13 Ghosts (PG-13) 21st Century remake of the old William Castle spookfest about a family trapped in the haunted house they've just inherited. Stars F. Murray Abraham, Tony Shalhoub and Shannon Elizabeth.
(Not Reviewed)
Adventures of Felix (R) Picturesque road movie about a young Frenchman named Felix (Sami Bouajila) who hitchhikes from his home in the North to the South of France in search of the father he never knew. This charming but somewhat ephemeral French import offers its share of pleasures primarily as an uncomplicated, virtual travelogue of the French countryside, although it also touches on some weightier stuff, mostly stemming from our hero's identity issues as a gay man and an Arab to boot. The film essentially just follows Felix on his road trip as he encounters one colorful character after another. Structure often feels like an afterthought. Also stars Pierre-Loup Rajot and Patachou. 
All Over the Guy (R) A smartly written and briskly entertaining romantic comedy that just happens to be about a couple of gay guys. Dan Bucatinsky (who also wrote the script and the play upon which it's based) stars as unlucky-in-love Eli, who's got the hots for Tom (Richard Ruccolo) a guy who would pretty much be Mr. Right if it weren't for his serious commitment problems. The push-pull of the characters gets a bit predictable and occasionally coy, but All Over the Guy is filled with sharp, witty dialogue that helps us glide through the rocky patches. Opens at Tampa Theatre Nov 9. Call theater to confirm. 
Amazing Journeys (PG) IMAX films are about scale, size — from the unfathomably huge (the oceans, the cosmos themselves) to the microscopically small — and this latest IMAX production gives us a little bit to look at from both ends of the spectrum. Amazing Journeys examines the migration habits of various creatures.
Bandits (PG-13) Director Barry Levinson mixes buddy-crime-flick shtick and romantic comedy (a la Ally McBeal) and peppers it with the stylish verite camera moves and music video-style montages he employed in his TV show Homicide. The combination makes for an entertaining, though unevenly paced and overly quirky, two hours of madcap caper fun. The hubbub centers on bank robbers Joe and Terry (Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton) and their sidekick/love interest Kate (Cate Blanchett) who gain notoriety as the Sleepover Bandits. See this movie with an ample suspension of disbelief and tolerance of Hollywood sap, and it'll be well worth your time.
—Julie Garisto
Bones (R) Stylishly lensed but incoherently told horror tale about — as near as we can tell, anyway — a tough but benevolent ghetto boss who returns from the dead when a bunch of teens make the mistake of turning his old hangout into a nightclub. Bones is a vapid, convoluted mishmash of Hellraiser, Candyman and a dozen other, better horror films, and, despite top billing, Snoop Dogg isn't even in the movie very much. That's actually a blessing, since he's pretty awful. 
Bread and Tulips (NR) Bored, underappreciated Italian housewife Rosalba (Licia Maglietta) gets separated from her family at a rest stop and uses the opportunity to take a little personal journey that eventually lands her in the magical city of Venice. There she encounters one charming eccentric after another — chief among them a suicidal Icelandic waiter, a cranky anarchist-florist and a flighty, holistic masseuse — and eventually discovers her own sense of self. We've seen variations on this sweet, lighter-than-air story countless times before, but the lovely travelogue footage of Venice and winning performances by Maglietta and Bruno Ganz help hoist it a half-notch above the rest of the pack.
Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man (G) Multimedia performance artists/acrobats/magicians Cirque du Soleil find their way to the big screen — the really big screen — in this visually spectacular IMAX 3-D experience. The film's astonishing imagery constitutes an authentic document of Cirque du Soleil in motion, as well as a beautifully poetic tribute to the glory of the human body. At IMAX Channelside.
Corky Romano (PG-13) Goofy-looking vehicle for rubber-faced SNL regular Chris Kattan. The loser son of a Mafioso, Corky must help the family by infiltrating the FBI.
(Not Reviewed)
Domestic Disturbance (PG-13) A cute little kid is terrorized by his evil step dad (Vince Vaughan). Never fear, though: Bio-pop John Travolta is on to him. Also stars Steve Buscemi.
(Not Reviewed)
Don't Say a Word (R) A slickly made but only modestly interesting thriller in which a child psychologist (Michael Douglas) races against time to meet the ransom demanded by his daughter's kidnappers. What Douglas' character needs to do is extract information locked in the mind of a deeply traumatized patient and then convey that info to the bad guys. There's much less here than meets the eye, but there are some passable moments of suspense, and the film is skillfully crafted enough to occasionally give the thin storyline the illusion of substance. 
