The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 182

fill SATURDAY NOVEMBER 23 1996 CD THE MIAMI HERALD INTERNATIONAL EDITION AT THE MOVIES Flat as First Contact is it still reaches summit MOVIE REVIEW STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT (PG-13)--y2 Cast: Patrick Stewart Jonathan Frakes Brent Spiner LeVar Burton Michael Dorn Gates McFadden Marina Sirtis Alfre Woodard James Cromwell Director: Jonathan Frakes Producer: Rick Berman Screenwriters: Brannon Braga Ronald Moore Cinematographer: Matthew Leonetti Music: Jerry Goldsmith A Paramount Pictures release Running time: 107 minutes Violence contains a gorgeous battle sequence staged on the hull of the orbiting Enterprise it is the second that is truest to the spirit of Trek A flawsd hero Because it turns out that history is a balky mule More to the point Dr Zefram Cochrane (James Cromwell who nearly steals the show) the father of warp drive a man so revered by our 24th Century heroes that Cmdr LaForge (LeVar Burton) went to a high school named in his honor is a lot less than flawless The iconic hero is a drunk a rascal and a rock roller Worse so uneasy with the weight of reverence that he tries to weasel out of the role assigned him by history Watching his worshipers realize that human greatness rises through human weakness watching Cochrane grow grudgingly into that greatness: These are subtle treats perceptive observations on the nature of heroism worthy of lofty canon And the warp drive breakthrough when it comes is an exhilarating ride an affirmation of the things we go to Trek for Even the best Star Trek movie pales in comparison to the TV shows And this make no mistake is not the best But in its By LEONARD PITTS Jr Herald Staff Writer This is why we go to Star Trek: for a tomorrow of promise and possibility and stories that lift us from the muck of what we are to the summit of what we might learn to be For the longest time say the first half-hour to 45 minutes it look like Star Trek: First Contact will deliver any of that This first big-screen solo turn by the crew of The Next Generation gets out of space dock at warp speed Unfortunately it leaves its heart behind in the process We are thrust immediately into an attack against the Earth by the alien aggregate known as the Borg Starfleet orders our heroes in their spiffy new starship the Enterprise to get away from the battle zone fearing that Capt Picard who was once captured and assimilated into the hive-like collective consciousness will prove a liability Then the fleet is decimated And you know who defies orders and comes flying to the rescue If it sounds thrilling well not a curious flatness to it all a rote superficiality The problem is the rush Too many developments come and go with disorienting abruptness unexplained unexamined and uninvolving and the whole thing is overlaid with a matter-of-factness that belies emotion and believability But wait Luckily it gets better Not better enough but better An escape pod leaves the crippled Borg ship and travels into past with the Enterprise in pursuit Together the two ships arrive in the desperate days after the Third World War on the eve of breakthrough discovery of warp technology the ability to travel faster than light Said discovery will lead directly to an even greater turning point: first contact with an extraterrestrial race This is the day humankind reaches the stars The Borg intend to make sure history happen both to rid themselves of pesky Starfleet resistance and to colonize the Earth And here the movie actually becomes two films One is a space-borne Die Hard lean and mean in a fire-when-you-see-the-whites-of-their-eyes sort of way as the Enterprise crew defends itself against a Borg incursion Meantime the film unfolds at a softer pace as an Away Team on Earth struggles to ensure that history occurs as supposed to Although the movie MUST WAKE UP: After fainting Lily (Alfre Woodard) is attended to by Data (Brent Spiner) Dr Crusher (Gates McFadden) and Capt Picard (Patrick Stewart) in Star Trek: First Contact best moments it is what good moments willing to for- posed to Irek always is: a satisfying hymn give the film its trespasses Reminding us who we are ot human potential In those because doing what sup- Reminding us why we go THIS IS IT! 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By RENE RODRIGUEZ Herald Movie Critic Most love stories seize you by the heart: The English Patient grabs you by the brain Elliptical enigmatic and emotionally rapturous this adaptation of Michael 1 992 Booker Prize-winning novel is a heady intoxicating mix of intricate characterizations majestic cinematography and swooning soulful romance Director Anthony Minghella (Mr Wonderful Truly Madly Deeply) who also adapted the aggressively uncinematic book with precise inventive care has managed to give writing an accessible structure without sacrificing its complexity or profoundly lyrical spirit The movie opens with a biplane soaring over the voluptuous dunes of the Sahara in 1942 then being shot down sending its pilot and female passenger crashing to the desert The fate is unclear The man (Ralph Fiennes) is rescued from the flaming wreck by the Arab army though the accident renders him amnesiac and horribly scarred Under the care of Hana (Juliette Binoche) a French-Canadian nurse whose war experiences have convinced her that anyone she loves is doomed to die the man is taken to an abandoned Italian monastery There Hana is resigned to make the final days as comfortable as possible The patient remembers As Hana tends to her patient and reads to him from a book of Greek history he was carrying he begins to remember his adventures as a Hungarian mapmaker and linguist charting the Sahara his dangerously torrid affair with the aristocratic wife (Kristin Scott Thomas) of one of his colleagues and the tragic effects of World War II on their relationship With a scope and grandeur uncommon to most Hollywood films The English Patient unfolds in a nonlinear almost dreamlike manner with images and recollections slowly forming strands that in turn weave a complete whole Director Minghella whose previous work held no indication that he was capable of filmmaking on such a large scale gives the central romance a fiery elegance that combined with the wartime backdrop brings to mind no less than a cross between Casablanca and Lawrence of Arabia The English Patient also takes the time to explore own tentative affair with Kip (Naveen Andrews) a Sikh lieutenant in the British army assigned to defuse the unexploded German bombs littering the Italian coun- AMFMCassette Stereo Dual Air Bags Cruise Control Power Locks Power Windows Power Mirrors Tilt Steering Wheel 30-Liter V6 Engine Seating For Up To 8 4-Wheel Disc Brakes Remote Keyless Entry LEASE THE '96 MAZDA MPV LX-5 269 A MONTH 36 MONTHS $1000 DOWN PYMT s2045 TOTAL AMOUNT DUE AT LEASE SIGNING INCLUDES SECURITY DEPOSIT Brake System (ABS) Easily Removable Third Seat Rear Windows Roll Down All The Way Privacy-Tint Rear Glass Rear WiperWasher Rear Defogger Floor Mats Dual Cup Holders Unbeatable Basic Warranty: 36 Months50000 Milest tryside (Their storyline leads to one of the most indelible images as Kip hoists Hana aloft on a set of ropes and pulleys so she can admire the frescoes near the ceiling of an abandoned church 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