Opens
Friday, Sept. 19
Taking no chance that an audience member might actually get through "Cold Creek Manor" with a normal pulse, director Mike Figgis and writer Richard Jefferies throw in nearly every time-honored scary-movie device imaginable, including a half-dozen snakes. One's tolerance for such hackneyed tricks lies in inverse proportion to the number of times one has already enjoyed or endured such thrills. Meaning, this movie is aimed at young audiences. "Cold Creek Manor" could scare up decent numbers in its domestic theatrical release but may find even bigger audiences overseas and in the video/DVD market.
Figgis has wandered far from mainstream moviemaking in recent years, first with idiosyncratic explorations of perverse human relationships in "Leaving Las Vegas", "The Loss of Sexual Innocence" and "Miss Julie", then such digital experiments as "Timecode" and "Hotel". Apparently, he decided to return to Hollywood genre moviemaking with a vengeance in "Cold Creek Manor". The only reminders of his walkabout in the independent outback is the heavy use of lightweight digital cameras to seek interesting nooks and crannies in the film's troubled mansion from which to observe his characters coming unglued and the not-quite-realized attempt to examine tensions in a marriage under the strain of scary doings.
Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone play Cooper and Leah Tilson, Manhattanites grown distressed with urban life. They flee to a large fixer-upper in the boonies of upper New York state, the kind of crumbling manse that reeks of bad feng shui. Even they appear apprehensive about the forbidding building. But as with nearly all scary movies, logic gets thrown to the wind.
As they unpack, a creepy guy is discovered standing in the living room. Looking like the ex-con he turns out to be, Dale Massie (Stephen Dorff) introduces himself as the manor's former owner, who lost the house in a bank foreclosure. The unmistakable embodiment of envy, contempt and feral instincts, Dale is nevertheless invited to lunch -- which he gobbles down like a ravenous wolf -- and even gets hired to help with the manor's restoration.
Dale is one of those evil creatures of fiction who, no matter what outrages they perpetrate, are held aloof by their authors from the laws of nature and the world so they may survive into the third act to receive their comeuppance. In one scene in a tavern, the ex-con threatens Cooper, drunkenly assaults several male patrons, slugs his girlfriend, Ruby (Juliette Lewis), and is only restrained when Sheriff Ferguson (Dana Eskelson), who just happens to be Ruby's sister, pulls her gun. Does she arrest Dale? She does not.
Cooper is a low-budget documentary filmmaker, which Figgis and Jefferies take to mean a forensic detective. Using high-tech equipment, Cooper sifts through mounds of debris conveniently discovered within the manor, slowly piecing together the house's pedigree and the dirty secrets of the Massie family, including its bedridden patriarch (Christopher Plummer).
Meanwhile, as Figgis' own music rumbles ominously in the background, the poor manor is beset by miseries: a horde of snakes, a butchered horse, the discovery of icky photographs of young, nearly naked girls and finally a stormy night when all hell breaks lose. All of which causes the Tilson family to resent not the man clearly behind all this misfortune (save the storm) but their own dad!
The plot keeps Quaid busy, though the role is far too reactive. However, the story sidelines Stone to such a degree that her burst of temper against her husband comes out of nowhere. Once again, Lewis plays trailer-park trash, a role she has perfected to the point that she really can move on. Meanwhile, Dorff struts and preens with ripe villainy.
But then, there is nothing here that is too obvious that Figgis and company cannot make more obvious. Nor is any device too low for the filmmaker to eagerly stoop. It's discouraging to witness a filmmaker who clearly yearns for the indie world yield to the temptations of mindless movie manufacturing. At least Figgis made it as soulless as possible.
COLD CREEK MANOR
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures presents a Red Mullet production
Credits:
Director: Mike Figgis
Screenwriter: Richard Jefferies
Producers: Annie Stewart, Mike Figgis
Executive producers: Lata Ryan, Richard Jefferies
Director of photography: Declan Quinn
Production designer: Leslie Dilley
Music: Mike Figgis
Costume designer: Marie-Sylvie Deveau
Editor: Dylan Tichenor
Cast:
Cooper Tilson: Dennis Quaid
Leah Tilson: Sharon Stone
Dale Massie: Stephen Dorff
Ruby: Juliette Lewis
Kristen Tilson: Kristen Stewart
Jesse Tilson: Ryan Wilson
Sheriff Ferguson: Dana Eskelson
Mr. Massie: Christopher Plummer
Running time -- 119 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Friday, Sept. 19
Taking no chance that an audience member might actually get through "Cold Creek Manor" with a normal pulse, director Mike Figgis and writer Richard Jefferies throw in nearly every time-honored scary-movie device imaginable, including a half-dozen snakes. One's tolerance for such hackneyed tricks lies in inverse proportion to the number of times one has already enjoyed or endured such thrills. Meaning, this movie is aimed at young audiences. "Cold Creek Manor" could scare up decent numbers in its domestic theatrical release but may find even bigger audiences overseas and in the video/DVD market.
