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Andy Klein

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Knight Falls

Everything old is mold again when a brother from another 'hood lands in medieval times.

By Andy Klein
Nov 22, 2001

The new Martin Lawrence comedy, Black Knight, is yet another twist, albeit an uncredited one, on Mark Twain's protean A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, one of the original fish-out-of-water comedy-fantasies. Was there an outcry for yet another redo? After all, Twain's 1889 novel, about a New England mechanic...
Jerry Meander

Grateful Dawg isn't quite alive enough to be Dead.

By Andy Klein
Nov 1, 2001

David Grisman and Jerry Garcia met as young folk/roots fans cum musicians attending a Bill Monroe concert in 1964. Garcia, as you may have heard, went on to form the Grateful Dead; when the Dead began to incorporate more country elements into their music, they used mandolin ace Grisman memorably...
Going Perm

A self-sabotaging office worker makes the transition from stage to screen.

By Andy Klein
Oct 25, 2001

In the new low-budget indie comedy Haiku Tunnel, former temporary office worker Josh Kornbluth plays "Josh Kornbluth," a temporary office worker who, early in the film, faces a premature midlife crisis -- whether to stay a temp or "go perm." After great hesitation, the company makes him an offer he...
Crouching... Monkey?

A 1993 reissue from Hong Kong serves up a real kick.

By Andy Klein
Oct 11, 2001

Thanks to his justly lauded work as action choreographer on The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, director Yuen Wo Ping is among the most famous creators of Hong Kong action in the U.S. In the wake of the latter film's astonishing success, Miramax, with a prod from Quentin Tarantino,...
Bad Cop, Bad Cop

Protected by a badge, Denzel cruises L.A.'s mean streets.

By Andy Klein
Oct 4, 2001

This may be a strange time to release a thriller about the dangers of corrupt law enforcement, but Training Day -- with no explosions, no cheap thrills, no international conspiracies -- is about as distant from current East Coast realities as possible. Still, that doesn't mean it qualifies as escapism...
Our House

Together is a bittersweet look at '70s commune life...in Sweden.

By Andy Klein
Sep 20, 2001

Together is the second feature from Swedish director Lukas Moodysson, whose 1998 Fucking Amal was shown in the United States two years ago under the title Show Me Love, renamed for obvious reasons. Together is an ensemble piece -- a sharp, perceptive look at a Swedish commune in a suburb...
Happy and Gay

All Over the Guy is amiable but just not that novel.

By Andy Klein
Sep 6, 2001

Julie Davis's All Over the Guy is yet another entry in the ever-growing genre of gay romantic comedy. Ten years ago, one would have led off by saying, "It's a romantic comedy, but with a twist: They're both men!" or "It's When Harry Met Solly...!" It's a step in the...
The Living End

From the directors of Suture comes a deeply satisfying new film noir.

By Andy Klein
Aug 23, 2001

After nearly a decade's absence from the big screen, Suture auteurs Scott McGehee and David Siegel finally deliver a second feature with The Deep End, an exciting, sharply realized, melodramatic film noir based on Elizabeth Sanxay Holding's novel The Blank Wall, which was also the source for the 1949 Max...
Mob Rule

Takeshi Kitano brings his trademark style to the bloody Brother.

By Andy Klein
Jul 26, 2001

Actor "Beat" Takeshi Kitano has built an international reputation over the past decade, primarily through a series of ultra-hard-boiled crime films in which he plays either a cop or a felon. With the exception of Gonin (1995, U.S. release, 1998), which was directed by Takeshi Ishii, all of these films...
Laughter à la Czech

Divided We Fall shows its subject -- the persecution of the Jews -- in a surprising new light.

By Andy Klein
Jul 19, 2001

Who would have imagined that at this late date -- more than half a century after the end of World War II, after The Diary of Anne Frank, Schindler's List, Au Revoir, Les Enfants, Pierre Sauvage's documentary Weapons of the Spirit and Jan Kadar's amazing The Shop on Main Street...
Legally Bland

Reese Witherspoon's talents are wasted in the muddy, unoriginal Legally Blonde.

