Upcoming Releases
30 DAYS OF NIGHT (R) The premise is delicious — vampires descend on an isolated Alaskan community shrouded in bloodsucker-friendly, month-long darkness — but the suspense builds too quickly, and the all-important atmosphere of 30 Days of Night too often devolves into mayhem. Josh Hartnett and Melissa George are the disposable human leads, while the movie's real strength lies in its monsters: a nasty, thoroughly repulsive lot (no Anne Rice dandies need apply) led by Danny Huston, unexpectedly convincing as a vampiric overlord cleverly re-imagined as a lumbering, Eastern-Euro thug. The film pays homage to all the best horror tropes, but director David Slade can't quite seem to orchestrate his elements in a completely satisfying way, and the cumulative effect falls a little flat. There are individual scenes of ferocious terror as well as moments of pure poetry here, but the action moves in fits and starts, ending in a flurry of shotgun blasts and unbecoming action-hero catchphrases. Also stars Ben Foster and Mark Boone Junior. 3 stars
THE COMEBACKS (PG-13) Inspirational sports movies finally get what they deserve in this "hilariously irreverent" spoof of the genre. Or so we're lead to believe by the studio — which didn't manage to screen the movie in time for a review. Stars David Koechner, Carl Weathers, Brooke Nevin, Jackie Long and Matthew Lawrence. (Not Reviewed)
INTO THE WILD (R) This is Sean Penn's meandering but strangely compelling take on the true story of Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch), a child of privilege who burned his IDs, gave away his money and, reborn as Alexander Supertramp, hit the open road. Into the Wild unfolds on a certain level as a road movie, with Chris/Alex hooking up with fellow travelers as he makes his way across the country, but the film also offers frequent flashbacks providing a parallel story obsessing on the familial tensions supposedly being left behind. The flashback structure and ominous, anguished tone of the voice-overs leave little doubt that we're witnessing a tragedy, however, and the movie's pervasive fatalism provides a bottom note even to Into the Wild's brighter moments. To his credit, and despite a soundtrack studded with painfully sincere Eddie Vedder songs, Penn doesn't turn Alex into a hero — his quest ultimately seems as foolish as it is noble. The film is too long by at least a half hour, and its frequent attempts to provide Alex with metaphorical surrogate families are a bit transparent, but there's something important being communicated here about the beauty and folly of attempting a personal spiritual revolution, the closest corollary being Herzog's Grizzly Man. Also stars Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Jena Malone, Catherine Keener, Vince Vaughn, Brian Dierker, Kristen Stewart and Hal Holbrook. Opens Oct. 19 at local theaters. 3.5 stars
RECENT RELEASES
3:10 TO YUMA (PG-13) As in the 1957 film that inspired it, 3:10 to Yuma gives us a tightly wound cowboy cast adrift in an existential wilderness — Dan Evans (Christian Bale), a cash-strapped rancher who agrees to help transport notorious Alpha-male outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) to jail. It's a journey that quickly turns tense, then treacherous, laying souls bare and, more often than not, revealing a terrible void where a conscience should be. As Yuma heads toward its big showdown and virtually every one of the movie's heroes reveal themselves as rats deserting a sinking ship, the film drops the ball a bit, but that's almost to be expected. Without at least a glimmer of light at the end, audiences would probably never have been able to bear all the surrounding darkness. Last act problems aside, 3:10 to Yuma is a solid piece of work, a western respectful of old-school conventions while breathing some new life into the form. Also stars Peter Fonda, Gretchen Mol, Ben Foster, Dallas Roberts, Logan Lerman and Alan Tudyk. 3.5 stars
ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (PG-13) The new film from stylist extraordinaire Julie Taymor (Titus, Frida) promises a lushly visual approach and wall-to-wall Beatles music bolstering a basic boy-meets-girl scenario set against the groovy, tumultuous 1960s. The characters all have Beatlesque names like Lucy, Jude, Sadie and Jo-Jo, and psychedelicized imagery inspired by the Fab's tunes reportedly abounds — but the $10 million the studio ponied up for the rights to the music apparently didn't even buy them the original versions, so Across the Universe's 133-minute running time may become tough going what with the nonmusician actors themselves being the ones doing the warbling here. We'll have to wait to see how it all turns out, since the film was screened too late for review. Stars Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson, Dana Fuchs and Martin Luthor McCoy. (Not Reviewed)
