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Home , Johnny Depp, Siskel and Ebert

A R O U N D T O W N 發光的城市 17 TAIPEI TIMES • FRIDAY, JULY 25, 2008

From East Germany with love Catherine Tate makes the best out of a bad situation when her family trades 1960s Yorkshire for behind the Iron Curtain

By Ian Bartholomew Staff Reporter

made as off-the-wall broad comedy, the film might just have passed muster, but attempts to give the situation a moral dimension make the film utterly unacceptable. As for the performances, they are all solid if relatively uninspired. The one exception is Catherine Tate, whose Mrs Ratcliffe, a sensible type of woman whose British grit is brought out by the absurd situations created by a world dominated by secret police and communist ideology, is quite well realized. Unfortunately the producers gave the film a big injection of arch humor that seems to have come atherine Tate’s spirited performance is one directly from the Carry On movies of the few bright spots in a film that from of the early 1970s. At any moment C almost every other perspective is just so you expect Kenneth Williams to come totally wrong. The story of a teacher from Bingley, on wearing a garter strap and going West Yorkshire, who transports his family to the “Oooooh!” He doesn’t, and more’s the German Democratic Republic (better known as pity, as this might just provide some relief East Germany) to live in a communist utopia, only from this ham-fisted mess of a movie. to discover that the worker’s paradise is nothing of Instead, the moments of comedy are inter-cut the sort, seems hopelessly dated from the get-go, with awful attempts at drama. The performers not simply because of the topic, but because the struggle manfully with the terrible material, but producers seem to be willfully ignorant of the last the days that you can make light of escaping over 20 years of European history. the Berlin wall by balloon or turning children into There is nothing immoral about making a comedy spies against their parents have well and truly gone. about life under intolerable political regimes — after Audiences know too much about the horrors of all, one only has to recall Florian Henckel von totalitarian regimes and their efforts to keep their Donnersmarck’s 2006 The Lives of Others to realize people in a state of terror to find this sort of thing the darkly comic potential that films set in such even remotely funny. societies can provide. Unfortunately the makers Enough talent has been wasted in this mess of of Mrs Ratcliff’s Revolution are not only ignorant movie, don’t waste your time as well. of history, both political and cinematic, but also seem to be uncertain exactly what sort of movie they are trying to make. If the whole thing had been A British communist, his wife and two daughters get more than they bargained for when they relocate to East Germany in search of a worker’s paradise. Photos courtesy of Zeus International Productions

Mrs Ratcliffe’s Revolution

DIRECTED BY: Bille Eltringham

STARRING: Catherine Tate (Dorothy Ratcliffe), Iain Glen (Frank Ratcliffe), Brittany Ashworth (Alex Ratcliffe), Heike Makatsch (Frau Unger), Jessica Barden (Mary Ratcliffe)

RUNNING TIME: 102 MINUTES

TAIWAN RELEASE: TODAY

Other releases Compiled by Martin Williams City cinema weekend box office takings Sung Chun-so retrospective (July 19 and July 20) Source: Group Power Entertainment Corp Retrospectives of Taiwan’s filmmakers are rare, so this collection of films from the Chinese Taipei Film Archive by director Sung Chun-so (宋存壽) is a welcome change. The Jiangsu-born, Hong Kong- trained colleague of famed directors King Hu (胡金銓) and Li Han-hsiang (李翰祥) only died two months ago aged 77, and the films to be screened in his honor largely span the earlier part of his directorial career, which ran from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s. There are 14 full-length features and other activities, including an exhibition of scripts, posters and lobby cards and two discussions. The Dark Knight Red Cliff Journey to the Center of Hancock Kung Fu Panda Screenings are at the Spot theater in Taipei until next Wednesday. Full 黑暗騎士 赤壁 地心冒險 全民超人 功夫熊貓 ( ) ( ) the Earth ( ) ( ) ( ) details at www.ctfa.org.tw/programming/pro_show.php?proID=98. NT$17,570,327 NT$9,694,174 NT$5,024,634 NT$2,710,731 NT$2,030,247

