New Releases
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. Opens Feb. 24 at local theaters. (Not Reviewed)
RECENT RELEASES
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
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. The outcome may be up in the air, but the message in Cache is clear — don't bother seeking safety, because safety does not exist. As in all of Haneke's movies, the real dangers in Cache lurk within, terrors of the imagination that prove every bit as potent as the actual terrors on the ground. Haneke keeps things open-ended right up until the bitter end and beyond, allowing meticulously accumulated tensions to boil over into some nameless, endless state of existential dread. Viewers demanding resolution are advised to look elsewhere, because all the best bits in Cache (and there are many) are found between the lines. Also stars Maurice Benichou. Lester Makedonsky and Annie Girardot. Currently at Tampa Theatre in Tampa and Burns Court Cinemas in Sarasota. Call to confirm. 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)
DATE MOVIE (PG-13) A couple of the screenwriters behind the Scary Movie movies (as the ads and trailers so gleefully point out) are on hand to apply their patented spoof-and-burn formula to the romantic comedy genre. Stars Allyson Hannigan, Jennifer Coolidge and Fred Willard. (Not Reviewed)
EIGHT BELOW (PG-13) Human thespians play second fiddle to a pack of furry critters in Eight Below, a Disney adventure that succeeds nicely as family entertainment and maybe a touch more. 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
FINAL DESTINATION 3 (R) All gore and no heart, this third stab at a movie that didn't even deserve a sequel is just painful to watch. Exposition is skipped under the assumption that the viewer has seen the previous Final Destination films, thus allowing a calculable, yet ridiculously brutal bloodfest to ensue without delay. Characters are one-dimensional, dialogue is inane and high school clichés abound in the sanguinary tale about Death hunting teenagers who dodged Its first attempt on their lives. Stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Ryan Merriman; James Wong writes, directs, produces and possibly fantasizes about killing puppies that belong to orphans. 1.5 stars Erin Rashbaum
FIREWALL (PG-13) "Machine-like precision" is usually something filmmakers aspire to, but the by-the-numbers thriller Firewall is so lacking in excitement or imagination that it feels mechanical in the worst possible sense. The movie often seems to have been written and performed exclusively by barely-functioning robots. Harrison Ford stars as a bank security expert forced to hack into his own computer system by bad guys who have taken his family hostage. A toothless and generic fusion of home invasion movie and high-tech heist flick, Firewall is mainly notable for its numerous plot holes and bizarre leaps in logic that will have audience members scratching their heads or tittering. There's a paltry pay-off to the slog in the last 30 minutes, at which point Ford gets to haul his grizzled carcass across the screen for a few scenes in an unconvincing attempt to make like an action hero. Also stars Virginia Madsen, Paul Bettany, Mary Lynn Rajskub and Robert Patrick. 2 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. Things take an even more unsatisfying turn at the midpoint, when Freedomland drops the ball on its racial angle and turns its attentions to the back stories of a group of concerned women also searching for the missing child. 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 20 minutes too long, and none of it is particularly convincing. Also stars Edie Falco and Ron Eldard. 2.5 stars
GLORY ROAD (PG) Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Walt Disney Pictures produce a tale of athletic and social advancement about the struggle and triumph of black players breaking into a sport primarily dominated by whites. Glory Road is based on the true story of Coach Don Haskins (played by Josh Lucas of An Unfinished Life), who took the first all-black lineup to the NCAA basketball championship in 1966. Elaborating on the importance of camaraderie among teammates and of loving and respecting a man regardless of his skin color, Glory Road suggests that there are beautiful moments in and outside of discontent, and does so in a way that's far from disappointing. James Gartner directs; also stars Tatyana Ali, Emily Deschanel, Derek Luke and Jon Voight. 3 stars Adam Capparelli
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
HOODWINKED (PG) A clever but overly convoluted kiddie flick that re-envisions the Red Riding Hood story as a Rashomon-like conundrum of competing and overlapping narratives. Everybody tells their side of the fairy tale — Red, the wolf, the woodsman, the grandma — as secrets are revealed, stories dovetail and cancel each other out, and, ultimately, some sort of paltry pay-off takes place. The film tries to balance physical comedy and other kid-friendly humor with elements aimed at older viewers, but there's not much middle ground here, and the movie winds up feeling compromised and more than a little confused. Featuring the voices of Anne Hathaway, Glenn Close, Jim Belushi and Andy Dick. 3 stars
HOSTEL (R) Cabin Fever writer/director Eli Roth enlisted executive producer Quentin Tarantino and a savvy Internet buildup to make Hostel one of the most anticipated horror flicks of the New Year. In it, three backpackers (Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson and Eythor Gudjonsson) leave the standard European student haunts in search of carnal pleasures, only to end up the object of others' infinitely darker desires. Hostel takes a little too long to build, and depends more upon tension and revulsion than outright scares, but once the blood starts to flow Roth gets a lot of mileage out of the idea (not to mention the visuals) of human torture. The film may not single-handedly redeem the American horror genre, but it is one of the most original, visceral and wholly wrought movies the genre has offered in a while. Oh, and there's, like, a thousand boobs, too. Also stars Barbara Nedeljakova, Jana Kaderabkova, and Jan Vlasak. 3.5 stars Scott Harrell
