Children’s comedy, feel good picture to light up silver screen this weekend
The new motion pictures opening today at a theater near you include: – “Cinema Paradiso: The Director’s Cut”: Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore added 52 minutes of new footage to his warm 1988 work about a young boy (Salvatore Cascio) who becomes fascinated by the movie theater in his small home town in the years after World War II. Philippe Noiret plays the remote projectionist who comes to care for the youngster and takes him under his wing. Film buffs adore this beautifully rendered R-rated tale, which won an Oscar as best foreign language film, which captures the magic of seeing life through the movies.
– “The Emperor’s New Clothes”: In this PG-rated fantasy, Napoleon Bonaparte (Ian Holm of “The Sweet Hereafter”) doesn’t die on the desolate island of St. Helena in 1821. Thanks to a secret network of loyalists, a double replaces him in exile and the actual leader sneaks back into France to reclaim his throne. Iben Hjejle (“High Fidelity”) plays a beautiful widow with whom Napoleon unexpectedly falls in love upon returning to Europe. Alan Taylor (“Palookaville”) directed the whimsical romantic comedy.
– “Hey Arnold! The Movie”: Arnold (voice by teen actor Spencer Klein) and his friends band together to prevent Future Tech Industries, a company consisting of greedy developers and led by the evil Mr. Scheck (voice by Paul Sorvino of TV’s “That’s Life”), from destroying their neighborhood. Animator Tuck Tucker made his big-screen directing debut with this PG-rated adaptation of the Nickelodeon cartoon series that premiered in 1996 and has consistently been one of the children cable network’s top-five animated shows with more than 46 million young viewers each month.
– “Les Destinees”: In this drama, which spans three decades covering World War I and the stock-market crash of 1929, a minister (Charles Berling of “Ridicule”) in France suspects that his wife (Isabelle Huppert of “The Piano Teacher”) is being unfaithful. He later becomes intrigued with a 20-year-old young woman (Emmanuelle Beart of “Mission: Impossible”) and gives away his family fortune, gets a divorce and leaves the ministry to follow his heart and repent for the doubts he had about his spouse’s fidelity. Oliver Assayas (Irma Vep”) directed the unrated 180-minute import.
– “Mr. Deeds”: Adam Sandler (“Big Daddy”) stars as a small-town pizza-shop owner who inherits a huge corporation from his uncle. He then travels to New York to run it, attempts to use the profits to help others and then outwits the wheeler-dealers trying to take control of the company for their personal gain. The PG-13 comedy is a remake of Frank Capra’s 1936 favorite “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town” with Gary Cooper. Winona Ryder (“Lost Souls”) and John Turturro (“The Big Lebowski”) co-star. Steven Brill (“Little Nicky”) directed.
At the buck$ office
Tom Cruise and director Steven Spielberg battled a couple of animated characters and barely took the No. 1 spot at the box office last weekend.
According to the Associated Press, Spielberg’s critically acclaimed “Minority Report,” starring Cruise as a futuristic cop, grossed more than $36 million, topping Walt Disney’s cartoon feature, “Lilo & Stitch,” by a marginal amount.
The top 10 films last weekend were:
1. “Minority Report” ($36.9 million)
2. “Lilo & Stitch” ($35.8 million)
3. “Scooby-Doo” ($24.4 million)
4. “The Bourne Identity” ($14.8 million)
5. “The Sum of All Fears” ($7.9 million)
6. “Windtalkers” ($6.7 million)
7. “Juwanna Mann” ($6 million)
8. “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” ($5.7 million)
9. “Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones” ($5.1 million)
10. “Spider-Man” ($4.4 million)