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Show Summer Movies From page 9 shoe salesman in the midst of a divorce, a quirky artist, a 7-year-old boy's erotic Internet romance, an old man with his dying soul mate and a perverted neighbor. In "You and Me," actress, writer and director Miranda July crafts a wonderful story of love lost and love found. With solid dialogue, complex characters and exceptionally well-written childrens' parts, the film's intertwined stories work to perfection. -Reviewed by Aaron Falk Cinderella Man (PG-13)-A- coowry [Oaiyi] could be ifar Government p r m f c d wkfa * pun the dm**** Rev •£ ACM*by The first real Oscar contender of the year finds odd bedfellows in the slew of action comedies and comicbook blockbusters that dominated this summer's cinematic scene, but this breeze of screen genius was all too welcome. Directed by Ron Howard, "Cinderella Man" follows the real-life comeback of 1930s boxer Jim Braddock (Russell Crowe) as he fights for the title and a chance to keep his family together in the aftermath of the Great Depression. With carefully crafted scenes that bring the period to life, "Cinderella Man" is really a boxing movie that, like last • year's "Million Dollar Baby," transcends the limits of a boxing movie to become something a bit more human. Though sentimentality seems to ooze towards the end, the genuine acting and superb screenplay give this story a bit of summer magic that might see reward at the Academy Awards in a few months. -Reviewed by Matt Wright War of the Worlds (PG-13)-B- If you didn't buy your textbooks at Half .comf you paid too much. J Half.com has all the textbooks you need like chemistry, astronomy and historyfora lot less. FOR k UNITED 1WE. SATEtilJUHNTUIIIL (§ 01 PMtBKES After "E.T.," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Artificial Intelligence: Al," I guess I expected Spielberg's latest romp into extraterrestrial lifestyles to be a little more, well, quality. In his remake of the now classic sci-fi tale of uber-hostile alien invaders on a mission to obliterate mankind, Spielberg put all his eggs in the special effects basket and left a lot of potential enter- tainment vaporized in the stream of an alien blaster. Despite Spielberg's decision to focus the annihilation of a planet around the familial struggles of deadbeat dad Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise), "War of the Worlds" does create moments of primal terror by forcing us to face the possibility ora foe we are helpless to understand, much less contend with. With an inevitable happy ending and a plot made too unrealistic to please, the terror soon disappears and the only thing left to say is "Those special effects were pretty cool." -Reviewed by Matt Wright The Island (PC-13)-B "Island" director Michael Bay ("The Rock/' "Bad Boys") succeeded in adding another description to his typically fast-paced, sexy and violent summer blockbusters: disturbing. Set in America in the not-so-distant-future, "The Island" introduces us to a world unhampered by the ethics of cloning. Rich patrons can pay to have a duplicate created in order to replace dying livers, clogged hearts and other malfunctioning organs. The patrons are told their doubles never achieve consciousness: lie #1. The doubles are told they are the only survivors of a past pandemic: lie #2. The doubles believe that if they are good and do everything they're told, they will one day go to a paradisiacal island untouched by the world-ravaging disease: lie #3. As the movie progresses, the lies unravel and clones Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) and Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson) work to free themselves and their compatriots from certain death. The movie itself is pure Bay, filled with multiple car chases, massive explosions and lots of adrenaline. Perfectly fitting the summer movie mold, "The Island" adds a slight twist to the sci-fi genre while giving its viewers two and a half hours of popcorn-chewing pleasure. -Reviewed by Matt Wright Matt Wright, Casey T. Allen, Mack Perry and Aaron Falk are all on the Statesman Staff. This movie review was put together after countless grueling hours of watching |