13 Ghosts (PG-13) 21st Century remake of the old William Castle spookfest about a family trapped in the haunted house they've just inherited. Stars F. Murray Abraham, Tony Shalhoub and Shannon Elizabeth. Opens Oct. 26 at local theaters.
(Not Reviewed)
Bandits (PG-13) Director Barry Levinson mixes buddy-crime-flick shtick and romantic comedy (a la Ally McBeal) and peppers it with the stylish verite camera moves and music video-style montages he employed in his TV show Homicide. The combination makes for an entertaining, though unevenly paced and overly quirky, two hours of madcap caper fun. The hubbub centers on bank robbers Joe and Terry (Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton) and their sidekick/love interest Kate (Cate Blanchett) who gain notoriety as the Sleepover Bandits. See this movie with an ample suspension of disbelief and tolerance of Hollywood sap, and it'll be well worth your time.
—Julie Garisto 
Bones (R) Stylishly lensed but incoherently told horror tale about — as near as we can tell, anyway — a tough but benevolent ghetto boss who returns from the dead when a bunch of teens make the mistake of turning his old hangout into a nightclub. Bones is a vapid, convoluted mishmash of Hellraiser, Candyman and a dozen other, better horror films, and, despite top billing, Snoop Dogg isn't even in the movie very much. That's actually a blessing, since he's pretty awful. The final half-hour drags unbearably as it disintegrates into nothing more than a long, strobe-lit stream of gratuitous gross-out F/X, including innards-gobbling hell hounds, maggot vomiting and a reanimated Snoop taking extremely bloody vengeance on virtually everybody in sight. Also stars Pam Grier, Ricky Harris and Sean Amsing. Opens Oct. 26 at local theaters. 
Bread and Tulips (NR) Bored, underappreciated Italian housewife Rosalba (Licia Maglietta) gets separated from her family at a rest stop and uses the opportunity to take a little personal journey that eventually lands her in the magical city of Venice. There she ecounters one charming eccentric after another — chief among them a suicidal Icelandic waiter, a cranky anarchist-florist and a flighty, holisitic masseuse — and eventually discovers her own sense of self. We've seen variations on this sweet, lighter-than-air story countless times before, but the lovely travelogue footage of Venice and winning performances by Maglietta and Bruno Ganz help hoist it a half-notch above the rest of the pack. Also stars Giuseppe Battiston. Held over at Tampa Theatre. Call theater to confirm. 
Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man (G) Multimedia performance artists/acrobats/ magicians Cirque du Soleil find their way to the big screen — the really big screen — in this visually spectacular IMAX 3-D experience. The film's astonishing imagery constitutes an authentic document of Cirque du Soleil in motion, as well as a beautifully poetic tribute to the glory of the human body. At IMAX Channelside.
Corky Romano (PG-13) Goofy-looking vehicle for rubber-faced SNL regular Chris Kattan. The loser son of a Mafioso, Corky must help the family by infiltrating the FBI.
(Not Reviewed)
The Deep End (R) Less a whodunit than a whydunit, The Deep End features Tilda Swinton as Margaret Hall, an ordinary California housewife who, in the imperceptible blink of an eye, passes from perfect, almost invisible normalcy to a state of dread when she finds herself an accomplice to what appears to be a terrible crime. The Deep End is, in any number of ways, a letter-perfect 21st Century update of classic noir, albeit one that's been transposed from the nocturnal city to the sun-dappled countryside. 
Divided We Fall (PG-13) A Czech couple put themselves at risk with their country's Nazi overseers by hiding a Jewish friend in a small pantry in their apartment. Although the movie is, believe it or not, quite funny, and would probably be primarily classified as a comedy, it also works nicely as a thought-provoking drama with lots to say about how humans react in situations of extreme physical and moral crisis. Neither preachy nor overly sentimental, Divided We Fall is one of the better films of its kind, and, in its own small way, is really every bit as good as the more coyly crowd-pleasing Life is Beautiful. Also stars Jaroslav Dusek.
Don't Say a Word (R) A slickly made but only modestly interesting thriller in which a child psychologist (Michael Douglas) races against time to meet the ransom demanded by his daughter's kidnappers. What Douglas' character needs to do is extract information locked in the mind of a deeply traumatized patient and then convey that info to the bad guys. There's much less here than meets the eye, but there are some passable moments of suspense, and the film is skillfully crafted enough to occasionally give the thin storyline the illusion of substance. 
