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REVIEWED BY BILL HARDING
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The Yanks don't understand the Yorkshire dialect With no hint of a doubt, Aardman Animation's Chicken Run (U) is an instant popular classic. So far, the Bristol-based studio, founded by David Sproxton and Peter Lord and home to Wallace and Gromit, has pulled in three Oscars, for Creature Comforts. The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave, all directed by Nick Park. Now, with a tractor-load of cash from Dreamworks SKG, it has its first full-length feature in the cinemas. The painstaking work has paid off handsomely, with only one tiny cloud in the sky. The Yanks don't understand the Yorkshire dialect. Ahh.
The story's chicken-feed. A bunch of boilers on Tweedy's Farm want to bust out. They've seen what happens to chickens who don't come out with enough chucky eggs. Unfortunately, they're too fat to squeeze under the wire fences and chick, chick chickens can't actually fly. Ginger, Bunty, Babs and the rest are facing the chop when in 'flies' Rocky, a Rhode Island Red calling himself the Lone Free Ranger. From then on there's hope, and with the help of ex-RAF Wing Commander Fowler (geddit?) the plump egg-laying mob hatch their break-out.
The attention to detail is staggering. One chicken's backside has 3077 feathers, taking a painter a whole day to finish. From a total of 60 shades, each character is individually blended and mixed in a chewing gum machine. A total of 563 puppets were made. They required 1,000 pairs of eyes, each bird having its own unique colour. Aardman didn't do too badly on the microphone talent, either. Rocky is verballed by Mel 'Lethal' Gibson, backed up by Miranda Richardson, Jane Horrocks from Little Voice, Imelda Staunton and Timothy Spall. Chicken Run is brilliant entertainment, with action, tension and plenty of laughs. This is one film that won't do nowt at t'box office. Frequency (15) is an unusual story about time travel, sort of, and makes it almost believable. It's solidly cast and has an ingenious script which stays just the right side of sentimentality. Old timer Dennis Quaid, a fireman, was killed thirty years ago. he receives a 'phone call from a man who appears to be his son (Jim Caviezel from The Thin Blue Line). Neither can accept who he is speaking to - who would? The explanation is intriguing and ingenious and the performances are convincing. The opening fire sequence is superbly shot by director Gregory Hoblit. If you like The Outer Limits you'll like Frequency. Deception (15) is the latest from veteran director John Frankenheimer, who has had the patchiest of careers in the last twenty years, relieved only by the success of Ronin. The millions who avoided this new thriller in the States missed a violent, offbeat and sometimes funny yarn that kicks off with five dead Santas in the snow and lead character Ben Affleck about to leave chokey one cold and frosty Michigan morning. Inside there's his dead best friend and outside there's Charlize Theron busting to get out of her winter clothes. He can't go wrong, can he? Of course he can. The action sequences are spot on, Theron looks great in the buff (where's my ticket? - Ed) and Gary Sinise heads up the gang that takes on our brave ex-con in a casino robbery with a difference. Originally called Reindeer Games, Deception will probably do better on video than on its dumpster cinema release. Do not, under any circumstances, go anywhere near Madonna's new one, The Next Best Thing (12). It's a stillborn disaster, a yukky, glossy vanity project co-starring Rupert Everett as a gay who gets her pregnant. This atrocity was directed, amazingly by John Schlesinger, who made Midnight Cowboy in another life. email your own reviews or questions to movies@upforit.allhere.com
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