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I
Spacey rises from co-stars' acting in Dawd Gale
Promotional art for The Life of
David Gale
By Diane Field and Steven Dickey
The Life of David Gale
is a suspense thriller starring
Kevin Spacey, Laura Linney
(The Hours), and Kate
Winslet, and is directed by
Alan Parker (Midnight Ex-
press). Spacey and Linney
are anti-death penalty activ-
ists in Texas. Spacey is a
once well-respected college
professor and is now on
death row for rape and mur-
der of one of his close friends
in the anti-death penalty
group. Winslet is a reporter
that was chosen by Spacey
himself to tell his story three
days before his execution
date.
Winslet gets two hours
a day with Spacey and leams
his story by his flashbacks.
She becomes so attached to
Spacey that she tries to un-
cover the truth before he
faces his execution.
The film is suspenseful
throughout the entire plot,
though it does have its open
gaps at times.
DIANE FIELD: The plot
was suspenseful, yet when I
had time to collect my
thoughts there were some
very hard to believe points in
the plot. It was a little far-
fetched at times.
STEVEN DICKEY: Yes,
Dave, the movie was sus-
penseful, although I feel that
the movie was put together
very well. I can see how
things that happen can hap-
pen.
DF: Right, okay, then. I can
see how you're trying not to
let the cat out of the bag. I'm
getting the feeling you liked
it more than I did. There
were some parts that were so
stupid; I just laughed. There
was a two-second scene
showing her intern looking at
a document in their faulty
rental car, and then the scene
changed. It was so unneces-
sary, yet it brought comic
relief unintentionally. It
looked bad on the part of the
makers of the film.
SD: I didn't find much time
to laugh during this serious
movie, Dave. I was too busy
trying to figure out what was
going to happen next. This
movie threw me a lot of
curve balls and I only hit a
couple of them right away. It
was surprising to me on how
far these anti-death penalty
activists go in this movie. I
often wonder why they
would ever do what they did
in this movie.
DF: Yes, if you folks go out
and see it, you'll see what
Dick is talking about. Spacey
and Linney do go to the ex-
treme to prove their point.
The plot was really interest-
ing; it's just that there were
parts here and there that
seemed unnecessary and far-
fetched. I'm also surprised at
how horrible of an acting job
Kate Winslet did in this
movie.
SD: I didn't feel that her act-
ingjob was horrible, but she
did overreact at times during
the movie. Winslet gets aw-
fully close to Spacey in this
movie for only seeing him
for two hours a day. It is sur-
prising how emotional she
gets toward him. Spacey
does a great job playing the
serious man in this film. He
acts like a person on death
row should.
DF: Yeah, when I was on
death row last week, Spacey
acted just as I did. I do agree
with you there, Dick; Spacey
is an awesome actor, and
once again he did a great job
Feathers, City high interest, low yoff
I Promotional art for The Four Feathers
[ I by Eric Olson
[ Il&E EDITOR
1] The Four Feathers (PG-13)
[ [ The Four Feathers is a
[ I movie that holds a lot of po-
[ I tential with characters, but it
t l°ver does what could have
| / been a good plot.
| | Starring Heath Ledger,
t/00ate .udson, and Wes
t / lentley, Four Feathers will
[[definitely be a movie for
[ People who really have noth-
[ ling to do on a Saturday night.
['l Heath Ledger (A
[ l lfnight's Tale, The Patriot, 10
]l l"hings 1 Hate About You)
1[ Stars as Harry Faversham, a
[ I Young man who has enlisted
Ilia the army to please his fa-
[ [ ther but now has resigned be-
ll Cause he finds out that he and
[I his friends will be sent offto
tlVar. His friends and his
[Ifiane6e, Kate Hudson (At-
II nost Famous), send him four
JLite feathers to signify his
cowardice. To prove
to everyone and him-
self that he is not a
coward, he takes off
for the Sudan to go
undercover to re-
deem himself.
As redundant as the
plot may sound, be-
ing based offA.E.W.
Mason's novel, the
characters are deep
and add a real feel to
the movie. Each
character interacts
with the others very
deeply. The personal
conflicts that each
person has going on
adds a lot to a very
boring plot.
Before Ledger leaves to
Sudan, his fianc6e blows off
the wedding. As Ledger dis-
appears his best friend, Lt.