From Hell (R) Ye Old London Town comes off as a cross between something out of a vintage Hammer flick and a Marilyn Manson horrorshow, with Johnny Depp starring as an absinthe-swilling, opium-smoking inspector on the trail of history's first and, arguably, most notorious serial killer, Jack the Ripper (depicted here as a predictable blend of Lecter and Dracula). The moody atmosphere in this most explicit and goriest of mainstream Ripper movies is so thick you could cut it with a bloody scalpel, but underneath all the extraordinary visuals and conspiracy theories beats the heart of a fairly routine slasher flick. Also stars Heather Graham.
Hardball (PG-13) Keanu Reeves plays a lifelong underachiever who discovers the real meaning of life when he becomes the coach of a baseball team of underprivileged kids. Also stars Diane Lane.
(Not Reviewed)
Hearts in Atlantis (PG-13) Based in part on a Stephen King novel, and much in the mold of Stand by Me, Hearts in Atlantis takes adorable children with loads of character and jolts their humdrum lives with a dose of adventure — this time of a rather cosmic sort. Eleven-year-old Bobby Garfield (Anton Yelchin) lives with his widowed mom in small-town New England in the late '50s. A retired stranger, Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins) moves into the upstairs apartment; he's wise but weird, and Bobby is immediately drawn to him. The film trucks in quiet suspense and genuine human interaction, and is imbued with a pervasive sweetness, all of which should play well to the current national mood.
—Eric Snider
Heist (R) David Mamet is back with a crowd he clearly loves — con artists and crooks — but don't expect the metaphysical mind games of The Spanish Prisoner or House of Games this time around. Heist is about as close to a no-frills action movie as Mamet's likely to come, with a number of set pieces revolving around finely tuned robberies, and a relative minimum of angst or stylized chat (although it does contain its share of prime Mametspeak). Gene Hackman is in top form as the leader of a gang of tough but weirdly endearing thieves, and it's his presence that really carries the film. The movie's twists and turns begin to seem a bit contrived after a while, but, on the whole, Heist is an oddly crowd-pleasing bit of business that shows that the commercialization of David Mamet continues apace. Also stars Danny DeVito. Opens Nov. 9 at local theaters.
High Heels and Low Lifes (R) Dismally unfunny Brit crime comedy that makes Snatch look like Citizen Kane. Two gal pals (Minnie Driver and Mary McCormack) stumble upon a robbery-in-progress and then, later, concoct a stupid scheme to extort money from the crooks. The movie doesn't seem to have a clue as to how to tell a joke or, for that matter, a story. 
Innocence (PG-13) Director Paul Cox's ode to love during the sunset years is a glorious reminder that it's not necessarily the story that makes a film extraordinary, but how it's told. Claire and Andreas (Julia Blake and Charles Tingwell) are two senior citizens who were madly in love as youngsters and then went their separate ways. When the pair rediscover each other a half-century later, that love is found, amazingly enough, to only have grown stronger. In lesser hands, Innocence might have been a silly throwaway of a romance, but Cox's knack for coaxing superb performances from his actors and his ability to enrich his tale with a series of deeply felt emotional nuances turn the film into a surprising pleasure that frequently seems just short of remarkable. Also stars Terry Norris
Iron Monkey (PG-13) Originally released in 1993, Iron Monkey is one of those wonderful, wildly energetic Hong Kong classics to which Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger paid homage. This sometimes cartoonish tale of a larger-than-life, 19th century Chinese Robin Hood doesn't make any claims to the high art status of Crouching Tiger, but it doesn't need to: Iron Monkey was directed by Yuen Woo Ping, who choreographed the brilliant action sequences in Crouching Tiger and The Matrix, and the stylish wall-to-wall battle sequences here are often every bit as dazzling. 
Island of the Sharks (PG) Another intriguing, typically beautiful IMAX underwater feature, this one taking us eyeball to eyeball with the denizens of the waters around the Cocos Islands off the coast of Costa Rica. At Channelside IMAX.
Joy Ride (R) A couple of college kids play a prank with a CB radio (described as a prehistoric Internet) and wind up being relentlessly pursued by a super-human psychopath in a monster truck from Hell. Director John Dahl (The Last Seduction, Red Rock West) laces the movie with interesting character dynamics and then gives the whole thing a forward momentum that's really quite remarkable. The result is smart, tight, tense and, most of all, consistently scary. Stars Paul Walker, Leelee Sobieski and Steve Zahn, whose amiable but intense wise-ass performance recalls a young Dennis Hopper or maybe even Jack Nicholson.
