Upcoming Releases
TEN QUESTIONS FOR THE DALAI LAMA (PG) Part travelogue and part how-to guide for the spiritually restless, Rick Ray's not-quite-documentary is nothing if not earnest, but it's also often extremely bland. The 45-minute interview with the Dalai Lama that's sprinkled throughout the film is interesting enough — His Holiness is quite a character, and his words carry an unmistakable weight, even when the substance of his arguments isn't exactly revelatory — but Ray (who serves as interviewer here, as well as cinematographer, writer, director and God knows what else) doesn't hold up his end of the bargain. The filmmaker lobs some pretty insipid questions at his subject ("Why are poor people so much happier than rich people," he queries with a perfectly straight face), and about half of the movie is padded with pedestrian footage of Ray's trip to India, complete with blazing insights about what's being served for breakfast. Ten Questions is worth seeing for its succinct and moving mini-history lesson on China's brutal occupation of Tibet — and any time spent with the thoughtful, giggly, science-loving 14th Dalai Lama is time well spent — but seekers holding out hope here for some life-changing spiritual possibilities are advised to immediately lower all expectations. Opens Sept. 14 at Tampa Theatre. 3 stars
RECENT RELEASES
THE 11TH HOUR (PG) Leonardo DiCaprio produced and narrates this environmental documentary that reportedly amplifies the global warming warnings Al Gore laid out in An Inconvenient Truth, tackling a daunting range of interconnected problems facing our planet today. Opens Sept. 14 at local theaters. (Not Reviewed)
2 DAYS IN PARIS (R) A brief encounter with a mixed Franco-American couple that inevitably evokes the Before Sunset/Before Sunrise projects, 2 Days in Paris stars director/screenwriter Julie Delpy as Marion, a quirky Frenchwoman on vacation with her even quirkier American boyfriend, Jack (Adam Goldberg). As its title suggests, the movie takes place during a quick stopover on Marion's Parisian home turf, where the couple spend their time strolling and engaging in mostly amusing and nearly nonstop chatter as in the Sunset/Sunrise films. 2 Days in Paris doesn't do itself favors by inviting such close comparisons to the movies that inspired it, but the conversation is usually engaging, the scenery pretty and the price of admission a whole lot cheaper than a plane ticket to Paris. Also stars Daniel Bruhl, Marie Pillet, Albert Delpy and Aleksia Landeau. 3 stars
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. 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
BALLS OF FURY (PG-13) Dan Folger (one of the more supremely unattractive leading men in the entire history of cinema) stars as Randy Daytona, a former table tennis prodigy who, after a legendary defeat two decades ago, has been reduced to an obese, Def Leppard-loving clown doing dinner theater in Reno. Randy's chance at redemption comes when FBI agent George Lopez recruits the poor slob to help bring down a Chinese Triad boss (Christopher Walken), who just happens to be a huge ping-pong fan, and organizes private tournaments that give new meaning to the term "sudden death." Walken hams it up even more than usual here, but carpet chewing will only get you so far. The movie gets by mostly on sheer nerve, clearly delighted with the hilarity of its premise (everybody cracks up at the mere thought of ping pong, right?), but the energy level drops noticeably after less than an hour of jokes that occasionally hit their mark but more often than not feel like rejects from Dodgeball or Naked Gun 4. Also stars George Lopez, Maggie Q, James Hong, Aisha Tyler, Jason Scott Lee and Thomas Lennon. 2 stars
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (PG-13) The third and supposedly final installment of the popular Bourne franchise is by far the best of the batch, a relentless barrage of sheer adrenaline that more than compensates for any shortcomings in the material. The Bourne Ultimatum refines and relies upon all the elements that have made the series so successful and so appealing. Things happen fast, lines blur between the hunter and the hunted, and some of the action is shot and edited in so frenetic a fashion that a second viewing may be required just to figure out what actually went on. Also stars Julia Stiles, David Strathairn, Joan Allen, Albert Finney and Scott Glenn. 3.5 stars