From Hell (R) Curiously enough, it's not such a long way from the 'hood to the slums of 19th century London, and that's exactly the filmic leap taken by Menace 2 Society auteurs Albert and Alan Hughes. Ye Old London Town comes off as a cross between something out of a vintage Hammer flick and a Marilyn Manson horrorshow, with Johnny Depp starring as an absinthe-swilling, opium-smoking inspector on the trail of history's first and, arguably, most notorious serial killer, Jack the Ripper (depicted here as a predictable blend of Lecter and Dracula). The moody atmosphere in this most explicit and goriest of mainstream Ripper movies is so thick you could cut it with a bloody scalpel, but underneath all the extraordinary visuals and conspiracy theories beats the heart of a fairly routine slasher flick. Also stars Heather Graham.
Glitter (PG-13) Semi-autobiographical rock video/flick stars Mariah Carey as an up-and-coming R&B performer with a hot body, a great set of pipes and a manager/boyfriend determined to help her succeed. A ho-hum plot and mediocre acting provide little tension throughout the film. There's too little conflict, too little characterization, too little explanation. Still, Mariah Carey fans should enjoy the movie, as it showcases their favorite diva doing what she does best, which is wear tight clothes and sing her little heart out.
—Diana Peterfreund
Hardball (PG-13) Keanu Reeves plays a lifelong underachiever who discovers the real meaning of life when he becomes the coach of a baseball team of underprivileged kids. Also stars Diane Lane.
(Not Reviewed)
Hearts in Atlantis (PG-13) Based in part on a Stephen King novel, and much in the mold of Stand by Me, Hearts in Atlantis takes adorable children with loads of character and jolts their humdrum lives with a dose of adventure — this time of a rather cosmic sort. Eleven-year-old Bobby Garfield (Anton Yelchin) lives with his widowed mom in small-town New England in the late '50s. A retired stranger, Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins) moves into the upstairs apartment; he's wise but weird, and Bobby is immediately drawn to him. The film trucks in quiet suspense and genuine human interaction, and is imbued with a pervasive sweetness, all of which should play well to the current national mood.
—Eric Snider
High Heels and Low Lifes (R) Dismally unfunny Brit crime comedy that makes Snatch look like Citizen Kane. Two gal pals (Minnie Driver and Mary McCormack) stumble upon a robbery-in-progress and then, later, concoct a stupid scheme to extort money from the crooks. The plan is bound to backfire, and so it does, painfully. Alternately inane and unpleasant, High Heels and Low Lifes is pedestrian at best and abrasive at worst — a movie that doesn't seem to have a clue as to how to tell a joke or, for that matter, a story. Driver and McCormack play their characters hard and bitter and not particularly bright, to the point where they're almost entirely unsympathetic. The un-grand finale is just more girls-with-guns crap. Also stars Michael Gambon, the movie's one saving grace. Opens Oct. 26 at local theaters. 
Iron Monkey (PG-13) Originally released in 1993, Iron Monkey is one of those wonderful, wildly energetic Hong Kong classics to which Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger paid homage. In preparation for a 2001 theatrical run, the movie's been spiffed up by the good folks at Miramax, who wisely retained Iron Monkey's original Cantonese language track, created a more accurate and entertaining subtitle translation and replaced the film's original music with an elegant new score by James L. Venable, which, if anything, actually adds to the film. This sometimes cartoonish tale of a larger-than-life, 19th century Chinese Robin Hood doesn't make any claims to the high art status of Crouching Tiger, but it doesn't need to: Iron Monkey was directed by Yuen Woo Ping, who choreographed the brilliant action sequences in Crouching Tiger and The Matrix, and the stylish wall-to-wall battle sequences here are often every bit as dazzling. Stars Donnie Yen, Yu Rong Guang, Jean Wang and Tsang Sze Man.
Jeepers Creepers (R) A Grade A guilty pleasure. Taking the long way home down an endless country road, brother and sister Trish and Darry (Gina Philips and Justin Long) find themselves being terrorized by some sort of demonic entity with a penchant for human flesh.
Joy Ride (R) A couple of college kids play a prank with a CB radio (described as a prehistoric Internet) and wind up being relentlessly pursued by a super-human psychopath in a monster truck from Hell. Director John Dahl (The Last Seduction, Red Rock West) laces the movie with interesting character dynamics and then gives the whole thing a forward momentum that's really quite remarkable. The result is smart, tight, tense and, most of all, consistently scary. Stars Paul Walker, Leelee Sobieski and Steve Zahn, whose amiable but intense wise-ass performance recalls a young Dennis Hopper or maybe even Jack Nicholson.
K-PAX (PG-13) Kevin Spacey delivers another terrific performance as an enigmatic mental patient who annoys, befuddles and eventually charms everyone in sight, from patients to staff, and ultimately even teaches his shrink (Jeff Bridges) to be a better person. Director Iain Softley and screenwriter Charles Leavitt create a genuine sense of wonder for most of K-PAX's running time, crafting a workable variation on The Fisher King meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest that recalls both of those fine films without resorting to imitation. The magic dissipates a bit during the movie's second half, which dwells more on the history and psychology of Spacey's character, but even at its most conventional, K-PAX is still extremely watchable. Also stars Mary McCormack and Alfre Woodard. Opens Oct. 26 at local theaters.
