New Releases
FLIGHTPLAN (PG-13) Jodie Foster plays grieving aeronautics engineer Kyle Pratt, traveling home with her 6-year-old daughter, Julia, to bury her husband after his suicide. Onboard the plane, Foster awakens, panicked, to find her child missing. No one claims to have ever seen the girl and Pratt is assumed delusional and dangerous. Peter Sarsgaard plays the sympathetic air Marshal who attempts to help solve the mystery of the missing girl. With cool camera angles and intense close ups, the movie has an eerie, Twilight Zone-esque feel. Foster's usual command of raw emotion makes an otherwise blah film incredibly intense and thrilling. Also stars Sean Bean. Opens Sept. 23 at local theaters. 3 stars
— Yeatie Morgan
NOBODY KNOWS (PG-13) Based on a true story that shocked Japan in the late '80s, Nobody Knows offers a refreshingly unsentimental and unsensationalized account of four young brothers and sisters getting by more or less or their own. Twelve-year-old Akira (Yagira Yuya) is the man of the house, while a flaky, promiscuous mom flits in and out of the kids' lives, disappearing from the scene altogether by the film's mid-point. Abandoned and unschooled, both formally and in the ways of the world, the kids create their own insular community, and Nobody Knows takes place almost entirely within that private world of the children's apartment, with only occasional forays into the outside world. Director Kore-eda Hirokazu (After Life, Mabarosi) coaxes some amazingly rich and natural performances from his young, non-professional actors, adding to the documentary-like effect created by Yutaka Yamazaki's supple but never slick, handheld camerawork. Also stars Kitauru Ayu, Kimura Hiei, Shimizu Momoko and Japanese pop star You (yep, that's her name) as the mother. Plays Sept. 23, one night only, at Eckerd College's Miller Auditorium, 4200 54th Ave. S., St. Pete. 4 stars
ROLL BOUNCE (PG-13) Director Malcolm D. Lee (Undercover Brother) offers what we suspect might be the silliest movie of the year. Lil' Bow Wow stars as Xavier ("X" to his friends), leader of a hotshot roller-skating gang (we kid you not) on the south side of '70s Chicago. When their rink closes, the gang heads uptown to a swankier one, where they engage in a skate-off against rival rollers. And, oh yeah — it's a musical. Also stars Chi McBride and Mike Epps. Opens Sept. 23 at local theaters. (Not Reviewed)
VODKA LEMON (NR) Amidst the debris and bone-crushing chill of piss-poor, post-Soviet Armenia, romance blooms between an aging widower (Romen Avinian) and an attractive widow (Lala Sarkissian), who find themselves exchanging glances while visiting departed loved ones at the local cemetery. There are moments of formulaic sweetness to the central story, but Vodka Lemon is not your average romantic comedy, or even your average European romantic comedy (the film is French-financed, even though it was shot in Armenia and directed by an exiled Iraqi Kurd). The movie is filled with delightfully ludicrous characters and moments that verge on magical realism. And life in the film's bleak little Armenian village, where no one and nothing seems to work, is drawn with precision and understated absurdity. For all the desolation on display, this is one weirdly upbeat little movie. Also stars Ivan Franek, Armen Marutyan and Astrik Avaguian. Plays Sept. 28, one night only, as part of Sunrise Cinema's Café Cinamtheque series, Tampa. 3.5 stars
RECENT RELEASES:
THE 40 YEAR-OLD VIRGIN (R) Ruder, cruder and more consistently funny than Wedding Crashers, this is 90-some minutes of comic anarchy with a 15 minute ode to middle-aged love inserted somewhere in there to show us the movie's heart is in the right place. Steve Carell is the titular virgin, a sweetly clueless arrested adolescent who collects action figures and spends his weekends perfecting recipes for egg salad sandwiches. The movie's one big joke revolves around Carell's character being pressured by his male co-workers to have sex, and his bungled attempts to accomplish that mission. Also stars Catherine Keener, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen and Romany Malco. 3.5 stars
