New Releases
FAILURE TO LAUNCH (PG-13) Surprisingly quirky, this flick rides the wave of your basic romantic comedy, but with exciting and unexpected twists. While Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker play familiar roles — Matthew as the hot, laid-back leading man content with living at home forever, Sarah as the sexy leading lady hired on by his folks to get him out — the supporting actors, namely Zooey Deschanel, Terry Bradshaw and Kathy Bates, are luminous. There are a few Ben Stiller-esque moments of physical comedy and one too many shots of middle-aged male ass, but overall, it's a fun movie. Opens in local theaters March 10. 3 stars Erin Rashbaum
THE HILLS HAVE EYES (R) Alexander Aja, the French filmmaker who some would argue deconstructed the slasher flick with High Tension, takes a stab at remaking the granddaddy of the genre, Wes Craven's 1977 love letter to inbred mutant cannibalistic families. The big questions here are how straight Aja will play things this time, and whether the French-speaking director is up to dealing with a cast of English-speaking actors. Stars Aaron Stanford, Vinessa Shaw, Kathleen Quinlan and Emilie de Ravin. Opens March 10 at local theaters. (Not Reviewed)
THE LIBERTINE (R) There's less shagging and more bragging about shagging going on in the not-nearly-as-naughty-as-it-wants-to-be The Libertine, but there's still plenty of bad behavior to go around. Johnny Depp stars as the defiantly degenerate title character, a jaded aristocrat prancing about 17th-century London in wig and frilly clothes, drinking, whoring, blaspheming and generally just indulging in excess of every form. There's far too little life in the characters' mannered actions and silver-tongued soliloquies, however, so the film basically winds up feeling like a freak show in fancy dress, much of it photographed in a nervous, Dogme-esque style that's too contrived to hold our interest. Depp is worth watching, as usual, but the story's flaws get the better of him, particularly when his character undergoes an utterly unconvincing transformation and falls in love with an aspiring actress (Samantha Morton). From there it's a short, predictable trip to heartbreak, disillusionment and syphilitic madness. Michael Nyman contributes another lovely, minimalist score that strives to give an air of significance to the film's seedy doings, but can't quite manage. Also stars John Malkovich and Rosamund Pike. Opens March 10 at Sunrise Cinemas in Tampa. Call to confirm. 2.5 stars
THE SHAGGY DOG (PG) A lot of people will tell you that Tim Allen has been going to the dogs for some time now, so it's only fitting that he finally gets a chance to prove it in style. Allen stars as a canine-phobic family man who morphs into a big shaggy sheepdog in this remake of Disney's much-admired 1959 comedy-adventure. The movie's copious special effects seem ripe for a CGI updating, and the remake may have another secret weapon in the form of the reliably manic Robert Downey Jr. as the resident evil genius. Also stars Kristen Davis, Zena Grey and Danny Glover. Opens March 10 at local theaters. (Not Reviewed)
RECENT RELEASES
16 BLOCKS (PG-13) Bruce Willis plays a cynical NYPD vet with a bum leg, a drinking problem and a hairline that's receded back beyond the outer rings of Saturn. Mos Def's character, Eddie, is a somewhat simple-minded guy whose disposition is every bit as sunny as Willis' is terminally sour. Naturally, the two wind up on the run together, learning valuable life lessons from one another as they try to avoid legions of dirty cops trying to keep Eddie from testifying against one of their ranks. Willis isn't acting so much as retreading a slightly older, gloomier version of his stock type, and his performance is mainly defined by an ability to appear paunchy and shriveled simultaneously. Def affects a nasal, nerdy persona that makes us occasionally feel like we're watching Forrest Gump stuck in a Bruce Willis shoot-'em-up. Both actors remain curiously watchable, though — that's the eternal mystery of star power for you, folks — and even when the movie tests our patience with leaps in logic and lack of originality, 16 Blocks works fairly well as a tautly crafted feature-length chase, with just enough human drama to ground things in the end. Also stars David Morse, Conrad Pla and Cylk Cozart. HH 1/2