K-PAX (PG-13) Kevin Spacey delivers another terrific performance as an enigmatic mental patient who annoys, befuddles and eventually charms everyone in sight, from patients to staff, and ultimately even teaches his shrink (Jeff Bridges) to be a better person. Director Iain Softley and screenwriter Charles Leavitt create a genuine sense of wonder for most of K-PAX's running time, crafting a workable variation on The Fisher King meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest that recalls both of those fine films without resorting to imitation. The magic dissipates a bit during the movie's second half, which dwells more on the history and psychology of Spacey's character, but even at its most conventional, K-PAX is still extremely watchable. Also stars Mary McCormack and Alfre Woodard.
The Last Castle (R) Robert Redford stars as a legendary three-star general sentenced to a maximum security military prison ruled with an iron fist by the cruel, heavy-breathing warden (James Gandolfini). Redford's character endures all sorts of abuse, becoming a hero to the other inmates in the process, and eventually orchestrates a plan to take over the prison. The Last Castle feels a bit like a watered-down cross between Cool Hand Luke and one of Hollywood's vintage POW movies, but the movie never rises above the sum of its parts. <
Life as a House (R) Kevin Kline stars as a terminally ill man who decides to spend his last few months building himself a swanky home by the sea, while simultaneously attempting to build bridges with his estranged son (Hayden Christensen) and ex-wife (Kristen Scott Thomas). Director Irwin Winkler pays a lot of attention to the movie's surface but doesn't seem to have too much faith in the essence of his own story; he rarely allows the movie to take stock in itself or allows quiet, reflective moments that should have really made the film matter. Instead, the director's general tendency is to take a fairly ham-fisted approach to some potentially complex or otherwise sensitive elements, an approach that occasionally threatens to reduce the film's crucial spiritual dimension to the level of cliche. There are times when Life as a House feels like it might have been better expressed on a greeting card.
Max Keeble's Big Move (PG) Harmless kiddie fare about a plucky seventh-grader's run-ins with school bullies, weirdoes, cute girls and a very evil principal (played by Larry Miller, whose normally too-abrasive persona is a welcome addition to this bland mix). It's all utterly predictable but good-natured and fairly energetic, with the odd food fight and misbehaving monkey thrown in to perk things up. Stars Alex D. Linz, Zena Grey and Josh Peck.
Monsters Inc. (G) Imagination runs rampant in the best possible way in this latest animated treat from the folks at Pixar Studios (Toy Story 1 & 2, A Bug's Life). The movie's a vaguely screwballish comedy of errors, a bit like Three Men and a Baby, except that the men are actually monsters. Cute, likable monsters that is, who belong to a community of multishaped beasties who accidentally come into contact with one of the adorable little children they're charged with scaring. If the material isn't quite up to the trend-setting brilliance of the Toy Story movies, that's only a minor stumbling block in an otherwise clever and endearing entertainment. Featuring the voices of John Goodman, Billy Crystal, James Coburn and Steve Buscemi.
Mulholland Drive (R) David Lynch's latest exercise in non-linear dream logic features an amnesiac woman dubbed Rita (Laura Harring) and her perky friend Betty (Naomi Watts) playing Nancy Drew in an effort the discover who the memory-challenged lass is. The weirdo detective story is diverting enough on its own, but Lynch seems compelled to mix it up with lots of completely unrelated elements that wind up merely making the film seem padded, and more pretentious and confused that it might otherwise have been. The material that comprises Mulholland Drive isn't exactly what might be called fascinating in and of itself, but there's a relentless, slow-motion car-crash momentum at work here that's highly watchable; we can never quite make up our minds if the undercurrent running through the entire movie is simply single-minded and lugubrious, like a small reptile crawling along with a limb missing — or maybe just plain malevolent.
My First Mister (R) This unlikely platonic-love story between a heavily pierced, Goth ice-queen (Leelee Sobieski) and a boring, middle-aged clothing salesman (Albert Brooks) plays out a bit like Ghost World with an infinitely more conventional storyline and a heaping helping of sentimentality. Actress-turned-filmmaker Christine Lahti directs much of My First Mister with a sure hand and a healthy respect for her actors, but the film falters badly during a lazily written last act that threatens to transform itself into a Lifetime made-for-cable weeper. Also stars Carol Kane and Mary Kay Place.
