A.I. (PG-13) A film directed by Steven Spielberg based on a long-gestating idea by Stanley Kubrick, A.I. is an odd and intriguing hybrid of a movie, combining elements that smack of both filmmakers but not really fully in either's camp. The story tells us of a little robot boy (Haley Joel Osment) who has troubles adjusting to the human world (and vice versa. Individual moments in the movie are striking, but A.I. doesn't really hold together, and it never comes to grips with what it really is: a tragedy of epic proportions. Spielberg just can't seem to let go of the desire to make us smile through our tears, and the movie ultimately becomes awkward and repetitious as it drags on, straining to find just the right series of upbeat notes in what is essentially a rather dour, discordant piece. Also stars Frances O'Connor, Jude Law and William Hurt. 
American Outlaws (PG-13) A new comedic twist to an old classic tale of Jesse James and his gang, this time with a cast of young hotties. American Outlaws sticks with the same old cliches: Jesse (newcomer Colin Farrell) and his gang are the usual bank-robbin', train-stoppin', good-at-heart outlaws. They're trying to save their land from being confiscated by the railroad company. A typical scene: In the midst of a robbery, the boys set to arguin' about what to call themselves — the James-Younger Gang or the Younger- James Gang? You decide if you want to see yet another retelling of the Jesse James story. At least this one might have enough slapstick humor to get you through it. Also stars Ali Larter (the whip cream bikini girl from Varsity Blues) and Scott Caan.
—Sandra Jones 
American Pie 2 (R) You can see the gags coming from Cheboygan. The characters are as thin as rice paper, the acting is either terminally bland or hopelessly over the top, and — what's more — AP2 is stingy on the T&A shots. The film's first scene finds outgoing college freshman Jim, still sexually inept as ever, finally getting laid in his dorm room, and for some unconscionable, inexplicable reason, director J.B. Rogers keep the chick's tits covered. Why? For the sake of subtlety? Hey, if we're gonna do this, let's do this. The gang of wacky dudes is back, this time spending summer break at a beach house. Guess what? There are all sorts of sexual hijinks. For real. Jim confuses the lube and the super glue and, y'know, cements his hand to his johnson 'cause, like, he's strokin' it. Really. Why waste celluloid on this when they could be showing some ass?
—Eric Snider 
America's Sweethearts (PG-13) If anyone could prop up the all but moribund romantic comedy genre, you'd think it would be John Cusack and Julia Roberts. Not quite. America's Sweethearts, co-written by and co-starring Billy Crystal, collects an array of funny, sorta-funny and not-particularly-funny vignettes, but never quite congeals into a cohesive story. What's supposed to be a sprightly paced film comes off as lugubrious, sometimes plodding, until the final act. Cusack and Catherine Zeta-Jones play the titular roles: an estranged married couple — adoringly known as Gwen and Eddie — whose teaming on hit movies is about to end with one last sci-fi flick. Crystal plays a lovingly conniving studio publicist who manipulates them into appearing at a press junket. Roberts is Zeta-Jones' once-frumpy assistant and sister (she's lost 60 pounds). A love triangle ensues, replete with all the requisite shenanigans, pratfalls and rants, but much of it feels forced and formulaic.
—Eric Snider
Atlantis (PG) Disney's latest animated feature is a Jules Verne-ish looking adventure about a group of explorers who discover a civilization beneath the sea. Michael J. Fox, who seems to enjoy this sort of thing, supplies the hero's voice.
(Not Reviewed)
Baby Boy (R) Ten years after Boyz N the Hood, director John Singleton revisits his old South Central stomping grounds with less than satisfying results. Singleton's title character is Jody (Tyrese Gibson), a likable but aimless 20-year-old arrested adolescent with no job, commitment issues, two small children by different women, who still lives at home sponging off his mama.