THE BRAVE ONE (R) In Neil Jordan's classy revenge flick/mood piece, Jodie Foster stars as a sensitive New Yorker who's nearly beaten to death and is then reborn as a remarkably efficient killing machine. For most of the movie's running time, though, Jordan places us at a distinct remove from the visceral thrill typically supplied by on-screen violence, choosing to comment on our collective impulse for revenge ("It feels good," is one bystander's succinct explanation) rather than revel in the rush of it all. Foster's character is never less than conflicted about her own actions, and the individual murders are depicted as messy, unpleasant events not remotely designed to get an audience on their feet cheering. Jordan actively roots around in the escalating alienation and de-sensitization, with more than a whiff of Taxi Driver in the claustrophobic atmosphere, making The Brave One a curious contradiction in terms — a payback flick that practically goes out of its way to avoid exploitation. The single, notable exception is the movie's final murder, a controversial scene that some may see as Jordan's 11th-hour appeal, whether ironic or not, to the crypto-fascist lurking inside us all. It doesn't quite turn the genre completely on its head, but The Brave One gives it a good shot. Also stars Terrence Howard, Naveen Andrews and Mary Steenburgen. 3.5 stars
ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE (PG-13) A sequel of sorts to Kapur's '98 take on England's "virgin queen," Elizabeth: The Golden Age lacks even the vaguely Gothic kitsch-horror appeal or its predecessor, as it flits uneasily between two narrative streams that don't ever mesh particularly well. In one parallel plot, we have Elizabeth entertaining the possibility of a suitor (suffering several fops and buffoons before locking eyes on smoldering he-man Clive Owen, as Sir Walter Raleigh), while in the other we get some fairly pedestrian cloak-and-dagger stuff in which assorted Catholic agents scurry about the fringes of the film conspiring to undo the Protestant monarch. Neither of these stories amounts to much, with the romantic angle boiling down to a half-hearted triangle between Raleigh, the Queen and her lady-in-waiting (Abbie Cornish) that never really goes anywhere. Meanwhile, the movie lurches through a dangerously condensed, black-and-white version of history in which dastardly Catholics lust for innocent Protestant blood, culminating with a big Spain-England smackdown and a flurry of thoroughly unconvincing CGI battles. The sets and costumes are sometimes eye-catching, and Blanchett, ever the trooper, does a commendable job with what she has to work with, but the movie's attempts at humanizing its eponymous monarch are dodgy at best, and its history lesson is strictly Cliffs Notes. Also stars Geoffrey Rush, Rhys Ifans, Jordi Molla and Samantha Morton. 2.5 stars
FEAST OF LOVE (R) Various couples come together and fall apart, all under the patient gaze of Morgan Freeman (impossibly kind and sage as ever), in this oddly contoured but basically syrupy and shallow offering from screenwriter Allison Burnett (Resurrecting the Champ). Two burning love affairs ignite within the film's first few moments, although the most promising of these fine romances — two women who fixate on one another at a softball game — is quickly forgotten, becoming merely the butt of one of Feast of Love's watered-down attempts at a joke. Instead, the movie chooses to focus its attentions on the sweetly clueless husband (Greg Kinnear) abandoned by one of the born-again softball lesbians. Kinnear's character isn't a particularly interesting type, and his missteps are painfully obvious as he winds up falling for his icy real-estate agent (who's screwing a married man on the side) and then moving in with her in a home infamous for housing romantically doomed couples. Meanwhile, the movie also follows around an ex-junkie pretty boy and his adorable girlfriend (Toby Hemingway and Alexa Davalos), laboring to convince us of connections where none exist between the various characters. Feast of Love aims for a quirky sort of pop mysticism that recalls American Beauty recalling something John Irving wrote several decades ago, but almost none of it feels particularly authentic or engaging. Also stars Selma Blair, Radha Mitchell, Billy Burke, Fred Ward and Jane Alexander.
