Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 89

Friday December 21 2001 1 Star-Telegram FILMS Continued from IE wwwdfwcorn 1 71 Jt viewer the G-rated Jimmy Neutron is almost certain to find an audience this Christmas And though Alcorn says you find too many injokes in the movie you will find cameos from both his children along with Davis and Alcorn himself as the potential parental snacks referred to by Martin character as on the inside soft on the outside Just think nuts and With DNA currently hard at work on the Nickelodeon Jimmy Neutron spin-off TV series and in discussion win A Nick and its distributor Paramount Pictures about a sequel Jimmy stands poised to take over the universe just kind of giddy about the whole Alcorn says of their new buitj ness partners I think just saying it think And a relationship Alcorn hopes to have for a long time thing that interested in doing is finding a he says Pixar'j has with Disney or PDI hasj with DreamWorks interested in that MOVIES Continued from IE with the kid-themed network Nickelodeon By that time the fledgling DNA Productions had already lined up an impressive resume producing the award-winning Christmas specials Santa vs the Snowman and Olive the Other Reindeer as well as contributing animation to The Show and Comedy Central Showtime and MTV After producing a 13-minute pilot for the now-renamed Jimmy Neutron they took their work to Nick in 1997 saw the pilot said we definitely want to do the TV series but we also want to do a feature Alcorn says that did was send us back to lawyerland to negotiate all of that By 1999 they finally had a script that was a go it took us 20 months to get it to where it is he says Crammed with pop-culture references and a pace that would keep the attention of even the most hyperactive appealingly old-fashioned And the bombing sequence ranks as the most sustained and exciting action sequence The most overrated: The Miramax troika of The Others Bridget Diary and Amelie: Banal trite and just plain annoying respectively these three films inexplicably became word-of-mouth hits And the worst: There may have been films this year that were more incompetently made or singularly pointless than the ones listed here (Wet Hot American Summer and Double Take leap to mind) But these seven were the ones so awful they were downright insulting 1 Hannibal (Ridley Scott) Scott and star Anthony Hopkins stomp all over the memory of the great The Silence of the Lambs with an unimaginably cynical and grotesque cartoon of a horror movie i 2 Freddy Got Fingered (Tom Green) Pure nihilism that is supposed to be groundbreaking comedy May this movie be the long-overdue nail in career coffin 3 Don't Say a Word (Gary Fleder)Snatch (Guy Ritchie) hard to say which of these two films is the slickest stupidest most emotionally and intellectually bankrupt thriller of the year So call it a tie 4 15 Minutes (John Herzfeld) The Score (Frank Oz) Robert De Niro was once our greatest actor Now he sleepwalks his way through one paycheck-cashing stint after another 5 1 Am Sam (Jessie Nelson) A shockingly shameless tear-jerker that exploits the mentally handicapped to manipulate our emotions and a pair of horribly overwrought performances by Sean Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer Christopher Kelly (817) 390-7032 cmkellystar-telegram com In Sunday Arts: The best and worst of 2001 in music and theater Star-Telegram Online at dfwcon milquetoast director comes something utterly unexpected: a biography of mathematician John Nash that busts every convention of the biopic genre As Nash Russell Crowe gives a truly great performance as intellectually complex as it is emotionally devastating (It opens on Christmas Day) 9 In the Bedroom (Todd Field) Three more great performances: Sissy Spacek Tom Wilkinson and Marisa Tomei anchor a wrenching beautifully written and directed drama about a murder that tears a small-town family apart (It opens in Dallas today) 10 Keep the River on Your Right (David Shapiro and Laurie Shapiro) A movie about a gay cannibal may not sound like fun for the whole family But this documentary about anthropologist Tobias Schneebaum who began an affair with a New Guinea tribesman on one expedition and who participated in a Peruvian cannibalistic rituals on another expedition offers something not often seen in American movies a deeply sincere and moving portrait of an aging man near the end of his days looking back and trying to take moral stock of his life choices The runners-up (in no particular order): Takeshi Brother the Japanese most fully realized work and one of the strangest and most original portraits of Los Angeles ever filmed Tony crisply directed surprisingly smart Spy Game the wrenching erotic drama Intimacy directed by Patrice Chereau and featuring a stunning performance by Kerry Fox Christopher ingenious if ultimately too slick and cynical puzzle-box thriller Memento the sweet and tender romantic roundelay The Taste of Others directed by Agnes Jaoui Sean barely seen police procedural The Pledge featuring Jack best work in at least 20 years Terry Zwigoffs Ghost World a tender and ruefully funny look at teen angst Under the Sand Francois terrifying and bleak tale of a woman (the great Charlotte Rampling) slowly going mad after the disap- pearance of her husband John Joy Ride the most satisfying popcorn entertainment