Boys to Men (NR) This latest collection of short, gay-theme films, a la Boy's Life, is a decidedly mixed bag, ranging from the very good to the barely there. The first short, Crush, is a cute little tale about a 12-year-old girl who discovers her 16-year-old boy pal is gay. The second entry, The Mountain King, is a sexually explicit and basically pointless skit about a male hustler seducing a nominally straight guy. The best and most moving of the lot is The Confession, in which an aging man dying of AIDS attempts to make his peace with the Church while not alienating his partner. Not exactly the most earth-shaking stuff you'll ever see, but certainly of the the bravest moving pictures appearing on any movie screen in the Bay area this week. At Channelside Cinemas. Call theater to confirm. 
Captain Corelli's Mandolin (R) Romance blooms on a beautiful Greek island during World War II when a sensitive Italian soldier (Nicolas Cage) and strong-willed Greek woman (Penelope Cruz) are forced to share the same home. Also stars Christain Bale and John Hurt. Opens Aug. 17 at Channelside Cinemas. Call theater to confirm.
(Not Reviewed)
Cats and Dogs (PG) More talking animals than you can shake a talking animal at. Stars Jeff Goldblum and a whole lot of digitally manipulated furballs.
(Not Reviewed)
The Closet (NR) The latest effort from French filmmaker Francis Veber involves an insignificant little man who pretends to be gay in order to keep from being fired from his dead-end job at a condom factory. Veber's big joke is that our newly outed hero doesn't change his behavior in the slightest but everyone's perceptions of him alter radically. Daniel Auteuil's performance is understated to the point of blandness in the lead role, but Gerard Depardieu, as a macho co-worker, makes up for his co-star's subtlety by delivering a blustery, nearly hysterical performance that pushes every scene he's in way over the top. The movie is worth seeing for Depardieu alone, but, for the most part, the material itself feels more than just a little tepid and sitcomish. The Closet is relatively fast-paced, for what it's worth, but basically frivolous and uninspired stuff that never really transcends its slight, one-note premise. Also stars Michel Aumont. Now playing at Channelside Cinemas. Call theater to confirm.
Dr. Dolittle 2 (PG) Eddie Murphy reprises the role of the infamous animal love doctor, and this time he has a message. After being lured into the woods by a raccoon with Mafia connections, Dolittle hears from the Godbeaver himself that the forest is about to be destroyed. In order to save the pristine wilderness from evil loggers, Dr. Dolittle attempts to get two endangered and completely incompatible Pacific Western bears to mate.
—Dustin Dwyer 
The Fast and the Furious (R) A total video game of a movie, in the best sense, and everything Driven should have been: a racing flick that's one big, unabashed rush, sprinkled with larger-than-life characters who swagger between iconic stature and campy cartoonishness. Director Rob Cohen (Dragon: the Bruce Lee Story) re-imagines L.A. as a glossy no-man's land ruled by speed-crazed street racers. Stars Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster.
Fast Food, Fast Women (NR) This rambling, self-consciously quirky, Manhattan-set romantic comedy from Israeli-born director Amos Kollek wants desperately to charm us but just doesn't have the chops. Anna Thompson stars as Bella, a 30-ish waitress too sweet to assert herself and too unlucky to find a guy who'll treat her right. Kollek throws in a lot of eccentric New Yorkers of various backgrounds and ages (there's even an attempt at a septuagenarian romance involving Louise Lasser, the once Mary Hartman) and, in the absence of anything resembling a plot, simply lets them shoot off their mouths and bounce off one another. There are some funny moments, but lots more that feels strained and annoying. Also stars Jammie Harris and Victor Argo. Opens Aug. 17 at Channelside Cinemas. Call theater to confirm.
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. After so many other similarly themed IMAX projects, some of the information here feels a bit repetitious, but what's new is genuinely amazing — particularly the intense and sometimes very spooky sequences in which underwater predators (sea lions, sword-beaked marlin and, last but definitely not least, sharks) hunt down and make meals of smaller, weaker critters. Island of the Sharks is not all grim, fish-eat-fish stuff, though — there are also some fascinating glimpses of a symbiotic environment in which barberfish groom other, larger fish (including sharks); warm and fuzzy moments with creatures and their young; and amusing time-lapse sequences of starfish wobbling along the ocean floor like an army of underwater Charlie Chaplins. For the lustful of heart, there's even a bit of romance here between groups of manta rays, although the end is not necessarily a happy one. Opens Aug. 17 at Channelside IMAX.