THE FINAL SEASON (PG) Fact meets feel-good schmaltz in Hollywood's latest sports drama, which is based the true story of the Norway Tigers. The setting is the small Midwestern town of Norway, Iowa, which takes great pride in its high-school baseball team and for good reason: The Tigers have won 19 state championships over 24 years of competing. Conflict arises when the school board threatens to disband Norway's high school as part of a statewide plan to merge small schools with larger ones. When the school's legendary head coach steps aside to take a job in the major leagues, the new, more inexperienced coach (played by Sean Astin) is faced with finding a way to make the team's final season count. While sports movie clichés abound, The Final Season has enough heart (and enough zippy one-liners) to overcome the weight of banality and rise above its shortcomings. Also stars Powers Boothe, Rachel Leigh Cook and Tom Arnold. 3 stars —Caitlin Kuleci
GOOD LUCK CHUCK (R) If you have no greater expectations than a trite romantic comedy, then this one's for you. In Mark Helfrich's directing debut, Dane Cook plays Charlie Logan, a stereotypical noncommittal-bachelor-type who gains a reputation for being his exes' "good luck charm" and lives out all his wildest, no-strings-attached sex fantasies as a result. In sum, Charlie gets laid and the women get married. But like any mediocre date movie, Chuck eventually tires of his ways and starts developing serious feelings for the not-so-lucky, cute and klutzy penguin specialist Cam Wexler (Jessica Alba). Predictable high jinks ensue, and if you can see past the cheesy moments, you might actually find yourself laughing. 2 stars —Katherine Clement
HALLOWEEN (R) Dedicated gorehound and horror-flick fanboy Rob Zombie in what, for better or worse, should be his element. John Carpenter's '70s slasher prototype gets remade by someone who cares, but will we? Stars Malcolm McDowell, Tyler Mane, Daeg Faerch, Sheri Moon, Brad Dourif, Udo Kier and Scout Taylor-Compton. (Not Reviewed)
THE HEARTBREAK KID (PG-13) The studio didn't screen this in time for our review, so we're as in the dark as you are about what the Farrelly Brothers will wind up doing with Neil Simon and Elaine May's fractured romance The Heartbreak Kid. Stars Ben Stiller and Michelle Monaghan. (Not Reviewed)
IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON (PG) A highly personal history of the nine lunar voyages made between 1968 and 1972, In the Shadow of the Moon gathers together the surviving Apollo astronauts (with one conspicuous omission) — the only human beings to ever stand on the surface of another world — and allows them to tell this epic story in their own words. The aging crew members spin tales that inevitably encompass the cosmic, but in ways that are approachable and occasionally even comic (one space jockey lays claim to being the first man to pee on the moon), their refreshingly down-to-earth observations providing an intimate counterpoint to the otherworldly archival footage presented here. Perhaps the most striking thing about David Sington's film, however, is the very different sort of America it so vividly recalls — a nation that, even at the height of the Vietnam War and cities aflame with racial strife, presented the world with a shining model of what humanity might be. In the Shadow of the Moon stops just short of being a completely satisfying experience — the movie doesn't address key concerns like why we suddenly stopped going to moon, for instance, and first-man-to-set-foot-on-the-moon Neil Armstrong, who refused to be interviewed for this project, becomes a frustrating black hole at the center of the film — but the dream evoked here is still a powerful one. Stars Jim Lovell, Dave Scott, John Young, Gene Cernan, Mike Collins, Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Edgar Mitchell, Charlie Duke and Harrison Schmitt. 3.5 stars
THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB (PG-13) Based on Karen Joy Fowler's novel, and a goodly notch up from your standard chick-flick fare, The Jane Austen Book Club introduces us to five females of various ages and temperaments, and then shepherds them through a series of romantic ups and downs. Different though they are, the women are bound by a love of literature (specifically Austen) and all saddled with loutish, disposable or conspicuously absent male partners — and so their book club, formed as an "antidote to life," essentially becomes a forum for the characters to vent about their own lives. There's also a lone male (Hugh Dancy) who worms his way into this estrogenic inner circle, providing a romantic foil for one of the women, and an Austen-ian object of desire who saunters around the edge of the film offering heavy-lidded temptation. The club members sip vast quantities of wine and discuss the novels that, naturally, wind up providing perfect parallels for the what's happening in their own lives, and it all culminates in a shower of tears, confessions, reconciliations and declarations of love (at a library soiree, no less). The movie's not without its share of dopey chick-flick conventions and cute reaction shots from canines, but there's also some surprisingly clever stuff going on here. Favorite loaded image: the thwarted stud covering up his arousal by hastily plopping a Jane Austen paperback in his lap. Stars Kathy Baker, Maria Bello, Emily Blunt, Amy Brenneman, Maggie Grace and Jimmy Smits. 3 stars
