Upcoming Releases
LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD (PG-13) Old action movies don't die, they just fade away, and ditto for their stars. Bruce Willis is back as John McClane, now an agent with Homeland Security, but still a magnet for dastardly bad guys and the photogenic explosions caused by enormous vehicles smashing into even larger vehicles. Yippie-kay-ay. Whatever. Also stars Justin Long, Maggie Q, Timothy Olyphant and Jonathan Sadowski. Opens June 29 at local theaters. (Not Reviewed)
RATATOUILLE (G) Pixar's latest contribution to the annals of animation history is a sweetly perverse retooling of Disney's Cinderella, as retold for the Age of Conflicted Foodies — with Cindy reborn as a rat who wants to be Rachael Ray. The rat's name is Remy, and he even has his own fairy godmother — a floating Paul Bocuse figure who cheers him on with the shining motto "Anyone can cook!" — and by the end of this Paris-set rags-to-riches fable, glass slippers are found on all the right feet and rodent-inspired haute cuisine is the hit of the land. The latest creation of genius-boy director Brad Bird (The Iron Giant, The Incredibles), Ratatouille is as clever as it is entertaining, although this may well be the first Pixar film to actually connect more powerfully with grown-ups than with their kids (not withstanding that rare 8-year-old who yearns to hear talking animals wax poetic on the glories of saffron and wild mushrooms). The movie misses the emotional resonance of Toy Story and some of Pixar's other very best efforts by just a hair, but it more than makes up for it in wit, style and an almost balletic grace to the quite awesome animation. As if that weren't enough, there's also a climatic moped chase along the Seine, and, for a villain, a ghoulish critic (voiced by Peter O'Toole!) who writes in a coffin-shaped room while secretly waiting for some sort of Scrooge-ish redemption. Also features the voices of Patton Oswald, Iam Holm, Lou Romano, Brian Dennehy and Janeane Garofalo. Opens June 29 at local theaters. 4 stars
RECENT RELEASES
1408 (PG-13) Paranormal investigator and confirmed skeptic Mike Enslin (John Cusack) meets his match when he checks in the titular room at a Manhattan hotel and finds all hell literally breaking loose. Based on a short story by Stephen King, 1408 is a welcome change from the Saw/Hostel splatterfests currently in vogue, but the film's approach isn't exactly old-school psychological-horror either. Director Mikael Hafstrom throws a steady stream of somewhat incongruous elements at the wall hoping something will stick, and while there's plenty of eerie atmosphere and surreal visions here, there are also lots of cheap tricks, with the equivalent of somebody jumping out of a closet and yelling "Boo!" every few minutes. Cusack is on screen nearly every moment here, and he's quite good, but the film is a mixed bag — for better or worse, a spot-on translation of King's compulsively watchable and eminently disposable style. Also stars Samuel L. Jackson and Mary McCormack. Opens June 22 at local theaters. 3 stars
AFTER THE WEDDING (R) Former Dogme hard-liner Susanne Bier's most melodramatic leanings have surged to the surface, where they're aired out in feverishly opulent style. Mads Mikkelsen (the blood-weeping baddie from Casino Royale) stars as the Danish manager of a Bombay orphanage, whose meeting with a wealthy benefactor (Rolf Lassgard) lifts a veil on the past, uncorking a magnum of tears, traumas, secrets and lies. It's not easy writing about After the Wedding without giving away information the filmmakers would surely rather you discover for yourself — although most of the movie's "revelations" are pretty basic Days of Our Lives stuff and relatively simple to predict — but suffice it to say that credulity-testing coincidences abound, major skeletons emerge from their closets, and almost all of the characters turn out to be connected in ways that produce breast-beating and soul-searching aplenty. The camera still whips around nervously, almost Dogme-like at times, but the shots are just as likely to be smoothly executed and slickly composed, while a seemingly endless succession of iconic close-ups of eyes fill the screen. It's all absurdly over-heated and maybe even a bit silly, but I wouldn't at all call it unpleasant. The performances are uniformly strong, and although the director's style is now every bit as lush as her former approach was spartan, the execution here goes a long ways towards making palatable what is otherwise a pretty conventional storyline. Also stars Sidse Babett Knudsen and Stine Fischer Christensen. Opens June 22 at Tampa Theatre. Call theater to confirm. 3 stars