On The Line (PG) Lance Bass, once derisively called the cross-eyed dude in N'Sync by a comic, and fellow member Joey Fatone, make their film debut in the romantic comedy On The Line. Bass plays Kevin Gibbons, a 24-year-old advertising agent who's infamous among his friends for choking when it comes to girls. As fate should have it, Bass meets the girl of his dreams on the El train and amps up his infamy. Not only does he forget to get the mysterious girl's digits, but her first name too. The movie the takes several unexpected twists until Bass steps up to plate. N'Sync fans, and even those over the age of 15, won't be disappointed by these pop icons' invasion of the big screen.
—Casey Jennings
The One (PG-13) Apparently failing to learn any sort of lesson from all those awful Jean-Claude Van Damme flicks where the Muscle from Brussels plays battling twins, Jet Li takes on himself in this vaguely sci-fi-ish action blow-out. Of course, one Jet Li is worth a dozen Van Dammes, but that's not nearly enough to save this generic mish-mash of The Matrix, Terminator and Twilight Zone. The premise here is that Bad Jet has arrived from a parallel universe to kill Good Jet and absorb his power, leading to a seemingly endless series of extended chases and digitally manipulated fight sequences. The non-stop heavy metal soundtrack is alone enough to drive you from the theater. Also stars Delroy Lindo and Carla Gugino.
The Others (PG-13) A good old fashioned spook story, creepy and quietly menacing in an elegant, understated way that hardly ever finds its way into horror movies any more. Nicole Kidman stars as a high-strung widow with two small, sunlight-allergic children and, possibly, a ghost or two hanging about the house. All the right elements are here — weeping and wailing from invisible entities in the night, inanimate objects that take on ominous life, creepy children, withered crones with weird eyes, inscrutable servants with terrible secrets.
Our Lady of the Assassins See Film.
Riding in Cars with Boys (PG-13) Beverly Donofrio (Drew Barrymore) lives out the first two decades of her life of as a nice Catholic girl who gets pregnant at age 15 and then finds her dreams of college and a career constantly squashed by the demands of her dead-end life. The first 90 minutes of this overlong movie are listless, stodgy comedy, alternately screechy and sappy, detailing Bev's life with a small child and well-meaning but simpleminded husband (Steve Zahn). The last half-hour makes a bizarre and unpleasant turn into the realm of bargain-basement soul-searching and soap opera. The cumulative effect, despite a handful of effective moments, is a mess.
Rush Hour 2 (PG-13) Pretty much everything that happens in this Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker rematch is according to formula, but it's a workable and, for the most part, highly enjoyable formula. Chan and Tucker's characters travel from Hong Kong to L.A. to Las Vegas trying to break up a big counterfeiting ring. The movie's a modest success, but, in a dreary summer like this one, sure to rank as one of the highlights (and box office champs) of the season.
Serendipity (PG-13) Another sticky-sweet and thoroughly uncomplicated romantic comedy about fate and true love, in which the main characters spend the entire movie trying to find each other. The movie is basically harmless but overly long, and its allusions to destiny and mystical connections are just short of pretentious. Stars John Cusack and the chick from Pearl Harbor.
Shallow Hal (PG-13) The notorious Farrelly Brothers are back, with their least gross and, frankly, least funny film to date. Shallow Hal is actually a fairy tale of sorts, unconvincingly sweet and more than a little sentimental in spots, about the redemption of a sexist pig. The story has to do with what happens when the pig (Jack Black) is one day magically blessed/cursed with the ability to only see inner beauty — resulting in his falling head over heels with a 300 pound woman (Gwyneth Paltrow, sometimes seen in an elaborate fat suit) whose morbid obesity is the source of many of the movie's cruelest (and funniest) gags. As with almost all Farrelly projects, there are at least a few inspired moments, but a trim of about 20 minutes would have been a considerable help, and most of the best jokes were given away in the movie's trailer. Also stars Jason Alexander. Opens Nov. 9 at local theaters.
Training Day (R) Rookie narc Ethan Hawke gets in way over his head during his first day on the job, when his partner/mentor (Denzel Washington) turns out to be the worst role-model cop since Harvey Keitel's character in Bad Lieutenant. Washington spends virtually the entire movie indulging in all manner of corrupt, sadistic and immoral behavior, and yet the movie is so essentially clueless it can't resist intermittently making him into some sort of hero in a way that appeals strictly to the audience's basest instincts. Training Day is grimy, confused, ugly and depressing stuff. Just what the world needs now. Also stars Scott Glenn.
Under Hellgate Bridge See Film.
Zoolander (PG-13) Consistently funny, spot-on spoof of the fashion industry and all its pretty vacant pop culture tentacles. Starring Ben Stiller as the world's most clueless male model.
—Reviewed entries by Lance Goldenberg unless otherwise noted.
This article appears in Nov 8-14, 2001.