SYLVIA (R) Gwyneth Paltrow stars as everybody's favorite depressed, schizophrenic female poet, Sylvia Plath, an artist probably now more famous for her manner of suicide (death by oven fumes) than for her poems. The film is more or less faithful to the circumstances of Plath's life, and Patrow delivers a powerful performance, but Sylvia is as polished and well manicured as the star herself, giving an overly controlled, conventional feel to the story. Even more problematic is the decision to frame Plath's inner turmoil almost entirely as a struggle to compete with her acclaimed poet husband, Ted Hughes (Daniel Craig), who also shows his fangs a little less often here than he should. Good intentions aside, Sylvia ultimately serves to trivialize its central character by reducing her artistic and personal hells to mere extensions of some suitable-for-made-for-TV marital squabble. Also stars Jared Harris. 
THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (R) Although it's nowhere near as radical as Tobe Hooper's relentlessly rude, crude and frenetically formless cannibal-killers clasick, this contemporary remake is pretty effective in its own way. There's an obsessive attention paid to grotesque details, blood and fetid slime ooze from every nook and cranny, and streams of moody light seep through trees and slates of walls like outtakes from Alien or David Fincher's Seven. There's ultimately not all that much you can do with this material to "re-invent" it, but director Marcus Nispel displays enough imagination and passion to keep us involved. Quick cuts and some slickly imagined camerawork tip us off to Nispel's music video roots, but the basic approach here is refreshingly straightforward and all but free of postmodern nudges (outside of a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo by aint-it-cool-news.com's Harry Knowles). There are plenty of good, strong scares, some hot babes in distress, lots of creepy atmosphere and an appropriately mean-spirited, nasty streak that makes the movie exactly the love-it-or-hate-it proposition it should be. Stars Jessica Biel, Jonathan Tucker and Eric Balfour. 1/2
THIS THING OF OURS (NR) The movie's title refers to the Mafia and to its unwritten code of honor — a code that we're constantly told is eroding, although the film doesn't really show us how or why. We're also led to believe this is a different sort of Mafia movie, one in which the mob is "being brought kicking and screaming into the 21st century," but we don't get much sense of that process either. What we do get is a fairly interesting Internet scam (although the all-important details of the heist are sadly underrepresented), an amusing Tarantino-like conversation or two, and a smattering of what seem to be authentic details of la vita mafiaso. Writer-director-star and convicted gangster Danny Provenzano undoubtedly called on his own personal experiences for much of what transpires here, but the movie relies far too heavily on the mere presence of readymade gangster icons such as Sopranos star Vincent Pastore and James Caan to supply heft. There's a rambling, unfocused sense to the story, and the movie's low-budget origins are all too often on display in the plain cinematography and generic soundtrack. Also stars Frank Vincent and Edward Lynch.
TIME LINE (PG-13) Yet another big-screen adaptation of another Michael Crichton book, and basically one big drag. Paul Walker and Frances O'Connor are among a team of young archeologists transported back in time to 14th-century France, where they find themselves caught up in the ongoing war between the English and the French. Crichton's narrative hooks are as catchy and as shallow as ever, but veteran director Richard Donnor directs the movie with all the grace, energy and ingenuity of a high school play on an off-night, or an old episode of Scooby Doo where the gang goes back in time. There are battles aplenty, but for all the bloodletting, everything here feels strangely bloodless, with rambling, lethargic story-telling, phoned-in performances and virtually no sense of time or place. One of the few saving graces is David Thewlis as an evil techno-mogul with an unmistakable resemblance to Bill Gates. Also stars Billy Connolly and Gerard Butler. 1/2
TUPAC RESURRECTION (R) MTV-produced documentary using archival footage and interviews to tell the life story of iconic dead rapper Tupac Shakur. (Not Reviewed)
Reviewed entries by Lance Goldenberg unless otherwise noted.
