Denzel Washington teams up with rookie Angelina Jolie to nab the bone collector.
Joe Montaigne and Bebe Newworth worry about their precocious son in Liberty Heights.
And Chris O'Donnell won't inherit a hundred million if he remains the Bachelor.
Chief Murphy sent me.
Ah, good see.
You heard about that couple at the airport got a taxi yesterday morning, never made it home?
Denzel Washington plays a paralyzed cop whose skills are needed on a baffling murder case in The Bone Collector,
which is one of six new movies we'll review this week.
I'm Roger Ebert, film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times.
And I am Joyce Kulhewick, film critic for WBZ in Boston, and I can't wait to get started.
Okay, let's jump right in with our first movie, The Bone Collector,
which opens with a couple getting into a cab at the airport and later the man's body is found buried in a bizarre way,
and the woman is still missing.
The crime scene is thick with clues, and only one man can unsort them.
Forensics expert Denzel Washington, who is paralyzed from the neck down while investigating an earlier murder scene.
From the bed where he now spends his life, he asked to meet the young cop who did such a good job of preserving the evidence at the murder scene.
She's played by Angelina Jolie.
I want you to work the case with me.
Forensics is not my area.
Are you being modest or are you a little uneasy about doing some real police work?
Another victim disappears and it becomes apparent that someone is deliberately playing mind games with Washington.
He has faith in the young officer's skills and sends Jolie as his eyes and ears to a possible murder site.
All right, I'm going to walk you through collecting the evidence. You do everything exactly as I say.
Oh, Jesus.
Talk to me.
It's a bloody bone.
Each crime scene includes a tiny bit of old paper. Do these clues fit together to make a single message?
Enhance?
Faith?
That's a woman's face.
Yes, it is.
You know, watching this movie, I was struck by the disparity between its great skill and its low intelligence.
It's well made in a technical way. It's well photographed. It's well acted.
But the story is so dumb.
What are we supposed to believe that a serial killer is going to spend days and weeks making up complicated clues
and laboriously planning them like a little puzzle for Denzel Washington to figure out?
I don't think so. The Bone Collector is in the tradition of Seven Kiss the Girls and Copycat,
where the crimes are stage managed by the killers.
And you kind of know you have to play along with things a little bit. That's the rules of the game.
But this time, the plot is so preposterous that I finally just gave up.
That would be my review. I can't believe it.
I thought this was a difficult film to talk about because there's so many good things here.
But this script, it seems impossible that they could make any sense out of those clues.
And I also felt cheated at the end because you could never, as an audience member, figure out who that killer was.
And you can't do that.
Without giving away anything, it's kind of a rule in the movies that somebody who's around should be the person who did it.
You can't just at the hour and forty minute mark have somebody take a bus into town and identify himself as the killer.
That's not fair.
It's so true. And I could feel it coming. And I can always tell. I've got this little barometer.
And it's almost like I felt my interest waning. And I thought, oh, I know what they're going to do.
They're sort of ticking off the red herrings one by one. And there it is.
And OK, and we weren't prepared. And who cares?
In fact, how about how about a real movie about a paralyzed cop and a young woman who has read his books and stuff about them as characters?
All the ingredients were there.
Instead of this preposterous story.
Exactly. Terrific.
Our next film is quite timely as we obsess about the millennium.
It's from Canada where it won the equivalent of three Oscars.
It's called Last Night and is a pre-apocalyptic vision of the last night on Earth.
Patrick and Sandra were strangers but met after her car was stolen.
Now they're looking to steal one themselves so that Sandra can get home to her husband.
She's played by Sandra Oh.
I know in my heart that I'm not in a meaningful relationship right now.
I'm not with a woman that I love. And I can deal with that. I just feel that now is not the time to compromise.
There's something you've said for human companionship.
This one?
Fine.
Hey. Stand back.
No wait. Oh, Jesus. I can't drive standard.
While Patrick wants to be alone and Sandra wants her husband, Patrick's friend Craig wants to have sex, which he does with almost everybody, including his high school French teacher played by Jean-Bierre Bourgeot.
Au revoir, Madame.
Adieu.
Bon voyage.
As the end approaches, Patrick and Sandra begin to get more intimate.
Well, I was born here in Toronto and lived here all my life in North York, actually. And my father was a stockbroker.
You better hurry up. Tell me something to make me love you.