and Faithless actressdirector Liv paean to the great Ingmar Bergman The most underrated: Pearl Harbor Sneer all you like but this love story is unabashedly corny and 4 Shrek (Victoria Jensen and Andrew Adamson) the best American comedy since Something About Mary But this relentlessly inventive deliciously rude and gorgeously animated postmodern fairy tale is also more convincing proof after the Babe films Small Soldiers and the first Toy Story that recent entertainment is as complex moving and bold as anything being made for adults 5AI Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg) Critics carped about the meandering final 20 minutes Audiences seemed turned off by the dark nature of the material But this misunderstood gem will one day be appreciated for the near-mas-terpiece it is Working from a story that obsessed the late Stanley Kubrick for years about a robot boy who dreams of becoming real Spielberg gives us a moving meditation on technology the future and the very nature of human existence 6 Gosford Park (Robert Altman) Twenty-six years after his quintessentially American epic Nashville Robert Altman turns his attention to England serving up an endlessly engrossing comedy-mystery-drama that features nearly three dozen characters set at a sprawling British mansion Stunningly acted by a who of British talents (among them Maggie Smith Helen Mirren and Michael Gambon) this may also be the famously misanthropic most humane work a portrait of a class system in a state of constant inevitable breakdown (It opens in New York and Los Angeles next week and expands nationwide in January) 7 Startupcom (Chris Hegedus and Jehane Noujaim) If Shakespeare were still around writing tragicome-i dies for the digital era the end result might look like this: Two arrogant twen-tysomethings attempt to become dot-com millionaires Their own hubris not to mention a willingness to back-stab for a buck sends them spiraling into disaster That a documentary mean anything less than the best thriller of the year 1 8 A Beautiful Mind (Ron Howard) From biggest SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT With The Devil's Backbone filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro left was determined to show his Mexican compatriots that he hadn't sold out and gone to Hollywood for good DEL TORO Cmtimtedfrorn3E Backbone (opening today in Dallas) also turned out to be a pretty good career move This moody and melancholy thriller set in a orphanage during the Spanish Civil War has earned the director the best reviews of his fareer Del Toro says he really have much of a choice in following his muse have learned in my life that the only thing you cannot fight is he explains creativity is a form of desire and possession I would much rather be happy doing what I do than just forcing myself into making something else" But the director also says that there was another impulse behind The Backbone a determination to show his Mexican compatriots that he sold out and gone to Hollywood for good He the only director thinking that way either Alfonso Cuaron director of Great Expectations and A Little Princess returned to Mexico at the same time as Del Toro to film his coming-of-age drama And Your Mother Too (due in theaters in March) funny that Alfonso and I both went back to Spanish-language films at the same Del Toro explains said to Alfonso in every box of Cracker Jacks there is a toy 4-hidden for free And every time we do a big movie we become more bankable and more of a name in the financing community So we should do a smaller totally independent movie in between the big Fans of Del work however can rest assured that even though the budgets and languages of his future films may vary he about to abandon his beloved horror genre very sad that a lot of directors take the responsibility of telling a good horror he says people do it as a steppingstone to genuine efforts I do them because I love Christopher Kelly (817) 390-7032 cmkellystar-telegramcom SALE Ajj Todd Camp (817) 390-7691 31 L-f Hi jD ft mi iiS fliT 1 3') ni 3 original retail prices F1 ii Or or 7) ol til 1C t'l (713)850-0055 Dallas (214) 520-1055 1L rt Selected Ready-to-Wear and Shoes Beginning December 22nd 40 off CHANEL Houston Galleria I 85 Highland Park Village FRIDAY AND SATURDAY ONLY The earlier you shop the more you save on our sale shoes Merriest CHRISTMAS TO SHOW YOUR LOVE WILL LAST Open Monday through Saturday Open Sunday 12:00 ROLEX ARANCF BLAZF RS $267 50 OFF CAMFL VIR $289 from 9 to 1 2 set an extra 30 FF from 1 2 to 3 get an extra 20 OFF from 3 to 6 set an extra 10 OFF Get up early and head to Stanley The earlier you shop the more you save PLUS you can enjoy coffee and pastries in both stores RIDGLEA 6333 Camp Bowie 817-731-2555 HULEN 3000 Hulen 817-377-9399 HULENOPEN SUN 12-5 SPORTSWEAR $4377 to $7977 FA1 I Cl 20 BOBBY JONES POLO SALE 20 OFF Entire Stock Not Included John 1540 University Dr SOFT SALE Sl'PPI TOPC OATS $62777 FRQM $21977 SVVFATFRS $19777 SPOR I CO VTS $449 HALTOMS FINE JEWE1ERS SINCE IB93 Downtown Girner 3rd Main 336-4051 Rirx1 ea 6102 Camp Bowie 738 6511 Arlington Village by The Parks 4101 Cooper 468-3813 Hulfn Street At ross From the Mall 346-67 1 1 Grapevine Towne Center Hwy114atHwy 26 488 5527 Rolex Oyster Perpetual and Datejusts are trademarks Free Gift Wrap Gift Ccmfn-dtes Available Ashf Ft Worth 817-335-4551 -IS.