Euro-AICN: The Escapist; THE NAMELESS; Gormenghast; JURASSIC PARK 3; Star Trek 10; ANGEL NEGRO; Dan Dare; LOTR -- Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.

EURO AICN

Hi Folks... Edgard here with the Euro news of the week.

Please note that the Euro AICN crew is taking a Summer break until mid-August, so if you have any amazing news send it to Harry, or Father Geek right the way; if not we will make a big Euro column next month. It's time for Edgard & Co. to get out, enjoy the sun, Paris, and whatever you can enjoy in the Summer. So anyway here's this week's column with good financial news for European cinema, with cool links to LOTR related material, interviews from Ireland and reviews from Serbia & Santa !... See you hopefully next month...

EUROPE IN GENERAL

* From Screendaily :

Screen Daily's analysis of international box office results for the first half of 2001 reveals that all major European territories are enjoying an unexpectedly robust year so far. Even more encouraging is the revelation that, in almost all markets surveyed, it has been local films that have fuelled the upward trend. For the past 18 months, both international distributors and exhibitors have been bemoaning the lack of quality indigenous product across Europe. Without a solid domestic market, both the major studio releases and the new US-style multiplexes have been struggling to maintain audiences in developing and mature markets alike. So, while US titles have frequently dominated the charts and contributed substantial revenues across multiple territories, notably early in the year (Cast Away, Hannibal and What Women Want), and at the start of the summer season (The Mummy Returns, Pearl Harbor, Shrek and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider), most countries have also provided their own box office hits to sustain the market in between. Germany's half-year box office increase of 11% against 2000, was as much to do with the performance of local hits: Das Experiment and Girls On Top (Madchen, Madchen), as it was of The Mummy Returns or Pearl Harbor. 2001 saw Germany's first six months gross figures, provided by industry data collection agency AC Nielsen/EDI, reach $356.6m (DM 825.9m) compared with $321.8m (DM 745.2m) in 2000. Helped by local successes the box office performance so far puts the country well on its way to beating last year’s total gross of $655.3m (DM 1.5bn).

In France, the year-on-year rise of 10% - to 97 million admissions, (according to provisional figures released by the National Cinema Center), is credited to the exceptional performance of four French productions that have all sold over five million tickets and contributed to local films' 51% share of the market, up from 34% last year. This quadruplet consisted of three early starters: The Closet (Le Placard), which opened January 17, The Brotherhood Of The Wolf (Le Pacte Des Loups) on January 31, and La Verite Si Je Mens 2 (Feb 7). In addition, current French box office phenomenon Amelie From Montmartre (Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amelie Poulain) has alone accumulated 6.3 million admissions to date.

Italy also saw an 11% rise from 2000’s $178.8m (Lire 410.1bn) to $198.3m (Lire 454.6bn) for the current year according to local box office tracker Cinetel. The biggest local hit of the year has been The Last Kiss (L’Ultimo Bacio) which after 23 weeks on release still haunts the chart having taken $10.5m to date. Also contributing to the strong year were recent hits Italian-French co-production The Ignorant Fairies and Nanni Moretti’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner The Son’s Room (La Stanza Del Figlio).

In Spain, where a massive 15% increase for the first half year has been recorded - $209.2m (PTS 412.0m) compared with $182.2m (PTS 358.9m) in 2000, according to AC Nielsen/EDI, the outstanding local performance was by Lolafilms’ Torrente 2: Mission In Marbella which grossed over $18.5m (PTS 3.6bn) and is by far the biggest local smash of all time. The film ranks as the fourth biggest ever hit in the territory, behind Titanic, The Sixth Sense and Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace.

Recently revised figures from AC Nielsen/EDI for the UK, also, reveal a year-on-year increase, though smaller than many of its European neighbours. Total revenues for the first half of the year were up 3% to $453.7m (£322.6m) compared with 2000’s first six months results of $441.4m (£313.8m). The UK box office has been given a tremendous boost since mid-April by the unstoppable juggernaut that is Bridget Jones’s Diary, currently at $56.4m (£40.1m) and still in the top five after 13 weeks on release.

