ABOUT SCHMIDT (R) Jack Nicholson is resplendently bland in this skewed character study of an ordinary retired insurance salesman with penchant for crankiness and a bad comb-over (is there such a thing as a good comb-over?). After his wife suddenly dies, Nicholson s Schmidt hops in his 30-foot Winnebago and embarks on a mini-road trip revisiting his past — only to find he doesn't really seem to have a past or a future. Also stars Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney, Kathy Bates and Howard Hesseman. 
AGENT CODY BANKS (PG) TV's Frankie Muniz (Malcolm in the Middle ) stars as a typical teen living a not-so-typical secret life as a CIA agent, complete with cool spy gadgets, dangerous missions and hot babes at the ready. Also stars Hilary Duff and Darrell Hammond. (Not Reviewed)
BOAT TRIP (R) Cuba Gooding Jr. and Horatio Sanz attempt to end a run of bad luck with women by going on a cruise, but they're unaware that their vengeful travel agent has booked them on an all-gay voyage. (Not reviewed)
THE BREAD, MY SWEET (PG) Director Melissa Martin s low-budget romantic comedy about Italian-Americans has all the depth, originality and ethnic authenticity of a commercial for canned spaghetti sauce. Scott Baio stars as a corporate ax man with a heart of gold (he really just wants to bake bread) who decides to marry the wildcat daughter of his terminally ill surrogate mother. Baio is surprisingly good, but most of the other performances are amateurish. The indisputable highlight of the film is actress Rosemary Prinz, who, though not given much to work with, lights up the screen like Giulietta Masina every time she smiles. Also stars Kristin Minter and John Seitz. 1/2
BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE (PG-13) Steve Martin and Queen Latifah star in what the previews reveal to be the standard Hollywood comedy that starts with a wacky Internet match-up but winds up with Ms. Latifah as helper-to-the-rescue a la Mrs. Doubtfire. (Not Reviewed)
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (PG) Steven Spielberg's movie about the world s most successful con man is glossy Fun with a Capital F, a snappy old-school caper that never takes itself too seriously. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Frank Abagnale, a high school dropout who in the 1960s successfully impersonated a doctor, a lawyer and an airline pilot, and who passed some $4-million worth of forged checks, all before his 21st birthday. Also stars Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen and Nathalie Baye. 1/2
CHICAGO (PG-13) Rob Marshall pulls out all the stops in this lavish, big-screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical about a 1920s chorus girl who shoots her lover, goes to jail and becomes a big celebrity. Taking place simultaneously in gritty reality and in the projected fantasies of its characters, the movie cleverly folds its story into a series of show-stopping musical numbers. Stars Renee Zellweger, Richard Gere, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John C. Reilly and Taye Diggs.
CITY OF GOD (NR) We've seen this story before, more or less — the blood, the budding psychopaths, psychopaths, the all-too-young victims of urban decay — but never quite like this. City of God is a movie bursting with life in all its nuances, often entwining beauty and ugliness in complex ways that are going to make a lot of audience members somewhat less than comfortable. The movie covers several decades in the lives of various low-level gangsters who inhabit a seedy housing project on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro and takes its shape from a series of tales as richly drawn as anything from Faulkner's Okefenokee County. The stories flip back and forth through the years, giving the film a fluid, elastic sense of time, recalling the postmodern playfulness of Pulp Fiction or Amores Perros, and the style is frequently dazzling. Director Fernando Meirelles movie comes off as a compelling social history as eccentric and epic in scope as P.T. Anderson's Boogie Nights, but it also succeeds on a very personal level. This is a comic tragedy about people who appear to change and to speed along at the speed of sound while, in actuality, they re standing absolutely still. Stars Alexandre Rodriguez, Matheus Nachtergaele, Seu Jorge and Leandro Firmino da Hora. 1/2