The Last Castle (R) Robert Redford stars as a legendary three-star General sentenced to a maximum security military prison ruled with an iron fist by the cruel, heavy-breathing warden (James Gandolfini). Redford's character endures all sorts of abuse, becoming a hero to the other inmates in the process, and eventually orchestrates a plan to take over the prison. The Last Castle feels a bit like a watered-down cross between Cool Hand Luke and one of Hollywood's vintage P.O.W. movies, but the movie never rises above the sum of its parts. For the most part, it's all carried by the movie star charisma of Redford who, although still America's blue-eyed, pearly-grinned wonder, plays an oddly icy and underwritten character who comes off as so distant that it's difficult to fully connect with the movie. Also stars Mark Ruffalo and Delroy Lindo. 
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 proceeds to strike many blows for would-be dumb blondes everywhere.
—Eric Snider
L.I.E. (NR) Quite possibly the most astonishing movie of the recent Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, and certainly its most disturbing, Michael Cuesta's remarkable L.I.E. unfolds like a more humane version of Larry Clark's Kids, with one particularly confused teen eventually becoming snagged in the web of an imposing, middle-aged chicken hawk who, at least in the beginning, comes off like a cross between Robert Duvall's fire-breathing officer in Apocalypse Now and a slippery, almost supernatural Hannibal Lecter — assuming Lecter's specialty was fellatio and he still talked to his mom on the phone every day. L.I.E. (which stands for Long Island Expressway, where many of the film's significant events take place) veers between hyper reality and stylized dream state, between loopy humor and horror story, eventually coming home to roost as a sure-to-be-controversial story of redemption for a sexual predator. Stars Brian Cox, Paul Franklin Dano, Billy Kay and Bruce Altman. At Channelside Cinemas. Call theater to confirm.
Max Keeble's Big Move (PG) Harmless kiddie fare about a plucky seventh-grader's run-ins with school bullies, weirdoes, cute girls and a very evil principal (played by Larry Miller, whose normally too-abrasive persona is a welcome addition to this bland mix). It's all utterly predictable but good-natured and fairly energetic, with the odd food fight and misbehaving monkey thrown in to perk things up. Stars Alex D. Linz, Zena Grey and Josh Peck.
Mulholland Drive (R) David Lynch's latest exercise in non-linear dream logic features an amnesiac woman dubbed Rita (Laura Harring) and her perky friend Betty (Naomi Watts) playing Nancy Drew in an effort the discover who the memory-challenged lass is. Rita and Betty's big adventure is basically one of those Celene and Julie Go Boating metaphysical identity games that makers of art films love to devise, but which few really do right. The weirdo detective story is diverting enough on its own, but Lynch seems compelled to mix it up with lots of completely unrelated elements that wind up merely making the film seem padded, and more pretentious and confused that it might otherwise have been. The director's biggest miscalculation is throwing in a dull tangential plot strand about an arrogant young filmmaker (Justin Theroux) hiding out from some shadowy types trying to wrest away control of his movie. The material that comprises Mulholland Drive isn't exactly what might be called fascinating in and of itself, but there's a relentless, slow-motion car-crash momentum at work here that's highly watchable; we can never quite make up our minds if the undercurrent running through the entire movie is simply single-minded and lugubrious, like a small reptile crawling along with a limb missing — or maybe just plain malevolent. In any event, it's the mood of Mulholland Drive that sustains us even when the nuts and bolts of the film seem to be coming apart. Also stars Ann Miller and Dan Hedaya.
The Musketeer (PG-13) The latest big screen adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas classic about 17th Century Parisian swordsmen. Legendary Hong Kong choreographer Xin Xin Xiong (Once Upon a Time in China) was responsible for the fight sequences. Stars Justin Chambers, Catherine Deneuve, Mena Suvari, Stephen Rea and Tim Roth.
(Not Reviewed)
My First Mister (R) This unlikely platonic-love story between a heavily pierced, Goth ice-queen (Leelee Sobieski) and a boring, middle-aged clothing salesman (Albert Brooks) plays out a bit like Ghost World with an infinitely more conventional storyline and a heaping helping of sentimentality. Actress-turned-filmmaker Christine Lahti directs much of My First Mister with a sure hand and a healthy respect for her actors, but the film falters badly during a lazily written last act that threatens to transform itself into a Lifetime made-for-cable weeper. Also stars Carol Kane and Mary Kay Place. Opens Oct. 26 at local theaters.