Rising six month grosses were evident in The Netherlands as well. Figures provided by the Dutch Federation for Cinematography (NFC) show an 11% year-on-year rise from 2000’s $157.2m (FL 410.1m) to 2001’s $174.2m (FL 454.6m). The biggest local hit of the year so far lending its own contribution to the rise was Costa!, a comedy directed by Jacob Nijenhuis.

The rest of 2001 looks likely to continue these impressive box office increases with many high-profile releases still to come. Amongst those expecting the best results are: Tim Burton’s Planet Of The Apes, Steven Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence and monster sequel Jurassic Park 3, as well as end-of-year heavyweights Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone and The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring.

ITALY

* As always Robert, our man in Italy, sent us many interesting links :

- We've got the pictures of the miniatures of the LOTR table game. You can see them here: Click Now

- You can also read a very interesting press release of Games Workshop, the company which is developing the game here: Just Click Now

- Francesco AlÃ² did an interview with David Winham (Faramir in LOTR). He speaks about his role in LOTR, about the work Peter Jackson did and about the love story between his character and Eowyn. He also talks about Dust, the new movie of Milcho Manchewski which will open the Venice Film Festival, and briefly about Moulin Rouge. You can read everything by: Simply Clicking Here

* DaddyG here with some news posted about Dan Dare coming to TV by the BBC : Dan Dare sets course for TV stardom. The new look Dan Dare and some arch foes Square-jawed comic strip super-hero Dan Dare is returning in a £14m TV revival. The new-look Dan and a cast of villains star in a 26-part animated series which will be sold throughout the world. In a new image unveiled on Tuesday, the "pilot of the future" wears a flying jacket and looks younger than his Eagle comic strip counterpart, who first appeared more than 50 years ago. The new image has come about after consultation with young people by the producers of the series. Colin Frewin, owner of the Dan Dare Corporation, explained: "We market tested Dan with young people: the under-12s, under-11s, and under-13s. "The minute we got to the point when they began to say, 'Dan is cool', we knew we had arrived." There are also plans to launch a live action movie if the cartoon series - with its Elton John theme song - is a hit. The producers of a future big screen project say they would be looking for a James Bond-style actor. Computer animation work on the UK-financed TV series has just been completed in the US. Voice-over actor Greg Ellis, who had a bit part in Titanic, plays the heroic Dare. His foes will be voiced by Robbie Coltrane, Tim Curry and Charles Dance, while Rob Paulsen will play arch villain the Mekon.

His best-known adversary was the ruthless Mekon Frewin spent half a million pounds to gather all the rights and revive the character. He said: "We have brought him completely up to date, the new millennium super-hero in the latest form of CGI animation. "Dan is good looking, cool and always in control." He says the original concept by Frank Hampson has been respected and "further developed" But some of those who grew up with the original Dan Dare are perturbed by the superhero's transformation. Dave Britton, Dan Dare specialist and exhibition organiser, says the comic strip pilot was peculiarly British. "He embodied everything that was British and now we have this Hollywood makeover," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Broadcaster Paul Ross said: "The original creator is spinning in his grave. "It is in a sense sacrilege, money-making sacrilege, and entertaining, but sacrilege all the same." Dan Dare first found fame after the Eagle comic was launched in 1950. The strip was created and drawn by Hampson, but others who have illustrated his adventures include David Hockney and Gerald Scarfe.

