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Broadway: The Golden Age
* * * 1/2

I will admit it-the very idea of sitting through an evening of live theater, especially musical theater, is about as appealing to me as paying $100 to smash my foot with a ball-peen hammer for 2 1/2 hours; this despite the fact that I graduated from college with a degree in theater (or maybe because of it-you try watching people doing scenes from "Glengarry Glenn Ross" less because of a love for David Mamet’s language and more because it allowed them to smoke during class under the guise of an "acting choice"). Happily, by that point, the world of American theater had already collapsed-done in by a series of overblown West End musicals where the audiences left humming the helicopter-so I didn’t really feel as though I was missing anything. However, there was a time when Broadway was a living, breathing thing that could both challenge and entertain audiences and it is that period that is celebrated in the wonderful new documentary "Broadway: The Golden Age". Filmmaker Rick McKay has gathered an astonishing array of performers (ranging from Ben Gazzara and Gena Rowlands to Bea Arthur to the immortal Charles Nelson Reilly) to reminisce about the glory days of post-war Broadway when the marquees were jammed with shows and stars that would go on to be legends. Despite essentially being a talking-head documentary (since there is precious little footage of these performances), the stories that they tell are fascinating-ranging from their influences (nearly all cite Marlon Brando and Laurette Taylor) to similar memories of first auditions and post-show meals at the local Walgreens ("I went to saloons", insists Elaine Stritch) to bits of gossip (including how Shirley MacLaine went from being an anonymous chorus girl to a star in one night). For theater junkies, this is indispensable viewing but even for people who share my peculiar viewpoint, "Broadway: The Golden Age" is a highly entertaining look at a long-gone era.

Directed by Rick McKay

Among anime buffs, Mamoru Oshii’s 1996 film "Ghost in the Shell" is generally ranked as one of the landmarks of the genre for its blend of haunting visuals and thought-provoking questions about existence and what it means to be human. The same elements are on display in the eagerly-awaited sequel "Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence" but this time around, the results just aren’t as satisfying. This time around, Bateau, the cyborg security officer who was the sidekick to Major Kusanagi, the heroine of the first installment, is assigned to investigate the case of a pleasure robot that suddenly murdered its owner. Once again, the film alternates between shoot-outs and philosophical debates but, unlike the original (or the similar "Blade Runner"), nothing particularly new or intriguing is said or done. The visuals are often stunning-this is one of the best meldings of traditional 2-D animation and 3-D CGI imagery that I have ever seen-but they are in the service of a story too murky for its own good and the climax, in which our hero guns down hundreds of fembots, is just too off-putting for its own good. Fans of the genre will probably have fun trancing out in front of it at a midnight show but others are advised to seek out the original.

RATED PG-13

Directed by Mamoru Oshii. Starring the voices of Akio Otsuka, Atsuko Tanaka, Koichi Yamadera and Tamio Oki

If it does nothing else (and trust me, it doesn’t), "Mr. 3000" demonstrates that few things in the world of film are more depressing than the sight of an utterly unique talent straightjacketed into an utterly formulaic screenplay. The talent this time is Bernie Mac, who stars as a selfish retired baseball player who is forced to return to the game when three of his 3000 hits are disqualified (hurting his chances to make it into the Hall of Fame). No doubt you can already fill in the blanks-the arrogant star will learn to play for the love of the game instead of himself, he will revert to his selfish ways just in time to inspire the third-act conflict and there will be a happy ending for all involved. In amongst the shameless media plugs for ESPN and Jay Leno and the even-more shameless waste of the glorious Angela Bassett, in a throwaway role as the token love interest, Mac gets off a few good lines but this is hardly the role to make use of his prodigious talents. Instead of building a film around him, they have just stuck him into a part that could have been played by any ordinary schmuck. It was this thinking that helped kill the film careers of Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy-here’s hoping that Mac has enough sense to avoid letting it happen again.

RATED PG-13

Written by Eric Champnella, Keith Mitchell and Howard Michael Gould. Directed by Charles Stone III. Starring Bernie Mac, Angela Bassett, Michael Rispoli and Paul Sorvino.

Copyright © 2004 Peter Sobczynski
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While the views expressed by Peter Sobczynski do not necessarily reflect the views of Criticdoctor.com, the Critic Doctor will occasionally examine Mr. Sobczynski's film reviews to bring forth an honest examination of those views expressed.