ANNAPOLIS (PG-13) This predictable drama chronicles the tale of a working-class kid (pretty boy Spiderman star James Franco) who just barely makes it into the United States Naval Academy. Defiant but determined, he proves himself by boxing his way to respect. There aren't too many surprises here: the comic relief is handled by the fat guy (played by Vicellous Reon Shannon), the hero gets the girl (a too-tan Jordana Brewster) and every student at the Naval Academy could moonlight as a model. Perfectly timed to inspire young bucks to trade in their baggy jeans for starched white sailor suits, this family-friendly film is Rumsfeld-approved. Justin Lin directs; also stars Tyrese Gibson and Donnie Wahlberg. 2 stars Erin Rashbaum
AQUAMARINE (PG) It's Splash for teens when a pair of starry-eyed 13-year-olds (Joanna Levesque and Emma Roberts) make friends with a totally hot mermaid looking for the meaning of true love. Also stars Sara Paxton and Jake McDorman. (Not Reviewed)
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (R) As nearly everyone in North America has probably heard by now, Ang Lee's new movie is the epic tale of two rough and tumble cowboys who discover, to their great amazement, that they only have eyes for each other. A delicate study in repressed emotions, Brokeback Mountain follows the star-crossed Jack and Ennis (Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal) over the years, through loveless marriages, failed attempts to forget one another, and covert reunions where passions are quickly reignited. If it's subtext you're after, there's subtext aplenty here; American iconography inevitably takes on interesting new shapes while the whole movie occasionally feels like a vintage Douglas Sirk melodrama-cum-social-critique, gently massaged into a realm where men and women have so little interest in one another that they can't even be bothered with the so-called war of the sexes. At root, though, Brokeback is something profound in its simplicity, a deliriously romantic and deeply elegiac tale of a love that dares not speak its name. Also stars Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway and Randy Quaid. 4.5 stars
CACHE (NR) Michael Haneke's latest, minimalist anti-thriller, like all the director's films, plays ping-pong with our heads while confronting our most self-destructive urges and our insatiable appetite for violence. Cache details the effects upon a well-heeled Parisian couple, Georges (Daniel Auteuil) and Anne (Juliette Binoche), when they begin receiving a series of videotapes that let them know they're being watched by an unknown stalker. No demands are made, no elaborate blackmail schemes hatched, and virtually none of the traditional components of the thriller genre, psychological or otherwise, manifest themselves — leaving the increasingly beleaguered pair plenty of time to bicker between themselves about what the tapes mean, who might be sending them and what to do about it. That ambiguity and uncertainty drives everything in Cache as Georges and Anne's cultivated and well-fortified world deteriorates into chaos. Haneke makes much of the couple's well-appointed, book-lined townhouse with its imposing metal door and sturdy stone walls, but the implication is that neither brute strength nor the niceties of civilization can stave off the barbarians at the gates. Also stars Maurice Benichou. Lester Makedonsky and Annie Girardot. 4.5 stars
CURIOUS GEORGE (G) Apparently aimed squarely at the very youngest of young viewers, this feature-length family affair won't likely reach out to many beyond hardcore fans of that mischievous little monkey who's been around in book form since the 1940s. The trailers display lots of cheap-looking 2-D animation, a few mild mishaps and, if you listen closely, Will Ferrell as the voice of the man in the yellow hat. Also features the voices of Drew Barrymore, David Cross and Joan Plowright. (Not Reviewed)
DAVE CHAPPELLE'S BLOCK PARTY (R) Hip-hop, humor and a whole lot of socially conscious music are featured in this live concert film shot by cutting edge image-maker Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). Acts include Erykah Badu, Mos Def, Big Daddy Kane, The Roots, Kanye West and a reportedly stunning reunion of The Fugees, with concert organizer Chappelle making with the funny stuff in between the music. I wasn't able to screen the film in advance, but of the dozen or so colleagues I've talked to who have seen it, not a single one has been less than enthusiastic. Also features Talib Kweli and Jill Scott. (Not Reviewed)