Full story and new look image here : Just Click Here

* Still from DaddyG : Doctor Who is returning to the BBC for a new adventure on the net. The Doctor will be making his comeback in a special audio drama on Friday, battling aliens in a broadcast exclusively on the internet on bbc.co.uk. Death Comes to Time sees Sylvester McCoy reprising his role as the seventh Doctor. McCoy told BBC News Online: "These are good original drama stories which is rare these days. "I think the fans will be delighted with this project but they will never be fully satisfied until the Doctor is back on TV." The Doctor's best-remembered monsters include the Daleks and Cybermen. But fans have had to wait more than five years for a new Doctor Who tale to be broadcast, since a TV movie in 1996. Chuck Foster, a spokesman for the Doctor Who Appreciation Society (DWAS), said: "We welcome any new BBC initiative for new Doctor Who. "Broadcasting on the net will enable fans throughout the world to hear an original episode - for the first time enjoying the experience simultaneously with us in the UK." Famous names McCoy will be partnered by Sophie Aldred as his companion, Ace, in a continuation of the roles last played on TV in 1989. They will be joined by famous names including Stephen Fry, John Sessions and Jacqueline Pearce, who played Blake's 7 baddie Servalan. Death Comes to Time will broadcast as six real audio files at the BBC's official Doctor Who website. The files form a 30-minute audio play which sees the Doctor enlist the help of a mysterious Timelord (Fry) to battle an alien warlord (Sessions) who is fighting for control of time itself. Interactive Listeners will also have the opportunity to review the drama and vote on whether they want the Timelord to return for more internet instalments. The DWAS is hoping the new adventure could signal a new era of Doctor Who. Sylvester McCoy picks up his seventh Doctor role DWAS's Chuck Foster told BBC News Online: "We have to bear in mind that not all fans are able to use the internet, so some will miss out who would have heard it on the radio. "And as discussions on the BBC Online Points of View message board this last week indicate, a new television series would be welcomed. Universally." Doctor Who is the longest running science-fiction series in the world. The Doctor's ability to regenerate himself has led to several actors playing the role over the decades, including William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee. In 1996 a US TV Movie starred Paul McGann in the title role.

IRELAND

* Today in the Irish Newspaper Tabloid "The Star" and article appeared saying that the people involved with Star Trek X wanted Sean Connery to play the bad guy Shinzon. They really want him, they offered him 10 Million + for him to take the role. Hope he takes it as he'd make a great villian

Sneakers

* From Showbiz Ireland :

- An anonymous source from the set of Reign of Fire sent these storyboards into me... Check 'em out: Right Here

- An interview with Jonathan Rhys-Meyers :

He glammed it up in Velvet Goldmine and went Gothic in Gormenghast but, as Stephen Walsh finds out, Jonathan Rhys Meyers is just your average bloke from Cork who once did a Knorr commercial and broke a girl's heart. Rhys Meyers was born in Dublin in 1977, moved to Cork when he was three. A wayward youth saw him leave school and enter the pool hall at 16, where he would probably have stayed had it not been for a talent scout spotting him and asking him to audition for War of the Buttons. He didn't get the part, but he did get a slot in a Knorr commercial. Since then, he's shot the Big Fella (Liam Neeson) in Michael Collins, glammed it up with Ewan McGregor in Velvet Goldmine, hung from Gothic rafters as the devious Steerpike in BBC's Gormenghast, and appeared in a dozen or so other films. In the next few months, you'll see him in Tangled, a remake of The Magnificent Ambersons with Madeline Stowe, and Prozac Nation with Christina Ricci.

When I talk to him, he's walking around London's salubrious Holland Park area, "watching the beautiful cars and girls. There's so much money here. I don't have any of it, though." A few years ago, money was something that came up a lot in interviews with Rhys Meyers. Specifically, how much he wanted it. Either he's got it now, or he's decided it's just a little crass to talk about cash all the time. What he wants now is a little harder to pin down. "It's not about money, fame, people knowing you. It's not even about enjoying yourself and being happy. It's about achieving something that's brilliant, creating something that's brilliant, for other people. For yourself, you're always going to be unsatisfied, but if somebody comes up to me and says, that was a brilliant part, and I really, really got it. That's essentially it."

