Wild Wild West
7/2/1999 4:15pm Chelsea
A-
Will Smith stars in yet another blockbuster for him, as Captain James West
in the late 1800's.  He plays a kick-ass gunslinger partnered with a clever
trickster U.S. Marshall, Kevin Kline.  The two work against each other at
first, due to their highly different styles and methods.  As they combat the
evil Dr. Loveless, a mad genius, they team up and become friends.  Loveless
is played by Kenneth Branagh, and is certainly not his best performance.  The
script saves him though, as his character is a legless cripple, and he trades
insults with Smith constantly (racial jokes vs. cripple jokes).  One of the
best parts of the film is ILM's creation of "steampunk" technology, with
mechanical giant spiders and "transformer" trains and tanks, making this
western a sci-fi film.

Run Lola Run
7/9/1999 7pm Angelika
A
This is the best foreign film I've ever seen.  This movie is beautifully
directed, and superbly executed.  The pacing keeps you on the edge of your
seat, as Lola runs, pretty much nonstop, through the whole film.  The whole
thing is set to some really cool high-bpm techno music.  The one downside of
the film is that it's all in Dutch, and the subtitles are plain white text,
which wash out against the background in a couple scenes.  Fortunately the
actual script is not all that important to the story.  The story is not
important, the delivery is, and WOW does it deliver.  Highly recommended.
Very exciting-- don't expect to sit back and relax.

American Pie
7/9/1999 10pm Greenwich Village
B
This is one of many films about teenagers in their last days of high school
that simply must get laid before they graduate, or they will die.  American
Pie does a decent job of it, updating the material for the 90's.  Unfortunately
we don't get to see a shower room full of nekkid chix, or this would have
got higher ratings.  Still, the comparison to Porky's is a valid one, as it
covers the same kind of material, in the same style.  Particularly amusing
are the parents, who prototypical yuppies, completely lost and without a
clue as to how to raise kids.  Thirty seconds from now, no one will remember
this film, but hey, it's still fun nonetheless.

Arlington Road
7/30/1999 7:30pm East Village
C+
Tim Robbins gives a very fine performance as the bad guy in this suspense
thriller about a terrorist who moves next door to a professor who teaches a 
course in terrorism (played ineptly by Jeff Bridges).  The direction is
deplorable, with most of the exciting scenes looking like they were made to
go into a trailer, not an actual film.