Divine Intervention (93 mins, 15) Directed by Elia Suleiman; starring Elia Suleiman, Manal Khader, Nayef Fahoum Daher
The Transporter (95 mins, 15) Directed by Cory Yuen; starring Jason Statham, Shu Qi, François Berleand, Matt Schulze
The Master of Disguise (80 mins, PG) Directed by Perry Andelin Blake; starring Dana Carvey, Jennifer Esposito, Brent Spiner, James Brolin
One of the of most bizarre aspects of Elia Suleiman's surreal comedy Divine Intervention is that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is said to have rejected it as a competitor for the best foreign picture Oscar because Palestine is not 'a legitimate nation'. Another is that he shows us life going on in a middle-class district of his native Nazareth as if the people had little more to do than bicker with their neighbours the way they do all over the world.
The film is a string of sketches and running gags set in Nazareth and at an Israeli army checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah and the apparent influences are Buñuel (especially The Phantom of Liberty), Jacques Tati, Buster Keaton and Roy Andersson's Songs From The Second Floor. The connecting thread, such as there is, concerns the deadpan Suleiman driving around with a beautiful girl while his father dies in hospital. While it all seems good-tempered and even generous, acrimony is always there and violence lurks beneath the surface. The movie begins with a gang of boys chasing Santa Claus around the countryside until all his presents have been dropped and we are shown the knife in his chest.
Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint are more disturbed by a large red balloon bearing Arafat's image than by Palestinian motorists. Suleiman casually throws a plum stone from the car and blows up an Israeli tank. The best gag, and the only time English is spoken, focuses on a foreign tourist asking an Israeli policeman the way to the Holy Sepulchre. Unable to help her the cop takes a blindfolded and handcuffed Palestinian from the back of his van to provide the information. The poorest sequence is the most elaborate - a female Ninja turning up to humiliate and kill six Israeli policemen at a firing range where the targets are pictures of Palestinian women. This film is a hit-and-miss affair and concludes with Suleiman's screen mother telling him: 'That's enough now.'
The Transporter, produced by a Frenchman (Luc Besson), scripted by an American (Robert Mark Kamen), directed by a veteran of Hong Kong action cinema (Cory Yuen) and starring an Englishman (Jason Statham, ex-Olympic diver and a leading player in Guy Ritchie's gangster movies), is a flavourless thriller about an ex-SAS soldier living well on the Côte d'Azur by delivering packages for assorted criminals in his souped-up BMW. Chases and choreographed fights set to rock music take up most of the running time and the movie is like To Catch a Thief remade by a hack follower of John Woo.
Asked what was the defining difference between Mel Brooks and Woody Allen, S. J. Perelman replied: 'Allen is funny and Brooks isn't.' The same might be said of Mike Myers and his Saturday Night Live and Wayne's World partner Dana Carvey. In the dire The Master of Disguise, Carvey is seen to maximum disadvantage as a dim-witted Italian-American waiter whose family have an inherited gift for turning themselves into anyone from Bo Derek to George Bush. His name is Pistachio Disguisey; the movie is produced by Adam Sandler; the megalomaniac villain (Brent Spiner) breaks wind whenever he laughs. Convinced?