Figgis has wandered far from mainstream moviemaking in recent years, first with idiosyncratic explorations of perverse human relationships in "Leaving Las Vegas", "The Loss of Sexual Innocence" and "Miss Julie", then such digital experiments as "Timecode" and "Hotel". Apparently, he decided to return to Hollywood genre moviemaking with a vengeance in "Cold Creek Manor". The only reminders of his walkabout in the independent outback is the heavy use of lightweight digital cameras to seek interesting nooks and crannies in the film's troubled mansion from which to observe his characters coming unglued and the not-quite-realized attempt to examine tensions in a marriage under the strain of scary doings.
Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone play Cooper and Leah Tilson, Manhattanites grown distressed with urban life. They flee to a large fixer-upper in the boonies of upper New York state, the kind of crumbling manse that reeks of bad feng shui. Even they appear apprehensive about the forbidding building. But as with nearly all scary movies, logic gets thrown to the wind.
As they unpack, a creepy guy is discovered standing in the living room. Looking like the ex-con he turns out to be, Dale Massie (Stephen Dorff) introduces himself as the manor's former owner, who lost the house in a bank foreclosure. The unmistakable embodiment of envy, contempt and feral instincts, Dale is nevertheless invited to lunch -- which he gobbles down like a ravenous wolf -- and even gets hired to help with the manor's restoration.
Dale is one of those evil creatures of fiction who, no matter what outrages they perpetrate, are held aloof by their authors from the laws of nature and the world so they may survive into the third act to receive their comeuppance. In one scene in a tavern, the ex-con threatens Cooper, drunkenly assaults several male patrons, slugs his girlfriend, Ruby (Juliette Lewis), and is only restrained when Sheriff Ferguson (Dana Eskelson), who just happens to be Ruby's sister, pulls her gun. Does she arrest Dale? She does not.
Cooper is a low-budget documentary filmmaker, which Figgis and Jefferies take to mean a forensic detective. Using high-tech equipment, Cooper sifts through mounds of debris conveniently discovered within the manor, slowly piecing together the house's pedigree and the dirty secrets of the Massie family, including its bedridden patriarch (Christopher Plummer).
Meanwhile, as Figgis' own music rumbles ominously in the background, the poor manor is beset by miseries: a horde of snakes, a butchered horse, the discovery of icky photographs of young, nearly naked girls and finally a stormy night when all hell breaks lose. All of which causes the Tilson family to resent not the man clearly behind all this misfortune (save the storm) but their own dad!
The plot keeps Quaid busy, though the role is far too reactive. However, the story sidelines Stone to such a degree that her burst of temper against her husband comes out of nowhere. Once again, Lewis plays trailer-park trash, a role she has perfected to the point that she really can move on. Meanwhile, Dorff struts and preens with ripe villainy.
But then, there is nothing here that is too obvious that Figgis and company cannot make more obvious. Nor is any device too low for the filmmaker to eagerly stoop. It's discouraging to witness a filmmaker who clearly yearns for the indie world yield to the temptations of mindless movie manufacturing. At least Figgis made it as soulless as possible.
COLD CREEK MANOR
Buena Vista Pictures
Touchstone Pictures presents a Red Mullet production
Credits:
Director: Mike Figgis
Screenwriter: Richard Jefferies
Producers: Annie Stewart, Mike Figgis
Executive producers: Lata Ryan, Richard Jefferies
Director of photography: Declan Quinn
Production designer: Leslie Dilley
Music: Mike Figgis
Costume designer: Marie-Sylvie Deveau
Editor: Dylan Tichenor
Cast:
Cooper Tilson: Dennis Quaid
Leah Tilson: Sharon Stone
Dale Massie: Stephen Dorff
Ruby: Juliette Lewis
Kristen Tilson: Kristen Stewart
Jesse Tilson: Ryan Wilson
Sheriff Ferguson: Dana Eskelson
Mr. Massie: Christopher Plummer
Running time -- 119 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 10/10/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Chaos Theory, a new form of mathematics, studies unpredictable systems -- weather, the stock market, rioting crowds -- any system that will eventually show unpredictable behavior, such as a theme park filled with dinosaurs or, for instance, how many people will come to a movie.