AWAY FROM HER (PG-13) Julie Christie stars as Fiona Anderson, a woman suffering from Alzheimer's, and as her memory vanishes, Away From Her sets itself the task of examining what remains. As much as the film focuses on Fiona's slow, slipping-away process, Away From Her is on equally intimate terms with her husband/caregiver Grant (Gordon Pinsent), and the bittersweet portrait painted here is ultimately a two-shot, a carefully layered mosaic of the couple's 44-year union. In a larger sense, the movie is a quietly telling examination of the nature of love itself, a reminder of what holds couples together even after the realization that our loved ones are not as we imagined them to be. In lesser hands this could easily have become treacly, even tedious going, but Away From Her turns out to be that rare, small film that packs an uncommonly large punch. Writer-director Sarah Polley (the young Canadian actress from The Sweet Hereafter, here making her behind-the-camera debut), allows the material to flow through conduits that don't always conform to our expectations, eschewing carpet-chewing for understated lyricism, and relying on the emotional truth of her actors' finely nuanced performances to bring it all home. Also stars Olympia Dukakis, Michael Murphy and Kristen Thomson. 3.5 stars
BUG (R) Is it a horror movie or an existential art flick masquerading as a horror movie? Or vice versa? Since the studio declined to screen this one for review, we'll just have to wait to see how it all comes out in the wash. Based on a stage play, and directed by William Friedkin (The Exorcist), Bug stars Ashley Judd as a woman holed up in a hotel room while some sort of (metaphorical?) contamination rages outside. Also stars Michael Shannon and Harry Connick Jr. (Not Reviewed)
DAY WATCH (R) Day Watch, the sequel to the 2006 Russian action-fantasy-horror hybrid Night Watch, begins with a brief introduction that brings us up to speed — or at least as close to "speed" as we can reasonably expect with material this convoluted. We're then left to wander the wilderness for the next 140 minutes, surrounded by signposts well worth gawking at, but that don't provide a clue as to our whereabouts. Former music video director Timur Bekmambetov returns us to a more or less modern-day Russia where magic rules and where an uneasy, age-old détente holds between the forces of darkness and light — a balance monitored by supernatural beings known as Others. Popular Russian movie star Konstantin Khabensky reprises his role as Anton, a vaguely vampiric Other in Bono's old shades, who in this installment must stop a malicious, all-powerful entity from shattering the truce with a somewhat dopey, mystical device called the Chalk of Life. Lots of other things are also going on here, but I'd be hard-pressed to say how, when or why one plot strand connects with another. Like its predecessor, Day Watch is as tasty as any Hollywood eye candy, but its storytelling chops are often tough going, with sequences filled with expositional gobbledy-gook that's sometimes silly and occasionally flat-out incomprehensible. Still, there's style to burn here, and those willing to suspend disbelief may find much to appreciate in a world where witches, wizards and shape-shifters take part in a crumbling post-Communist bureaucracy. Much like Night Watch, Day Watch filters Blade, The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, The X-Files and more through a sensibility that's uniquely Russian, and, although there's not a lot of logic on display, Bekmambetov imbues his movie with slickly enervating visuals that make it all go down surprisingly smoothly. Also stars Vladimir Menshov, Maria Poroshina and Galina Tyunina. 3 stars
EVAN ALMIGHTY (PG-13) A sequel to Bruce Almighty minus Jim Carrey, in which Steve Carell goes all Noah-esque when God (Morgan Freeman) tells him to build an ark. Also stars Lauren Graham, Wanda Sykes, John Goodman and Steve Oedekerk. (Not Reviewed)
FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER (PG-13) As superhero sagas go, this fledgling franchise has yet to prove its bankability, but that could all change with this new installment, which seems hand-designed for the fanboy crowd (those young-ish male louts who rule the box office). Rise of the Silver Surfer promises to be a geek's paradise, with some of Marvel Comics' most popular creations featured, including the titular silvery one and a beyond-good-and-evil nemesis who devours entire planets simply to exist. Oh yeah, and did we mention Jessica Alba? Also stars Ioan Gruffudd, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, Julian McMahon and Kerry Washington. (Not Reviewed)
GEORGIA RULE (R) Two of the actresses you love to hate — Lindsay Lohan and Jane Fonda — are among the three featured female leads here. That, along with the fact that the high-testosterone Spider-Man 3 is the only other game in town this week, should insure this movie attracts an audience of sorts, whether it be those seeking a car crash or a chick flick. As it happens, Georgia Rule is a bit of both. Felicity Huffman makes up the final third of the movie's female triad, playing a boozy Californian who sends her out-of-control teenaged daughter (Lohan) to spend the summer in Nowheresville, Idaho, with Huffman's estranged, iron-willed mother (Fonda). Director Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride) mercilessly milks the shtick resulting from three generations of feuding mothers and daughters, but the conflicts are mostly too tidy, the personalities too rigid, and every other gesture over-enunciated, like a so-so play, stiffly executed and slapped up on the screen. The movie begins by throwing out streams of strident humor (much of it rooted in the promiscuity of Lohan's character), then abruptly shifts gears to heavy drama without having much of a handle on either. It's like randomly channel surfing from Steel Magnolias to Porky's to some faceless Lifetime Movie of the Week, and rest assured that there will be hugs all around if you wait long enough for them. Also stars Dermot Mulroney, Garrett Hedlund and Cary Elwes. 2 stars
