JUST FRIENDS (PG-13) Nothing says Happy Holidays like a really lip-smackingly nasty comedy about obnoxious people doing stupid, humiliating or otherwise outrageous things at Christmastime — and that's exactly what Just Friends is. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Just Friends stars Ryan Reynolds as a suave L.A. player desperately trying to seduce the beautiful girl he secretly adored back when he was a fat dweeb in high school. The movie's minor characters are its strong suit — Anna Faris is brilliant as a slutty airhead pop star who owes a little too much to Britney Spears — but Just Friends is generally a lot of good, trashy fun, and maybe even a touch more clever than you're expecting. Also stars Amy Smart and Chris Klein. 3 stars.
KISS KISS, BANG BANG (R) Lethal Weapon screenwriter Shane Black makes his directorial debut with Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, a hugely entertaining effort starring Robert Downey Jr. in his juiciest performance in years. Downey is a fine bundle of nerves as Harry, a petty thief turned actor, who hooks up with a gay detective called — drum roll, please — Gay Perry (Val Kilmer), in a Bizarro World reconfiguration of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover's odd couple act. The first half hour or so of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang almost completely forgoes plot in order to set these weirdly mismatched characters loose in what is essentially a wicked little satire of the Hollywood scene. When the plot does finally kick in it hardly matters, since Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang turns out to be modeled on those wonderfully convoluted, classic Raymond Chandler noir-mysteries where even the writer isn't sure who killed whom and why. Also stars Michelle Monaghan and Corbin Bernsen. 4 stars.
THE LEGEND OF ZORRO (PG) A sequel a little too desperate to emulate the success of the popular Mask of Zorro but not quite sure how to go about it, The Legend of Zorro is as shapeless and uninspired as the original was elegant and sure of itself. Stars Antonio Banderas, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Rufus Sewell. 2 1/2 stars.
NINE LIVES (R) Director Rodrigo Garcia, son of the great writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, specializes in feature-length films that are actually collections of smaller pieces, sketches of sorts, that at their best have a rarified literary feel not unlike that of a good short story. Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her wove together five brief tales, while Ten Tiny Love Stories was pretty much what its title advertises. Garcia's latest, Nine Lives, focuses on mostly older women from various walks of life, placing them in small groups of two or three and in situations both commonplace and extraordinary. Robin Wright Penn meets an old flame in a grocery store, Glenn Close and Dakota Fanning have a picnic in a cemetery, Sissy Spacek cares for her disabled husband in one segment and then meets her lover in a motel in another. Some of the stories aren't quite as captivating as others, but the acting is uniformly excellent, and the cumulative effect something to be remembered. Also stars Amy Brenneman, Molly Parker, Kathy Baker and Holly Hunter. Currently at Burns Court Cinemas in Sarasota. Call to confirm. 3 1/2 stars.
NORTH COUNTRY (R) An uncomplicated but rousing tale of female empowerment and workers' rights in the good ol'-fashioned, issues-oriented style of Norma Rae and Silkwood, North Country is the story of how the nation's first class-action suit for sexual harassment came about. Charlize Theron stars as Josey Aimes, who runs away from an abusive husband only to land smack dab in the middle of a workplace polluted by some of the nastiest testosterone around. As we follow Josey's escalating humiliations at the hands of male co-workers and bosses, North Country combines elements of thriller, soap opera and courtroom drama, even as it succeeds in personalizing a critical moment in American history. North Country is the Hollywood debut of the New Zealand director Niki Caro, whose much-loved Whale Rider also featured a lone female treading in traditionally male territory, and the filmmaker fleshes out the dynamics of Aimes' tight-knit, Minnesota mining community with the same careful attention to detail she brought to the male-dominated Maori society of her earlier film. Also stars Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sissy Spacek, Richard Jenkins and Sean Bean. 3 1/2 stars.