THE KINGDOM (R) The clash of civilizations is writ large all over The Kingdom, but what the movie basically offers is straight-forward, relatively agenda-free entertainment — a fast-moving police procedural with thriller and action movie accents. The film's title refers to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where a small team of FBI agents (led by Jamie Foxx) has grudgingly been allowed to investigate a brutal massacre of Americans. Struggling to solve a mystery in a place that doesn't accept them, The Kingdom's American agents are some of the strangest strangers in a strange land since Sidney Poitier's Mr. Tibbs. Eventually, Foxx and friends abruptly shift into full battle mode, blasting away with heavy-duty assault weapons and burning up the Riyadhi roads in high-speed car chases as the Americans find themselves besieged in an Islamist enclave, and The Kingdom starts looking like an even more hellish version of Black Hawk Down. Director Peter Berg maximizes the chaos by shooting in that intentionally jerky ADD-esque style popularized by films like United 93 and The Bourne Ultimatum, a technique that aims to present everything as somehow edgier and more "real" — although when Foxx begins single-handedly blowing away the bad guys, reality is best taken with several grains of salt; he's clearly as indestructible as any action hero. Also stars Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman, Jeremy Piven, Danny Huston, Ashraf Barhom and Aku Suliman. 3.5 stars
MICHAEL CLAYTON (R) A character study of a man defined by his compromises, Michael Clayton stars George Clooney as a former prosecutor gone to seed and long reduced to working as a fixer for a big law firm. It's a no-brainer Clayton's in trouble from the first moment we see him — the GPS on his swanky Mercedes is on the blink, after all, movie-metaphor-ese for the guy's moral compass being out of whack — but half the pleasure of Michael Clayton is watching its title character's slow-mo meltdown lead up to that revelatory moment of painful self-knowledge. The other half of the movie's pleasure takes the form of a curiously gripping conspiracy thriller that percolates on such an ominously low frequency it almost catches us off guard when it finally officially announces itself. What lies at the heart of Michael Clayton isn't ultimately that far removed from conventional socially-conscious melodrama, but where the movie excels is in how it puts all this together, coming at the story from unexpected angles and neatly folding its sweeping political agenda into the personal struggles of its individual players. Also stars Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack, Michael O'Keefe and Ken Howard. 3.5 stars
MR. WOODCOCK (R) Phallic shadows fall mightily all over Mr. Woodcock, but, sadly, the film lacks the frenetic energy or even the gross-out bravado of Balls of Fury. Seann William Scott stars as John Farley, a successful self-help author who returns to his hometown only to find his mom (Susan Sarandon) dating the titular Woodcock (Billy Bob Thornton), the sadistic, ultra-macho gym teacher who tormented him all through high school. A heated pissing contest naturally results, with the two men competing for the affections of Sarandon, engaging in a movie-long match of wits and brawn, and all but whipping out their johnsons while running for the measuring sticks. Thorton's Woodcock (and yes, the name means exactly what you think it does) is cut from much the same cloth as his self-involved jerk-offs in Bad Santa, Bad News Bears and School for Scoundrels, but a little bit of this sort of concentrated obnoxiousness goes a long way. There's an undeniable charisma that Thornton brings to the role, but the movie itself is dull and, for the most part, painfully void of real laughs. Also stars Amy Poehler and Ethan Suplee. 1.5 stars
THE SEEKER: THE DARK IS RISING (PG) The fate of the world hinges on a young boy who discovers he's really a mystical warrior charged with defeating the forces of evil. What ensues is cosmic PG-rated adventure that the studio apparently didn't have enough confidence in to screen for critics. Stars Drew Tyler Bell, Frances Conroy, James Cosmo and Wendy Crewson. (Not Reviewed)
SUPERBAD (R) The next generation in American Pie's mutated strain, Superbad is so hilariously dirty that we don't always recognize its jokes can also be pretty darned smart. Our horndog heroes are Evan (Arrested Development's Michael Cera) and Seth (Jonah Hill, the flabby roommate from Knocked Up), best pals who, along with their even more pathetic friend, Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), embark on a mission to buy booze and get laid at the big, end-of-high-school party. A comedy of errors ensues where absolutely everything goes wrong, and the more wrong things go, the funnier they get. One bizarre detour leads to another, until Superbad finally arrives at an extremely odd and — hang on, now — poignant place where the kids' sexual and romantic fantasies all come true, albeit in classic Monkey's Paw fashion, with every major and minor triumph compromised by something a little bit sad or unpleasant. The script here (by Ali G Show writers Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogan, who also starred in Knocked Up) practically assures our helpless, guilty laughter but grounds the gross-out shenanigans in a coming-of-age narrative that bends clichés to its will, even as it grants flesh and blood to even its most obnoxious characters. But don't let that fool you; Superbad is rarely less than rude, crude and ridiculous, thank goodness, and no one gets let off the hook here. Also stars Emma Stone, Martha MacIssac, Bill Hader and Seth Rogan. 3.5 stars
WE OWN THE NIGHT (R) Writer-director James Gray, who previously tracked the criminal element from an immigrant's point of view in Little Odessa and The Yards, is back on familiar turf with this male-dominated family saga of corrupt cops and Russian gangsters mixing it up in Brighton Beach. Gray reunites his stars from The Yards, Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg, as brothers on opposite sides of the law. Also stars Eva Mendes and Robert Duvall. (Not Reviewed)
This article appears in Oct 17-23, 2007.