CORAL REEF ADVENTURE (G) Another quality IMAX production from the acclaimed team of MacGillivray Freeman (who seem to be able to do this IMAX thing in their sleep), Coral Reef Adventure is a fascinating and somewhat frightening look at an exotic and rapidly disappearing underwater world. Music by flag-waving hippie diehards Crosby, Stills and Nash brings home the environmental message concerning the destruction of the reefs (from a deadly combo of over-fishing and global warming), but the movie has its moments of fun as well. 1/2
CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE (R) A slick, stylish but basically silly and sub-generic heist/kidnap movie that teams up rapper-turned-"actor" DMX with Asian action icon Jet Li. The chemistry of the pairing is less than zero (which also sums up DMX's screen presence), but Li — when he's in motion, kicking out the kung fu jams — continues to be a thing of super-cool beauty, never breaking a sweat and hardly ever cracking a smile. A problematic command of the English language is still the main reason Li's not a bigger star, though, not that anything he says in this forgettable effort is remotely important.You know a movie's in trouble when Tom Arnold shows up and all but steals the show. Also stars Mark Dacascos and Gabrielle Union. 1/2
DAREDEVIL (PG-13) The latest Marvel superhero to hit the big screen is by far the most dour and exquisitely tormented of them all. "I'm not the bad guy," Daredevil tells us (and himself), but that's debatable, considering how much he obviously relishes inflicting pain upon the scummy lawbreakers scurrying through the city. A blind lawyer by day, a costumed, superpower vigilante by night, Daredevil has a thirst for justice that borders on the pathological, so that our vicious, crime-fighting hero often seems to have crossed the line from selfdoubting neurotic (a la Spider-Man) to full-blown nutcase. Daredevil is a violent, relentlessly downbeat and dark movie on almost every level (amazingly, it wasn't rated "R"), often coming across like Death Wish crossed with vintage film noir, with just a bit of extreme sports thrown in the mix. Ben Affleck is surprisingly effective as the tortured title character, and he's surrounded by a well-cast ensemble including Jon Favreau, Michael Clarke Duncan and Colin Farrell. Only a handful of overly cartoon-y moments and a generic soundtrack mar the final effect. Also stars Jennifer Garner. 1/2
DARK BLUE (R) Ron Shelton sets his new thriller at the time of the Rodney King trial, and the movie's tale of police corruption and racial divisions dovetails neatly (a little too neatly) with that very public event. Kurt Russell stars as a hardboiled Los Angeles cop battling his inner demons while tracking down some killers and getting sucked deeper and deeper into the messy politics of the LAPD. The movie gets the details right, painting the various black, white, Korean and Mexican L.A. subcultures in vivid colors, but fails to supply a script that offers much in the way of surprises or originality. The overly broad strokes used to depict the shady process by which cops, judges and lawyers do things may well be accurate, but the lack of narrative subtlety drags the movie down. Also stars Ving Rhames, Scott Speedman and Brendan Gleeson.
DREAMCATCHER (R) Although it starts out intriguingly enough, director Lawrence Kasdan's sci-fi/horror blowout quickly reveals itself as a disaster of Battlefield Earth proportions. Based on one of Stephen King's weaker efforts, this astonishingly bad movie crudely mashes together recycled tidbits from Stand By Me and The Tommyknockers with Alien, John Carpenter's The Thing and even a bit of Kasdan's The Big Chill. The resulting flick is a kitchen sink horror filled with exploding body parts, ubiquitous X-Files-esque alien viruses and vaguely psychic childhood pals who turn into lovable thirtysomethings and are promptly killed. It's boring, scatterbrained and an embarrassment to everyone involved. Stars Morgan Freeman, Thomas Jane, Jason Lee, Damian Lewis and Tom Sizemore.