Jump Tomorrow (PG) This indie romantic comedy comes fresh from Sundance, featuring an ensemble of eccentric international characters looking for that elusive love connection in the sky. Starring Tunde Adebimpe, Natalia Verbeke, Hippolyte Giradot and Patricia Mauceri.
(Not Reviewed)
Jurassic Park 3 (R) Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Tea Leoni and a couple of other unlucky customers crash land on the island of the you-know-whats. The least plot-and-character-oriented of the Jurassic franchise, JP3 cuts right to the chase. That said, this is a much better and more exciting movie than we might have expected, with some expertly handled action sequences, almost no padding, and the best special effects of the series.
Kiss of the Dragon (R) A nasty little piece of work highlighted by some gloriously over-the-top action sequences, lots of blood and guts, firepower, flying fists and, of course, Jet Li. He plays a Chinese cop on the lam from an army of corrupt cops in Paris. Kiss of the Dragon is thoroughly satisfying summer fare, at least if you're open to having your action tempered by more intense violence and borderline nihilism than you'll see this side of a vintage spaghetti western.
Lakeboat (R) Even though it was written in 1981, three full years before Glengarry Glen Ross, there's reason to think of David Mamet's Lakeboat as Glengarry at sea. Mamet's play, and now actor Joe Mantegna's directorial debut, shoves us head first into another deeply insular man's world, this one located on a steel freighter making its way up the Great Lakes to Canada. Early, unrefined Mamet (and all the more interesting for it), Lakeboat unfolds as a series of barely connected vignettes in which the characters sit around drinking, playing cards, reading girly mags, and, mostly, talking. Mantegna gives lots of respect to the actors and to Mamet's words, conjuring up some remarkable performances (particularly from Robert Forster and Charles Durning, the later so enormous he looks about to explode) but calling undue attention to the fact that this is, at root, a play adapted for the screen. Even so, Lakeboat manages to engage us throughout with its odd little stories-within-stories and crusty, eloquently ineloquent universe of testosterone and tall tales. Also stars Peter Falk, Denis Leary, Tony Mamet, Jack Wallace and George Wendt. Held over at Channelside Cinemas. Call theater to confirm.
Lara Croft Tomb Raider (PG-13) Yet another reason why movies should not be based on video games. Angelina Jolie stars as Lara Croft, a busty, butt-kickin adventurer with a serious daddy complex. The movie is essentially just an excuse to fetishize Jolie and showcase some exotic locations and annoying digital effects. 
Legally Blonde (PG-13) Reese Witherspoon's sheer adorability carries Legally Blonde. She plays Elle Woods, a privileged graduate of a sunny California campus who not only possesses naturally luxuriant blond locks and copious perkiness but is whip-smart and has a heart of gold. After she's dumped by her Eastern blue-blood boyfriend, for not fitting his future politico image, she wrangles her way into Harvard law, where Plan A is to win the guy back. She strikes many blows for would-be dumb blondes everywhere.
—Eric Snider
A Love Divided (PG-13) A moderately engrossing drama based on actual events, in which an Irish couple is torn apart by religion. A Catholic man (Liam Cunnigham) and a Protestant woman (Orla Brady) marry, not just once but three times — once for themselves, in a civil ceremony, and once each in their respective churches. In order to be married in the Catholic church, however, the couple is required to sign a pledge to bring up their children as Catholics — a pledge that comes back to haunt the pair years later when the woman begins considering the possibility of sending her daughters somewhere other than the local Catholic school. The local priests get involved, tempers rise, latent Catholic-Protestant resentment flares and things quickly escalate into what amounts to open warfare between former friends and lovers of different faiths. Despite the potential here, the film doesn't really completely connect; the movie wears its politics a little too visibly on its sleeve (the Catholic Church coming off as the biggest villain of the piece) and the individual characters aren't developed quite well enough to fully engage our sympathies. Also stars Tony Doyle. Opens Aug. 17 at Channelside Cinemas. Call theater to confirm.
