orac-5

At first glance, this looks like a light hearted farce in the vein of "The Night We Dropped A Clanger." But underneath this (surprisingly, based on true events) movie is a more complex creature which talks about love (the great love story here is not O'Rourke and Romy but Parker and Franz), sexuality, the ordinary lives of German's during the war, courage, hope and humor. Izzard is terrific, and LeBlanc plays it well, while managing not to remind you of his 10 seasons as Joey on Friends. All of the cast members are given moments to expand beyond what initially look like 2-d caricatures, and the result is a clever and underrated movie. (WWII and cryptology history buffs may raise an eyebrow at the premise, but all is explained.)

Once you get past the first 20 minutes, which contains the worst of the acting and the expository dialogue that invariably that starts with "As you know, Mars/the spaceship/our oxygen supply...," this is an enjoyable and intelligent movie. Actually, with the proviso that this is indeed science fiction with regard to the more fantastic elements, they made a better fist of the science and technology than any of the Hollywood blockbusters about Mars. The production values are surprisingly high, although real space nerds will notice that the interior of the mars landing spaceship bears more than a passing resemblance to a shuttle mock up and Blake's 7 fans will notice the wandering-down-the-same-corridor-with-different-lighting trick.

Although marred by a lack of screen chemistry (and clumsy direction of romantic scenes) between Amidala and Annikan (although Annikan's fixation on Amidala is understandable, why Amidala would fall for Annikan is never established and comes across as just a deus ex machina), the film is saved by the solid individual performances of these two characters. Annikan's adolescent petulance is well-played but further deepens the mystery of why a successful adult woman would fall in love with him. The groundwork for Annikan's transition to the dark side is well laid down. But McGregor as Obi Wan Kenobi is the star of this movie, and the film flows best through his scenes as McGregor fills out his role to a T, and is believable as a younger version of the Kenobi we meet in Episode IV. Jackson gives a strong supporting performance and Yoda steals the show near the end. Christopher Lee does well in refraining from overplaying his villain; Star Wars was never a place for the cartoonish bad guys with the clever quips a la a James Bond or Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. The movie is tightly paced as the main characters split up and jumps back and forth whenever things look in danger of slowing down. Well choreographed light saber, spaceship and battle scenes gives a visceral punch to the beautifully created worlds which felt so empty in The Phantom Menace. In every respect (including the mercifully limited presence of Jar Jar Binks) this is a much better movie than Episode I and is on a par with Empire Strikes Back.