Many actors in the same bracket have given in to the financial temptation of the blockbuster. Has Rhys Meyers any plans to attend the Ben Affleck School of Sellout? "I'd love to do a big blockbuster action film, it'd be great, can you imagine? Pay me, no problem. I'd love to do a huge big 'Mike and Jerry' type film. They're really great but I don't think Micheal Beam or Jerry Bruckheimer think too fondly of me. Wait until I go off and get an Oscar nomination, then they'll love me to bits." They might, but what if it was a choice between something like Pearl Harbor and an independent arthouse film, which would allow him to grow more as an actor? "All depends on the role, all depends on the director, I'll tell you. If it was a choice of a Pearl Harbor or Before Night Falls, I'd do Before Night Falls. You get to work with a superior director in a superior part, and you let your muscles grow. Pearl Harbor is something you do to become a superstar. If someone wanted me to do that, then no problem. I'm not going to be one of these actors who says, oh no, I'm only going to do roles of a certain quality. Yeah, I'm looking for quality, it's the first thing I'll think about, but at the same time I'm also looking for other things."

Rhys Meyers does write short stories ("sometimes they get a bit too long"), and thinks "books are beautiful. I love Dostoyevky, Pushkin. I love Russian writers. Samuel Beckett is the business, too, and James Joyce and Banana Yoshimoto." He's currently reading Ross Leckie's gruesome account of Hannibal's drive across the Alps. He'd like to play the ruthless, ambitious young general "in a f##king instant. That's exactly the role I'd like to play." And it's exactly the type of role you expect him to land. There's also talk of him playing a young Salvador Dali in the near future: "I always tend to get cast in an extraordinary role for whatever reason. It's usually because of the way I look, I suppose. But that's why I'm doing the role in this film (a currently unnamed project in London), because in this one I'm playing a normal bloke, a no-strings-attached Irish kid, who's become a young football coach because he busted his knee on the way to becoming professional. That's it."

Useless bits of information: He likes listening to Bob Marley; he sings traditional Irish music and he's apparently rather embarrassed about the Knorr affair!

Quote: He told Rolling Stone magazine in 1998: "You get on a set and immediately people are wiping your ass for you, and nobody tells you when you're being an asshole. I'm sure nobody working for Tom Cruise would turn around and say, 'Tom, don't do that anymore because you're a dickhead to do that.' Actually, he might quite like it."

- And a Johnny Lee Miller Interview : Having just finished shooting The Escapist in Ireland, Jonny Lee Miller talks to Paul Byrne about rejecting fame, surviving Angelina Jolie and the lure of Ireland. It's either a fiendishly clever ploy to avoid the blinding light of the paparazzi, or just plain stupidity, but Jonny Lee Miller's career has been on a steady downward spiral over the last few years. Whatever about his private life (and lately, private is just how Miller likes it), one thing's for certain; Jonny Lee Miller is no longer looking like the star he was once so hotly tipped to be. Which begs the question, is Miller being fiendishly clever, or is he just crap about choosing movie roles? "I like the fact that I'm not on every magazine cover, and I'm not hounded by paparazzi every time I step out my front door," offers the 28-year old actor, attempting to explain his far-from-glittering career of late.

"I had a taste of that, and it just bored me. Well, initially it was exciting, then it got boring, and then it got pretty much unbearable. I just came to the conclusion that I would be much happier making films that I actually wanted to make, and not caring about the fame, or the box-office, or the magazine covers." Of course, back in 1996, when Jonny Lee Miller was on every magazine cover thanks to his role as Sick Boy in Trainspotting, and his marriage to Hollywood's favourite cracked actor, Angelina Jolie - the idea of fame and fortune was plainly very attractive for the young Surrey-born actor. Having popped up on TV in the Eighties (namely a Mansfield Park mini- series in 1983, and an Alexei Sayle vehicle, Itch, in 1989), Miller had impressed Hollywood enough by 1995 to land the lead role in the rather silly techno-thriller, Hackers.