Made (R) Swingers co-stars Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau team up again for this amusing project, written and directed by Favreau, about a pair of bumblers in way over their heads on a mysterious cross-country heist. Vaughn is wonderfully obnoxious as the motor mouth, would-be hipster Ricky, playing nicely off straight man Favreau as his reluctant and relatively silent sidekick Bobby. There's a slightly surreal, After Hours-like nightmare feel to the whole thing, a little like a Kafka story played for laughs. The mostly hand-held, on-location camerawork by Christopher Doyle (In the Mood for Love and a zillion other mostly Hong Kong productions) is another plus. Also stars Peter Falk and a whole slew of folks from The Sopranos.
Memento (R) A haunting film about a man who can't trust his own memory. Our hero, Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce), has a bizarre condition that makes it impossible for him to remember anything more recent than the night of his wife's brutal murder. Consequently, he travels from place to place searching for her killer, tattooing upon his own body the clues that he uncovers, clues that he would instantly forget if not for the fact that they were indelibly imprinted on his skin. Memento actually tells its story in reverse, but the movie isn't so much a radical experiment as it is a crime thriller in the classic film noir vein — all-brooding atmosphere, paranoia and treachery. Also stars Carrie-Anne Moss and Joe Pantoliano.
Moulin Rouge (PG-13) Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman play a star-crossed pair, but the real star of Moulin Rouge is its sense of style: it's all staged as a musical. There's something a little too self-congratulatory and masturbatory, creating something of a dead end street, albeit possibly the most gorgeous and wildly cinematic dead end we may ever see. 
Original Sin (R) A tale set in Cuba a hundred years ago, with Antonio Banderas as a wealthy merchant smitten by a woman who may or may not be what she seems. Also stars Angelina Jolie.
(Not Reviewed)
Osmosis Jones (PG-13) The Farrelly Brothers' latest is a mostly animated rehash of that old Fantastic Voyage territory in which the majority of the action takes place inside a guy's body — only this time the good guys are the germs. We can certainly see why this project appealed to the creators of There's Something About Mary — after all, why just sprinkle your movies with bodily fluid jokes when you can do an entire feature length film starring them? Unfortunately, Osmosis Jones is surprisingly bland stuff from the notorious Farrellys, a watered-down bid for the hearts of the Disney crowd that feels unconvincing and ultimately insincere. The plot is standard good guys (white blood cells) versus bad guys (a nasty virus), the humor is oddly lifeless, and the competent but generic animation style undermines most of the bite the film might have contained. Features Bill Murray and the voices of Chris Rock, Laurence Fishburne and David Hyde Pierce.
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. The movie doles out its information in a slow, sure manner that uses atmosphere, small details and deliberate pacing to throw us off balance and maximize tension. 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. The real strength of The Others, though, much like the classic psychological ghost stories it echoes (the original 1963 The Haunting and The Innocents), is its successful creation of a sense of unreality that encourages us to share the mounting disorientation of its characters and to doubt their very perceptions. You could make a case that the love-it-or-hate-it twist ending destroys much of the film's carefully cultivated ambiguity, but The Others succeeds despite that misstep. Also stars Fionnula Flanagan, Christopher Eccleston, Eric Sykes, Alakina Mann and James Bentley.
Pearl Harbor (PG-13) Almost everything about Michael Bay's movie is epic. Balancing human drama and unabashedly cornball romance with balls-to-the-wall action — and told in big, stirring, simple (occasionally simplistic) strokes — Pearl Harbor is nothing if not a clear attempt to out-Titanic Titanic.
Planet of the Apes (PG-13) The most massively hyped and eagerly awaited movie of the season, the remake of the beloved 1967 sci-fi classic turns out to be one of the bigger letdowns of an already disappointing summer. For starters, Tim Burton is simply the wrong director to pull off this misconceived project. Always the consummate stylist, Burton makes the apes and their Giger-esque habitats look cool (although Helena Bonham Carter and her furry female pals look way too cute for their own good and infinitely sillier than their counterparts in the original movie). The action is flatly directed; the story is dull and the movie's self-conscious attempts at humor mix uneasily with the darker tone of the rest of the material. By the last act, Apes degenerates into just another mediocre action flick (albeit one with guys in monkey makeup) — the result being a movie considerably less interesting and engrossing than the original. Stars Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth and Michael Duncan Clarke.