This is a directorial debut for Don McKellar, who also wrote the film and stars as Patrick.
And I wasn't completely convinced by his efforts. The plot contrivances bothered me a little bit and some of the acting seems stilted.
But I did appreciate the film's original approach, its intimate focus and relaxed tone, a relief from the grand and chaotic doomsday scenarios one might expect under the circumstances.
And the ending was surprisingly powerful and moving. Last night isn't flawless, but it finally accomplishes what it sets out to do.
Yes, it does. And you know, I saw this movie at Cannes and then in the fall I was on this talk show at the Toronto Film Festival and people were asking,
well, what's the difference between a Canadian film and an American film? And my answer was the difference between Armageddon and last night.
Because Hollywood makes these movies with Bruce Willis blowing up asteroids and Canada makes movies about people who sit in a room
and think about what life has meant to them and what they mean to each other and how they want to have a little dignity and a certain amount of sweetness and bittersweet grace as the end approaches.
This movie is surprisingly touching.
In fact, I think the filmmaker was trying to poke a little fun maybe at his countrymen doing that. I think it's a little bit autobiographical.
You know, everybody's so calm and I almost didn't buy that. It almost seemed like somebody should have cracked up and it's going on around the periphery.
Well, now, there are people in the square who are demonstrating and treating it all like it's New Year's Eve.
So they are there, but these people behaved kind of the way I would.
If you wanted to make a movie about the end of the world, how would you win your movie? He has answered that question correctly.
Coming up later in the show, Chris O'Donnell and Renee Zellberger have a very on-again, off-again engagement in The Bachelor.
He botched it!
Coming up next, Liberty Height with Joe Mantegna and B.B. Neuwert.
Put the furor on the phone.
Your father wants to talk to you.
Unfortunately, even serious exercise doesn't do everything, so Nivea developed Skin Firming Lotion.
It boosts your skin's firmness and tone every time you moisturize for visibly firmer skin. Nivea Body Skin Firming Lotion.
The exciting thing about this ride isn't the 90-foot drop. It's the woman in the front seat. She's got asthma, but she's got help.
Help control your asthma with Singulair. It's a single tablet daily that's not a steroid. It's also available for children 6 and older.
Ask your doctor about adding once a day Singulair and help control your asthma. Singulair should not be used to treat acute asthma attacks.
Continue taking your other asthma medicines unless your doctor tells you to stop or change the dose.
If symptoms get worse, contact your doctor at once.
Side effects are generally mild and may include headache, flu, and stomach pain. Read the consumer information your doctor or pharmacist can provide.
Help control your asthma with Singulair.
How you doing today? What mattress can I sell you?
No, I'm just looking.
We've got free frame, free delivery. I can pick up your old one.
And even if you're a little short of cash, I can give you 12 months, no interest.
Has this ever happened to you? Well, you won't find hard sell here at American Furniture Warehouse.
What you will find is the lowest everyday price on Simmons mattresses and a simple, honest, soft sell approach.
No hard sell here at American Furniture Warehouse.
But it's free. Everything's free. And you don't even need to shop around because we've got manager specials.
A little more than nine years ago, I found I had a large bone tumor in my leg.
They told me I would never swim competitively again.
But I received a bone transplant and went on to set six school records.
One person's decision to become an organ and tissue donor gave me another chance.
Become an organ and tissue donor and tell your family about your decision. Share your life.
Share your decision.
They told me to shovel more coal in the boiler, but that don't do.
Do you think they came up with that order? What? That the Jews should be first.
Three Jewish teenagers are growing up in Baltimore in 1954 and that's seen from Liberty Heights,
a wonderful new film by Barry Levinson and this is his fourth film based on memories of coming of age in his hometown of Baltimore.
The others were Diner, Ten Men, and Avalon.
The action in Liberty Heights is seen through the eyes of two brothers.
One of them named Ben is played by Ben Foster and has an irreverent sense of humor.
Oh my God. Have you lost your mind? Have you completely lost your mind?
What are you talking about? It's Halloween.
His school has just been integrated and he kind of likes the smart, studious black girl who's new in the classroom.
What? She's attractive.
Just kill me now.
The black student's name is Sylvia, played by Rebecca Johnson, and they become friends in a shy and sweet way.
One day they're hanging out when her father arrives home unexpectedly.
Sylvia, how could you do such a thing? We didn't do anything.