GRACIE (PG-13) This week's inspirational sports movie relates the titular teenager's struggle to play competitive soccer at a time (the late '70s) when polite society frowned on girls doing that sort of thing. Gracie is a family affair, starring Elisabeth and Andrew Shue, based on true events that happened to various members of the Shue clan back in the day, and directed by honorary Shue, Davis Guggenheim, who is married to Elisabeth. Also stars non-Shues Carly Schroeder, Dermot Mulroney and Emma Bell. (Not Reviewed)
HOSTEL II (R) Young girls sliced and diced for fun and profit. A sequel sure to rekindle the old debate about whether the original Hostel really was Saw with brains, as many of us claimed, or just another mean little splatter flick. Stars Lauren German, Bijou Phillips, Heather Matarazzo, Richard Burgi and Milan Knazko. (Not Reviewed)
KNOCKED UP (R) This is the new one from Judd Apatow, writer-director of the painfully funny The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and although I'm not quite ready to go out on a limb and suggest that Apatow is the Thinking Person's Bobby and Peter Farrelly, Knocked Up feels a lot like what the Farrelly's movies might have been like had their films continued to get better after There's Something About Mary. The unlikely event fueling all the wackiness here is an unwanted pregnancy, the result of a drunken one-night-stand involving dumpy, unemployed pothead Ben (Seth Rogan) and go-getter Jessica Simpson look-alike Alison (Katherine Hegel), classically mismatched characters that a smart script and naturalistic performances help us believe could actually wind up together. Neither Ben nor Alison are remotely ready for parenthood — she because it might be bad for her career, he because he's still a big baby himself — but, as in 40-Year Old Virgin, the characters' confusions and considerable imperfections only make them more appealing (and funnier). Be warned, though. Knocked Up has a split personality, and although the humor here is mainly character-driven and quite clever, it can also be crude enough to make Kevin Smith blush. Also stars Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann and Jonah Hill. 4 stars
A MIGHTY HEART (R) Bearing a surface resemblance to David Fincher's Zodiac — another police procedural more interested in blind alleys than investigative (or emotional) pay-offs — A Mighty Heart details the search for Daniel Pearl, the American journalist who was famously kidnapped and beheaded by Islamist nut jobs back in 2002. The movie unfolds from the perspective of Pearl's wife, Marianne (Angelina Jolie), a smart strategy that invites us to share her bewildered anxiety, while director Michael Winterbottom shots the movie in what often feels like panic mode, hand-held cameras madly whirling and few shots lasting longer than a couple of seconds. Jolie is surprisingly credible here in a discreetly altered, dressed-down version of herself that moves among the movie's other characters without seeming too terribly out of place. Jolie pops in some brown contacts, frizzes her hair and tones down the million megawatt smile, nailing the real-life Marianne's tricky French-Dutch-Cuban accent and doing everything she can, short of lip reduction surgery, to facilitate her character blending into the scenery. Winterbottom is rigorously neutral in laying out the highly charged politics implicit in Pearl's story, but while A Mighty Heart touches upon some extremely sensitive ground, it never touches down for long, and the movie's refusal to take a stand begins to feel like a failure of nerve. Also stars Dan Futterman, Archie Panjabi, Irrfan Khan, Will Patton, Denis O'Hare, Adnan Siddiqui and Gary Wilmes. 3.5 stars
NANCY DREW (PG) Adorable Emma Roberts, whose aunt is herself an adorable movie star (by the name of Julia), steps into the perfectly shined shoes of the famous tweener detective much loved by female readers of a certain age. Also stars Josh Flitter, Max Thierot, Rachael Leigh Cook and Tate Donovan. (Not Reviewed)
OCEAN'S 13 (PG-13) Who says star power is dead? The Ocean's movies may lack the fancy special effects and unadulterated escapism of other summer enterprises, but it's hard to deny the glossy appeal of Messrs. Clooney, Damon, Pitt and company, this time bolstered by the iconic presence of some guy named Pacino. Celine Dion's here too, but don't let that scare you away. Stars George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Bernie Mac, Ellen Barkin and Scott Caan. (Not Reviewed)
