THE ITALIAN JOB

 

Peter Collinson's 1969 caper film made an immediate impact with audiences craving a faster paced and higher octane film. A box-office hit that held audiences breathless, THE ITALIAN JOB would influence action movies for years to come with its thrilling car chases, explosive pyrotechnics, and smash-em-up sensibility. Before being murdered by the Mafia, criminal genius Robert Beckerman (Rossano Brazzi in a cameo role) masterminds a plan to steal $4 million worth of gold bullion from an armored car in Turin, Italy. The ambitious heist is taken over by Beckerman's friend and smalltime crook Charlie Croker (Michael Caine), who organizes a motley group of thieves bankrolled by jailed kingpin Mr. Bridger (Noel Coward). To pull off the plan, the gang must tie up traffic in the center of the city to divert attention from the robbery, block police pursuit, and ultimately make off with their booty undetected. The caper leads to one of the most exciting car chases ever filmed, featuring a bus, a couple of Jaguars, and a trio of brightly colored Mini Coopers careening through the streets, buildings, and highways of northern Italy and winding up in a breathtaking final cliffhanger that is simply unforgettable. Rated PG. 99 minutes.

Set in contemporary London in the weeks before Christmas, LOVE ACTUALLY tells one story which weaves together a spectacular number of love stories-sometimes romantic, sometimes sad, sometimes stupid-all funny in their own way. Everywhere you look, love is causing chaos. From the new bachelor Prime Minister who falls in love 30 seconds after entering Downing Street to a loser sandwich delivery guy who doesn't have a hope with the girls in the UK, so heads for Wisconsin; from a jilted writer who escapes to the south of France to nurse his broken heart to an aging rock star trying to make a comeback at any price; from a bride having problems with her husband's best man to a married woman having trouble with her husband; from a schoolboy with a crush on the prettiest girl in the school to his architect step-father with a crush on Claudia Schiffer. These London lives and loves collide, mingle and finally climax on Christmas Eve-again and again and again-with romantic, poignant and funny consequences for all. Starring Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Bill Nighy, Keira Knightley, Alan Rickman and Rowan Atkinson. Rated R. 135 minutes.

Set at the height of the Victorian era, popularly imagined to be a cold and repressive time, the visual contrast with 1950s Technicolor only seems to enhance Oscar Wilde's sharp satire and droll epigrams. Cast with talented veterans of the English stage, even the minor characters are a delight. Director Anthony Asquith allows the actors, particularly the female roles, to deliver Wilde's dialogue in a ringing theatrical voice. Edith Evans as the imperious Lady Bracknell, full of strident tone and rolling R's, and always in high dudgeon, strikes fear in the heart of Jack (Michael Redgrave), while Joan Greenwood as the beautiful, opinionated Gwendolyn, melts his heart in a voice that practically purrs. Wilde's use of a convoluted, improbable story, much imitated in the screwball comedies of the 1930s, never detracts from the pure enjoyment of his characters silly yet heartfelt struggles. Asquith's staging and directing is smooth and fluid, thus retaining a theatrical feel. This gives today's viewer a sense of what Victorian audiences must have felt when they first beheld the breathless pace and matchless wit of the incomparable Oscar Wilde. Rated PG. 95 minutes.

A top-notch advertising executive (Richard E. Grant) becomes fed up in the midst of trying to come up with a pitch for a new pimple cream, chucking his job and rebelling against society at large. The cream ultimately may have come in handy, as a boil develops on his neck--and begins to talk! An inventive, bizarre satire. Rated R. 94 minutes.

A kinetic, intimate look inside the subculture of heroin abuse, this acclaimed adaptation of Irvine Welsh's novel follows the misadventures of Renton, a brash, twenty-something Edinburgh junkie, and his nihilistic chums Tommy, Spud, Sick Boy and Begbie. Alternately comic and off-putting, the film ultimately comes down to Renton's choice between self-destruction or life. Starring Ewan McGregor and Jonny Lee Miller. Rated R. 94 minutes.