January 2002 Volume 83 Number 1 "serving the protectors"
Edited by John Ballantyne

This long-awaited film, based on the first volume of JRR Tolkein’s classic fantasy adventure trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, has already been acclaimed by critics the world over as a movie milestone.

The sheer scale of Tolkein’s Middle-Earth – an imaginary world of talking trees, powerful elves, dwarves, hobbits, wizards and trolls – is so vast in its scope that it has taken almost half a century for cinema technology to reach the necessary level of sophistication to bring it all to life.

This has been brilliantly done by New Zealand director/ writer/ producer Peter Jackson, who has mobilized a vast army of special-effects technicians, costume-designers and experts in medieval armour – not to mention a top cast – to bring Middle-Earth faithfully to life for cinema audiences.

This first film, The Fellowship of the Ring, alone cost over $200 million to make, lasts three hours, and will be followed by two similarly-sized blockbuster instalments, to be released at 12-monthly intervals.

Jackson has treated Tolkein’s masterpiece with the reverence it deserves, not the usual slapdash Hollywood treatment of classics.

The hero of Tolkein’s epic is Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), a hobbit (a 105cm high being with furry feet and pointed ears).

Frodo inherits from his uncle Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) a magical ring which, it is discovered, is no mere trinket but the great Ring of Power, an instrument of evil which could enable Sauron, the Dark Lord of Mordor, to rule Middle-Earth and enslave its people.

To save the world from this evil fate, Frodo, has to forsake the home comforts of his native Shire and embark on a perilous quest, accompanied by a loyal band of hobbits, men, a wizard, a dwarf and an elf.

His mission is to take the ring to the fires of Mount Doom, where it was first forged, for only there can it be destroyed.

Among Frodo’s closest allies are the old and wise wizard Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) and the powerful elf rulers, Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) and Elrond (Hugo Weaving).

Pitted against Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring are the spectral Black Riders, servants of the Dark Lord Sauron, and the wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee), once head of the Council of the Wise, who has since treacherously yielded allegience to Sauron.

Zoolander

This is a humourous send-up of the fashion industry from Ben Stiller, producer of blockbuster comedies, Meet the Parents and There’s Something About Mary.

Stiller also stars in the movie as Derek Zoolander, the world’s number one male supermodel, until he loses his coveted title to dashing hot newcomer Hansel (Owen Wilson).

Depressed that he is no longer the world’s top supermodel, Derek returns to his working-class roots, but is rebuffed by his coal-miner father (Jon Voight), who thinks his son is a bit of a sissy.

But things seem to look up for Derek when the outlandish, platinum-blonde designer, Mugatu (Will Ferrell, Saturday Night Live and Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery), recruits him for his first comeback job. But the dumb and impressionable Derek does not know that Mugatu is luring him into a fiendish plot.

Derek is to be secretly trained (so secretly, that even he is not even aware of it) by an underground fashion syndicate to assassinate the prime minister of Malaysia, who wants to abolish child labor in his country.

Zoolander is a good “dumb comedy”, in the best sense of the word – one that doesn’t take itself too seriously and gives the audience quite a few good belly laughs.

Despite the whipping this film gives the fashion world, quite a few celebrities and fashionistas – Claudia Schiffer, Natalie Portman, Donald Trump, David Bowie, Billy Zane, David Duchovny and Veronica Webb – were happy to send themselves up by making cameo appearances.

The Others

On the secluded Isle of Jersey in the English Channel, in the final days of World War II, a young woman waits in vain for her beloved husband to return from the front. Grace (Nicole Kidman) has been raising her two young children alone in her beautiful, cavernous Victorian mansion, the one place she believes them to be safe.

But they are not safe. Not anymore.

When a new trio of servants arrives to replace the crew that inexplicably disappeared, startling events begin to unfold. Grace’s daughter reveals she has seen unexplained apparitions in the house. At first, Grace refuses to believe in her children’s scary sightings, but soon, she too begins to sense an intruder is at large.

Who is there? And what do they want from Grace’s family?

The Others is a chilling ghost story, crafted with a romantic, moody eeriness, by young Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar (Open Your Eyes), and also stars Christopher Eccleston.

Eric Sykes, Elaine Cassidy and Fionnula Flanagan co-star as the enigmatic new servants. James Bentley and Alakina Mann star as Kidman’s children – for whom she will do anything to keep them from harm.

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