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Damage control
Hollywood life during wartime
BY PETER KEOUGH

After September 11, nothing would be the same again. Well, at least for five months, which is how long Warner Bros. delayed the release of Collateral Damage (February 8), the Arnold Schwarzenegger actioner about terrorism and revenge that didn’t seem appropriate in the wake of the World Trade Center tragedy.

As it turns out, audiences’ taste for explosions and high-tech violence seems to have intensified in the aftermath of the attack. And irony isn’t dead either, it’s just sleeping. Or maybe I’m thinking of cynicism. At any rate, the movie industry shows remarkable resilience as it returns to business as usual in the grave new world of the year 2002.

JANUARY

One change in the usual fare spring fare is a proliferation of war movies. Since the government isn’t allowing much of the real thing on TV news, the reasoning goes that audiences might have an appetite for it on the big screen. Hence Black Hawk Down (January 18 — but all opening dates given here are subject to change), Ridley Scott’s re-creation of the disastrous US raid in Mogadishu in 1993, which with its depoliticized, action-only format might offer a voyeuristic glimpse of modern combat as entertainment. Josh Hartnett and Tom Sizemore trade in their Pearl Harbor fatigues for Ranger cammies as they lead the all-male cast.

For those who prefer their warfare removed to the past and more romantic, Charlotte Gray (January 11) might serve. It stars Cate Blanchett in the title role as a British woman during World War II who becomes an underground spy in France in order to find her shot-down RAF beau. Gillian Armstrong directs.

Time, if not timing, is of the essence in Richard Kelly’s dazzling debut, Donnie Darko (January 25), another tale of adolescent anomie, but with several original twists. Played by Jake Gyllenhaal, the title teen may or may not be having delusions involving time travel and a giant bunny. Then there is the unsettling specter of a jet engine dropping out of nowhere. This could be the film debut of the year.

FEBRUARY

Tired of war? There’s always capital punishment. Monster’s Ball (February 1) tells the story of a redneck death-row prison guard (Billy Bob Thornton) who has a change of heart when he hooks up with the widow (Halle Berry) of one of his clients. Marc Forster directs; Berry bares more than her boobs (notoriously debuted last year in Silverfish) in her clinches with Thornton.

How about a hostage situation and a dying kid waiting for a heart transplant? In John Q (February 15), Denzel Washington plays the desperate dad who holds a hospital at bay until its personnel cut through the HMO red tape and save his boy in this thriller that’s directed by Nick Cassavetes and includes Robert Duvall and Anne Heche in its high-profile cast.

Maybe you’re ready for something on the lighter side, like the fluffy Hollywood teen comedies Big Fat Liar (February 8) and The New Guy (February 22). And since we can’t go two months into a new year without a remake, make note of The Count of Monte Cristo (February 1), the umpteenth rehash of the Alexandre Dumas swashbuckler, here starring Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce, and Richard Harris. And Rollerball (February 8), John McTiernan’s remake of Norman Jewison’s 1975 sci-fi thriller about a ruthless futuristic pastime that now seems a lot less repugnant than reality TV.

MARCH

In troubled times we long for other times, and so we get The Time Machine (March 8), a remake of the classic 1960 George Pal adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel. This version has the distinction of being co-directed by Simon Wells, the great-grandson of the author (Gore Verbinski also puts in time), and it stars Guy Pearce of Memento renown as the inventor whose device transports him 800,000 years into the future.

A more pragmatic time-saving device might be the gadget featured in Clockstoppers (March 15): it’s a wristwatch that can speed up or slow time’s passage. Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker on Star Trek: TNG) directs this sci-fi suspense thriller starring Jesse Bradford and Julia Sweeney.

Whether we stop time, speed it up, or flee to the future, 2002, as our president has said, will be a war year, and far be it from Hollywood not to do its duty, especially when there are tickets to be sold. Let’s see what the studios can make out of a much less marketable conflict, the war in Vietnam. We Were Soldiers (March 1) takes us back to 1965 and the Ia Drang Valley, where GIs are about to engage in the war’s first and bloodiest major battle. Mel Gibson, Sam Elliott, and Madeleine Stowe star; Randall Wallace (The Man in the Iron Mask) directs.

Issue Date: January 3 - 10, 2002
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