It wouldn't take a genius or a fool to mess up Miller's latest movie, Dracula 2001, being a pretty lame idea for a film to begin with. An attempt to bring the original bloodsucker kicking and preening into the MTV generation, this toothless travesty sees Miller cast as the wide-eyed orphan boy who ends up fighting the reincarnation of Dracula (played by Gerard Butler) alongside his surrogate father, professor Abraham Van Hesling (played by Christopher Plummer, who really should have known better). "I just thought this movie would be fun to make," states Miller. "And that it would be fun to see, too. Maybe it didn't work quite as well as it should have, but that's just the way it goes sometimes, as I said before. The reference points for me were things like Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel, that modern, slightly sarcastic but still dark gothic stuff. I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone who's a serious Dracula follower. It's not meant to be any great serious piece of work. It's much more B-movie than arthouse."

You can say that again. Nonetheless, Miller's readiness to sign up to such blatant silly nonsense as Dracula 2001 (produced, incidentally, by the Godfather of schlock-horror, Wes Craven) is reflective of his seemingly self-destructive career plan. He may claim to be only making movies these days that he feels good about, but his box-office draw has dwindled dramatically since his Trainspotting heyday thanks to incredibly bad movies like Love, Honour & Obey and Complicity. Neither film even managed a cinema release in Ireland. Where that leaves Miller's latest outing, The Escapist, is hard to say. Reuniting with Scottish director Gillies MacKinnon (the two having made 1997's wartime drama, Regeneration), this "raw, pacy and intelligent thriller" sees Miller playing the victim of a vicious burglary, which resulted in the murder of his pregnant wife. Determined to track down the killer, Miller's ordinary decent citizen must reinvent himself as a top criminal in order to get close to the man who destroyed his life.

The only thing he is happy to talk about these days is the work. "People really don't need to know what an actor gets up to when they're not working," he finishes. "Not knowing is a mutually beneficial thing, too; you make better films when you're not doing six-page spreads about your hideaway home. I think I'll have to move to Ireland. You can get truly lost there, because no one really cares about who you are, or what you are. That's the way I want to live from now on; no hype, no tabloid nonsense, no paparazzi. Now, if only I could afford a place in Ireland!"

Jonny Lee Miller: The man Known to the great unwashed as Sick Boy, Jonny Lee Miller was born in the Home Counties in England on 15 November 1972. And with his family history, there was definitely destined to tread the boards. The films After his performance in Trainspotting, Miller decided to go all period-piece, with films such as Mansfield Park and Regeneration. These days he's at the centre of the Brit pack and owns a production company called Natural Nylon with friends Jude Law, Sadie Frost, Ewan McGregor and Sean Pertwee (yes, son of Dr Who).

