Opening Films

by Inlander Staff


The Barbarian Invasions -- In this sequel to his small 1986 film Decline of the American Empire, Denys Arcand revisits the same cast of Canadian university characters. In The Barbarian Invasions, Remy is the aging patriarch and former professor now on his deathbed; Sebastien, Remy's son, gathers together not only Remy's family but also former colleagues, rivals and mistresses. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film. Showing at the Met Cinema. Rated: R





Dawn of the Dead -- People -- the other other white meat. If the box office success of 28 Days Later is any indication, zombies are hot, hot, hot. The remake of George Romero's original (itself a sequel to Night of the Living Dead), Dawn of the Dead takes place after plague has decimated the population and the dead refuse to stay in their crypts. Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames and Mekhi Phifer are a few of the unlucky survivors holed up in an abandoned mall and outnumbered by the zombie hordes. Rated: R





**** Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind -- The newest film from writer Charlie Kaufman and director Michel Gondry (their last was Human Nature) is up the in the rare air of the Kaufman-Spike Jonze collaborations. Shy Joel (Jim Carrey) and extrovert Clementine (Kate Winslet) are an item until one tires of the other and has a scientific procedure that can erase a person from another's mind. Complications follow. This is an often funny, often very sad, constantly startling look at relationships and the fragility of memory. Philosophical issues run right up against emotional ones. Solid acting, imaginative direction, brilliant writing. (ES) Rated R





The Human Body -- It's the human body, like you've never seen it before! Seriously, consider what it means to see the inner workings of the lungs via endoscope and then picture that five stories up on the IMAX screen. In addition to lots of fascinatingly "ewwww" footage, The Human Body also features "the fusing of a father and mother's DNA inside a newly fertilized human egg, a sequence which took nearly a year to capture." Yeah, we can imagine. Not rated.





Taking Lives -- There's identity theft like the kind you see on those amusing Citibank commercials, and then there's identity theft like that in Taking Lives. Not content just to steal your information and maybe buy a new pickup, the identity thief of Taking Lives likes to take actual lives and then assume the identities of his hapless victims. Angelina Jolie plays the FBI profiler assigned to the case. Also starring Kiefer Sutherland, Gena Rowlands and Ethan Hawke. Rated: R





Publication date: 03/17/04