EIGHT BELOW (PG-13) Paul Walker is the nominal star here, but the bulk of the movie is devoted, happily so, to the trials and tribulations of a sled team of dogs stranded and struggling to survive in the Antarctic winter. Don't expect March of the Penguins, but you will find an unexpectedly satisfying sense of authenticity to this project, with moments that are both exciting and (yes, you knew this was coming) inspirational grounded in events that feel not so far removed from real life. There are a few false notes (including an awful CGI misfire) but the story has a nice, Jack London-esque feel, and the film's cinematography is almost as gorgeous as its husky and malamute heroes. Also stars Bruce Greenwood. 3 stars
FREEDOMLAND (R) There are at least two or three interesting stories that bump up against each other like strangers in the night and never quite gel in the overstuffed and undercooked drama Freedomland. Each of these stories contains moments worth watching, but none of the individual tales is strong enough to carry the entire movie. On one hand, you have the racial tensions complicating the investigation of the reported abduction of a white child in a black neighborhood in New Jersey. On the other hand, you have a character study of the missing child's mother, a flakey ex-junkie played with blotchy, white trash gusto by Julianne Moore. And then there's the story of the investigating detective (Samuel L. Jackson), a well-intentioned black cop who's trying to play both sides of the racial divide, and who has one or two secrets of his own. Price and director Joe Roth eventually attempt to fuse all of their disparate elements into a rambling lament for abused and neglected children everywhere, but by this point the movie is already too long, and none of it is convincing. Also stars Edie Falco and Ron Eldard. 2.5 stars
GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK (PG-13) Ostensibly, actor-turned-director George Clooney's remarkable new film is a more-or-less true account of that pivotal moment in American politics when CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow dared speak out against Joseph McCarthy, the Commie-hunting U.S. Senator who turned paranoia into a national pastime. David Strathairn is an effective presence as Murrow, a 1950's proto-liberal media star (Murrow might just be the Anti-O'Reilly) who spoke his mind and crusaded tirelessly for the truth, brow furrowed earnestly and a burning cigarette permanently wedged between his fingers. Clooney chose to shoot in black and white, a wise decision that lets us know that Good Night and Good Luck is art, too, while blending seamlessly with the extensive archival footage of McCarthy incorporated into the film. Also stars Robert Downey Jr, George Clooney, Ray Wise, Patricia Clarkson and Frank Langella. 4 stars
IMAGINE ME AND YOU (R) A romantic comedy with a same-sex twist, starring Piper Perabo as a jumpy bride who leaves her groom at the altar when she finds herself smitten by her female florist. Lena Headey (from Terry Gilliam's Brothers Grimm) and Matthew Goode complete the romantic triangle. (Not Reviewed)
MATCH POINT (R) Woody Allen's latest is a smart movie, but smart in ways we don't typically associate with this filmmaker. It's also filled with passion (!), murder (!!), sex (!!!), and there's not a single stammering neurotic in sight. Match Point is set in London, far from Allen's usual Manhattan haunts, and concerns a young working class stiff (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) who ingratiates himself with an upper crust families and then threatens to topple his own house of cards because of an uncontrollable urge for a husky-voiced American femme fatale (Scarlett Johansson). Match Point unfolds like film noir crossed with one of those tragic Verdi operas that its characters are constantly listening to, and although are a handful of lighter moments as well, one person's tragedy is another's comedy (as with all of Allen's films). Essentially, though, the glass is not only half-empty but decidedly smeary in Match Point, with a tough, engrossing, pretense-free story the likes of which we've really never seen before from this famous filmmaker. Also stars Brian Cox, Matthew Goode and Emily Mortimer. 4 stars