The Full interviews and some reviews are at : http://www.ShowBizIreland.com
REVIEWS... ANGEL NEGRO (from Chili) and THE NAMELESS (from Spain)
by Dejan
A couple of weeks ago I saw a Chilean horror film ANGEL NEGRO (Black Angel), and, upon seeing it listed for this year’s FantAsia festival, I thought perhaps I should give you a preview. The film had its premiere on last Halloween in Chile, and was very successful as the first Chilean horror film, and one of their 1st genre (as opposed to “art”) films. It’s directed by Jorge Olguin, a young director (age 27) who is already working on his (and Chile’s) 2nd horror film.
ANGEL NEGRO was shot on 16mm, and should I say – on incredibly low budget for US standards. But, this is the kind of film that does not demand a lot of money to work, being basically a slasher film, so the lack of ‘money shots’ does not hurt it (though I’d like to see more elaborate make-up EFX). The film begins with a scene that makes the Blair Witch kind of shaky-cam look like pure Kubrick steadycam, so those prone to being sea-sick might want to bring a plastic bag with them to the cinema. This scene is in black and white, and is a shot made with a VHS camera: basically, a group of drunken youths fool around near a sea cliff, then after a quarrel one of the girls apparently falls down. That’s your usual slasher intro, and the rest of the film takes place “10 years later.” The main guy (one of the party animals from the 1st scene) works in the morgue, and one day a body comes: body of another of the guys from the cliff (though I’d bet you wouldn’t recognize him, or anyone else from that ultra-shaky shot). Here you have an unnecessarily long shot of this guy’s nude body sprawled on the dissecting table, but in terms of gore, all you see is some blood in his hair, and marks of the wire on his neck. The next day another of those guys is brought to the morgue, and our main guy starts suspecting that perhaps their deaths might have something to do with what happened 10 years ago. So he goes to warn one of the girls, while the killer dispatches another guy in the bathroom (now, THAT’s a gory demise! That’s how the bathroom should look like after someone’s knifed in there! ), and another girl (a suspenseful chase sequence ends with a rather disappointing murder – a bullet in the head!)…. As you can see, there’s nothing new in the story department here: the killer,dressed in black, wears a creepy white mask, the police is incredulous and mostly ineffective (aren’t they always?), and the killer’s identity and motives are also nothing new outside of Chile. However, I liked the first half of this film. It starts with several morbid and gloomy sequences in the morgue, and although they do not feature any autopsies (no money for that), they have an unconventional feel to them which sets the mood of the film. Especially when in one of the first scenes you see the main guy, Gabriel, eating his breakfast while studying the files AND GORY PHOTOS of his high-school pals, now dead.
Also, in the beginning, drama is as strong as horror, and for a while it seemed like a good film in the vein of THE NAMELESS, with strong characters and good acting. Both Gabriel (a shy, loser-like kind of guy) and the girl he teams up with are concieved and played very well. However, in the final third of the film it starts to sink and sink, and from a ‘very good’ rating (3, on my scale from –2 to 5) it fell to ‘average’ (2). Now, I don’t know the production history of the film, but the good guy in me would like to believe that the producer went broke during the filming, and that they had 1 or 2 days to finish what should have been at least a 10 days shoot, and to change a lot in the screenplay – because, after such a nice beginning, in the last 30 minutes you find some atrocious dilagoue (especially among he policemen), totally senseless events (more of that later), and rushed direction which becomes hillariously bad (and sent the theater in roars of laughter during what should have been the culminating suspense scene). I’ll give you just the most obvious goof: the guy who got killed in the bathroom had a small hand-held camera with him (expecting to find a prostitute instead of the killer there). At the first stab the camera falls on the floor, but continues filming. Later, the police finds only the empty camera. But after that, a police investigator comes to the crime scene, and takes a leak in the very bathroom, ventually discovering the tape that clogs the drain. Now, even if you believe that in Chile (or anywhere else) there is technology that could save the tape that was warped, put in the water for at least a day and additionally ‘treated’ with this guy’s piss (and the resulting footage has only a couple of scratches and then goes on clean and pure!) – can you believe that WHAT SHOULD’VE BEEN FILMED FROM THE BATHROOM’S FLOOR (the part afer the killing, when the killer removes his mask) IS FILMED FROM THE PERSPECTIVE AS IF SOMEONE STILL STOOD THERE AND FILMED IT FROM HIS SHOULDER?!!! I don’t mind the predictability of the killer’s identity, for I always thought that the road is more interesting than the destination, and that’s why I like italian giallos, when done with style. This one seemed a good, atmospheric, pleasantly morbid slasher until that ending which is just plain silly. So, my final verdict is: this might be interesting for curiosity seekers or die-hard gorehounds (though, as I said, apart from a lot of slighly violet-red color gushing and splattering, there are no effects like severed body parts or elaborate wounds), but try to see it on video. This year’s FantAsia seems to have a lot of much worthier titles to offer, so you lucky bastards in Montreal can freely skip this one: go instead and see something else, and please send us a scoop!