LAST HOLIDAY (PG-13) Director Wayne Wang's well-meaning misfire is gentler and more appealing low key than you might imagine, but it's also lazily scripted and stocked with cardboard-cutout characters who are either saints or demons. Saintliest of all is Georgia (Queen Latifah), a humble, self-sacrificing everywoman who, upon discovering she has three weeks to live, flies to Prague with the express aim of throwing caution to the wind and living life to the fullest. Latifah's character checks into a $4,000-a-night hotel, pampers herself, has a wild and crazy experience or two skiing and jumping off bridges, and rubs elbows with a couple of rich businessmen and politicians (most of whom are every bit as devilish as Georgia is angelic). Despite some early promise, the movie winds up as predictable and maudlin as the trailers make it out to be, and not even the normally nimble Wang (Chan is Missing) or the larger-than-life Latifah can turn that around. Also stars LL Cool J, Timothy Hutton, Alicia Witt and a slumming Gerard Depardieu — saddled with moronic speeches in which he compares Latifah to a humble, underappreciated turnip. 2.5 stars
THE MATADOR (R) Director Richard Shepard's new movie is nothing if not image conscious, with Pierce Brosnan chewing the scenery as an eccentric professional assassin who takes the piss out of his famous 007 persona at every opportunity, and Greg Kinnear. who seems to have found his niche in the movies playing straight men, doing just that in grandly bland style. A half-humorous, half-serious study in contrasts, The Matador features Brosnan as a seedy, burnt-out hitman who meets up with a thoroughly average businessman (Kinnear) and can't resist rocking his world by telling him what he does for a living. What ensues is an inconsequential but mostly appealing odd-couple buddy movie bolstered by likable performances from Brosnan and Kinnear. The movie strains a bit mixing its black humor with some thoroughly sudsy dramatics, but it all looks very nice, with vibrant pop-py colors and lively editing, and some fine chemistry between its leads (which, in movies like this, is at least half the battle). Also stars Hope Davis. 3.5 stars
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) Beautiful to look at and with barely a thought in its pretty little head, Memoirs of a Geisha takes what might have been a culturally-specific slice of Asian subject matter and inexplicably infuses it with heaping helpings of that old Chicago razzle-dazzle. The film 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. Amplifying the scent of kitsch in the air, the non-native-speaking actors all speak a lightly accented English better suited to an old Godzilla movie than a serious dramatic venture. 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) Despite a marketing campaign that sells it as a more-or-less straight-ahead suspense thriller, Munich is a glum, oddly muddled affair, so consumed with wallowing in ethical ambiguities and hand-wringing over endless cycles of violence that it forgets to give us an engaging story. 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. The movie winds up a little too eager to warm hearts and never quite lives up to the promising Roald Dahl/Edward Gorey darkness of its set-up, but Nanny McPhee gets most of what it does right. 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. Walking a fine line between mesmerizing and monotonous, the film revels in long, trance-like passages complete with whispering choruses of multiple voices layered over the fray. 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. Pocahontas and John Smith drift in and out of the proceedings even as the film's heartbreakingly beautiful images continue to overflow for nearly two and a half hours, looking almost too perfect for this world. Also stars Christian Bale and Christopher Plummer. 2.5 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
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)
SYRIANA (R) A film that attempts to be the last word on that scariest of unholy trinities — oil, money and blood — Syriana sometimes seems less like a political art-film and more like a thinking man's horror movie (think Land of the Dead with less cannibalism and where the zombies are rewritten as CIA agents). Writer-director Stephen Gaghan, screenwriter of Steven Soderbergh's similarly timely Traffic, throws together an almost unmanageable ensemble of some two dozen characters, from American politicians and oilmen to Arab sheiks and suicide bombers, in an ambitious attempt to offer up a mosaic of the enormously complicated forces (economic, religious, cultural, etc.) fueling immoral acts on both sides of the ongoing War on Terror. There's much that's thought-provoking and even important about Syriana, but the effect of the film is a bit like a jigsaw puzzle that disorients us so much in the beginning we begin to lose patience with seeing it through to completion. Stars George Clooney (nearly unrecognizable as a paunchy graybeard), Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright, Chris Cooper, William Hurt, Mazhar Munir, Tim Blake Nelson, Amanda Peet and Christopher Plummer. 3.5 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. Currently at Burns Court Cinema in Sarasota. Call to confirm. 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 unexpected respect while injecting the proceedings with just enough tongue-in-cheek action to keep the whole thing 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. This is basically just a road movie leading up to a predictably rousing finale — Burt travels across American encountering an oddball human smorgasbord (rednecks, drag queens, soldiers, horny widows, Native Americans, used car salesmen) and eventually realizes his dream — but even the corniest bits are so buoyant it all wins us over. Also stars Christopher Lawford, Bruce Greenwood, Paul Rodriguez and Diane Ladd. 3.5 stars
This article appears in Feb 22-28, 2006.