On The Line (PG) As die-hard N'Sync fans undoubtedly know, two of the members, Lance Bass and Joey Fatone, make their film debut in the romantic comedy On The Line. Bass plays Kevin Gibbons, a 24-year-old advertising agent who's infamous among his friends for choking when it comes to girls. As fate should have it, Bass meets the girl of his dreams on the El train and amps up his infamy. Not only does he forget to get the mysterious girl's digits, but her first name too. The movie the takes several unexpected twists until Bass steps up to plate. N'Sync fans, and even those over the age of 15, won't be disappointed by these pop icons' invasion of the big screen. Bass' great smile and quirky naivete, along with Fatone's surprisingly disgusting humor made me giggle and cheer.
—Casey Jennings
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. 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.
(PG-13) Beverly Donofrio (Drew Barrymore) lives out the first two decades of her life of as a nice Catholic girl who gets pregnant at age 15 and then finds her dreams of college and a career constantly squashed by the demands of her dead-end life. The first 90 minutes of this overlong movie are listless, stodgy comedy, alternately screechy and sappy, detailing Bev's life with a small child and well-meaning but simpleminded husband (Steve Zahn). The last half-hour makes a bizarre and unpleasant turn into the realm of bargain-basement soul-searching and soap opera. The cumulative effect, despite a handful of effective moments, is a mess. Also stars Brittany Murphy and Adam Garcia.
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. 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.
Serendipity (PG-13) Another sticky-sweet and thoroughly uncomplicated romantic comedy about fate and true love, in which the main characters spend the entire movie trying to find each other. The movie is basically harmless but overly long, and its allusions to destiny and mystical connections are just short of pretentious. Stars John Cusack and the chick from Pearl Harbor.
Soul Survivors (R) Just in time for Halloween, a Stephen Carpenter-directed/written slasher-spook-fest to either get you on the edge of your seat or make you laugh your ass off. We wager it'll be the latter. Stars Melissa Sagemiller, Casey Affleck and American Beauty's Wes Bentley.
(Not Reviewed)
Together (R) Just about as finely drawn a portrait of the failed Hippie Dream as you'll find on screen. The action in this mostly non-action oriented film takes place in a commune outside of Stockholm in the mid '70s, where wonderfully absurd ideological discussions take place over dinner as to whether washing dishes is a bourgeois activity and whether or not Pippi Longstocking is a capitalist. In the middle of it all are the kids, who think (correctly) that the adults are all idiots, and who are much like kids anywhere and in any time — except that an argument is likely to end with one youngster calling the other a fascist. Director Lukas Moodysson films everything with a handheld, aggressively intimate camera (complete with overactive zoom lens) sets it all to a perfectly chosen Abba soundtrack (naturally) and frames the whole thing with a thoroughly odd but endearing humanism. Together is that rare movie where we find ourselves inexplicably rooting for absolutely everyone, including those characters we might normally find annoying or even flat-out unlikable. Stars Lisa Lindgren, Michael Nyquist and Gustaf Hammarstein. Held over at Channelside Cinemas. Call theater to confirm.
Training Day (R) Rookie narc Ethan Hawke gets in way over his head during his first day on the job, when his partner/mentor (Denzel Washington) turns out to be the worst role-model cop since Harvey Keitel's character in Bad Lieutenant. Washington spends virtually the entire movie indulging in all manner of corrupt, sadistic and immoral behavior, and yet the movie is so essentially clueless it can't resist intermittently making him into some sort of hero in a way that appeals strictly to the audience's basest instincts. Training Day is grimy, confused, ugly and depressing stuff. Just what the world needs now. Also stars Scott Glenn.
Two Can Play That Game (R) Cat and mouse shenanigans abound in this romantic comedy featuring an African American cast. Stars Vivica A. Fox and Morris Chestnut.
(Not Reviewed)
Zoolander (PG-13) Consistently funny, spot-on spoof of the fashion industry and all its pretty vacant pop culture tentacles. Starring Ben Stiller as the world's most clueless male model. It's doubtful the movie will prove as franchise-fertile as something like Austin Powers, but, frankly, Zoolander is just about as enjoyable and almost as silly. Owen Wilson and comedian Will Ferrell get in some good licks as well, and the numerous cameos — from Jon Voight to David Bowie to Billy Zane to Stiller's mom and dad — are well chosen and a total hoot. The last half-hour of Zoolander falters a bit by trying a little too hard to create a semblance of plot and backstory for its characters, but the bulk of it is great fun. Also stars Christine Taylor.
—Reviewed entries by Lance Goldenberg unless otherwise noted.
This article appears in Oct 25-31, 2001.