FAR FROM HEAVEN (PG-13) Todd Haynes' loving and exquisitely crafted homage to the 1950s melodramas of Douglas Sirk is set in white suburban American circa 1957, an easy target if ever there was one. The heroine of this remarkable neo-tearjerker is Cathy Whitaker (beautifully played by Julianne Moore), a model housewife whose world crumbles when her marriage to local businessman Frank (Dennis Quaid) turns out to be not nearly as perfect as she imagined. There's a real story here, and Haynes uses the movie's formidable style to make connections between what was going on in America in the middle of the last century (but couldn't always be talked about) and what's happening here and now. 1/2
GANGS OF NEW YORK (R) Martin Scorsese's enormously ambitious new film about mid-1800s blood feuds and power struggles is a huge, magnificently sprawling thing that manifests all the power and resonance of classical myth. The movie's focus is the love-hate relationship between the characters played by Daniel Day-Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio, but Scorsese constantly layers his cinematic mural with additional characters, historical nuances and stories within stories. Gangs of New York is certainly History Writ Large, but the bulk of it is as accessible as anything this director's ever done. The movie is big, bloody, ornate, passionate and full of over-the-top emotions, like a grand opera reimagined as a really cool comic book. Also stars Cameron Diaz.
Head of State (PG-13) Are you ready for Presidential candidate Chris Rock? If so, this latest Rock comedy might be for you. Also stars Bernie Mac and Dylan Baker. Opens March 28 at local theaters. (Not Reviewed)
THE HOURS (PG-13) The film interweaves moments from the lives of three women living in three separate times and places, straining to establish unifying themes involving feminine strength (or lack thereof), motherhood, lesbianism and suicide. In the best segment, the writer Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) skulks about in1923, chain-smoking and mulling over ideas for a new book. In the worst segment, a contemporary New York publisher (Meryl Streep), nicknamed for a character in Woolf's book, prepares a party for Harris' dying writer.In between, there's Julianne Moore as a 1950s housewife who reads Woolf's book, quietly cracks up, and checks into a hotel with a year's supply of sleeping pills. Also stars Toni Collette and Claire Danes.
HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS (PG-13) This one marks the first time that Kate Hudson has truly been able to command the screen: She's utterly winning as a women's magazine columnist who, for the sake of a story on what females shouldn't do when dating, hooks up with a guy with the intent of driving him away within … well, check the film's title. She settles on a slick ad man (Matthew McConaughey), unaware that he's made a bet that he can get any woman to fall in love with him within the same time period. For a film that wallows in the usual malefemale stereotypes, this one's surprisingly light on its feet, thanks in no small part to its well-matched leads. Alas, the third act follows the exact pattern as almost every other romantic comedy made today: The deceptions become unearthed, the pair break up, some soul searching takes place, and bliss arrives after a madcap chase. Leave before this excruciating finale and you should have an OK time. 1/2
THE LIFE OF DAVID GALE (R) Kevin Spacey is uncharacteristically smug and sanctimonious as a former professor and dedicated death-penalty opponent about to be executed for the murder of a former colleague. Kate Winslet (in a rare, non-breast-baring performance and sporting a serviceable Yankee accent) is the ambitious journalist to whom Spacey relates his sad tale in a series of clumsily integrated flashbacks. The movie telegraphs every plot point, dutifully trotting out subplots involving all manner of made-for-TV-luridness in the process. Charles Randolph's script is dull, sloppy and thoroughly unconvincing, and a mildly engaging last-minute plot twist only succeeds in making the whole thing feel like a bad, two-hour and 10-minute O. Henry story. Also stars Laura Linney.
OLD SCHOOL (R) Returning to his distinguished oeuvre of college comedies, director Todd Phillips (Frat House, Road Trip) takes a promising gimmick, of three thirty- something friends (Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn) who decide to start their own fraternity. Phillips unfortunately forms that tasty notion into a bland soy retread inspired by films like Animal House, but without the brains to retool the collegiate comedy genre.Vaughn and Ferrell, however, make an honorable effort to inject some much-needed goofiness into their parcel of the film. 1/2 —FELICIA FEASTER
THE PIANIST (R) Roman Polanski's film is based on the memoirs of Polish-Jewish classical pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, who continued to be devoted to his art, even as he watched his world crumble and suffered an endless series of horrors and humiliations designed to rob him and others like him of dignity, humanity and, ultimately, life. The film's cool, reserved and utterly unsentimental style might sound at odds with the extremity of the subject matter, but it's all the more haunting for it. Stars Academy Award-winner Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Ed Stoppard and Frank Finlay.
