N Movie Reviews

A first-class and candid look at what went into 'N Sync's "No Strings Attached" tour, Making the Tour begins at 'N Sync's manager's compound in Florida as the group plans to promote their 2000 CD, No Strings Attached. The members of 'N Sync are the creative and driving forces behind their own success, and they wanted to create this video to show their fans how they make a tour happen. Join their planning sessions, where they realize they have seven new songs to choreograph and rehearse, and begin to plan the staging, sets, lighting, and special effects.

This documentary shows bits of interviews with each band member, the various rehearsal spaces, their frustration over too much material to prepare, meetings with some of the behind-the-scenes professionals, the beginning of the bus tour, and their meet-and-greet with fans before the first show. Throughout the DVD you hear bits and pieces of 'N Sync's music. It is not until the tour finally starts that you get some full-length concert performances--"Bye Bye Bye" and "This I Promise You." Clever editing leads you to believe that these are from an appearance at the Tacoma Dome in Washington State, but it is the same footage used in the Live from Madison Square Garden video. (One telltale remark did slip through: "Hey, New York, is this close enough for you?") Also included are music videos for "Bye Bye Bye," "This I Promise You," and "It's Gonna Be Me" for a playing time of 80 minutes. --Larry Clark

Late '90s contender in the time-honored sweepstakes for teen idolatry, 'N Sync is best explained by the late blues sage Willie Dixon: "The men don't know, but the little girls understand." The quintet's buoyant dance pop, chopped and channeled to weld post-New Jack rhythms with creamy harmonies, won't qualify them for their own patent application, but musical originality isn't the point. "The official home video," 'N the Mix with 'N Sync, gives the Orlando, Florida group's mostly female, young teen constituency an unabashedly glowing portrait of Justin, JC, Lance, Joey, and Chris performing for their fans, musing over their musical kinship, and moving behind the scenes.

This 75-minute valentine will remind parents of venerable Tiger Beat profiles, right down to the bullet-point crib sheets on individual members listing full names, birth dates, and "likes" ("Hard Rock café menus" among the more perplexing choices). Versions of their first hits, "I Want You Back" and "Tearin' Up My Heart," videos for two subsequent tracks, plus sneak previews for two additional songs are interspersed with documentary footage, and there are plenty of quick-cut glimpses of their tightly choreographed, athletic dance routines, garbed in de rigeur sportswear and fashionable logos. The souvenir package also includes "an exclusive 1999... locker poster." --Sam Sutherland

Three separate story lines set in Africa eventually come together in this 1980 film by Jamie Uys. (The film wasn't released in the U.S., where it became a huge hit, until 1984.) Story one involves a bushman whose discovery of a Coke bottle causes consternation among his tribe, story two concerns an awkward romance between a clumsy scientist and a sweet schoolteacher, and the third plot involves a group of terrorists on the run. Slapstick, satire, romance, violence--it's all here in a somewhat bumpy but entertaining movie. --Tom Keogh

Boaz Yakin's astounding debut feature looks at the violent world of the projects through the eyes of a 12-year-old drug runner. Sean Nelson delivers a quiet but intense performance as Michael--street name Fresh--a cynical but introspective kid grown up fast and hard on the killing streets of the projects. Samuel L. Jackson costars as Fresh's estranged father, a speed chess hustler in the city park whose dispassionate philosophy--the chess board as life--becomes the film's central metaphor, as Fresh plots a brilliant, coldly brutal plan to save himself and his junkie sister from his world of drug dealers and street violence. Yakin's assured direction delivers a vividly realized world in bold, crisp images and an austere but poetic style that captures the dispassionate point of view of a heart-hardened adolescent street survivor. The excellent score by former Police-man Stewart Copeland, his most haunting since Rumblefish, mixes smooth symphonic sounds with bluesy guitars and syncopated percussion, giving the soundtrack the same sad intimacy as Yakin's visuals. The world of Fresh is alive with danger that threatens to extinguish all the wonder and joy of childhood--the film's most devastating moment observes Fresh helplessly trying to stop the bleeding of a schoolmate, a girl he has a crush on, caught by a stray bullet from a senseless playground murder. As Fresh loses his innocence playing street thugs and drug dealers like pieces on a chess board, he becomes the greatest victim of all. --Sean Axmaker

Grigory Chukhraj's poetic odyssey of an accidental hero on a six-day pass is a sentimental journey through the ideals of the Soviet state in World War II. Vladimir Ivashov is the fresh-faced signalman whose trip from the Russian front to visit his white-haired mother becomes a series of detours as he stops to help the loyal comrades, fellow soldiers, and salt-of-the-earth civilians (as well as a few shirkers and scoundrels) he meets along the way. On a transport train he even falls in love with a pretty young stowaway, a feisty blond girl-next-door on her way to visit a wounded boyfriend. Delicately photographed and gently paced, this deliriously romantic road movie is undeniably Soviet in its celebration of patriotism and collectivism, but Chukhraj transcends politics with delightfully vivid characters and a deft mix of comedy, melodrama, and romance. --Sean Axmaker

A hard-hitting and impressive low-budget independent film about love and racism, Zebrahead is a volatile mix of social commentary and powerful acting. Michael Rapaport (Mighty Aphrodite, Beautiful Girls) is a white urban high school student enamored of black rap culture who pursues and falls in love with the cousin (N'Bushe Wright) of his black best friend. Their intense romance brings out racial tensions in their school, among their friends and at home. Problems escalate as a notorious gang banger goes after the girl, forcing a schoolwide confrontation with violent results. With the flavor of a modern urban Romeo and Juliet love story and a showcase for the debut of two exceptional young actors, Zebrahead is a provocative sleeper film well worth checking out. --Robert Lane

This film features the wonderfully understated duet of Robert Duvall and James Earl Jones, two old pros who know just how to stay out of each other's way while offering superb support. Duvall plays Earl Pilcher, an aging Southerner whose mother dies, leaving him a letter with a startling secret: in fact, she was not his mother, though she raised him--but his father is really his father. His real mother was a black servant whom his father forced himself upon, and she died in childbirth. Even more shocking, he has a black brother in Chicago, Ray (Jones). Stunned to his soul, Earl heads for Chicago, where he finds that Ray not only knows his secret but wants nothing to do with him. Slowly, however, in this marvelously drawn script by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson, the two brothers find common ground. The theme--about discovering a family bond where none existed before--works better than the story-telling, which is a shade predictable. Watch for a great supporting performance by actress Irma Hall, who plays the aunt of both men. --Marshall Fine