2046 (R) The film is sort of a (very) loose sequel to Wong Kar-wai's masterful In the Mood for Love, with Tony Leung returning as Chow, whose unspoken and unconsummated, but no less grand, romance with a married woman was the bittersweet focus of that movie. The film takes place in the years following In the Mood for Love, with our once-wounded-in-love hero now an emotionally distant womanizer who we see crossing paths with a series of beautiful and mysterious women moving in and out of the hotel room across from his. Connections are made, unmade and messed with, relationships play out, events repeat themselves and time slips away only to be regained once more, and even those paying strict attention may be hard pressed to say what some of it means. We eventually come to see that the film's title refers not just to the room inhabited by Chow's various girlfriends, but also to the very curious sci-fi novel he's writing (and that we see visualized and paralleled throughout the film), which posits a place populated by androids with "delayed emotional reactions" and where all memories come to roost. As in In the Mood for Love (and, for that matter, all of Wong's films), life is both sad and unbearably sweet, love boils down to either good or bad timing, and 2046 reveals itself as another of this brilliant filmmaker's magnificent but maddening meditations on memory and desire. Also stars Zhang Ziyi, Faye Wong, Gong Li and Maggie Cheung. Currently at Sunrise Cinemas in Tampa. Call to confirm. 4 stars
THE ARISTOCRATS (NR) The Aristocrats tells us one of the oldest and (prior to this documentary) most obscure jokes around, a monstrously filthy monologue that describes all manner of depraved sexual atrocities. The punchline isn't much to speak of, but that's sort of the point: as the film is happy to remind us, repeatedly, it's never really about the punchline, but about how you get there. The joke is told, retold, inverted, subverted and dissected by dozens of famous comedians, but although much of this material is outrageously funny, even insightful, the movie eventually begins repeating itself, finally verging on overkill. Then again, would you expect less from the a film that attempts to cast itself as the last word on a killing joke? Features Jason Alexander, Hank Azaria, Drew Carey, George Carlin, Gilbert Gottfried, Eric Idle, Paul Reiser, Chris Rock, Bob Saget, Robin Williams and Jon Stewart. 3.5 stars
ASYLUM (R) It's Wuthering Heights in a loony bin when the repressed young wife of an asylum administrator becomes obsessed with a hunky, brooding inmate. Director David Mackenzie is back on the passion-adultery-murder turf familiar from his dank and gritty Young Adam, although the treatment here becomes so broad and absurdly overheated that the movie sometimes feels like one of those Harlequin novels. The film transforms into something twistier and far more interesting in its last act, complete with a fabulously bizarre and complex finale that's well worth waiting for, but the bulk of Asylum isn't nearly as strange, erotic or as symbolically rich as it seems to want to be. Stars Natasha Richardson, Ian McKellen and Marton Csokas. 3 stars
THE BEAT MY HEART SKIPPED (NR) A curiously chilled-out but nonetheless satisfying remake of James Toback's Fingers, with Romain Duris (L'Auberge Espagnole) assuming the Harvey Keitel role as a gifted classical pianist living a life among the violent fringes of society. Director Jacques Audlied (Read My Lips) provides a moodier, less sensationalistic focus for Toback's visceral 1978 cult fave, while subtly closing the gap between the dueling sides of the main character's nature (he's more of a sleazy opportunist here than a sadistic, outright criminal, though not above occasionally solving problems with a baseball bat). The premise is still a bit far-fetched, but the elegantly understated direction and Duris' quietly intense performance make it work. Also stars Niels Arestrup, Jonathan Zaccai and Aure Atika. Currently at Sunrise Cinemas in Tampa. Call to confirm. 3.5 stars
THE BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY (R) The Beautiful Country is the story of Binh (Damien Nguyen), a young man outcast by his fellow Vietnamese as bui dui ("less than dust") for being the mixed race offspring of a Vietnamese mother and an American G.I. father. When Binh's long-presumed-dead mother turns up long enough to tell him that his father is also alive and living in America, the boy embarks on a seemingly impossible mission to track the man down, a harrowing and sometimes implausibly charted journey that takes up the bulk of the film. The Beautiful Country lives up to its name during a lyrical and exquisitely photographed first act set in mostly rural areas of Vietnam, but the movie turns increasingly shrill and melodramatic as it progresses, culminating in a particularly nightmarish take on the immigrant experience in America. Also stars Bai Ling and Tim Roth. 3 stars