What's his name? Ben Kurtzman. Mr. Kurtzman? Yes, sir.
Would you come out of the closet, please?
That's James Pickens Jr. as her father and Ben's father, played by Joe Mantegna, runs a burlesque theater and the local numbers game.
Not to cause anxiety, but I hear the state is thinking of a lottery.
That's old talk. Lukey Saperstein's been pushing that since the end of the war.
Yeah, gathering steam in Annapolis. They're looking for new revenue.
What they should do is legalize gambling. It's good for business. Vegas is going through the roof, Rod.
Ben's older brother named Van, played by Adrian Brody, has his own problems.
He feels love at first sight for a troubled Gentile girl.
But Liberty Heights isn't really primarily about young love. It's about values.
It's about knowing who you are and what you stand for.
And one of the most interesting characters is played by Joe Mantegna.
His business is outside the law, but he's an honest man and his ethics are unshakable.
That actually gets him in a lot of trouble.
Liberty Heights has lots of humor in it and some wonderful nostalgia and a real big heart.
I really like this movie.
I'm going to say that I like this movie, but it didn't quite measure up to Avalon, let's say, for me, or Diner.
I thought it was weaker than either of those for one reason.
I didn't feel that the film had one clear, dramatic spine.
It wasn't dramatically shaped enough for me.
It seemed to me that really what it's about, because the father is in a business that, as the mother tells the kids,
what your father does is not legal.
But nevertheless, he's absolutely ethical.
It's interesting. I thought it was less about values and more about crossing boundaries, pushing at limits.
Racial boundaries, religious boundaries, class boundaries.
And so I would have expected almost more confrontation, more tension here.
Well, there's a lot in this movie. It's a very rich movie.
And I just like the fact that it showed all of these people and all of their problems at that time and in that place.
I loved it.
I wanted more. I wanted more. I thought some of his other films along this line were a little better.
Okay.
There you go.
Coming up next, Chris O'Donnell wants $100 million, but is he willing to marry Renee Zellweger to get it?
The Bachelor, when we come back.
Was that a proposal?
Is the sky blue?
Yes.
Are you a senator?
Yes.
Have you ever lied, Senator?
No.
That's not natural.
But Oak Express is.
Oak Express has real wood furniture and some real bargains.
Solid furniture, big selection, real savings.
Nice tie. Is that a gift?
Oak Express. Naturally better.
1984, IHOP captured the hearts of millions with the Rudy-Tudy, fresh and fruity.
1997, IHOP makes headlines again with the Rudy-Tudy 2.
1999, a nation swooned over the announcement of the Rudy-Tudy Roundup.
Their credo, a Rudy-Tudy for everyone.
Three breakfasts to choose from.
Fruit topped pancakes, bacon, sausage and eggs.
Starting at just $3.99, only at IHOP.
It all begs the question, what's next for IHOP?
I still don't get to spend enough time with her.
Even with the kids gone, things haven't calmed down.
There are just not enough hours in the day.
But then, we get on the train.
Time travels differently on the train.
So will you.
Long distance Amtrak Explore America fairs start at 179 Roundtrip in any one region.
Arrive in a different state.
You'll get married before 6.05 p.m. on your 30th birthday.
You're gonna get cut off without a shanty.
That's a scene from our next film which is based on a Buster Keaton classic,
but is definitely des classais.
The Bachelor stars Chris O'Donnell as a guy who can't commit.
So he botches his proposal to the right girl played by Renee Zellweger.
The upshot is...
You win.
You win?
Was that a proposal?
But O'Donnell's character discovers that he has to get married within 24 hours
or lose a hundred million dollar inheritance.
So his friend takes out an ad in the newspaper.
Ladies.
Let's get out!
The bridal stampede is ridiculous and demeaning.
The plot far-fetched. The characters two-dimensional.
Even the cameos by Brooke Shields and Mariah Carey fall completely flat.
People just don't behave like this.
The ending tries to be winsome, but The Bachelor is a loser.
You know, you mentioned it's based on a 1925 movie by Buster Keaton.
As I watched it, I thought, gee, this movie would be better if it were in black and white
and silent and it had Buster Keaton in it.
Definitely silent.
Because then the simplicity and innocence of the story could come through
and modern people don't act like this.
Well, they don't.
There's not a single moment that you can believe or care about.
They're attractive actors, but what are they doing in this movie?
Forget it. It's an embarrassment.
