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This week's reviews: 'Equilibrium,' Streisand, more
(PEOPLE) -- This week, PEOPLE.COM looks at the film "Equilibrium," Barbra Streisand's album "Duets" and CBS's made-for-TV movie "The Man Who Saved Christmas." Movie review: 'Equilibrium'
The Mona Lisa is set ablaze by police in the strong opening scene of this smart sci-fi thriller from first-time director-writer Kurt Wimmer. The cops, led by stalwart John Preston (Christian Bale), have found Leonardo's masterpiece in a cache of forbidden objects, which includes books and records. Welcome to the future, where it's illegal to feel anything, including joy at viewing art. "Equilibrium" is "The Matrix" on a smaller budget. It has nifty martial-arts sequences, a healthy distrust for authority, a distinct hard-edged look and a plot that's easier to follow than "Matrix"'s. Once Preston becomes a "sense offender" himself (going wild by listening to Beethoven and reading Yeats), the film sustains a measure of suspense as he evades being found out by his fellow officers. Bale makes up here for the dopey "Reign of Fire." Emily Watson is her ever-radiant self as a prisoner Preston falls for, and Taye Diggs is smoothly menacing as a rival cop. Bottom line: A balanced thriller Music review: 'Duets'Barbra Streisand (Columbia) Noted political analyst Streisand, whose Web site bubbles with instructions on how to run the country, needs to get back to her day job while she still has her voice; she hasn't recorded a new album in three years. Fans will have to make do with this career-spanning assortment, which includes only two new tracks. Both (one with Barry Manilow, the other with Josh Groban) are serviceable weepies, but neither tops the tear-duct-battering omnipotence of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" with Neil Diamond and "All I Ask of You" (from "Phantom of the Opera") with Michael Crawford. Old favorites with Barry Gibb, Frank Sinatra and Johnny Mathis work as well as ever, though it's awfully familiar stuff. (And who told her to sing with Bryan Adams?) More welcome are a couple of unexpected treats like a sprightly "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" from 1966, sung with its composer Harold Arlen in the hepcat style of a Caesars Palace floor show. Bottom line: Mellow gold TV review: 'The Man Who Saved Christmas'
CBS (Sunday, December 15, 9 p.m. ET) "Old-fashioned" is usually a compliment at holiday time, so I suppose only a Scrooge would criticize this TV movie for employing a traditional Hollywood formula: Take a few kernels of historical fact, add plenty of cooked-up drama, pour on the sentiment, and be sure to give the hero a big speech at the finish. Jason Alexander works hard as A.C. Gilbert, famous inventor of the Erector set, who is taken aback when the government asks him to quit manufacturing toys and use his factory to produce munitions for U.S. forces in World War I. Later on Gilbert is floored when the feds go further and suggest that he endorse a pitch to parents to buy war bonds at the Yuletide instead of kids' playthings. "Are you actually talking about canceling Christmas?" Gilbert says like a boy who just found coal in his stocking. After agonizing over his patriotic duty and the fate of his missing-in-action brother (Ari Cohen), Gilbert decides to stand up for seasonal toy sales and the American way. Plot and characterization are rather thin. Gilbert conducts business with unbelievable benevolence, and his father (Edward Asner) goes from controlling tightwad to proud supporter in a twinkling. Still, Alexander's energetic performance may put you in the mood to pile presents under the tree. Bottom line: The star just manages to sell it -- Terry Kelleher
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