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 INVASION (PG-13) Every era probably gets the Invasion of the Body Snatchers it deserves, and this might just be ours. Don Siegel's original take on alien pods turning humans into emotionless robots was the perfect '50s sci-fi flick as thinly veiled critique of communism; Philip Kaufman's 1978 remake pumped up the existential dread in exciting and strangely believable ways; and Abel Ferrara's 1993 version reimagined the tale with the director's lurid and vaguely nihilist panache. Now, director Oliver Hirschbiegel (whose last-days-of-Hitler romp, Downfall, was one of 2005's best films) takes a crack at the tale, with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig starring as the hapless humans in danger of losing their souls. Also stars Jeremy Northam, Jeffrey Wright and Jackson Bond. (Not Reviewed)
LADRON QUE ROBA A LADRON (PG-13) Ladron Que Roba a Ladron blithely riffs on classic heist films from Rififi to Ocean's Eleven while putting a unique ethnic and socio-political spin on the proceedings. The heroes here are Alejandro and Emilio (Latino megastars Fernando Colunga and Miguel Varoni), two illegal immigrants in the tradition of Robin Hood and Abbie Hoffman — "good thieves" targeting an unscrupulous "bad thief" whose infomercials have made him rich at the expense of poor, mostly Spanish-speaking consumers. With a crew assembled from the "invisible" ranks of the immigrant work force — gardeners, mechanics, parking valets and fry cooks — our heroes put into action a plan to steal the creep's cash and give the money back to the bilked Latinos. Sometimes the movie's cultural variations on genre clichés are amusing, but at other times they're just more of the same, and there are a few places where this mostly breezy and cheeky outing stops dead in its tracks in order to allow one of the characters to sneak in some overly earnest advocacy of immigrants' rights. Also stars Saul Lizaso, Ivonne Montero, Julie Gonzalo, Oscar Torres, Richard Azurdia, Gabriel Soto and Jojo Henrickson. 2.5 stars
MR. BEAN'S HOLIDAY (PG) From its title on down (a bald-faced riff on Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot), Rowan Atkinson's new movie strains to announce its debt to Jacques Tati and to the great French director's most famous creation, Monsieur Hulot. Like Hulot, Atkinson's Mr. Bean is one of those gangly hicks from the sticks who almost accidentally wind up ridiculing the affectations of all those around them, a nearly mute bumpkin as devoid of pretence as he is of brains. Bean blunders merrily from one set-up to another, chasing a chicken here, lip-synching the death scene from an opera there, but, despite a few choice bits, Atkinson is no Tati, and Bean's rubber-faced shtick gets old fast. The more you watch him, the more you can't help seeing the bastard love child of Forrest Gump and Billy Bob Thornton's Sling Blade guy. Also stars Emma de Caunes, Willem Dafoe, Jean Rochefort, Karel Roden and Max Baldry. 2.5 stars
THE NANNY DIARIES (PG-13) Working class girl Scarlett Johanssen lands a gig as a nanny for a wealthy Manhattan family and gets put through the ringer while learning how the other half lives. Also stars Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti, Alicia Keys, Chris Evans and Donna Murphy. (Not Reviewed)
RESURRECTING THE CHAMP (PG-13) A boxing flick, a father-son drama and the tale of an ethically challenged journalist all collide in Resurrecting the Champ, a movie that almost certainly would have benefited by honing at least one or two of its multiple personalities. Josh Hartnett stars as a mediocre sports writer who senses an opportunity for a career-making story when he befriends a local homeless man (Samuel L. Jackson) claiming to be a former heavyweight contender. Jackson delivers a strong if somewhat gimmicky performance as the dilapidated ex-fighter — buried under a matted, gray wig and wrinkly latex, the actor slurs and grunts in a hoarse, defeated croak aimed squarely at an Oscar — and singlehandedly holds together the movie's disparate narrative strands by his sheer presence. The movie takes a few interesting turns when the writer's story is published and his career skyrockets, only to plummet just as quickly, but the film never settles on one element long enough to become truly satisfying. Also stars Teri Hatcher, Kathryn Morris, Rachel Nichols, Alan Alda and David Paymer. 3 stars