Okay, I've forgotten it already.
Our next movie is American Movie, a terrific documentary by Chris Smith
about a Wisconsin man named Mark Borschard who dreams of only one thing, making movies.
He hasn't had much success, but he is boundlessly optimistic
and in this scene he pitches his latest production.
It's an alcoholic man compelled to go to this group meeting by his one and only friends left,
but they're not that helpful, the group, you know.
You know about the group thing?
Uh, yeah.
Okay.
That's his good friend Mike Schenck there.
Borschard would like to turn him into a cameraman, but Mike's technique is shaky.
But I mean, if you would see an action, you would kind of like
centrifugally focus on it, it being in the center.
Yeah, I can figure that out, yeah.
I mean, I think my mom's going to have to end up going out in the woods.
I mean, it's just one of those things.
I have my shopping to do and I have so much.
But Borschard's mom is actually a pretty good camera operator.
They're working on a short film here named Coven.
The chief source of money for Mike's productions is his uncle Bill,
who was also pressed into service as an actor.
You got to watch your teeth too, because they clack a little bit when they loosen up in the mouth.
And take ten.
It's all right, it's okay.
It's something to live for.
Jesus told me so.
And here is the opening sequence from the movie they're working on, Coven,
which true to Borschard's dream is actually available on home video.
It's all right, it's okay.
It's something to live for.
Jesus told me so.
An American movie is funny, but it's also kind of inspiring.
It's funny because Mark Borschard is a real character.
I kept thinking that if the heroes of Wayne's world made a movie,
it would go a lot like this.
But at the same time, you have to admire his dogged determination.
He may not have had any success yet, but that doesn't stop him.
And in his love and obsession for the movies, you can sense the soul of an artist,
even if you can't always quite see the ability.
Oh, I couldn't agree with you more.
He is so wonderful.
I loved this man, and all he has is a dream.
He has no money, there is no equipment.
He barely has a camera operator.
He's on the floor with his mother trying to shoot this thing.
It's almost like watching a train wreck in slow motion,
and you're thinking he could never possibly succeed.
But then somehow, when I saw some of the opening shots of Coven,
which he insists on calling a coven, true to his vision,
I was struck by how elegant some of those images are.
He does have an eye.
He may have some of the technical skills there.
To me, the actor who steals the movie is his Uncle Bill, who is a real person.
He lives in a trailer, has a certain amount of money,
which Mark is determined to separate him from,
and Uncle Bill is not deceived by anything.
He knows that this is just going to go down a rat hole,
that the movie is never going to be made, that Mark is just dreaming,
and yet he gives him the money and keeps complaining the whole time,
and those scenes are priceless, and the whole movie is just such an American original.
It's about a guy who wants to make movies,
and you know, this is small-scale of what goes on in Hollywood.
If Uncle Bill were a billionaire,
and Mark Worshard were some guy working in a studio,
things wouldn't be that much different.
No, I have to say I loved everything about this movie.
It's one of the best character studies I've ever seen,
and I can't wait to see Coven.
I've seen it, so...
Is it good?
You can wait.
When we come back, Tim Roth plays a jazz pianist
who was born at sea and never steps foot on dry land.
That's in The Legend of 1900.
MUSIC
It's green, it stinks, and it's eight bucks.
Marty! Marty! Hey, Marty! Who buys this stuff? It stinks!
Well, Fletcher, the people who buy that stinky cheese
also buy 92% of the miniature vegetables we sell.
Wow. Look at the margins on miniature vegetables.
MUSIC
How can he know that?
He's just making it up.
No, I'm not.
You manipulated me into this.
I fought for you, and I still fight.
The Insider is the best film of the year.
He's only the key witness in the biggest public health reform issue in U.S. history.
It will pin you to your seat,
one of the most breathlessly entertaining pictures of the year.
Al Pacino, Russell Crowe.
It's valid and true and proven.
It's not the point whether you tell the truth or not.
The Insider, a Michael Mann film rated R, now playing at a theater near you.
Next up is the first English-language film by the Italian filmmaker
who gave us the lovely cinema paradiso Giuseppe Tornatore.
His latest effort, The Legend of 1900,
mines similar territory but falls far short of paradise.
It's the tale of a baby abandoned on an ocean liner.
Raised by the crew and named 1900 for the year of his birth,
he never sets foot on land.
Amazingly, however, he becomes a musical virtuoso on the keyboard.
