The Emperor's New Clothes (PG) A beautifully mounted if unspectacular What If? story in which Napoleon escapes exile from St. Helena in 1821 and returns to Paris, where he goes unrecognized and lives out his days in more or less happy obscurity. Ian Holm is extremely watchable as Napoleon (he's actually played this role on two previous occasions), but the film never rises to the level of its concept. Despite a handful of nice moments, it's basically sweet but slightly dull stuff. Also stars Iben Hjejle and Tim McInnerny.
Full Frontal (PG-13) Steven Soderbergh is back in full-blown experimental mode with this film-within-a-film-within-a-fantasy, in which the director seems to be having the time of his life creating what amounts to his own free-floating, self-contained universe. Full Frontal unfolds like a puzzle that begs to be put together even as it resists being solved. It's unclear for the longest time how the film's characters are related to one another, and we keep getting additional bits of information that suggest that everything we think we know is wrong. All that we do know is that most of the characters are either directly or peripherally connected to the movie industry, most of them have serious personal issues, and several of them are responsible for the movie that appears within the movie from time to time. Stars Julia Roberts, Blair Underwood, Catherine Keener, David Hyde Pierce, and Mary McCormack.
Gone With the Wind (G) Whether or not it's really the greatest epic love story ever translated to film is open to debate (though naysaying at this point in cinema's history is pretty much tantamount to heresy), but there's little use denying that Gone With the Wind is one heck of a Hollywood entertainment. Starring, as if you didn't know, Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh.Screens one time only at Tampa Theatre: Sunday, Aug. 18, at 3 p.m.
Halloween: Resurrection (R) The studio decided not to have any advance screenings of this eighth and latest edition of the Halloween horror franchise, and that's not good news for anyone hoping that this movie is going to be anything other than sheer crap. Stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Busta Rhymes and Tyra Banks.
(Not Reviewed)
Insomnia (R) One of the darker films you'll see this year, Insomnia is also one of the brightest, with the movie taking place in Alaska during that time of year when the sun hovers in the sky for 24 hours a day. Al Pacino stars as a cop who makes some very bad decisions and then becomes so sleep-deprived that he is unable to tell when he's crossed the line from good guy to bad guy. Also stars Hilary Swank, Robin Williams, Maura Tierney and Martin Donovan.
K-19: The Widowmaker (R) K-19 boasts a powerhouse teaming of movie stars — Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson — and a director who, while not exactly an A-List name, has made some great little films in her time (Kathryn Bigelow, who helmed Near Dark and Strange Days). Now if only this was anywhere near a good movie, we'd really have something to talk about. The film tells what is basically a true story of the ill-fated voyage of a Russian nuclear submarine in the early 1960s, giving the whole thing the feel of some bleak, epic Dostoevskian tragedy. Also stars Peter Sarsgaard.
Lilo and Stitch (PG) Another hit from the Disney team, although not quite out of the ballpark. Lilo and Stitch is basically a brightened-up, kid-friendly reinvention of the Frankenstein story, in which a manmade monster (or, in this case, alien-created critter) comes to grips with his own, um, uniqueness and, in the process, finds something not unlike a soul. Disney's extraterrestrial Frankenstein is Stitch, a big-eyed, genetically altered experiment who crash lands on earth and hooks up with a lonely little Hawaiian girl named Lilo.
Like Mike (PG) Hip-hop mini-icon Lil' Bow Wow makes his, um, acting debut as a tiny teen who dons a pair of magical sneakers to become a great NBA star. Also stars old-timer Morris Chestnut and Jonathan Lipnicki.
(Not Reviewed)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (PG-13) The first of Peter Jackson's long-awaited adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy succeeds on just about every level it's supposed to. For virtually its entire three-hour running time, Jackson's epic fantasy keeps us happily immersed in the stuff of legends, sort of like a Harry Potter for grown-ups. A top-notch ensemble of name actors throw themselves into their roles, and scenes of considerable intimacy are handled with as much care and conviction as the fantastic, sprawling battle scenes that are laced throughout the movie. The movie's overall tone is heartfelt, graceful and even surprisingly cheery for a film about, among other bits of nastiness, the impending end of the world. Stars Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Cate Blanchett and Christopher Lee.