While Chaos Theory in Michael Crichton's best-selling novel correctly predicts that a modern-day system containing dinosaurs will result in unimaginable catastrophe, you don't need Chaos Theory to predict that this jaw-dropping, palm-sweating, eye-popping entertainment will become the Blockbustersaurus Rex, the king of the blockbusters. In theme park-ese, it's an EEEEEE ride.
Steven Spielberg has cloned classic strains from the highest lineage of monster/action movies, spliced them with the most resilient genes of family entertainmentand unleashed them through the most powerful forces of a technological aesthetic to create a truly colossal movie experience. With an all-star technical team, many of whom have pushed the envelope before in such juggernauts as ''Star Wars'' and ''Terminator 2: Judgment Day, '' Spielberg has wondrously implanted the highest strains of science fiction within the supple body of a very human story.
''Jurassic Park'' descends from a vaunted sci-fi narrative line: the fury that man unleashes when he tampers with the higher forces of creation. The arrogant provocateur in this case is John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), a twinkly old goat and self-made man who is kind of a dark cross between Colonel Sanders and Walt Disney. Hammond's spared no expense in creating the greatest theme park of them all: a secluded Caribbean isle that takes the theme park/animal arcade to its most unbelievable dimension.
Hammond's crack team of scientists has managed to create real-life dinosaurs by DNA cloning. He's constructed an uberpark with every conceivable convenience, extravagance and precaution built into its complex, computer-run system.
Hammond just needs to iron out some pesky permit-type safety questions, so he's invited a crack team of experts to the isle for a systems inspection, including a renowned paleontologist (Sam Neill), a paleobotanist (Laura Dern), a Chaos Theory mathematician (Jeff Goldblum) and, for the kids' POV, his grandchildren (Ariana Richards, Joseph Mazzello). The hardened scientists and the exuberant kids alike are absolutely thunderstruck when they see Jurassic Park's main creations -- the gigantic Tyrannosaurus rex, as well as the hellaciously vicious Volciraptor. But, as in most groups, there is a naysayer. The black-clad mathematician glibly predicts gloom -- ''An accident waiting to happen.''
Screenwriters Crichton and David Koepp expertly distill and present the story's complex scientific underpinnings into palatable and understandable explanations, while delicately lacing it with eruptive building blocks. Symphonically structured, with tender swells and light larks, ''Jurassic Park'' is superbly orchestrated as Spielberg masterfully works the emotional throttle, always appreciative of the human factor, and unleashes it to full ferocious power throttle . Undoubtedly, highbrow nitpickers, those insecure souls too intellectually constipated to enjoy mass entertainment, may niggle about the streamlined story line, but ''Jurassic Park'' is the highest form of its generic species, the mainstream movie.
The brightest stars in this creative constellation are the technicians: When Oscar Day rolls around, there will be no excuses for muddled acceptance speeches. Among those who should start polishing: Stan Winston for the incredible live-action dinosaurs; Industrial Light & Magic's Dennis Muren for the full-motion dinosaurs, as well as dinosaur supervisor Phil Tippett. Similarly, composer John Williams' titanic score with its peals of trumpetry and cinematographer Dean Cundey's mesmeric lensing are terrifically gripping.
The well-selected cast is winningly sympathetic and entertainingly idiosyncratic. Attenborough is terrific as the exuberant but overreaching entrepreneur, while Goldblum is deliciously vainglorious as the devil's advocate. Neill, Dern and the kids, Mazzello and Richards, win our affections and wonderfully epitomize the wondrous spirit and transcendent belief that shines through this often horrific entertainment -- ''That life will find a way.''
JURASSIC PARK
Universal Pictures
An Amblin Enterainment Production
Producers Kathleen Kennedy, Gerald R. Molen
Director Steven Spielberg
Screenwriters Michael Crichton, David Koepp
Based on the novel by Michael Crichton
Director of photography Dean Cundey
Production designer Rick Carter
Editor Michael Kahn
Music John Williams
Associate producers Lata Ryan, Colin Wilson
Sound mixer Ron Judkins
Casting Janet Hirshenson, Jane Jenkins
Full-motion dinosaurs Dennis Muren
Live-action dinosaurs Stan Winston
Dinosaur supervisor Phil Tippett
Special dinosaur effects Michael Lantieri
Full-motion dinosaurs and special visual effects Industrial Light & Magic
Color/stereo
Cast:
Grant Sam Neill
Ellie Laura Dern
Malcolm Jeff Goldblum
Hammond Richard Attenborough
Muldoon Bob Peck
Gennaro Martin Ferrero
Wu B.D. Wong
Tim Joseph Mazzello
Lex Ariana Richards
Arnold Samuel L. Jackson
Runnning time -- 126 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13
(c) The Hollywood Reporter
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
While Chaos Theory in Michael Crichton's best-selling novel correctly predicts that a modern-day system containing dinosaurs will result in unimaginable catastrophe, you don't need Chaos Theory to predict that this jaw-dropping, palm-sweating, eye-popping entertainment will become the Blockbustersaurus Rex, the king of the blockbusters. In theme park-ese, it's an EEEEEE ride.