BROKEN FLOWERS (PG-13) Bill Murray plays an over-the-hill Don Juan named, appropriately enough, Don — who, despite his love of the ladies, seems so lethargic that he's on the verge on evaporating right into the ether. When a letter arrives one day from an anonymous ex informing him that he's the father of her 19-year-old son, Don dips his toes back in the world, setting out to revisit his former flames from two decades past in an effort to get to the bottom of the mystery. Jarmusch details a journey in which past, present and future fracture and collide, as Murray's character discovers the hard way that you can't go home again. Also stars Jeffrey Wright, Sharon Stone, Jessica Lange, Frances Conroy, Julie Delpy and Tilda Swinton. 3.5 stars
THE BROTHERS GRIMM (PG-13) Matt Damon and Heath Ledger star as the film's brothers, history's famous storytellers here reconfigured as 18th-century con men who discover the demons they've been claiming to exorcize are actually real. Despite incorporating snippets of legends like Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel that tease us into thinking the movie's going for some sort of 1001 Nights tales-within-tales discourse on the nature of storytelling, this is a film that really doesn't have much to say about anything. Also stars Jonathan Pryce, Lena Headey and Monica Bellucci. 2.5 stars
THE CAVE (PG-13) An expedition in the caves of Romania gets out of hand when explorers discover deadly beasties lurking in the dark, leading to a scenario that's three parts Alien, one part Pitch Black. That's where the comparisons end with those infinitely better movies. The characters in The Cave are complete non-entities who run in circles while the camera turns gratuitous back flips to the tune of ripped-off cues from Jaws and Psycho, and the big, bad creatures are seen in brief snatches edited at an ADD clip that makes all action incomprehensible. A major headache of a movie. Stars Cole Hauser, Piper Perabo, Lena Headey and Morris Chestnut. .5 stars
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (PG) Not at all the dream project we were hoping for, Tim Burton's re-imagining of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is a curiously flat-footed affair that has a hard time connecting with either children or adults. At the center of the picture is Johnny Depp as the ultra-eccentric candymaker Wonka, whose performance blends Emo Philips, Michael Jackson and Dana Carvey's Church Lady into a creepy, androgynous creation who seems to have imperfectly mastered the art of never growing up. Also stars Freddie Highmore, David Kelly, Helena Bonham Carter and Deep Roy. 2.5 stars
THE CONSTANT GARDENER (PG-13) From its tasteful production design to its international locations, right down to its choice of lead actor, Ralph Fiennes, The Constant Gardener seems aimed at just the sort of audience that cheered The English Patient all the way to the Oscars. Fiennes plays a mild-mannered diplomat whose wife gets herself murdered when she comes a little too close to a scheme by nefarious European drug companies using unsuspecting Africans as human guinea pigs. Director Fernando Meirelles makes the most of the material, letting it play out in scrambled time, often shooting from the hip in a slightly toned-down version of that visceral style he employed in City of God, and layering the film with a convincing atmosphere of escalating dread (punctuated by a few brief but intense action sequences). It's only toward the end that the film lets its political messages get the better of it, and the discerning viewer is advised to run for cover when The Constant Gardener chooses to unleash its inner Erin Brockovich (insert Silkwood, The Insider or your own personal favorite little-guy-vs-demonic-big-business screed here). Also stars Rachel Weisz, Danny Huston, Bill Nighy and Pete Postlethwaite. 2.5 stars
DEEP BLUE (NR) There's some astonishing footage to be seen in this feature-length documentary, beginning with sequences of death squads of tireless sharks laying into their prey, and killer whales seizing sea lion pups and flinging their bloody corpses 20 feet in the air. It's not all Faces of Death territory, though; Deep Blue isn't coy about the harsher truths about our underwater neighbors, but the film is almost always realized in the very best of taste, and is more often than not both fascinating and hypnotic. The final 20 minutes is pure sci-fi, a close-up look at the impossibly strange creatures that inhabit those deepest depths of the ocean where the sun don't shine. Directed by Alastair Fothergill and Andy Byatt. 3.5 stars
