Film frenzy
The Miami Film Festival offers more than 60 films spanning 10 days. Here's help in choosing what to see.
( BY RENE RODRIGUEZ, rrodriguez@herald.com, 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

JUMP START
Fencing students face touché and go competition
It seems an unlikely place to hear the sharp sound of blade upon blade, ''attention,'' and ''on guard,'' here in a linoleum-floored South Miami Middle School auditorium.
( BY DANIELA LAMAS, dlamas@herald.com, 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

BON VOYAGE (PG-13) ***
Elegant take on espionage, intrigue, love
Jean-Paul Rappeneau's sleek comedy Bon Voyage is a high-wire act of storytelling, tone and old-fashioned chutzpah. The setting is 1940 Paris, where rumblings of an imminent invasion by German forces are growing louder, but few want to believe it will actually happen (``Not even Hitler wants war!'').
( BY RENE RODRIGUEZ, rrodriguez@herald.com, 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

TRAVELLERS AND MAGICIANS (UNRATED) ***
A fine trip into world of sorcery
Though his pedigree as a son and grandson of Tibetan lamas (himself being the third incarnation of a saint, scholar and lama) is longer than his work as a filmmaker, Bhutan's Khyentse Norbu shows remarkable talent behind the lens.
( BY MARTA BARBER, mbarber@herald.com, 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

GOOD BYE, LENIN! (R) ***
Turning past into present with humor
Good Bye, Lenin! takes place a few months after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The former East Germany is still rejoicing, reunification fever is sweeping the country, capitalism is taking hold and Coca-Cola is no longer a black-market commodity.
( BY RENE RODRIGUEZ, rrodriguez@herald.com, 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

MONSIEUR IBRAHIM (R) ** ½
Different worlds, similar desperation
Even when he swears he is 16, Moise (Pierre Boulanger) is never taken in as a ''customer'' by the prostitutes who work the street where he lives. But he keeps trying, gathering the 30 francs they charge from the money his father gives him to buy food.
( BY MARTA BARBER, mbarber@herald.com, 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

THE HOURS OF THE DAY (Unrated)***
Chilling tale of quiet monster
Abel, the central protagonist of Las horas del dia (The Hours of the Day), lives with his aged mother in a middle-class apartment in Barcelona. He runs a small clothing store that he's thinking about selling, and his lone salesclerk is needling him about her severance package. He has a girlfriend, Tere, who tells him he's fallen into a rut, because he never gets excited about anything.
( BY RENE RODRIGUEZ, rrodriguez@herald.com, 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

BACKSTAGE PASS
Yes, they're coming this spring
The classic lineup of Yes, featuring Rick Wakeman, Chris Squire, Jon Anderson and Steve Howe, has regrouped and plans An Evening With Yes -- The 35th Anniversary Tour for Sunrise's Office Depot Center on April 30. Tickets are $65, $50 and $35 and go on sale at noon Feb. 6. It's been a busy Yes year: Rhino has been busy remastering and reissuing the prog-rock group's original albums -- the next batch, 90125, Tormato and Drama are on the way Feb. 24 -- in addition to releasing an Ultimate...
( BY HOWARD COHEN, hcohen@herald.com, 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

ONE-NIGHTER
Game for a little Sunday night action?
Just because you don't play for the New England Patriots or the Carolina Panthers, doesn't mean you can't score during Sunday's Super Bowl.
( By ADRIANA CORDOVI, acordovi@herald.com, 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

ALBUM REVIEWS
Parisian duo's latest seems thinner than Air
AIR Talkie Walkie Astralwerks **½ When Air unleashed its debut album Moon Safari in 1998, the burgeoning chill-out and tech-pop movements had yet to reach the masses -- accordingly, the blasé Parisian duo of Nicolas Godin and JB Dunckel were hailed as the next saviors of music that aimed for higher artistic ground.
( BY MICHAEL HAMERSLY, mhamersly@herald.com, 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

DANCE
Simple steps led to stardom
No longer dancing the lead, Michael Flatley now lords over a show business sensation.
( BY OCTAVIO ROCA, oroca@herald.com, 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

VIDEO GAME REVIEW
Just you vs. the evil forces
Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II continues the story of Baldur's Gate, a medieval city threatened by dark forces, with new characters and combat features that make up for the lackluster graphic improvements in the dungeon-crawling game.
( BY LISETT FERNANDEZ, lfernandez@herald.com, 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

DVD SCANS
You'll always have Paris with this DVD
In what could be the fastest turnaround in home video history (not counting Grade Z, direct-to-video movies), 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has already released the ''Complete First Season'' of The Simple Life on DVD ($19.98) even though the Fox network is still milking the critically reviled reality show for all it's worth by cobbling together ''lost episodes'' or reunion specials.
( BY HOWARD COHEN, hcohen@herald.com, 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