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA (PG-13) Memoirs of a Geisha takes place in Japan around the time of the Second World War, but it's a Hollywood fantasy-Japan, where everybody speaks English and acts like they're in an American movie. We're thrust headlong into the tale of Sayuri (Zhang Zyiyi), a penniless waif who is forced into service at a geisha establishment and eventually inducted into their ways. The movie rushes through this crucial training period, shredding nuances along the way, in order to cast itself as your basic, overheated melodrama dwelling on various thwarted love affairs and romantic rivalries. An overlong film that feels rushed at all the wrong moments, Memoirs turns out to be a visually impressive but hopelessly generic soap gussied up with a few superficial exotic flourishes. Also stars Ken Watanabe, Michelle Yeoh, Gong Li, Koji Yakusho and Kaori Momoi. 2.5 stars
MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS (R) Bland, British and boring — three words that should never have to go together but too often do. The movie — which is one of the first productions from ex-Miramax honchos Harvey and Bob Weinstein's new company — is meant to be taken as "classy" (it's a WWII period piece, after all, and then there are all those English accents), but the script reeks of shallowness and clichés. Dame Judi Dench stars as a wealthy widow who buys an old theater and eventually begins putting on all-nude reviews, which she defends as being good for national morale. Bob Hoskins is the theater manager who develops feelings for Dench's character, and much is made of the aimless, incessant bickering of the film's two leads (who we're assured are actually deeply in love) and the naughtiness of female flesh being paraded across the screen. Also stars Will Young and Christopher Guest. 2 stars
MUNICH (R) Director Steven Spielberg focuses on the aftermath of the slaughter of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics — when a hit squad was dispatched to assassinate the Palestinian organizers of the massacre — but Munich is less concerned with creating a visceral thrill ride out of the often horrifying mechanics of revenge than with grinding our noses in the pointlessness of it all. If you were expecting a Kill Bill adrenaline rush recast as a less guilty pleasure, forget it. Spielberg leans over so far backward in an effort to be evenhanded that there's really no one to root for or against, a problem exacerbated by too many forgettable characters saddled with flat-footed dialogue endlessly re-stating the movie's thesis that violence begetting violence can only be wrong. Stars Eric Bana, Geoffrey Rush, Daniel Craig, Ciaran Hinds, Mathieu Kassovitz, Hanns Zischler, Ayelet Zurer and Michael Lonsdale. 3 stars
NANNY MCPHEE (PG) The screenplay here, which Emma Thompson adapted from Christianna Brand's Nurse Matilda books, begins in a place just macabre enough and even a wee bit perverse — much like the seven supremely naughty children featured in Nanny McPhee. This unmanageable brood pride themselves on having driven away scores of hearty nannies screaming in terror. Enter the eponymous Nanny McPhee, a snaggle-toothed, warty, anti-Mary Poppins played by Thompson herself as a cross between a drill sergeant, a Zen master and a troll. As expected, the supernaturally-powered uber-nanny butts heads and eventually bonds with the wild beastie-boys-and-girls, magic is unleashed, and tough love conquers all. Also stars Colin Firth, Angela Landsbury, Kelly MacDonald, Imelda Staunton and Derek Jacobi. 3 stars
THE NEW WORLD (PG-13) Terrence Malick may be the unofficial poet laureate of American cinema, but his latest film often feels fluid to the point of formlessness, a series of gorgeous landscapes for its characters to wander through. The setting is 1607 Virginia, and what the filmmaker is showing us is that historical moment when Native American and European cultures first collide, a cataclysmic event filtered through the celebrated cross-cultural romance of John Smith (Colin Farrell) and Pocahontas (Q'Orianka Kilcher). The love story helps ground things, but The New World's naïve mythmaking and metaphysical meandering is still a touch-and-go proposition. Malick is so consumed with poetizing the sublime tragedy of it all that he forgets about basic minimum requirements for engaging an audience, such as coherency, conciseness, and the little matter of that love story he promised to tell. Also stars Christian Bale and Christopher Plummer. 2.5 stars
