! -Aaron Cell, TIME OUT NEW YORK a joyful ENTERTAINING AND HEARTFELT FILM! -George Pennacchio, ABC-TV A REMARKABLE FILM! ALFRE WOODARD GIVES ONE OF HER BEST PERFORMANCES! -Roger Ebert, SISKEL EBERT TWO THUMBS UP! -SISKEL EBERT he uses screen brutality the way it should be to deglamorize the overkill of modem combat.

Not that Spielberg can ever fully sate his hunger for heroes, though in his maturity they grow ever less mythic, ever more vulnerable and shaded. Once the fighting stops, Saving Private Ryan scales down into a regular old combat movie, and Spielberg keeps faith with prototype, the tight little unit whose members represent American diversity, glued together by a laconic leader. Yet, like Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan ends in a burst of schmaltzy ritual, and with this hopelessly cloying coda, Spielberg, having won his battles, loses sight of the war. (AMC Santa Monica 7j(ET) SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE This waggish ramp from John Madden (Ms. Browrij about the Bard's struggle to complete Romeo and Juliet is fun, though not more than upmarket situation comedy studded with swipes at contemporary Hollywood.

Young Will Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) is blocked both in head and in bed when along comes a muse-inwaiting in the form of aspiring actor Lady Viola, languidly played by Gwyneth Paltrow. Surrounded by bickering, bawdiness and badinage, the ill-starred pair (Viola is betrothed to a nasty Other played by Colin Firth, a far better hunk to be pining over) struggle to go on with their own private show as well as the play. Though weakened by feeble leads, Shakespeare in Love is nicely pepped by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard's malicious script and a slew of great supporting performances, including Judi Dench, whitewashed to the gills as cranky Queen Elizabeth, and Geoffrey Rush in horrid teeth as a clueless theater manager. (CitywideU) A SIMPLE PLAN A darkly inverted fairy tale about two brothers (Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton) who, with a friend (Brent Briscoe) and the wife of one of the brothers (Bridget Fonda), come undone when they stumble on $4.4 million. Adapted by Scott B.

Smith from his own suspense novel, and directed by Sam Raimi, A Simple Plan is a great American movie about a great American theme greed. It's a tough, unadorned, unassuming movie, and that's part of what makes it great, too. Raimi, best known for his horror films, here reveals the same rare gift of modesty that has always characterized our best directors: He distills the poetry in pulp without lessening its brute power, and ends up saying something meaningful about human nature without the imprimatur of history and a John Williams score. In one of the sweetest ironies of the entire film year, Raimi has made an A-movie with the soul of a B-movie classic. (Citywide MD) THE SPANISH PRISONER David Mamet's latest film takes its title from a con-artist scheme as old as America itself a bit of bait-and-switch involving an unseen woman in need of rescue and a friendly stranger who claims to be her brother.

The corporate-systems creator played here by Campbell Scott never falls for anything quite so obvious, but from frame one he floats in a sea of ambiguities, amid an armada of friendly strangers among them THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY Peter and Bobby Farrelly's new comedy begins with a guy, Ted (Ben Stiller), rhapsodizing about a girl, Mary (Cameron Diaz), whom he met then lost 10 years earlier. The story essentially involves Ted's attempts to find Mary, a search for which he hires an amateur sleuth (Matt Dillon). Although thats the plot, it's not the movie. The movie is the jokes, the jokes, the jokes, a cade of sight gags, silly wordplay, double takes and outrageous physical business a woman flashing breasts as withered as raisins, a man or crutches who keeps dropping his keys, an errant gob of semen, the slapping sound of frantic mas turbation. If the Farrellys don't know yet how to arrange a group of actors in a shot, they do knov how to exploit Stiller, Dillon and co-star Chris Elliot to the fullest, and how to push a joke to its breaking point their taste is as bad as their timing is exquisite.

(Selected theaters)W) VELVET GOLDMINE Velvet Goldmine is a knotty Citizen Kane sci-fi musical faux-documentary thriller in which a reporter's search for a long-vanished glam-rock icon leads him across time and through boozy recollections. Writer-director Todd Haynes Safe, Poi-soril still makes movies like a first-time filmmaker afraid he won't get another chance; he crams every idea, every image ever dreamed, onscreen. That means the film rifles through genres and styles, nodding to both avant-garde traditions and classic Hollywood convention. Holding it all together are Jonathan Rhys Meiers as the David Bowie-inspired lead character, Brian Slade, and Ewan McGregor as Curt Wild, an amalgam of Iggy Pop and Lou Reed. The two are lovers, partners in creation, and the heart of a film thats ultimately about the power of pop culture to transform lives.