Jack Durrance (Wes Bentley)
moves in on Hudson. In a ter-
rible battle scene, Bentley's
gun blows up in his face and
is blinded. Ledger finds out
about his friend's courtship
of his ex-fianc6e. Bentley
somehow gets back to En-
gland and continues his
courtship. Another one of
Ledger's old army buddies
and informs Bentley that he
saw Ledger and knows he is
going to rescue the last of his
friends.
Right there should have
been the end; but for some
reason they keep the movie
going. The additional stuff
is just Ledger rescuing his
friend and wining back his
old fiancee.
The Four
Feathers is a movie
that would be nice if
it was watched with
someone else, but
since I had to watch
this alone, 6.5 out of
10 stars.
City by the Sea (R)
Robert
DeNiro's new
movie, City by the
Sea, is another
movie that seems to
be lacking in plot
but in character de-
velopment sur-
passes most movies.
F,ocused
around Detective
Vincent La Marca
(DeNiro) and Joseph 'Joey'
Nova (James Fanco), City by
the Sea is the story of a fa-
ther, DeNiro, whose walked
out on his wife and son after
a family break-up.
Years later, DeNiro's
son (Fanco) is wrapped up in
a murder over a bad drug
deal. DeNiro is totally un-
aware of what his son is do-
ing because he hasn't seen
his son in a long time.
William Forsythe
(Deuce Bigalow: Male
Gigolo, The Rock) plays
Spyder, the boss of the drug
dealer that Joey killed and is
looking for Joey to get his
money back. DeNiro is taken
off the case because every-
one finds out that the man at
large is his son. DeNiro's
partner is team ed up with a
new partner and they go
looki.ng for Joey. DeNiro's
Promotional art for City by the Sea
partner gets shot and killed
by Forsythe but as this weak
plot continues, Fanco is
blamed and all cops are out
to get him.
City by the Sea comes
down to basically a father
looking for a son's forgive-
ness but unfortunately the
plot is weak and falls short
of anything close to watch-
ing more than once.
This is another movie
for a lonely Saturday night
that you and someone else
can watch because you have
nothing else to do and it
looked like the best movie
that just came out.
Lacking in plot but with
strong characters (yet not as
strong as The Four Feath-
ers), City by the Sea gets a
5.5 out of 10 stars.
in this film, even though he
wasn't dealing with the best
at times. Linney also did a
great job in the film. Winslet
is the only one that didn't
rise up to the level her co-
stars did. Her crying scenes
made me want to cry, not
because I felt for the charac-
ter, but because I can't be-
lieve she got that part.
SD: Okay, Dave, last month
it was Merryl Streep, now
Kate Winslet. What's your
deal with female actors? I
feel that Winslet did an ac-
ceptable job in this film and
I feel that she fit the part of
the reporter. This film was
really enjoyable for me con-
sidering that it did not have
my favorite actors/actresses
starring in it.
DF: Yeah, a part of me does
regret paying those precious
seven dollars to pay for that
movie. The plot was really
intriguing, and I thoroughly
enjoyed that part. Only if the
actors lived up to that aspect
of the film.
Bandits proves
just plain fun
by Eric Olson
A&E EDITOR
BMX Bandits (PG-13)
BMX Bandits starrs
Nic01e Kidman; Who makes
her film debut as Judy, a
young BMX racer.
The film follows
Kidman and her friends as
they ride around and find a
carton of walkie-talkies, only
to find that the walkie-talk-
ies "talk back" with the
voices of some bank robbers
who want their walkie-talk-
ies back.
The kids continually
have to dodge the gang and
find someway to put an end
to their evil ways.
This movie is one of the
very first movies that started
to take "alternative" ideas
and put them to film.
Granted the extreme sports
movies of the time were very
lacking in action as well as
storyline, BMXBandits is no
exception. Kidman's acting
is nowhere near par, even on
early 80's standards. The ac-
tion sequences really reflect
the time period of extreme
biking. There are no heart
attacks or can-cans any- I
where to be found, which is l
kind of a relief.
This is a movie for die-
hard Kidman fans and/or
people who are tired of the
wannabe extreme kid mov-
ies.
Besides the bad acting
and the mediocre action
scenes, BMX Bandits gets 6
out of 10 stars.