'Captain Corelli's Mandolin'
It's obvious that director John Madden really wanted to make an epic love story like "The English Patient." Unfortunately, he makes the mistake of casting Nicholas Cage as Italian Captain Corelli, a carefree romantic. He's a lover, not a fighter. Cage tries extremely hard to pull off an Italian accent, but he's so bad at it that would-be serious scenes come off as laughable.
He sounds like a high school kid working at a downtown pizza drive trying to sound Italian to create atmosphere. He's so bad, in fact, that he overshadows Penelope Cruz's performance as Pelagia, a Greek girl who may be falling in love with Corelli.
It takes place in WWII on a small Greek island, and the Italian Army has decided to station itself there. Of course, this initially creates tension between the two lovers, but as usual, lust - I mean love - overcomes all obstacles. The first half of the film details the love story but then shifts into war mode with lots of action and violence. It just doesn't balance the two stories very well but still works better than "Pearl Harbor."
To the film's credit, the scenery and cinematography are pretty, but that cannot overshadow sloppy story telling and the atrocious Cage.
RATING: __1/2
'Atlantis: The Lost Empire'
This is the second PG-rated animated Disney feature since "The Black Cauldron."
Both films were Box Office failures. "Atlantis" is more of an adult-oriented film about a reject linguist taking a crew in a ship to search for the long lost legendary city of Atlantis.
The animation here is superb, and the story is interesting until the end, where it becomes vague. Symbolism, crystals and significances of Atlantian culture may confuse viewers. The most interesting part of the film is probably at the very beginning where we get a glimpse of a far more advanced culture than ours.
The characters are interesting and the animation is something which to feast your eyes on. Voice talents are provided by Michael J. Fox, James Garner and Cree Summer. The DVD is loaded with hours of extra animation featurettes.
RATING: ___
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