DEUCE BIGALOW: EUROPEAN GIGOLO (R) Rob Schneider returns as the world's most pathetic male prostitute in this sequel to the crass-and-proud-of-it 1999 comedy. Europe gets the Deuce treatment this time around, when our skanky hero travels abroad to bail out his pimp pal (Eddie Griffin). Also stars a seriously slumming Jean Reno and Jeroen Krabbe. (Not Reviewed)
THE DUKES OF HAZZARD (PG-13) If you're a fan of the small screen Dukes, this big screen cousin may hold some appeal, since both are filled with wall-to-wall high-speed car chases, barroom brawls, backroads shenanigans and country girls displaying lots of skin. The behavior's a little more ridiculous and the characters even a little dopier in the big screen Dukes, which sometimes lends itself to some pretty funny material, although it just as often feels like some clueless Hollywood screenwriter's fantasy of what rural Southern life might be like. Stars Burt Reynolds, Jessica Simpson, Willie Nelson, Seann William Scott and Johnny Knoxville. 2.5 stars
THE EDUKATORS (R) A fascinating and only occasionally flat-footed blend of noir-thriller, romantic triangle charmer and political diatribe, this shot-on-DV project from Austrian director Hans Weingartner lends an appealingly unglamorized, Dogme-like sense of reality to its curious take on young revolutionaries in love. The "Edukators" are a young German woman named Julie (Julie Jentsch), her boyfriend Peter (Stipe Erceg) and the boyfriend's pal Jan (Daniel Bruhl), a loose-knit group of somewhat confused radicals who break into rich people's houses when no one's home, rearrange the furniture, and leave notes declaring "Your days of plenty are numbered." When one of these prank break-in's goes awry, the trio wind up kidnapping the master of the house, a wealthy, middle-aged businessman who, curiously enough, turns out to have a revolutionary past of his own tucked away in the closet. Also stars Burghart Klaussner. 3.5 stars
THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE (R) Horror fans walking into The Exorcism of Emily Rose expecting a head-swiveling, pea-soup-puking time should take heed. This movie belongs to that most dreaded of all genres, the courtroom drama, with a little bit of horror thrown in to keep the natives from getting too restless. It's The Exorcist meets A Few Good Men, and if that sounds dangerously close to a skit on MAD TV, then so be it. What we have here is an account of the trial of a kindly priest (Tom Wilkinson) accused of manslaughter in the botched exorcism of college freshman Emily Rose (Jennifer Carpenter). Everybody has a story to tell, and a series of witnesses take the stand with conflicting accounts of poor Emily's struggle with what some call paranoid schizophrenia and others swear is possession. There are a few things going bump in the night here and there, but the scares turn out to be mere visual aids to an endless series of overly earnest arguments in which various characters weigh in on whether Emily is possessed or just paranoid. Some people will probably call this a "thinking person's horror movie," but does that mean we've got to be beaten about the head with what we're supposed to be thinking? Also stars Laura Linney and Campbell Scott. 2 stars
FOUR BROTHERS (R) Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, André Benjamin and Garrett Hedlund star as the foster brothers, reunited to track down the killer of their sainted mom, but Four Brothers' so-called plot takes a back seat to the movie's real raison d'etre — the gleefully sadistic, wall-to-wall violence. Some of the film is so ridiculous it winds up being good, trashy fun despite itself, but most of it is simply ridiculous. Also stars Terrence Howard, Josh Charles and Chiwetel Ejiofor. 2 stars
THE GREAT RAID (PG-13) Opening with that oft-dreaded mantra "Inspired by true events" (Hollywood-ese for "It really happened, sorta"), The Great Raid offers an account of American soldiers during World War II rescuing 500 POWs from a Japanese camp in the Philippines. This is one resolutely old-school opus, filled with determined, manly heroes who call each other "old pal" and "kid," patriotic speeches set to stirring music, and a very nasty enemy whose sheer evil is immune to the humanizing endearments of modern political correctness. The only old-school element the movie forgets to add is a little excitement. The film is beautiful to look at, but dramatically, the movie's pretty much a dud. Stars Joseph Fiennes, Benjamin Bratt, James Franco and Connie Nielson. 2.5 stars