ill Smith, Johnny Depp nominated to the 2007 Oscars for turned-hero, which he will At the Movies With Ebert and withheld their use. and Eddie Murphy were his starring role in : produce and possibly star in, Roeper, has decided to take the On Monday, he said he has W the best paid Hollywood The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Variety said on Tuesday. program in a new direction. plans for those famous digits. actors in the past year, according Murphy, 47, despite his often The film is about a personal “I will no longer be associated “The trademark still belongs to Forbes magazine’s special issue criticized aggressive style of injury lawyer who becomes a hero with it,’’ Ebert said. to me and Marlene Iglitzen, Entertainment All Stars. humor, is still highly marketable, among Los Angeles Hispanics for Ebert started the show 33 Gene’s widow, and the thumbs Smith, 39, made US$80 million earning US$55 million in the successfully defending a worker years ago with co-host Gene will return,’’ he wrote. “We are between June 1, 2007 and past 12 months, mostly from the against a wealthy employer, but Siskel, who was replaced by discussing possibilities, and plan June 1, 2008, thanks films he starred in, but above all who in the process becomes the Roeper after his death. to continue the show’s tradition. to blockbusters like I for being Donkey’s voice in the enemy of the city’s elite. He didn’t immediately Disney cannot use the ‘thumbs.’” Am Legend, Hancock animated Shrek series of films. Cohen, 36, last appeared on the elaborate, but it was clear the Ebert didn’t elaborate on and The Pursuit of Shrek the Third also made big screen alongside Johnny Depp Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago future possibilities. Nor did he Happyness, for which he Canadian actor — the in Sweeney Todd. Sun-Times critic wanted the : The thumb will rise again. say what — if any — role Roeper, was nominated for best green ogre’s voice — the third top He became a household show to remain as it was when photo: Reuters whose work he praised, will have. actor in the 2007 Oscars. Hollywood moneymaker, along name as the hilarious journalist he and Siskel, a fellow Chicago But Roeper, in his own Depp, 45, who with Murphy at US$55 million, in Borat: Cultural Learnings newspaper film critic, first hit the according to a separate statement announcement that he was leaving straddles both commercial despite his recent comedic flop of America for Make Benefit airwaves on PBS in 1975. posted July 20 on the newspaper’s the program, hinted that perhaps movies — including the The Love Guru. Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, “Gene and I felt the formula Web site. Disney offered to extend his partnership with Ebert may And also thanks to Shrek which earned him the 2007 was simplicity itself: Two film his contract several months ago, not be over. series — and more and the voice of princess Fiona, Golden Globe’s best actor award. critics, sitting across the aisle but an agreement was never Ebert’s announcement brings challenging, independent was not far behind Roger Ebert is leaving the from each other in a movie reached, he said in the statement. to a close a chapter in one roles, earned US$72 in earnings, with US$50 million. balcony — but hinting that he’s balcony, debating the new films Last year, as he negotiated a of the longest running shows million in the same She was followed by Leonardo not finished with television. of the week,’’ Ebert wrote. new contract with Disney-ABC in television history. In 1975, period. Director Tim DiCaprio with US$45 million, Bruce The famed film critic announced “We developed an entirely new Domestic Television, Ebert, Siskel and Ebert, two competing Burton’s favorite Willis with US$41 million, comedian Monday that he is cutting ties with concept for TV.’’ Ebert is a according to the - Chicago newspaper film actor, Depp was also with US$40 million and the US program he and the late trademark holder on the signature owned company, had “exercised reviewers, launched a program on with US$38 million, critic made famous, a “thumbs up-thumbs down’’ his right to withhold use of the Chicago’s public broadcasting’s Rapper-turned-actor according to Forbes. day after said he judgment that he and Siskel made ‘thumbs’ until’’ he had a new WTTW. The two jumped to topped , better was quitting the show. part of each film review. contract. Ebert subsequently has commercial television through a Forbes magazine list of known as Borat, has sold Fox film In an e-mail to the Associated Roeper, a columnist at the said the show could continue the Tribune Co’s TV syndication Hollywood’s moneymakers. studios a comedy, Accidentes, Press, Ebert said Disney-ABC Chicago Sun-Times, will leave the to use the “thumbs’’ during wing in 1982, switching to Disney photo : EPA about an ambulance-chaser- Domestic Television, which owns show this month after eight years, negotiations and that he never in 1986. — agencies