By the way, many in-US-still-unseen films were shown in Serbia in previous months, but since they were decently covered by other scoopers, I’ll just briefly give my 2 cents on THE NAMELESS. Well, you guys are in for a nasty surprise once this comes your way after all those glowing reviews, because the film is not all that great. I mean, after a diet of DRACULA 2000, URBAN LEGEND 2, VALENTINE, FORSAKEN etc. it WILL be a refreshing, nice meal, but it’s only because of that. The film is OK, (3- on my list, on a par with STIR OF ECHOES, etc) but far from the masterpiece all those review would like to make it. By now you all know it’s based on Ramsey Campbell’s novel, and that it deals with a mother looking for her daughter, apparently killed, but whose voice calls her several times on the phone, asking her help… The beginning is great, very dark and gloomy (and although the stress is on atmosphere here, these guys in Spain had a budget and knowledge for some very nice gruesome effects, shown briefly, but not blink-and-miss briefly: the two unforgettable ones being a badly decomposed girl’s corpse found in the start, and later in the film, a guy with his throat wide slashed and A LOT of blood all over his chest), and the leading lady gives a credible performance as the bereaved mother. There are creepy sequences, but there are two or three main faults in the film:
The middle part starts to drag a lot, with too much unnecessary talk and not much plot movement.
The bad guy in the asylum is a comic-book villain, too unredeemingly evil, even with some ugly skin disease, hich is somewhat distracting after a credible drama before it. Also, the portrayal of the sect behind the girl’s kidnapping is too superficial and, well, comicky – it’s obvious that Campbell knew even less about the occult than Dennis Wheatley, while his attitude towards the field is similar.
Finally, the film’s greatest problem lies in it’s ending. Yes, the very thing that many reviewers found so great (but not so with its US distributors: and for once in the movie history their meddling with the ending –AN OTHERWISE DESPICCABLE PRACTICE- might, I repeat, might make this film better). I won’t spoil it for you, but I’ll say that it is as downbeat and sudden as can be. It’s also unreedimingly grim. I have no problem with that: I LOVE grim endings (you don’t believe me? Well, David Cronenberg is my all-time-favorite director!). The problem with this ending is that it makes absolutely no sense with the PLOT: you see, the story is about this sect which is intent on making Evil incarnate, and their members have devoted decades of attempts to do it and blah-blah because they have great plans with this Evil – and in the end the effect of all their complex, dangerous and elaborate designs is to HURT ONE SINGLE PERSON! And then nothing more. Nada. Nista. The end. If you wonder what is the cruelest (or most Evil, if you like, though I hate the word Evil, for it signifies everything and nothing) way to hurt someone – you’ll see it in the end. But it just doesn’t make sense in terms of the story that preceeded it. Anyway, the film’s director, Balaguero, knows his trade, and I have high hopes for his DARKNESS, because I guess the problems of THE NAMELESS come from the novel, and the script’s too much faithfulness to it.
So much for now. Best wishes from DEJAN (dogstar666@yahoo.com)
REVIEW... JURASSIC PARK III
by Santa
A'right Boys?
I'll keep this brief because - in deference to that 1500word PEARL HARBOR opus - I can't justify spending any kind of serious word-count on a JURASSIC PARK III review. That and I'm tired.
Every blockbuster coming out, I tell anyone who asks me about it that I predict a big fat stinker. Not the hardest prediction to make, I grant you. JP3 is no exception. I thoroughly enjoyed JURASSIC PARK, didn't think much of THE LOST WORLD and expected JPIII to be JAWS 2,3 or 4... but with dinosaurs.
Short story, I was right. For about fourteen seconds at the start of the press-screening, I had moderate hopes of something fun and edgy. No draw - it's been cut to ribbons leaving you with a relatively lengthy introduction (Dumb kid gets lost over Dino-Isle, Sam Neill tricked into coming along for the rescue mission with estranged parents Tea Leoni and William H. Macy. Michael Jeter is the mercenary leader... who isn't really. And Alessandro Nivolo plays WAY against type as an edgy young fella) a relatively amusing middle and a ridiculously anti-climatical ending.
This is Dino-lite. This is the second fucking coming of JUMANJI, Chrissakes... Scarce, if ANY gore and a fumbling romance with characters we barely get to know (If you're gonna have a sequel, waste emotional filler time on the ESTABLISHED character... God knows that Dr Alan "Dinosaur-Man" Grant could use it)... The T-Rex was the villain of the first film, but T2 style, we see her "softer, motherly-side" in THE LOST WORLD; so the Raptors are made into the evil thunder lizards. But JPIII blasts on again, bringing a NEW nasty, the odd-looking Spinosaurus. Giving the raptors SPEECH (albeit, er... raptor-speech) and having them cleanly BREAK SOMEONE'S NECK and leaving the body intact makes them more akin to Lizard terrorists, working for the Cause! Daft, I tells you!
The "aviary" sequence was quite well done, however - the only sustained section of the film that didn't feel trimmed to suit a 90 minute running time. The kid was a little less annoying than other JP children, and Neill's studied weariness is quite appealling.
The last 45minutes are played at a different RPM to the rest of the film though. At one point, the survivors - searching for a mobile phone in a pile of dinosaur shit - are startled by a big dino (dark, but it looked like a T-Rex) ... which looks at them, gets bored and walks away? Why? What possible point does this have? Was it a prelude to some big Spino/T-Rex fight that was shelved? Why was it shelved? WHY is so little made of Michael Jeter and his merry band? WHY are Macy and Nivolo in this? WHO kills the people on the speed-boat? WHAT IS IT ABOUT JURASSIC PARK FILMS AND UNEXPLAINED DEATHS ON BOATS? WHERE IS MY WRITING AGENT?
Gah... Neither of the JP sequels are up to much, though this one is probably a better kids flick. Dreamworks seem to have jettisoned all pretense and forged ahead with an extended marketing video. But I got FIGHT CLUB on DVD today, so I'm going to drink some Bells and bliss out for the night, unconcerned with the rampant spread of faceless corporate evil. Goodnight and Godspeed,
Santa
That's it for this week... and this Summer. Remember Euro AICN is taking a Summer break until mid-August. Keep sending your stories anyway - unless it's urgent, in that case send it to Harry, or Father Geek right the way - and we will make a big Euro AICN Column around the 15th August. Have a great Summer ! Send us all your stories at euroaicn@yahoo.com

