The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

ra AA I OER ET EE REE TE Ye aaa aa rng WINGER 12 - PORT PERRY "WEEKEND STAR" 3 mms ollie ia Remember to safely 'store your firearm. For more Infor aghon, application forms and assistance filling them out, call 1 800 731-4000 or visit our Web site at www.cfc-ccaf.gc.ca Firearm safety is everyone's concern. FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2000 Prequel disappoints, but shows promise From page 9 how.. about. some .charac- ters to work with? 'This is not to say they are not appealing, but | must confess that after seeing the film, the only strong memory | have is Jar Jar Binks, -an annoying - creature created on a com- puter as a visual effect. Neeson looks dashing, Ewan McGregor looks roguish and wise, and young Natalie Portman is properly regal, but | never cared for them like | cared for Luke Skywalker and his gang. Not even young Jake Lloyd' - provides much "interest, though the con- stant one liners about 'his future are enjoyable. = Lucas has created an - evil Darth Maul, impressive array of visual effect wonders in the film, most notably the spectac- ular pod race, which is an obvious homage to Ben- Hur (1959), and the magnif- icent planet of Naboo, lush and green, with a startling underwater city that bog- gles the mind. The light 'saber battles are particu- larly: effective, especially when :© Neeson and McGregor face down the appren- tice of the soon to be evil emperor. : The" Phantom Menace was not the great film it was expected to be, but that cértainly did not stop audiences from flocking to see the latest in the Star Wars series. It was like going to see an old friend Hair Expressions (former location of Van Camp « SAME PLACE « SAME GREAT SERVICE! CALL. (905) Contracting Limited) - we had been separated from for quite some time. | came away from the film a tad empty, but | must con- fess, anxiously awaiting the second and third install- ments in the series due in the next four years. THE SIXTH SENSE "I see dead people" became the most imitated, uttered piece of dialogue smart, creepy - thriller. While horror films over the © last few years have been bathed in blood and gore, this quietly effective pic- ture is among the most . frightening 1 have ever seen. The silence is what works, the eerie atmos- phere, but most of all the quiet desperation of a lit- tle boy who sees the dead walking among us. Haley Joel Osment gives an astounding per- formance as Cole Sears, a young - Philadelphia 'boy haunted by the visions that come to him every day, torn apart by his wi 1. stell anyone: "nated -'s in movies last year, obvi- ously causing-a stampede to the box office to see this realism tar her perfor- 'mance, convincing us of ~~ nominated the award. & gist bent on helping the - child to make amends for another he feels guilty over destroying. The beauty of the film is in the purity of the perfor- mances of Osment, who is never anything other than brilliant, and Bruce Willis, surprisingly effective as the sympathetic doctor. In a strong Oscar nomi- porting role, "Toni Colletté does a mar- -velous job_as the child's mother, bringing a gritty 'her own private fear that her child is slightly off. The screenplay by M. Night Shyamalan is a mar- vel, particularly the incred- ible twist at the end of the film, which on three view- ings (believe me) holds up remarkably well. His direc- tion of his own screenplay is subtle, never going where it might seem obvi- ous with his confident choices. He is quite con- tent to allow the picture to rest on the small shoulders of this little boy, who responded with an Oscar performance many thodght deserved > wil » pvr Scotchguard . _ * Broadloom Te Upholsterys - e Loose Rugs | 085-8552 852-6711 -_- aii oop ded LRP avis: ER SY Lg Sad OF Lea a «