Steven Spielberg has cloned classic strains from the highest lineage of monster/action movies, spliced them with the most resilient genes of family entertainmentand unleashed them through the most powerful forces of a technological aesthetic to create a truly colossal movie experience. With an all-star technical team, many of whom have pushed the envelope before in such juggernauts as ''Star Wars'' and ''Terminator 2: Judgment Day, '' Spielberg has wondrously implanted the highest strains of science fiction within the supple body of a very human story.
''Jurassic Park'' descends from a vaunted sci-fi narrative line: the fury that man unleashes when he tampers with the higher forces of creation. The arrogant provocateur in this case is John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), a twinkly old goat and self-made man who is kind of a dark cross between Colonel Sanders and Walt Disney. Hammond's spared no expense in creating the greatest theme park of them all: a secluded Caribbean isle that takes the theme park/animal arcade to its most unbelievable dimension.
Hammond's crack team of scientists has managed to create real-life dinosaurs by DNA cloning. He's constructed an uberpark with every conceivable convenience, extravagance and precaution built into its complex, computer-run system.
Hammond just needs to iron out some pesky permit-type safety questions, so he's invited a crack team of experts to the isle for a systems inspection, including a renowned paleontologist (Sam Neill), a paleobotanist (Laura Dern), a Chaos Theory mathematician (Jeff Goldblum) and, for the kids' POV, his grandchildren (Ariana Richards, Joseph Mazzello). The hardened scientists and the exuberant kids alike are absolutely thunderstruck when they see Jurassic Park's main creations -- the gigantic Tyrannosaurus rex, as well as the hellaciously vicious Volciraptor. But, as in most groups, there is a naysayer. The black-clad mathematician glibly predicts gloom -- ''An accident waiting to happen.''
Screenwriters Crichton and David Koepp expertly distill and present the story's complex scientific underpinnings into palatable and understandable explanations, while delicately lacing it with eruptive building blocks. Symphonically structured, with tender swells and light larks, ''Jurassic Park'' is superbly orchestrated as Spielberg masterfully works the emotional throttle, always appreciative of the human factor, and unleashes it to full ferocious power throttle . Undoubtedly, highbrow nitpickers, those insecure souls too intellectually constipated to enjoy mass entertainment, may niggle about the streamlined story line, but ''Jurassic Park'' is the highest form of its generic species, the mainstream movie.
The brightest stars in this creative constellation are the technicians: When Oscar Day rolls around, there will be no excuses for muddled acceptance speeches. Among those who should start polishing: Stan Winston for the incredible live-action dinosaurs; Industrial Light & Magic's Dennis Muren for the full-motion dinosaurs, as well as dinosaur supervisor Phil Tippett. Similarly, composer John Williams' titanic score with its peals of trumpetry and cinematographer Dean Cundey's mesmeric lensing are terrifically gripping.
The well-selected cast is winningly sympathetic and entertainingly idiosyncratic. Attenborough is terrific as the exuberant but overreaching entrepreneur, while Goldblum is deliciously vainglorious as the devil's advocate. Neill, Dern and the kids, Mazzello and Richards, win our affections and wonderfully epitomize the wondrous spirit and transcendent belief that shines through this often horrific entertainment -- ''That life will find a way.''
JURASSIC PARK
Universal Pictures
An Amblin Enterainment Production
Producers Kathleen Kennedy, Gerald R. Molen
Director Steven Spielberg
Screenwriters Michael Crichton, David Koepp
Based on the novel by Michael Crichton
Director of photography Dean Cundey
Production designer Rick Carter
Editor Michael Kahn
Music John Williams
Associate producers Lata Ryan, Colin Wilson
Sound mixer Ron Judkins
Casting Janet Hirshenson, Jane Jenkins
Full-motion dinosaurs Dennis Muren
Live-action dinosaurs Stan Winston
Dinosaur supervisor Phil Tippett
Special dinosaur effects Michael Lantieri
Full-motion dinosaurs and special visual effects Industrial Light & Magic
Color/stereo
Cast:
Grant Sam Neill
Ellie Laura Dern
Malcolm Jeff Goldblum
Hammond Richard Attenborough
Muldoon Bob Peck
Gennaro Martin Ferrero
Wu B.D. Wong
Tim Joseph Mazzello
Lex Ariana Richards
Arnold Samuel L. Jackson
Runnning time -- 126 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13
(c) The Hollywood Reporter
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
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