PIGLET'S BIG MOVIE (G) Audiences may feel exhausted at the prospect of another journey into the Hundred Acre Woods and at the feeling they'd seen all the Heffalumps and Woozles they could handle. But director Francis Glebas does a remarkable job injecting a much-need dose of reality into A.A. Milne's tales of honey crazed bears and manic-depressive donkeys. Stepping out from behind Winnie-the-Pooh's shadow, Piglet proves himself a uniquely gifted and engaging performer, bringing poignancy to this story of a piglet who feels unappreciated and overlooked by the friends who eventually understand how much they need him. Bring a hankie. —Felicia Feaster
THE QUIET AMERICAN (R) In a stunning one-two punch that began with Rabbit-Proof Fence, director Phillip Noyce follows through with this evocative Graham Greene adaptation, filled with the writer's trademark intrigue and sophisticated, world-weary wit. On the surface, the movie's a romantic triangle, set in early 1950s Indochina, with titular quiet American Brendan Fraser moving in on Brit journalist Michael Caine's young Vietnamese mistress (the lovely Do Thi Hai Yen from Vertical Ray of the Sun).The woman's a not-so subtle stand-in for the country of Vietnam, of course (mistress to a variety of Westerners, colonized by the world), and the film plays out as an intimate account of the battle for her soul.The movie's elegantly mysterious atmosphere is due in large part to cinematographer Christopher Doyle, the Caucasian master of Asian imagery. Also stars Rade Serbedzija. 1/2
THE RECRUIT (PG-13) Slick, briskly paced but ultimately forgettable thriller starring Colin Farrell as a MIT whiz kid tapped by veteran spook Al Pacino to work for the CIA. The movie's first half is fairly interesting as it depicts Farrell's basic training, awkwardly folding in a romantic interest subplot, while the latter sections are a strictly by-the-numbers account of Farrell routing out a mole. The movie feels too small and cramped to generate much excitement, and it's too glossy to communicate the sort of paranoia and quiet menace it clearly wants us to feel. Also stars Bridget Moynahan.
SHANGHAI GHETTO Unknown to many, a community of Jewish exiles hid in Shanghai, China, during World War II. Filmmakers Dana Janklowicz-Mann and Amir Mann revisits the Jewish Ghetto with their digital camera, capturing shots of places unchanged since World War II. With them were two former inhabitants who discuss their impressions. The film includes never-before-seen footage of Shanghai and explores how the Jewish exiles interacted with the Chinese and Japanese occupying army. Opens March 28 at Burns Court Cinema in Sarasota. (Not reviewed)
SHANGHAI KNIGHTS (PG-13) If you're gonna insist on making a distressingly formulaic sequel to a distressingly formulaic comedy, then this might be the way to go, by overstuffing it with so much nonsensical material that some of it is bound to charm through sheer willpower. Its 2000 predecessor, Shanghai Noon, ranked as one of the weaker "odd couple" comedies of late, with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson going through the paces in a dull action romp set in the Old West. Knights is clearly an improvement, with Chan and Wilson (both more animated than in the previous picture) heading to London to solve the murder of Chan's character's father. The anachronisms make Oliver Stone's dramas seem like cinema verite documentaries by comparison, yet it's perversely pleasurable to hear The Who's "My Generation" and "Magic Bus" in a film that's set in 1887. 1/2
SPIRITED AWAY (PG) This Academy Award-winning film from revered director Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro ) unfolds a dream logic as memorable as that of Alice in Wonderland , which seems to be the model here. The film is a wonderfully odd, extended journey, in which a young girl named Chihiro watches her parents transform into pigs and then enters into a surreal world of giant babies, big-headed witches, wolf-dragons, enchanted balls of soot, and incredible spirits of all make and manner. It might be a bit too long or too unusual for some small children, but others are bound to be absolutely enthralled. My 3-and-a-half-year-old liked it almost as much as I did. An instant classic. Featuring the voices of Daveigh Chase (the weird girl in The Ring), Michael Chiklis and Jason Marsden. Playing at AMC Veterans and Muvico BayWalk. Call theaters to confirm.