HAPPY ENDINGS (R) Don Roos (The Opposite of Sex, Bounce) juggles multiple storylines here, sometimes a bit awkwardly, finding oddball humor in a middle-aged woman being blackmailed by an aspiring filmmaker who's found out about a baby she gave up as a teenager; a gay couple who become convinced their lesbian pals have stolen their sperm to conceive a child; and a gold-digging drifter (an absolutely remarkable Maggie Gyllenhaal) who gets her claws into a clueless drummer and his even more clueless father. Also stars Steve Coogan, Jesse Bradford, Tom Arnold, Jason Ritter, Bobby Cannavale and Laura Dern. 3.5 stars
THE ISLAND (PG-13) In the not-too-distant future, greedy corporations are secretly harvesting human clones for body parts and raising them in controlled environments where they're shielded from the truth of their nature and identity. Ewan McGregor (sporting a spiffy new American accent) and Scarlett Johansson (looking more old-school Hollywood voluptuous than ever) play two clones who discover the truth of their situation, escape, and immediately find themselves being hunted by a small army of mercenaries and semi-legal operatives. As expected, there's not really much to think about here other than the gaping plot holes, but if you like your action outsized and your summer movies full of non-signifying sound and fury, have at it. Also stars Sean Bean and Steve Buscemi. 3 stars
JUNEBUG (NR) A culture clash comedy featuring a couple of metrosexual city slickers and their rough-hewn North Carolina relatives, Junebug is one of those little indie films that win awards at Sundance for their quirky observations about dysfunctional family reunions. But this one happens to actually warrant those awards for a change. Director Phil Morrison and screenwriter Angus MacLachlan demonstrate a genuine understanding and affection for their small-town subjects (even though I'd wager the filmmakers are somewhat more attuned to their big city characters), and when somebody in this movie does something odd or wacky it usually feels like a natural extension of who that person is, rather than simply something scripted for our amusement. We spend time with some very funny people here, but the movie is smart and subtle enough to allow us to smile at its characters without turning them into cartoons. Junebug isn't a movie that's going to change anybody's life, but there's a surprising amount of clever and thoughtful details packed into this small film. Stars Embeth Davidtz, Amy Adams, Allessandro Nivola, Benjamin McKenzie, Scott Wilson and Celia Weston. Currently at Sunrise Cinemas in Tampa. Call to confirm. 3.5 stars
JUST LIKE HEAVEN (PG-13) A comedy that raises serious questions about enjoying the now and avoiding regret, Just Like Heaven stars Reese Witherspoon as Elizabeth Martinson, a dedicated young ER doctor with too little time for anything other than work. One serious car accident later, ghost Elizabeth now has all the time in the world, and she spends most of it haunting her old apartment and harassing its new tenant, grieving widow David Abbott (Mark Ruffalo). The obvious parallel between a guy who's heartbroken and sleepwalking through life, to a woman who's never experienced true love and wants to go on living, serves as the movie's foundation and keeps it going on a wheel of serendipitous events. Comedic highlights come courtesy of Napoleon Dynamite star Jon Heder, who plays a guy with a "gift" for spirit communication. Also stars Donal Logue. 3 stars
— Quilin J Achat
LORD OF WAR (R) There's a lot of stylish hubris but little that's particularly original about Lord of War, director Andrew Niccol's epic story about the rise and fall of an international gun runner. The movie spans two decades in the life of ambitious anti-hero Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage), whose compulsively chatty voice-over accompanies the proceedings. Yuri's narration runs more or less constantly throughout the film, offering glib commentary while making sporadic attempts at justifying a life above politics and morality, but Lord of War's biggest problem is that it never finds the right tone for its story. Cage's bizarrely exaggerated performance ranks among his most maddeningly self-conscious, while the movie veers erratically from gritty realism to unconvincing, overheated melodrama to tongue-in-cheek farce, with a stop or two in between for some Scarface-esque excess. There are hackneyed shots of guns and money looking as cozy together as ham and cheese, and when the characters aren't blowing someone away or being blown away, they're prone to sophomoric soul-searching of the clumsiest kind. We can only wonder if the filmmaker is asking us to take this material seriously, or if he's crafting some postmodern cartoon that wants to take the piss out of clichés by making them even more ridiculous. It's hard to shake the feeling that Niccol wants it both ways, resulting in a film simultaneously traveling in two mutually exclusive directions. Also stars Jared Leto, Ian Holm, Bridget Moynahan and Ethan Hawke. 2.5 stars
