Earth Day is an appropriate release date for Disney's Sacred Planet (G), a celebration of environments around the world, displayed with all the majesty provided by the IMAX projection format. Robert Redford narrates the documentary, opening today at MOSI's Imax Dome Theater, although environmental concerns are also voiced by elders of indigenous cultures worldwide, from the peaks of Alaska to the white sand beaches of New Zealand.
The delicate balance of humans, nature and animals is represented in time-lapse photography and editing effects creating, according to the film's Web site (www.disney.go.com/disneypictures/sacredplanet/main.html) "a dreamlike experience and a feeling of timelessness." The musical soundtrack uses tribal instruments and melodies to explore the diversity of cultures while confirming the environmental link that connects us all.
Sacred Planet is showing only at the IMAX Dome Theater at the Museum of Science and Industry, 4801 E Fowler Ave., Tampa. The movie is shown in rotation with other IMAX films, so confirming show times and obtaining reservations is recommended. Call (813) 987-6300 for information.
Vengeance that sizzles
Revenge is all the rage in the movies after Kill Bill, Volume 2 and The Punisher topped the box office chart last week. Quite a change from the previous weekend's leader, The Passion of the Christ.
This week's addition to the vengeance-is-ours trend is Man on Fire (R), starring Denzel Washington in a role that, at least in preview trailers, appears every bit as bad as his Academy Award-winning rogue cop in Training Day. Creasy (Washington) is a former government agent working as a bodyguard for a wealthy American family living in Mexico. His main job is to protect the family's young daughter (Dakota Fanning) during a rash of kidnappings.
If the girl weren't abducted, there wouldn't be much need for a movie, would there? Creasy will stop at nothing to save her, leading to the preview's best dialogue, deliciously delivered by Christopher Walken: "The man is an artist. His specialty is death. And he's about to paint his masterpiece." Perhaps only Walken's halting menace could make those lines so cool.
A complete review of Man on Fire will be published Friday.