By Andy Klein
Jul 12, 2001

Back in her early teens, Reese Witherspoon proved herself a terrific actress in her 1991 big-screen debut, The Man in the Moon. Since then, she's done first-rate work in critical hits like Pleasantville, cult faves like Freeway and Election and underrated gems like Best Laid Plans. So how is it...
Grounded Jet

Inept editing, gaping plot holes, unintentional absurdity: What more does a movie need?

By Andy Klein
Jul 5, 2001

Kiss of the Dragon -- the latest vehicle for martial arts star Jet Li, a mainland Chinese talent who became a superstar in Hong Kong and has since succumbed to the blandishments of Hollywood -- has a little of the best (plus a lot of the worst) of Hong Kong...
Mayhem All the Way

In Time and Tide, Tsui Hark delivers a plotless wonder.

By Andy Klein
Jun 28, 2001

Time and Tide -- the latest action picture from producer/director Tsui Hark, one of the world's great entertainers -- is a compendium of many of the best (and a few of the worst) traits of Hong Kong action cinema. It's relentlessly visceral, making you feel as if you've been shot...
Psyches Gone Wild

The nasty but brilliant Sexy Beast has Ben Kingsley at full dazzle.

By Andy Klein
Jun 21, 2001

Sexy Beast, the debut feature from British director Jonathan Glazer, is a riveting, scary and often funny foray into a traditional American genre: the gangster film. Like the western, the gangster film has always been predominantly American turf, but every decade or so, the Brits come up with an entry...
Down and Dirty

Chopper exploits its gory subject to paint a portrait of the criminal mind.

By Andy Klein
May 24, 2001

Chopper, the first feature from Australian video director Andrew Dominik -- is a strong, effective but often stomach-churning portrait of notorious Aussie criminal Mark "Chopper" Read. It can be characterized as "sensational" -- in both the positive and negative senses of the word. According to the filmmakers, Chopper Read is...
Sweet Seoul Music

Director Im Kwon Taek brings Korean pansori back to the screen.

By Andy Klein
Apr 26, 2001

Im Kwon Taek has long been the best-known Korean director in America; in fact, it would be fair to say that he's pretty much the only even vaguely known Korean director, and even then, his renown is strictly among festivalgoers. The general distribution of his latest film, Chunhyang, should be...
The American Way

The premise of 15 Minutes sags, but the action is entertaining.

By Andy Klein
Mar 8, 2001

Director John Herzfeld's last feature, the droll and underrated 2 Days in the Valley, from 1996, was a more than adequate counterbalance to the catastrophe of his first feature, Two of a Kind, a 1983 John Travolta vehicle which, together with Moment by Moment, put its star on the fast...
In the Mood for Mood

Wong Kar-Wai continues to create impressive depth without relying on...a plot!

By Andy Klein
Mar 1, 2001

With In the Mood for Love, Wong Kar-Wai solidifies his stature as the subtlest and most idiosyncratic of Hong Kong's directors. In an industry best known for its accessible, crowd-pleasing comedies and action films, Wong has turned out a series of increasingly risky dramas that make little or no concession...
Spoiled Lamb

Hopkins without Foster just doesn't cut it.

By Andy Klein
Feb 8, 2001

Ridley Scott's Hannibal, with a screenplay by David Mamet and Steven Zaillian, is being released exactly ten years after Silence of the Lambs, the film that established Hannibal Lecter as an iconic villain in our culture, right up there with Nightmare on Elm Street's Freddy Krueger, Friday the 13th's Jason...
A Glimpse Into the Abyss

Thirteen Days takes viewers through a very bumpy period in world history.

By Andy Klein
Jan 11, 2001

Thirteen Days is a suspenseful look at the American government in the grip of a crucial, minute-to-minute, real-life crisis that threatens to destroy the country. No, it is not -- as the brief time span of the title makes clear -- about the recent election struggles, or the 1998 impeachment,...