Tim Roth plays the title character.
MUSIC
1900 forms a close friendship with a member of the ship's band,
a trumpet player played by Pruitt Taylor Vince.
God knows you can't spend the rest of your life traveling back and forth like some yo-yo.
The world is out there.
This conversation is almost as heavy-handed as the musical duel that ensues between 1900
and jazz legend Jelly Roll Morton, played by Clarence Williams III,
who boards the ship ready to do battle.
The only reason why I'm hopping this crappy tub is because there's a gentleman I want to meet.
They say he plays a hot piano.
The scene with Jelly Roll Morton culminates in the music getting so hot
that 1900 is able to light a cigarette on the overheated strings of his piano.
The film is pretty to look at and the music is often stirring,
but the tone is emotionally overwrought.
It's supposed to be an incredible story, but it is so incredible I didn't buy it.
The legend of 1900 is a suffocatingly sentimental pile of claptrap.
Whoa! Well, I didn't like it either, and my thumb is not up,
but I guess I liked it a good deal more than you did.
I was kind of affectionate about this film and about its notion of a guy
who spends all of his life at sea looking longingly at the shore,
and obviously has kind of the reverse of agoraphobia.
Instead of not wanting to leave home, he never wants to have a home in a way.
But the flaw in the musical duel was that I thought Jelly Roll Morton was better.
He was really fooling with him, and it was kind of nasty.
He made him dangle out there, and then he really sort of nailed it.
And I thought, why is this so venomous? What is the point?
There's really sweet stuff in it, including his love for a woman.
And he writes a theme for her, but he can't quite get down the gangplank
to go and follow her, and I thought that was sort of sweet.
And if we look at the ending of that film, there's a simple solution,
but without giving anything away, let's just say there is more than one ship on the ocean.
Hey, that's a good idea. We'll be back in a minute.
Introducing Blue from American Express, a whole new kind of credit card.
In feature films, the production assistant gets stuff where it needs to be.
A dozen glaze, a dozen chocolate. So my car is pretty much my office.
In eight days, I drove about a thousand miles.
Some people may have a window office or a corner office.
Me, I've got a window office that corners.
Lisa Saturn SL for $1.59 a month for 39 months. $14.95 due at lease signing.
Julie, what's your 20?
I'm in the car.
There are 52 reasons why we sell furniture for less at American Furniture Warehouse.
Number 35, our satisfied customers advertise for us.
This is the best advertising money can't buy.
Word of mouth advertising is something everybody wants, but only a few of us can have.
We're always striving to do a little more and have a little more here at American Furniture Warehouse.
Quality, value and variety. I found it all right here.
American Furniture Warehouse.
Thinking about painting your car but worried about the cost of bodywork?
Mako's got a paint and body package just for you.
Mako's offering our popular Presidential Paint Service and four hours of bodywork for $349.
How do we do it?
Mako does more bodywork. We charge less and we give more value than anyone.
What's value? Quality and price.
The Presidential Paint Service and four hours of bodywork for only $349.
Take advantage of this limited offer.
A 1-888-MAKO-USA.
Now let's take another look at the movies we reviewed on this week's show.
Two thumbs down for The Bone Collector starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie.
Good performances, preposterous plot.
Two thumbs up for Last Night, Don McKellar's thoughtful movie about the end of the world.
Two more thumbs up for Liberty Heights, Barry Levinson's nostalgic memory of growing up in Baltimore.
I liked it even more than Joyce did. It opens November 17th.
Two thumbs down though for The Bachelor, the insipid comedy starring Chris O'Donnell.
But two very big thumbs up for American Movie, a documentary that's so much fun you forget it's a documentary.
And finally two thumbs down for The Legend of 1900, so we agreed on everything,
but the one we both have the most enthusiasm for is probably American Movie.
An American Movie, and I just want to say if Mark Borschart can make a movie, anybody can do just about anything.
It is so hopeful.
It's kind of the rocky of independent films.
Thanks a lot, Joyce, for coming back to the balcony.
Remember you can hear our reviews, both Joyce's and mine, on the web at ebert-movies.com, part of Go Network.
And my print reviews are at suntimes.com.
Next week, more new movies, including Anywhere But Here, starring Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman as mother and daughter starting over in L.A.
And The Messenger starring Mila Jovovich as Joan of Arc.
Follow me!
That's next week, and until then, the balcony is closed.