WORLD TRADE CENTER (PG-13) Oliver Stone's curiously conventional new film comes a little too close to being the movie everybody feared United 93 would turn out to be. Stone's movie is both too much and not enough, too calculating and often alarmingly bogus as it proceeds to boil down the events of September 11 into the ordeal of a couple of Port Authority cops trapped in the rubble of the twin towers. World Trade Center is essentially an old-school disaster flick, a based-on-real-life Apollo 13-ish drama that segues predictably between the plight of beleaguered, confined heroes and the agonies of their free-roaming friends and loved ones. The scenario plays out in methodical, surprisingly formulaic fashion (Stone, whose best films have always been written by himself, works here from a script by Andrea Berloff), with the director sublimating his unique filmmaking instincts and brazen stylistic flourishes in the service of a final product that, frankly, looks like it could have been made by any old hack. The nominal star here is Nicolas Cage, literally a talking head here, spending most of the movie completely immobilized and buried up to the neck in debris like some sooty reject from a Samuel Beckett play. When the movie isn't dwelling on Cage howling into the darkness, it's following around his significant others as they strut and fret, seizing on every sentimental cliché in the book. Also stars Michael Pena, Maria Bello, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Michael Shannon. 2.5 star
YOU, ME AND DUPREE (PG-13) Fans of Owen Wilson films will be disappointed to know that his latest picture falls short of the comedy bar he's so firmly established. When the loveable yet immature Dupree (Wilson) gets fired from his job and kicked out of his apartment, he's forced to move in with his newlywed friends, Carl and Molly (played by Matt Dillon and Kate Hudson). Of course, he quickly manages to turn their world upside down — which includes accidentally setting fire to the couple's living room — but while the are a few humorous scenes scattered throughout the movie, and, despite the star power of Michael Douglas as Molly's father and Carl's manipulative boss, You, Me and Dupree's overall plot lacks true comedic substance and it comes to a rather predictable conclusion. Also stars Amanda Detmer and Seth Rogan. 2 stars —Amy Moczynski