NIGHT WATCH (R) Already a huge hit in its native Russia, Night Watch is a mostly successful fusion of Blade, The Matrix, Lord of the Rings, The X-Files and one or two other influences I won't burden you with. The movie wows us with plenty of mightily frenetic and fabulously visualized action scenes, but it's constantly interrupting its own flow with some convoluted bit of information about what's just happened or what's to come, straining to connect its parallel storylines (or even make sense of them). Turn your mind off, however, and forget about logic, much less the urge to analyze, and you may very well wind up loving this movie. Director Timur Bekmambetov, a former whiz-kid creator of commercials and music videos, imbues every frame of Night Watch with a stunning visual imagination borrowing heavily from the everyday surrealism of Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, City of Lost Children), and there are more than enough pleasures here to make up for the narrative fuzziness Addictively chaotic, flashy and fashionably nihilistic, this action-fantasy-horror hybrid might just sum up exactly where Mother Russia is at these days. Stars Konstantin Khabensky, Vladimir Menshov, Mariya Poroshina and Viktor Verzhbitsky. 3.5 stars
THE PINK PANTHER (PG) Another pointless remake that will stink up the theaters for a few weeks before finding its way to home video. Steve Martin steps into Peter Sellers' shoes in the classic role of bumbling, oddly-accented Inspector Jacques Clouseau, and the results are predictably disappointing. While it's probably not quite cricket comparing vintage Sellers to the 2006 version of Martin, a comedian who hasn't been particularly funny for the better part of a decade, the former wild-and-crazy-guy's overly literal interpretation of Clouseau makes comparisons unavoidable. The material doesn't help either, with fart jokes and lame Viagra gags sprinkled throughout the movie's main course of uninspired physical comedy. The murder-and-missing-diamond plot is inconsequential and Henry Mancinci's brilliant original music is barely audible beneath the generic hip-hop remix. Also stars Jean Reno, Kevin Kline and Beyonce Knowles. 1.5 stars
RUNNING SCARED (R) Running Scared is the sophomore effort from director Wayne Kramer, and although it's a marked departure from his character-driven debut The Cooler, it's anything but an improvement. The film stars Paul Walker (The Fast and the Furious), who's also trying to stretch out here, but just doesn't have the chops to get beyond that Rob Lowe/Keanu Reeves pretty boy image. Walker adopts a not-quite-believable New Jersey tough-guy accent and dutifully chews the scenery as Joey Gazelle, a petty crook desperately racing against time to recover a gun used to kill a cop and that can be traced back to him. The gun turns out to be in the possession of a 10-year-old boy (Cameron Bright, the spooky kid from Birth), and Joey's frenzied search brings both characters into contact with various denizens of the night, including Russian gangsters, pimps, hookers, dirty cops and, in the film's most gratuitously yucky scene, a smiling yuppie couple who make pedophiliac snuff films. Running Scared is mostly interested in pouring on the blood and moving the camera around in pointlessly flashy ways that recall the worst excesses of Tarantino and Guy Ritchie. Also stars Chazz Palminteri, Vera Farmiga and Karel Roden. 2 stars
SOMETHING NEW (PG-13) Despite the promise of the film's title, the smart money is on this being yet another romantic comedy about attractive young singles refusing, right up until the last reel, to realize they're right for each other. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Stars Sanaa Lathan, Simon Baker and Blair Underwood. (Not Reviewed)
THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA (R) An old-school western for new-school sensibilities, Tommy Lee Jones' directorial debut cleaves fairly close to classic western models, but not without a few idiosyncratic detours along the way. Jones himself takes the lead as a grizzled Texas ranch hand whose personal code of honor demands he abduct his dead friend's presumed killer and force him along on a trek to Mexico to give his pal a proper burial. That journey is at the heart of the film, but the movie sets it all up from multiple, Roshomon-esque perspectives, employing a fractured chronology in keeping with screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga's previous time scrambling in Amores Perros and 21 Grams. All of the film's individual stories eventually intersect, with the teasing tail-chasing of the first half crystallizing as the strange odyssey of two men and a corpse trekking across the Tex-Mex landscape. The movie segues neatly from neo-western to Greek tragedy to macabre, absurdist farce, as notions of revenge, redemption and other staples of the western genre are gently manipulated with considerable black humor. Also stars Barry Pepper, Julio Cesar Cedillo, Dwight Yoakam, Melissa Leo and January Jones. 4.5 stars
TRANSAMERICA (R) Felicity Huffman, who just snagged a well-deserved Golden Globe for her performance here, is the main reason to see Transamerica, but the rest of the film isn't too shabby either. Huffman stars as a woman trapped in the body of a man, and whose long-awaited sex change surgery is put on hold when a troubled teenaged son (Kevin Zegers) appears out of the blue and demands rescuing. Father/mother and son pack up their belongings into a beat-up car and head for the coast, as Transamerica becomes an episodic and pleasantly eccentric road movie (is there any other kind?) in which the characters eventually reveal themselves to each other. The film strains a bit to work out the correct balance of sweet and sour, and nothing in the movie even begins to measure up to Huffman's tour-de-force performance, but Transamerica is a trip well worth taking, filled with moments both whimsical and penetrating. Also stars Graham Greene and Fionnula Flanagan. 3.5 stars
UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION (R) Kate Beckinsale returns in the sequel to the 2003 horror-action epic about a world where a blood feud between werewolves and vampires rages. Underworld: Evolution is a bit light in the narrative department (you were expecting Shakespeare maybe?), but it does contain just about everything else you'd want in a movie like this — oodles of lush, gothic atmosphere; great, gushing streams of blood and drool; wonderfully hideous special effects; and a seemingly endless supply of grisly battles where heads literally roll. Best of all, the movie manages to treat its story and its mythology with respect while injecting the proceedings with just enough tongue-in-cheek action to keep things interesting. Also stars Scott Speedman and Bill Nighy. 3 stars
WALK THE LINE (PG-13) Walk the Line is an engaging, star-studded production that gives us a more or less accurate accounting of Johnny Cash's life, but there's a generic feeling to the movie very much at odds with the edginess of its subject. The movie follows Cash's rise to stardom in the '50s and his subsequent fall, duly noting the marital problems, the drug problems, the inevitable cold turkey turn-around and the eventual comeback. The film is a little too concerned, though, with creating an overly tidy arc out of the events of Cash's life, and there's little here of the epic scope of Ray, no real sense of why Cash was important. Joaquin Phoenix does a serviceable job evoking Cash's physical presence, and Reese Witherspoon's perky Carter is a lot of fun to watch (and fun to listen to; she's a surprisingly strong country singer) — but, frankly, this couple could be almost any pair of innocuously attractive lovebirds. 3 stars
THE WORLD'S FASTEST INDIAN (PG-13) The Indian in the title of Roger Donaldson's new film isn't even human, although you'd be hard pressed to deny it possesses a personality. What we're talking about is a vintage Indian Scout motorcycle owned and operated by one Burt Munro, an eccentric old New Zealander who traveled all the way to Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats and, against all odds, set a land speed record in 1967 that still stands. The World's Fastest Indian is based on fact and seems to have gotten most of the talking points of Munro's life right — but more important, the movie itself is a lot of fun. Anthony Hopkins is immensely appealing as the eternally optimistic Burt, playing him quirky and ridiculously personable without sentimentalizing the character, and the film is as consistently good-natured as its hero. Also stars Christopher Lawford, Bruce Greenwood, Paul Rodriguez and Diane Ladd. 3.5 stars
This article appears in Mar 8-14, 2006.