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By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 20, 2001 Ring in the seasonGet your Tolkiens ready for admission to the highly anticipated screen adaptation of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (PG-13). Director Peter Jackson (Heavenly Creatures, The Frighteners) mounted an impressive production; a trio of films, if fact, since it was more economical to spend $140-million at one time than pay for three separate shoots. The result is that J.R.R. Tolkien will be as synonymous with the holidays as Santa Claus through 2003, when the final chapter arrives. The Fellowship of the Ring sets up the quest of Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), a Hobbit in possession of a magical gold ring that can control Middle-earth. Frodo must destroy the ring at Mount Doom, passing through a variety of dark places and creatures along the way. He's aided by eight warriors including Gandalf the wizard (Ian McKellen), with timely boosts from Elf royalty (Liv Tyler, Cate Blanchett). The film opened Wednesday and a full review was printed Tuesday in the Floridian section, bestowing this lavishly violent adventure with a B+ grade.
More power
Tim Allen almost became a movie star during the holidays a few years ago in The Santa Clause. Then a series of questionable career choices made him just another TV guy shrunk by the big screen. Big Trouble was supposed to be his comeback vehicle but that film was postponed until 2002 (due to its hijacking subplot) during the post-Sept. 11 Hollywood shuffle. He'll have to settle for Joe Somebody, a family-friendly comedy about a father avenging a humiliation. Seems that he was beaten up in front of his daughter on Bring Your Child to Work Day and hasn't lived it down. Allen gets in fighting shape, gains a new level of confidence and probably a lesson in restraint. Wasn't Allen also yelling for "more power" on Home Improvement? Big Trouble opens nationwide on Friday.
How low can they go?
Higher education learns blunt realities from Method Man and Redman in How High (R), a movie that sounds like what would happen if Cheech and Chong learned to rap and joined the Ivy League. The two "mans" in question play marijuana dealers who invent a strain of pot that makes them smart enough to get into Harvard. First Legally Blonde, now this. Whatever happened to the Harvard of The Paper Chase? Expect plenty of stoner jokes, crude sexual references and fish-out-of-water cliches as the hip-hop stars invade white collar territory. How High opens Friday at theaters nationwide.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
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