The Princess Diaries (PG) The unlikely premise here concerns an average American teen, Mia (Anne Hathaway), who discovers that her late father was actually the crown prince of a small European country, and that she's now the sole heir to the throne. Part of the movie (a very insignificant part, as it happens) unfolds as a sort of wannabe My Fair Lady, in which the girl's Royal Grandmother (screen icon Julie Andrews) attempts to instill culture, class and confidence into a 10th grader whose greatest ambition, like most kids her age, is to be invisible. Beyond that, the story is simply about ugly duckling/oddball Mia transforming into a swan and finally getting the shallow pretty-boy of her dreams, only to discover that the guy she really wanted was right under her royal nose all the time. The worst of it, as with so many teen projects of this kind, is that the so-called transformation of our young protagonist never really amounts to much, thereby robbing the movie of any possibility of dramatic momentum. There are a few standard teen subplots, a couple of semi-respectable moments of bonding between Mia and her grandmother, some tepid slapstick (a state dinner party turns into a food fight) and a whole mess of dumb little bumps in the plot's thoroughly predictable path. Also stars Heather Matarazzo, Hector Elizondo and Mandy Moore.
The Road Home (NR) A love story as simple as it is infectious, Zhang Yimou's The Road Home is something quite new for this most daring and demanding of filmmakers: a sweet, unaffected and unabashedly emotional ode to first love, last love, and all the love in between. The film begins with the death of a man's father and then unfolds as an extended flashback in which we're presented with the courtship of the grieving man's parents. The centerpiece in all this is the face of Zhang Ziyi, the young actress now known widely to western audiences for her high-flying turn in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Here she's all dimpled, pigtailed, uncomplicated girlishness and a seemingly boundless affection for the handsome young schoolteacher with whom she's fallen instantly in puppy-love. A film of great charm and delicacy, the bulk of The Road Home simply details the gentle and thoroughly innocent courtship of Zhang's character and the young teacher. Opens Aug. 17 at the Beach Theatre. Call for confirmation.
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. The pattern is set in the first few minutes, with a very funny karaoke scene featuring Tucker segueing immediately into a dazzling action set piece with Chan scampering straight up an enormous bamboo scaffolding after a pack of bad guys. The action-comedy mix continues unabated from there, as 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. Also stars John Lone, Roselyn Sanchez and Crouching Tiger's Zhang Ziyi, underused but extremely effective as a sadistic, bomb-loving henchwoman.
Scary Movie 2 (R) Despite a handful of solid moments, Scary Movie 2 is considerably less fresh and less fun than the original, and even at under 90 minutes, the movie frequently drags.
Sexy Beast (R) Gal Dove (Ray Winstone), a retired professional thief, recently relocated from gray, drizzly London to the sunny south of Spain, finds his good life disrupted in a major way when an awful face from the past shows up at his door with an offer he can't refuse. The face belongs to the volatile, barely human gangster Don Logan (Ben Kingsley in a career-topping performance), a London East End equivalent to Joe Pesci's loose cannon in GoodFellas, only scarier.
Shrek (PG) Dreamworks' animated fantasy is a deliciously irreverent bit of make-believe. Mike Myers, who supplies the voice (and personality) for the titular lime-green ogre, is great, as is all the voice talent here. The 3-D-like digital animation is also a treat, but the real star here, for once, is the writing.
Swordfish (R) Form blows away content in this extremely stylish, fast-paced but (although you'll hardly have a chance to notice) fairly ordinary thriller about a high-tech heist. John Travolta stars as master cyber-criminal Gabriel Shear. Hugh Jackman (Wolverine from X-Men) supplies the human interest as the hacker, and Halle Berry shows plenty of skin as an enigmatic gang member. Good fun while we're watching it, but a day or two later it's hard to remember much about Swordfish.
—Reviewed entries by Lance Goldenberg unless otherwise noted
This article appears in Aug 16-22, 2001.