Steamboat Harry by Mr. Biege	Jul 16th, 2001 01:25:39 PM
Connery as a Romulan? by Hardyboy	Jul 16th, 2001 01:46:37 PM
The Rev Dan Dare by Rogman	Jul 16th, 2001 01:46:54 PM
yeah, I agree. by madkinski	Jul 16th, 2001 02:21:20 PM
Jesus by ELGordo	Jul 16th, 2001 03:07:14 PM
American Dan Dare? That's like casting an american Arthur Dent, by El Tronerino	Jul 16th, 2001 03:23:41 PM
If Elton John's singing the theme... by Horus	Jul 16th, 2001 04:37:44 PM
Rodenberry! We named the dog Rodenberry! by Mayhem Ensues	Jul 17th, 2001 12:42:27 AM
by lazyboy_ie	Jul 17th, 2001 06:03:18 AM
Will they change the Mekon. by lazyboy_ie	Jul 17th, 2001 06:07:54 AM
What do you think kid? by haywood	Jul 17th, 2001 06:42:46 AM
JAWS 2 "WAS" A VERY ENTERTAINING FEATURE! by Halloween68	Jul 17th, 2001 10:05:47 AM
Hey, Harry, that's got to be the best animation ever. If only w by Halloween68	Jul 17th, 2001 10:13:37 AM