Primal Fear

Primal Fear is a courtroom drama so filled with sidebar issues that it winds up trying your patience as well as a murder case. Gregory Hoblit, who has won many Emmys for his work on Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law and NYPD Blue, makes an uncertain big-screen debut in much-traveled terrain. He builds his case around the much-invoked and endlessly controversial abuse excuse. In Primal Fear that alibi becomes an excuse to stray all over the place. Primal Fear covers a lot of ground, and even though the running time is a profligate 130 minutes, it can only touch superficially on themes that could consume entire movies by themselves.

Hollywood's favorite product this year is an upscale version of the old "Death Wish" formula, with legit Hollywood stars in the Bronson role, swinging a sock full of quarters against the skull of some lawbreaking punk. "Eye for an Eye" saw Sally Field stalking the thug who killed her daughter. In "Before and After," Meryl Streep dropped a dime on her own son when she began to suspect him of murder. These two movies prey upon the inflammatory idea that our criminal justice system favors criminals over justice - a theme repeated in the new legal thriller "Primal Fear.

"Primal Fear" exploits the widely shared opinion that more criminals should be punished, and also more defense attorneys. Did you hear the cheering when F. Lee Bailey went to jail rather than open his wallet? "Primal Fear" stars Richard Gere as Martin Vail, a lawyer not unlike several members of the vaunted Dream Team - obviously good at his job, and obviously aware of it. "Martin is arrogant, no question about it. And he knows that about himself. And I think that's what people like about him, in a way. He knows what he is, he admits it, and even finds a certain humor in it," Gere said.

What are the odds of making it in Hollywood? For Edward Norton, they were 2,130 to 1. That was the number of actors auditioning for the key role of an Appalachian choirboy suspected of killing an archbishop in last year's Primal Fear. When he met the casting director, Norton says, he knew what to say. "Basically, I told them that I came from eastern Kentucky, just like the character," he recalls. "I spoke with this little hint of a Southern accent. The casting director was amazed, so I told her that I understood the accent because my grandparents spent their whole lives in that area.

"The Interview" is a 1998 Australian thriller only now making it to the states after winning a slew of awards Down Under. Despite acclaim overseas, the movie had trouble finding a distributor in this country, and it's not hard to see why. "The Interview" is resolutely uncommercial - a talky, actionless movie set almost entirely in a police interrogation room, comprising a handful of characters played by unknown actors. An exception is Hugo Weaving, known to the U.S. multiplex crowd as the weirdo who pursues Keanu Reeves in "The Matrix.

RE THE op-ed "The Real Results: Fear 1, Anger 0": It is apparent that liberals - dumbfounded by the results of the election - are trying desperately to explain the outcome with whatever simplistic rationalization makes them feel better, rather than accepting the vote of the American people. For some it is that notion that the nation's progressive intelligence was overwhelmed by ignorant rednecks led to the polls by the fear of God. Other explain this "statistical anomaly" by writing it off to bigots and gay-bashers.

The Southwest is a place of such changeable climate that locals like to say, "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes. " Down in the Valley, physically set in Los Angeles but philosophically in the old Southwest, is a movie of such mercurial moods that it suggests this paraphrase: If you don't like the genre, wait five minutes. Writer-director David Jacobson, who made Dahmer, the chilling study of the serial killer, gives us a teen rebel/Western/domestic melodrama spree.

Americans used to make money to buy a house. Then they bought a house to make money. For many, the family residence became foremost an investment - an asset to be traded in for something grander or milked for cash. Understandable. From 2001 to 2004, average family income after inflation dropped 2.3 percent, while the median value of the American house grew 22 percent. For much of the middle class, the home seemed the only faucet left from which to tap wealth. But what happens when the faucet turns into a drain?

Second time around, the magic jeans are an even better fit. But don't think that The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, sequel to the 2005 film based on the young-adult novels by Ann Brashares, is about fashionistas looking for love and marriage, like virtually every movie targeting females. Director Sanaa Hamri ( Something New ) gets appealing performances from Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera, Blake Lively and Ambler Tamblyn (respectively, TV's Gilmore Girl, Ugly Betty, Gossip Girl, and Joan of Arcadia)

There was a Catskill comedian who used to tell a story about his first time away from home and home cooking. After a week in Army boot camp his stomach started to feel funny. He was convinced that something was terribly wrong with his digestive system, maybe his entire body. Well, after much medical consultation, the problem was diagnosed. For the first time in his life he wasn't suffering from heartburn. I think about him every summer during the dangerous season of vacations.

