Des McAnuff Movies
- 2000
- PG
- Add The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle to QueueAdd The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle to top of Queue
The pride of Frostbite Falls and Whatsamatta U's most famous alumni find their way onto the big screen (and the real world) in this comedy inspired by the popular cartoon series. Years after their TV show is cancelled, Rocky the Flying Squirrel (voice of June Foray) and Bullwinkle J. Moose (voice of Keith Scott) are barely getting by on residual checks; they're wondering what to do next when Fearless Leader (Robert De Niro), the evil genius of Pottsylvania, transforms himself from a cartoon into a living, breathing, nasty human being, thanks to the assistance of television executive Minnie Mogul (Janeane Garofalo). With the help of his newly flesh-and-blood henchmen Boris Badenov (Jason Alexander) and Natasha Fatale (Rene Russo), Fearless Leader plots to take over the world by using television to zombify people and then persuading the masses to elect him president. Can the daring flying squirrel and the well-meaning but not especially bright moose stop them? Unlike the TV show, which made a virtue of its unsophisticated animation, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle employs a technically sophisticated blend of computer-generated animated characters (Rocky and Bullwinkle) and live actors (Fearless Leader, Boris, and Natasha). Human beings making guest appearances include Randy Quaid, John Goodman, and Jonathan Winters. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rene Russo, Jason Alexander, (more)
The Marquis de Sade was a man who liked to stir up trouble, at a time when his native France was in a state of tremendous political turmoil, and this historical drama examines how much controversy he could cause even under repressive circumstances. In the aftermath of the French Revolution, the Marquis de Sade (Geoffrey Rush) manages to narrowly escape execution during the Reign of Terror, and instead is sentenced to the Charenton Asylum for the Insane. Coulmier (Joaquin Phoenix), the priest who heads the asylum, is sympathetic to the political machinations that have put the Marquis in his care, and allows him not only to write what he pleases, but to stage theater pieces using the other patients as actors. Royer-Collard (Michael Caine), a tyrannical doctor overseeing the mental institutions of Napoleonic France, is as outraged as the emperor when he reads Justine, a scabrous volume the Marquis penned while an inmate at Charenton, and he demands that de Sade be stopped. But Royer-Collard soon learns that stopping the Marquis from writing is not so simple; when de Sade's quills and ink are taken from him, he uses wine and even his own blood to write his stories. When these options are no longer available, he dictates his work with the help of Madeline (Kate Winslet), a laundry girl working at the asylum, who is fascinated by the notorious de Sade, though she declines his frequent requests to satisfy his notorious sexual appetites. Based on the play by Doug Wright (who also penned the screenplay), Quills was directed by Philip Kaufman, who previously documented the line between eroticism and literature in Henry and June and The Unbearable Lightness of Being. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, (more)
A boy's best friend is his robot in this animated adventure from Brad Bird, best known for his TV work on such series as The Simpsons, King of the Hill, and The Critic. Set in 1957, The Iron Giant focuses on Hogarth (voice of Eli Marienthal), an imaginative nine-year-old boy who daydreams of alien invasions and doing battle with Communist agents. One day, Hogarth hears a local fisherman talk about something that surpasses anything he could dream up: a fifty-foot robot that fell from the sky into a nearby lake. Needless to say, Hogarth's mom, Annie (voice of Jennifer Aniston) finds this a little hard to swallow, but when Hogarth finds the robot (voice of Vin Diesel) and fishes him out of the water, his pal Dean (voice of Harry Connick Jr.), a beatnik sculptor who also runs a junkyard, offers to help by hiding the robot with his salvage. A government agent named Kent Mansley (voice of Christopher McDonald) soon gets wind that there's a mechanical invader of unknown origins in the neighborhood and wants to wipe out the potential threat. However, the robot (which loves to eat metal and is learning to talk) turns out to be friendly, and the boy in turn tries to teach his new pal the ways of humans. The Iron Giant is loosely based on the book The Iron Man by late British poet Ted Hughes, previously adapted for the stage by rock musician Pete Townshend, who executive produced the film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eli Marienthal, Vin Diesel, (more)
Acclaimed theater director Des McAnuff made his feature-film directorial debut with this period comedy-drama adapted from Honore de Balzac's novel La Cousine Bette (1846) about a jealous and bitter spinster who attempts to destroy the romance between her niece and a Polish sculptor. In Paris of the 1840s, spinster Bette Fisher (Jessica Lange) steps in to "take care" of her relatives after a decline in the Hulot family fortunes, mainly due to wastrel Hector Hulot (Hugh Laurie). After penniless sculptor Wenceslas Steinbach (Aden Young) marries Hector's daughter, Hortense (Kelly Macdonald), Bette schemes and plots, drawing Hector's mistress, music-hall star Jenny Cadine (Elisabeth Shue), into her web by arranging for wealthy Cesar Crevel (Bob Hoskins) to become Jenny's benefactor. Filmed at locations in and around Bordeaux. Shown at the 1998 Seattle Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jessica Lange, Elisabeth Shue, (more)