WHAT THE EYE DOESN'T SEE (Unrated) *** ½
Tales from corrupt Peru weave an entrancing web
''What the eye doesn't see,'' says the old Spanish proverb, ''the heart doesn't feel.'' But in 2000, Peru saw with the shocked eyes of a wounded nation the widespread corruption of its government.
( BY MARTA BARBER, mbarber@herald.com, 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING (PG-13) ** ½
Period piece is high on art, low on action
''It's obscene,'' snarls the fuming, jealous wife of Johannes Vermeer of one of the artist's most famous paintings, the work after which this stately, visually dazzling but imperfect film is named. The painting is not, of course, obscene, but it's not hard to see why an emotional wife might view it that way. The subject's gaze of unadorned hunger is not something most spouses could shrug off lightly.
( BY CONNIE OGLE, cogle@herald.com, 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

JAPANESE STORY (R)***
Twists keep love story off overly traveled path
A perfect candidate for a double bill alongside Lost in Translation, Japanese Story is a love story about two strangers stranded in a foreign land, trying to adapt to a different culture. The difference this time is that the culture clash comes from within.
( BY RENE RODRIGUEZ, rrodriguez@herald.com, 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

THE BIG BOUNCE (PG-13) * ½
Even Hawaii's pristine beaches can't keep this dud from sinking
When you're a filmmaker, and you don't have much of a script or action or romance or humor or even, really, notable performances, what do you do? You shoot your movie in Hawaii. That way, when the pace drags, or you need a transition and nobody has bothered to write one, you just toss in some footage of surfers on big waves. Presto! Instant visual stimulation.
( BY CONNIE OGLE, cogle@herald.com, 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

AFTER DARK
Down on upscale? Take a trip to the Poor House
Let's say you've had a long and taxing day at the office. Maybe your secretary forgot to give you a couple of messages; maybe you're queasy from watching the market go up and down. You deserve a night out, so you get into your new convertible and head to downtown Fort Lauderdale.
( BY GABE BERMAN, seize18@aol.com, 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

JUST JAZZ
Brubeck's 'Gates of Justice' reopen
Jazz icon Dave Brubeck has been on both sides of the racial divide. The first time he felt the sting was in 1954, when he became the second jazz artist to land on the cover of Time magazine. Louis Armstrong had already been so honored, but when the white Brubeck, a member of the cool jazz movement from the West Coast, got the cover, some black jazz musicians on the East Coast (including Miles Davis) complained bitterly.
( BY HOWARD COHEN, hcohen@herald.com, 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE (PG-13) ****
3 cheers for animation drawn from old school
It is safe to say you have never seen an animated film remotely like The Triplets of Belleville. With traditional pen-and-ink cartoons increasingly giving way to the popularity of computer animation, you may never have a chance to see another one quite like it again.
( BY RENE RODRIGUEZ, rrodriguez@herald.com, 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

THE PERFECT SCORE (PG-13) **½
Scarlett steals show, but we don't give a ...
I'm a nervy rule breaker. No, wait, what I meant to say is that I'm a by-the-book drag. OK, I'm neither, and neither is The Perfect Score, which pretends to be the former but ends up more like the latter.
( BY CHRIS HEWITT, Knight Ridder News Service, 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

VELVET UNDERGROUND
The inn thing: hotel owners & VIP dates
Hotel owners are the new rock stars, it seems, with the Raleigh's Andre Balazs dating Uma Thurman and now the Sagamore's Jason Pomeranc dating 90210-alum Shannen Doherty. And while rock-star girlfriends rarely help with record sales, hotel-owner girlfriends definitely help with room sales.
( BY LESLEY ABRAVANEL, lank@aol.com, 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

DVD news & rumors
More Clint: After getting a theatrical release in a handful of cities last year, a newly restored edition of Sergio Leone's classic western The Good, The Bad and the Ugly will receive a deluxe two-disc treatment on DVD.
( 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

Top 5 hits
THE CROW FLIES If album sales decline any further, Sheryl Crow may soon land her first No. 1 album.
( 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

Spins
Now that the Dolphins aren't around to torture us on Sunday afternoons, you might find yourself wondering what to do. Head for the Raleigh Hotel, where Alan Roth, Tommy Pooch, Andre Balazs and Ingrid Casares have created Soiree, a poolside party where the beautiful people chill out and sip cocktails.
( 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

It's a date
It's a Date Ready to ask someone for a first date? Or just want something new to do? Here's a plan for a perfect date. Send your ideas to weekend@herald.com. The theme: Get jazzed.
( 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

New music
IN STORES TUESDAY (Dates may change.) Boyz II Men, Legacy: Greatest Hits Collection -- Deluxe Edition (Motown). Two-CD set. Greg Brown, Honey in the Lion's Head (Trailer).
( 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)

Also coming Tuesday to DVD/Home Video
American Splendor (R) ***½: Part fictionalization, part documentary and part animation, this look at the life of Harvey Pekar -- the Cleveland office file clerk turned underground comic-book writer and everyman hero -- achieves startingly original ground.
( 01/30/2004 03:01 AM EST)