MARCH OF THE PENGUINS (G) Director Luc Jacquet and cinematographers Laurent Chalet and Jerome Maison follow a group of emperor penguins as they embark upon their ritual trek to ancient breeding grounds — an impossible journey of 70 miles across treacherous Antarctic terrain — and then document their struggle to bring new life into the world and keep it alive. The filmmakers offer up some astonishing footage here, including surreal images of hundreds of birds huddling together for warmth, and one remarkable sequence of tender courtship and copulation. The narration by Morgan Freeman gets a little cutesy from time to time, but it's undoubtedly a step up from the original French version where the birds were anthropomorphized by having behind-the-scenes human actors supplying their speaking parts. 3.5 stars
ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW (R) A movie that succeeds brilliantly when it isn't falling flat on its face, Miranda July's Me and You and Everyone We Know relies on an alchemy so fragile it seems in danger of disappearing right before our eyes. It's almost a disservice to attempt describing this very curious movie in terms of plot, but at the center of it all are two people trying to make a love connection — a recently separated shoe salesman (John Hawkes) and an aspiring artist (July) — orbited by various underage boys and girls curious about sex in ways that will make more than a few adult viewers extremely uncomfortable. Also stars Miles Thompson and Brandon Ratcliff. 3.5 stars
MUST LOVE DOGS (PG-13) Sitcom king Gary David Goldberg (Family Ties), to practically no one's surprise, brings sitcom finesse and, at the end of the day, sitcom formula to this generic romantic comedy about a middle-aged divorcee getting back into the dating game. Diane Lane and John Cusack (as the principal suitor) are surprisingly effective, both individually and together, in a whiney, mopey, neurotically self-aware way, but almost everything around them feels forced and fake, and for every line of clever dialogue there are two lines that are pretentious or just plain dopey. Also stars Dermot Mulroney, Elizabeth Perkins, Christopher Plummer and Stockard Channing. 2 stars
MYSTERIOUS SKIN (R) Mysterious Skin tells the parallel stories of Brian and Neil (Brady Corbet and Joseph Gordon Levitt), two young men living in the shadow of events that happened to them as children. One boy blacked out for five hours of his life and believes he was abducted by aliens. The other boy fell in love with his little league coach, a predator who wound up seducing him on a kitchen floor strewn with smashed Fruit Loops and Coco Puffs. Mysterious Skin follows Brian and Neil through the years, weaving between their stories and making it clear that they're somehow linked — a mystery that only opens up at the cathartic but not completely unexpected conclusion, where all the dots are finally connected. Also stars Bill Sage and Elisabeth Shue. 3.5 stars
PULSE: A STOMP ODYSSEY (G) The producers and creators of the Broadway hit Stomp set their sights high with this 40-minute, large-format IMAX film. The film was shot on five continents, and, although it is essentially wordless, it's anything but silent, communicating a world of nuances through a seemingly limitless variety of clicks, whispers, woops, warbles, grunts, growls and howls. 3.5 stars
RED EYE (PG-13) Rachel McAdams is the movie's damsel in distress, trapped on a flight with sadistic psycho Cillian Murphy (he of the spooky, baby-doll glass-like eyes), who's blackmailing her into helping him with his latest act of terror. By the end, Red Eye has thrown in just about every cliché in the book, and can't seem to think of anything to do with its characters but have them chase each other around until one can't get up anymore. Wes Craven is usually much better reveling in clichés than in trying to subvert them (see Scream), but this looks like he's hardly even trying. Also stars Brian Cox. 2 stars