TALK TO HER (NR) The "new" Almodovar all the way, a natural evolution of the more relaxed and emotionally direct approach that the director's been steadily honing over the past several years. It's a curiously restrained film for Almodovar, almost fragile in its way, but still bursting with life and fully informed by the juicy, overwrought passions and fabulous theatricality. In Talk to Her, Almodovar gives the male perspective for a change as two men express their love for women in comas. Almodovar skillfully zigzags through time, offering up strange little narrative detours and flashbacks within flashbacks but never allowing anything to get in the way of the movie's forward momentum. Stars Javier Camara, Dario Grandinetti, Leonar Watling and Rosario Flores. Held over at Burns Court Cinema, Sarasota, and tentatively scheduled to open March 28 at the Beach Theatre in St. Pete Beach. Call to c onfirm. 1/2
TEARS OF THE SUN (R) Antoine Fuqua directs the carnage in a thriller that attacks with careful timing and impeccable pacing. From its tense beginning to gung-ho ending, Tears of the Sun promises much and nearly delivers. Bruce Willis stars as a career soldier sent into Central Africa to retrieve an American care worker in the middle of a bloody civil war. Inevitably reluctant to abandon her charges, Dr. Kendricks (Monica Bellucci) manages to convince Willis to hike for three days through the jungle, all the while pursued by a gang of heavily armed but expendable extras. Watching Willis go from hard-nosed soldier to humanitarian takes some doing, but thereafter Willis and his band of men deliver one of the most suspenseful war flicks in recent memory. Cinematographer Mauro Fiore delivers lovingly shot panoramas of the would-be victims, but the script is lacking. Fuqua fastidiously avoids the question of U.S. involvement in wars with humanitarian repercussions. Tears of the Sun is considerably more concerned about the horror of war than its bombastic and far less interesting cinematic contemporaries, but nonetheless still falls short of being the sensitive and shocking tour de force that it threatens to be. —DAVE STEVENSON
Till Human Voices Wake Us (R) Guy Pearce stars in a man who returns to his hometown and finds he just can't get a childhood sweetheart out of his head. Only problem is she's dead. Also stars Helena Bonham Carter. Opens March 28 at Channelside. Call theater to confirm. (Not Reviewed)
VIEW FROM THE TOP (PG-13) Part Miss Congeniality, part Bring It On, View From the Top is Bruno Barreto's tale of a small-town girl who works her way up the flight attendant ladder. Mike Myers does his cross-eyed best to haul this average movie out of the quagmire but doesn't, and the upward mobility of Donna (Gwyneth Paltrow) is rarely matched by the movie itself. More a collection of passe stewardess jokes than an entirely self-supporting movie, A View From the Top is bighearted enough to transcend its slapdash approach to structure and script. Unfortunately, the bad casting, silly jokes and laughably improbable ending prove more difficult to transcend, leaving us with a frustrating misfire. —Dave Stevenson
WILLARD (PG-13) OK, let's see: Crispin Glover in full-blown fruitcake mode and a whole bunch of nasty rats. So how bad could it be? Unfortunately, a more appropriate question here is how good could it be? Glover stars in this remake of the 1971 oddity about a put-upon loner who cultivates rodents as friends. The movie's sufficiently pop-culture-savvy to toss around allusions not to the original Willard only but to everything from Psycho, The X-Files and Glover's own heavily baggaged on-screen persona, while retaining the grubby emotional essence of the original movie. Glover's well cast (although he often seems to think he's in a David Lynch film) and plays up his character's seething mass of pent-up rage to the hilt. The movie drags badly after its initial setup, though, largely because nothing much really happens. Also stars Laura Elena Herring, R. Lee Ermey and Jackie Burroughs. 1/2
—Reviewed entries by Lance Goldenberg unless otherwise noted
This article appears in Mar 26 – Apr 1, 2003.