PARIS JE T'AIME (R) A collaborative project featuring 18 six-minute shorts, Paris Je T'aime never actually becomes a chore to sit through, but neither does it really add up to anything significant. What we get here are 18 directors — some of them rather well-known, and with actual big-name stars in tow — delivering customized vignettes set in, and taking their emotional cues from, the fabled City of Lights. Each short takes place in a different Parisian neighborhood, and though the subject matter and tone differ wildly from film to film, all of them eventually work themselves around to the topic of love. The shorts cover ground as mundane as the difficulties of finding a parking space in Montmarte and as creakily cosmic as a grieving mother (Juliette Binoche) temporarily reuniting with her dead son. Gus Van Sant's misfire depicts a failed love connection in a print shop in the Marais, while Alfonso Cuaron simply trains his camera on Nick Nolte and Ludivine Sagnier chatting about old times, then supplies a mild twist ending. Politics even rears its head occasionally, with Walter Salles checking in on a foreign-born nanny's less-than-happy condition and Gurinder Chadha bending over backward to draw our attention to the innate humanity of the city's misunderstood Muslims. But the less-than-stellar material is forgiven, if not forgotten, in the light of a pair of wonderfully inventive pieces of whimsy — a bizarre live-action mime fantasy from The Triplets of Belleville director Sylvain Chomet, and a prime Coen Brothers freak-out featuring Steve Buscemi as a sad-sack tourist on the Paris Metro. Best of all is the final short here, in which Alexander Payne shows us yet another unworldly American abroad, whose taste of Paris becomes a funny, sad and ultimately profound transformative experience — and all in under six minutes. Also stars Fanny Ardant, Bob Hoskins, Natalie Portman, Elijah Wood, Rufus Sewell, Willem Dafoe, Ben Gazzara and Gena Rowlands.3 stars
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END (PG-13) One more go around — and, reportedly clocking in at over two and a half hours, a very long go around — for Johnny Depp and company. The mega-budgeted third part in a swashbuckling franchise of almost Bollywood-like over-abundance (Adventure! Comedy! Horror! Romance!), this latest installment also boasts appearances by Chow Yun-Fat and, as Depp's swaggering, slurring pop, Keith Richards. Also stars Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Geoffrey Rush and Bill Nighy. (Not reviewed)
SHREK THE THIRD (PG) There's no use denying that the bloom is off the rose, but don't for a minute think that means Shrek the Third stinks. After the sustained comic brilliance of Shrek and Shrek 2, maybe we should be thankful for the breather supplied by a little water-treading. The zingers still fly thick and fast — with all the rapid-fire asides and absurdities, this latest Shrek often seems one step removed from the frenetic desperation of a Naked Gun flick — but the story this time out is clearly aimed more at satisfying kids than engaging grown-ups. The patented Shrek formula remains intact, with myths and modernity conflated like crazy, but the jokes simply don't soar as high this time, and the ubiquitous pop-culture references are even becoming a bit strainedFeatures the voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Rupert Everett and Justin Timberlake. 3 stars
SURF'S UP (G) Before you decide to read no further — Omigod, not another penguin movie! — allow me to suggest that the film isn't nearly as painful as what you may be imagining. Surf's Up's humor generally aims closer to droll spoofery than teeth-gnashing cuteness, with the movie assuming the form of an animated mockumentary revolving around the absurdist premise that surfing was invented by the talking penguins who are the film's subjects. These birds aren't the most charismatic or adorable animated characters you'll ever meet, but they're as engagingly self-conscious in front of a camera as anybody on The Office, and their gags often benefit from a seemingly improvised quality in keeping with the whole "reality filmmaking" approach. All in all, the movie doesn't stray too terribly far from the expected formula, but it's nevertheless a pleasant surprise to see penguins that rarely mug, hug or otherwise pander. Also features the voices of Shia LaBeouf, Zooey Deschanel, Jon Heder, Jane Krakowski and James Woods. 3 stars
WAITRESS (PG-13) A slight and sweetly quirky affair, Waitress is an oddball fairy tale with a faintly naughty undertow. The movie's title refers to not one but three colorful women living lives of varying degrees of dissatisfaction while working in a curiously idealized dive called Joe's Pie Diner. The principal "pie genius" here is Jenna (Keri Russell), a pregnant backwoods beauty trying to figure a way out of her marriage to a bad-tempered jerk named Earl (Six Feet Under's Jeremy Sisto). The weirdo whimsy is sometimes a bit forced and it doesn't always fully mesh with the more "real" reality that periodically rears its head — but, at the risk of conjuring up tired old words like "bittersweet," it's quite a feat that director Adrienne Shelly manages to put a sunny and even silly face on material that might just have easily slipped into tragedy. Shelly's awkward characters and stylized cadences owe much to the skewered sensibilities of indie filmmakers like Hal Hartley and Jim Jarmusch, and the movie's connection with reality often seems so loose as to be a matter of convenience, a hook for the audience. And if any doubts remained about Waitress being Mayberry R.F.D. set in outer space, who should show up here but Andy Griffith himself, playing a cantankerous octogenarian wearing a bow tie as big as his head. Also stars Nathan Fillion, Adrienne Shelly, Cheryl Hines, Andy Griffith and Eddie Jemison. 3.5 stars
This article appears in Jun 27 – Jul 3, 2007.