Velvet Goldmine saunters into the- i na r- 1998 NAACP IMAGE AWARD NOMINEE BW PICTURE BEST ACTRESS -Alfir W004M 1 SANTA MONICA LAEMMt 5 MOCA (310)394 9741 Do 200 440-7201000PM BALDWIN HR1S MAGJC JOHNSON THEATRES (323)290900 Onto Screw DoPy II 00 AM 140420 7 0040 PM Doy 12 00-240-520 100 1040 PM 03 MORENO VAUiY SnCofsConyon Springs (909) 782-0800 NORTH HOLLYWOOD United Artists Valley Ptazo (818) 7664317 NORWALK MM Norwalk 20 (562)864 5678 ODONTARtO jep.thversloe irk AMC Gnenxfolar UHraplex TO OntonoMs30 otUmvmsrtyVtBoge (909) 484-3000 (909) 11 7tlM 026 ORANGE BK 01 TORRANCE Mann Dei Mm Century Stadium 25 Foshion Center 9 IPS (714) 5a2 9533 (3 10) 24844ANN 385 PUEKIf HH1S MS XWOODUNOHUS Marwib UnW Artists Warner (626) 964-0422 Cert (8 18) 9992 130 tom mm tcctrm tm im eiQMMert (FOR GROUP SALES CALL 1 888-437 3746 WINNER BEST PICTURE AuImk Awurf im CHICAGO FILM FESTIVAL jo ftWESTWOOO UNITFD APTfSTS WfcsIWOOO (310)475-9444 Do 1145 AM 10 4 40-7 15 10 00 PM ITKVHIVMUJ BfVE'TLY CENIFRCINEPIEX 3K)) 7771U 172 Erl23 30 7 2045P Fn-Sfll Thu L4 Show 12 30 AM 1 Doty 4 H) Dny I FREE Whan CHAEfGAMBdUSAlHERINf $3 Forking at Holly. Horizon 1749 N. Vine F.10UIES $,00 FOB cD PLEASAtJTViLLE 1:55,6.05 P.M. LIVEI1G OUT LOUD 4:10,8:20 P.M. Presented in Dolby Stereo I ll oolbyI VINE THEATRE 6321 Hollywood Blvd.

(213) 463-6819 TV -'Trn MBfVMO'Mtrcm i irnmciweiittiiuttsiM ISHWtf MMMRIltfMIM KUTUMwMhWWII WWI TWWWI hf: mSiW 91 MtiBUttBI aJMlMMlH IK JBSttNMlkl ILM MUM ml SLUttHIIMI PfcWbll SL USklfTaatllftPIflMlktf IM -YNXMM WMttMDWt A CJMH1 thshpmnt WWMKWeTWf-kwatf mmmdmmmm Loemmlt's Sunset 5 8000 Sunset Blvd West Hollywood (323) 848 3500 Friday and Saturday late show 12:15 Dancing at Lughnasa A Pat OConnor Film SONY PICTURES CLASSICS -WINNER- ONE OF THE TOP TEN FILMS OF 1998 National Board of Review 0. PALM SPRINGS Metropolitans Courtyard 10 (7601322-3456 PASADENA Laemmle's Esquire (6261793 6149 SAN LUIS OBISPO Palm Theatre (805)541 SANTA BARBARA Riviera (805)963-9503 2 SEAL BEACH The Bay 3 (562)431-9980 WESTLAKE VILLAGE Regent Westlake (805)379-4100 (818)889-2388 WOODLAND HIL1S, United Artists Warner Center (818)999-2130 -5161 on rnwi 2S TZTXZ CENTURY CITY AMC CENTURY 14 (310)5534900 OnTWOScnMC 1 00 400 -155 10 50 11 50 PM nan kw wdortd earwig Kttt puttas UNIVERSAL CITY CiNfcPLfcK OOF ON UWVPSAf CITY CINEMAS (310) 777-HLM 171 1 00 -4 00 -7 00 A 9-46 PM Fn-Stf Thu LM Show 12 25 AM PARKING 044 (bduang voef tong) Two or Mow TuMts Ne Pucmbm twlon 6 00 WEST LOS ANGELES Laemmle's Royal (310) 477-5581 fn-Sun 1220 240 500 7 30 9 55 Mnn Tus 5 00 7 30 955 IRVINE Edwards University 6 1949)854-8811 LAGUNA NIGUEL Edwards Rancho Niguel 8 Theatres 1949)831-0446 ORANGE AMC 30 at the Block (714) 769-4AMC BREA Edwards Brno Piaza 5 (7 14) 529-5339 QD BURBANK AML Medio Center 8 (8)8)953-9800 JRCHATSWORTMPocihrs Wsmeffco Ait Sfortum 20 (818)686-3900 03 COSTA MESA Edwards 'own Carter (714) aCOVMAAMCCoffnX LONG BEACH (626)9748600 mWVME Edwards Unwersity (949,854 8811 CD LAGUNA NIGUEL Edwards Rancho Ntqurt 8 Theatres (943)831-0446 AML Pme Sguore 16 (562) 435-4AMC LONG BEACH Unfed Alists Marketplace (562)8658989 MANHATTAN BEACH Mam 6 (JiO)248MANNQ56 E2S3 PPJM BREA United Artists Marketplace 1714)529-9036 CAMARILLO Paseo Camarillo Cinemas (805)383-2267 ENCINO Laemmle's Town Center 5 1818)981-9811 HERVOSA BEACH AMC Hermosa Beach Artplex 6 1310)318-8000 yxiJir-T I eta Vs 22211311 DDm cor 1 1 FOR SHOWTtMES 72 LA WEEKLY DECEMBER 25.