TORONTO - Edward Norton has been behind bars before. In fact, the intensely serious actor made his big splash in moviedom playing a Chicago altar boy accused of murder, on trial for his life and messing with Richard Gere's head, in the 1996 hit Primal Fear . A few years later, in American History X , Norton was a neo-Nazi skinhead sentenced to prison on manslaughter charges. And here he is again. In Stone , Norton is Gerald "Stone" Creeson, an arsonist doing time at a Michigan penitentiary.

Second time around, the magic jeans are an even better fit. But don't think that The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, sequel to the 2005 film based on the young-adult novels by Ann Brashares, is about fashionistas looking for love and marriage, like virtually every movie targeting females. Director Sanaa Hamri ( Something New ) gets appealing performances from Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera, Blake Lively and Ambler Tamblyn (respectively, TV's Gilmore Girl, Ugly Betty, Gossip Girl, and Joan of Arcadia)

Americans used to make money to buy a house. Then they bought a house to make money. For many, the family residence became foremost an investment - an asset to be traded in for something grander or milked for cash. Understandable. From 2001 to 2004, average family income after inflation dropped 2.3 percent, while the median value of the American house grew 22 percent. For much of the middle class, the home seemed the only faucet left from which to tap wealth. But what happens when the faucet turns into a drain?

The Southwest is a place of such changeable climate that locals like to say, "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes. " Down in the Valley, physically set in Los Angeles but philosophically in the old Southwest, is a movie of such mercurial moods that it suggests this paraphrase: If you don't like the genre, wait five minutes. Writer-director David Jacobson, who made Dahmer, the chilling study of the serial killer, gives us a teen rebel/Western/domestic melodrama spree.

RE THE op-ed "The Real Results: Fear 1, Anger 0": It is apparent that liberals - dumbfounded by the results of the election - are trying desperately to explain the outcome with whatever simplistic rationalization makes them feel better, rather than accepting the vote of the American people. For some it is that notion that the nation's progressive intelligence was overwhelmed by ignorant rednecks led to the polls by the fear of God. Other explain this "statistical anomaly" by writing it off to bigots and gay-bashers.

"The Interview" is a 1998 Australian thriller only now making it to the states after winning a slew of awards Down Under. Despite acclaim overseas, the movie had trouble finding a distributor in this country, and it's not hard to see why. "The Interview" is resolutely uncommercial - a talky, actionless movie set almost entirely in a police interrogation room, comprising a handful of characters played by unknown actors. An exception is Hugo Weaving, known to the U.S. multiplex crowd as the weirdo who pursues Keanu Reeves in "The Matrix.

Ann Yen Hsu relished toasted blueberry bagels with turkey for breakfast. She loved to exercise - and then drink a beer. She lived with her two cats, Misha and Sasha, in a lovely spot near the Cooper River in Collingswood. Hsu had just gotten engaged, and had set the big day for this spring. Hsu's accused killer, Rodney W. Bullock, lived off and on in a ramshackle house with his mother on a hardscrabble street in Camden, the kind of street where paint chips fall off the door when knuckles rap on it, where neighbors keep dogs in their yards to keep everyone away.

What are the odds of making it in Hollywood? For Edward Norton, they were 2,130 to 1. That was the number of actors auditioning for the key role of an Appalachian choirboy suspected of killing an archbishop in last year's Primal Fear. When he met the casting director, Norton says, he knew what to say. "Basically, I told them that I came from eastern Kentucky, just like the character," he recalls. "I spoke with this little hint of a Southern accent. The casting director was amazed, so I told her that I understood the accent because my grandparents spent their whole lives in that area.

Hollywood's favorite product this year is an upscale version of the old "Death Wish" formula, with legit Hollywood stars in the Bronson role, swinging a sock full of quarters against the skull of some lawbreaking punk. "Eye for an Eye" saw Sally Field stalking the thug who killed her daughter. In "Before and After," Meryl Streep dropped a dime on her own son when she began to suspect him of murder. These two movies prey upon the inflammatory idea that our criminal justice system favors criminals over justice - a theme repeated in the new legal thriller "Primal Fear.

"Primal Fear" exploits the widely shared opinion that more criminals should be punished, and also more defense attorneys. Did you hear the cheering when F. Lee Bailey went to jail rather than open his wallet? "Primal Fear" stars Richard Gere as Martin Vail, a lawyer not unlike several members of the vaunted Dream Team - obviously good at his job, and obviously aware of it. "Martin is arrogant, no question about it. And he knows that about himself. And I think that's what people like about him, in a way. He knows what he is, he admits it, and even finds a certain humor in it," Gere said.