RUSH HOUR 3 (PG-13) It's been six years since the previous installment of this action-comedy franchise, and Rush Hour 3 comes stumbling into the multiplexes like one of those zombies lumbering through the shopping malls in Dawn of the Dead — a creature operating strictly on autopilot, too dumb to know it's dead. Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker return as the ethnic odd couple at the center of the action, squabbling buddy-cops who this time find themselves searching for bad guys in Paris — a locale that provides the movie with some much-needed glamour and a handful of mildly amusing gags about French-American relations. The stars gamely reprise all of the moves for which they're best known (and have been this franchise so profitable), but time has not been kind to these men, and the film's script is too lazy to do much beyond paint its heroes into a series of uncomfortable corners. Also stars Hiroyuki Sanada, Youki Kudoh, Max Von Sydow, Yvan Attal, Noemie Lenoir and Zhang Jingchu. 1.5 stars
SEPTEMBER DAWN (PG-13) The September 11 so luridly detailed in September Dawn occurred in 1857, when 120 innocent Christian settlers were massacred by Mormon zealots, but the movie sinks its teeth into the parallels between the two 9/11s and doesn't let go until it's drawn blood. September Dawn is an unusually fanatical screed against religious fanaticism, and it's not above some ruthless embellishing to drive home connections to our contemporary clash of civilizations. Rife with the sort of clunky dialogue and narrative shortcuts associated with bad made-for-TV movies, the film has a field day crosscutting between the gentle Christians and the oppressive, fear-based community of Mormons. The movie ends with what it's been promising all along — a slo-mo bloodbath on a scale that might have made Sam Peckinpah weep with envy — but despite appropriately elegiac music, there's no moment of truth to be found here. The violence is plain and predictably exploitative, catering to pretty much the same dreary impulses that dictate every porn flick gets its money shot. Lacking either the kick of camp or the authority of meaningful drama, the movie methodically drains the nuance from what might have been a consummate tragedy of miscommunication, substituting old-school sensationalism masked as insight. Stars Jon Voight, Trent Ford, Tamara Hope, Terrence Stamp, Jon Gries, Taylor Handley, Lolita Davidovich and Dean Cain. 1.5 stars
SHOOT 'EM UP (R) Shoot 'Em Up is nothing if not a Looney Tune of epic proportions, filled with outrageously kinetic action and stylized violence. Too much is never, ever enough here, where the obvious influences are Tarantino and Rodriguez, and, even more significantly, the early John Woo bullet ballets that inspired them. Clive Owen stars as the nameless hero (known only by the alias "Smith") who comes to the aid of a pregnant woman in the film's opening moments, delivers her baby and spends the rest of the movie trading bullets with the legions of bad guys who, for nefarious reasons revealed in due time, want the infant dead. The baby's nothing but a Maguffin, though, and the "plot" a transparent excuse for a succession of gleefully over-the-top action scenes set to the soothing sounds of Motley Crüe, Motorhead and AC/DC. It's all as bloody as it is ridiculous and mindless, but it's also an awful lot of fun. Head bad guy Paul Giamatti makes a fine, frustrated Elmer Fudd to Owen's roguish Bugs, a hero who displays all the depth of a cartoon but still manages to be hugely entertaining. Also stars Monica Bellucci and Daniel Pilon. 3.5 stars
STARDUST (PG) An appealing concoction that honors the spirit of fairy tales while putting a clever, gently ironic spin on everything it touches. Some might be tempted to call the approach a little calculated, too Shrek postmodern-lite by way of The Princess Bride (with a touch of Gilliam's Baron Munchausen thrown in for good measure) — but even if Stardust doesn't quite achieve the same heights as its prototypes, the air up there is often pretty exhilarating. Michelle Pfeiffer is perfectly cast as an aging witch desperate to hang on to her beauty, and, just when your attention might be about to flag, in marches Robert De Niro, chewing up the scenery as a big, bad pirate screaming to unleash his inner queen. Also stars Sienna Miller, Jason Flemyng and Rupert Everett. 3.5 stars
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. 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
This article appears in Sep 12-18, 2007.