THE SKELETON KEY (PG-13) Kate Hudson plays a hospice caretaker who accepts a live-in position with an old woman and her husband, the latter a recently-paralyzed stroke victim. After stumbling on a skeleton key, her ferocious curiosity leads her to a secret room in the attic, where she uncovers dark secrets about hoodoo (not voodoo) practices and learns about evil spirits tucked away in an old house surrounded by the swampy, backwater bayous of Louisiana. Despite some ghost story clichés, the hair-raising and intricately woven plot twists keep you guessing throughout most of the movie, and, mercifully, there aren't any blatant cheese-tastic moments to destroy the flow of the story. Also stars Peter Sarsgaard, Gena Rowlands and John Hurt. 3 stars
— Yeatie Morgan
A SOUND OF THUNDER (PG-13) Peter Hyams hasn't made a half-way decent movie since 1981's Outland, but if you think that Time Cop represented the director's absolute low point, wait until you get a load of this hunk o' junk. A Sound of Thunder is sloppy, half-hearted sci-fi action about a bungled trip to the past that affects everything in the present (well, it's the future, technically, since the movie takes place in 2055 — but never mind). The way the movie visualizes how the world changes is unimaginatively conceived (mostly just a bunch of overgrown vegetation and roaming packs of silly lizard-primate mutations) and the cheap-looking CGI is as unconvincing as the general level of acting on display (Ed Burns, in particular, looks like he's embarrassed to be here half the time; the other half of the time he just looks bored). Also Stars Ben Kingsley and Catherine McCormack. 1 star
SUPERCROSS: THE MOVIE (PG-13) Expect a mother lode of death-defying stunts and hot young non-actors in this tale of two feuding brothers who put aside their differences to become champion motorcycle racers. Stars Steve Howey, Mike Vogel, Cameron Richardson and Sophia Bush. (Not Reviewed)
TRANSPORTER 2 (PG-13) Jason Statham stars in a sequel to the 2002 action movie that became an unexpected hit when it appeared on DVD. This time out, Statham's ex-special forces operator is lured back into action when a pair of young boys are kidnapped. Also stars Alessandro Gassman, Keith David and Amber Valletta. (Not Reviewed)
UNDERCLASSMAN (PG-13) A rough-around-the-edges L.A. cop goes undercover at a posh private school and culture clash hilarity ensues. Maybe. Stars Nick Cannon, Roselyn Sanchez and Shawn Ashmore. (Not Reviewed)
UNDISCOVERED (NR) Romantic sparks fly between an aspiring model-actress (Pell James) and a hunky but oh-so sensitive musician (Steven Strait). Also stars Fisher Stevens, Kip Pardue and Carrie Fisher.
AN UNFINISHED LIFE (PG-13) Morgan Freeman turns out to be just about the only thing worth watching in Lasse Hallström's long-stalled project An Unfinished Life, a tepid melodrama where pretty much everything that's going to happen is known within the first 10 minutes. Precocious young daughter in tow, battered woman Jennifer Lopez travels to Wyoming and moves in with estranged father-in-law Robert Redford, who still blames Lopez for the death of his son, her husband, many years ago. It's only a matter of time before bonding happens between all of the feuding parties here, and the movie plods along on autopilot, occasionally injecting its cliché-ridden story with bits of overplayed symbolism. Despite sitting around unreleased for two years, An Unfinished Life feels, well, unfinished — technically polished but narratively sloppy and rushed, with half-hearted performances (Redford delivers one of his blandest turns ever), and moments where it seems like scenes have been arbitrarily excised. Also stars Becca Gardener and Josh Lucas. 2 stars
VALIANT (G) DreamWorks' latest digital animation tells the story of a brave little carrier pigeon serving his country during World War Two. This is probably about as close to an actual history lesson as many kiddies are likely to come by these days, so be grateful for even very small favors. Featuring the voices of Ewan McGregor, Rupert Everett, Tim Curry, John Cleese and Ricky Gervais. (Not Reviewed)
YES (R) Sally Potter is a filmmaker whose ambitious, high-concept projects run the gamut from the brilliantly enigmatic (Orlando) to the embarrassingly insipid (The Tango Lesson), and her latest, Yes, falls squarely into the most unfortunate recesses of that later category. Among its many misguided pretensions, Yes features dialogue spoken entirely in iambic pentameter (yes, it's just as awful as you're imagining), and focuses on an Irish-American scientist (Joan Allen) and a dark-skinned Lebanese waiter (Simon Abkarian), known only as "He" and "She," whose adulterous affair becomes a clumsy encapsulation for the current state of post 9/11 geo-politics. This is the sort of thing that gives art films a bad name. Also stars Sam Neill and Shirley Henderson. 1 star
Reviewed entries by Lance Goldenberg unless otherwise noted.
