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Quick reviews of feature films out now |
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Written by Steven Rea and Carrie Rickey, MCT
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Friday, 30 March 2007 |
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Don't know what to watch at the theatre? Take a quick glance at the gist of the movies below:
AMAZING GRACE 3 stars. A compelling period drama about real-life anti-slavery crusader William Wilberforce, the British legislator, who, in the late 1700s, fought to abolish slavery — and changed the face of British politics in the process. 1 hr. 56 PG-13 (adult themes) — Steven Rea
ARTHUR AND THE INVISIBLES 1 ½ stars. French filmmaker Luc Besson takes his Cuisinart to Lewis Carroll, Jonathan Swift, T.H. White, Frank L. Baum, and picture books featuring pretty, pointy-eared elves in this glossy, long-winded mix of live-action and animation. What a mess! 1 hr. 42 PG (cartoon violence, scary images, inappropriately attired senior citizens) — Steven Rea
THE ASTRONAUT FARMER 2 ½ stars. Billy Bob Thornton plays an eccentric farmer and family man who's building a rocket ship in his barn so he can launch himself into space. An old-fashioned, follow-your-dream yarn, albeit one serving up a kind of Plains State brand of "Rocky"-esque hooey. 1 hr. 44 PG (adult themes) — Steven Rea
AVENUE MONTAIGNE 2 ½ stars. A little bonbon set in a posh Paris grid, France's entry in the 2007 Oscar competition centers around a perky gamine (Cecile de France) who takes a job as a waitress in a cafe. The lives of various actresses, musicians, wheeler-dealers and flunkeys are examined — politely — as their paths intersect over sandwiches, espresso and wine. 1 hr. 45 PG-13 (profanity, adult themes) — Steven Rea
BLACK SNAKE MOAN 2 ½ stars. A roiling, boiling mix of blaxploitation, sexploitation, Tennessee Williams and the Tennessee outback, this blues-soaked morality play comes from writer-director Craig Brewer, of "Hustle & Flow." Christina Ricci plays a white-trash nymphomaniac, and Samuel L. Jackson is the ol' black farmer trying to cure her of her evil ways. 1 hr. 56 R (sex, violence, profanity, drugs, adult themes) — Steven Rea
BREACH 3 stars. Riveting real-life thriller starring Chris Cooper as FBI agent Robert Hanssen and Ryan Phillippe as specialist Eric O'Neill assigned to spy on the man who was a traitor selling intelligence to Moscow. 1 hr. 50 PG-13 — Carrie Rickey
BREAKING AND ENTERING 2 ½ stars. Smart, classy, over-orchestrated soap about various Londoners — some old, some newly arrived — whose paths cross after a burglary. Jude Law, Robin Wright Penn and Juliette Binoche head the cast in Anthony Minghella's meditation on the adulterous, angst-filled lives of people searching for connection — cultural and connubial. 2 hrs. R (nudity, sex, profanity, adult themes) — Steven Rea
BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA 3 stars. Katherine Paterson's much-loved children's novel is brought to the screen faithfully, if a little too fancily (computer effects-wise), in this tale of friendship, loss and the powers of the imagination. 1 hr. 34 PG (kids in jeopardy, fantasy violence, adult themes) — Steven Rea
CATCH AND RELEASE 2 stars. Uneven romantic-dramedy starring Jennifer Garner as a bride whose fiance dies the day before the wedding. When she moves in with her beau's former roommates (all of whom nurse crushes on her) she learns that he had a Big Secret. With Timothy Olyphant, Kevin Smith and Sam Jaeger. 1 hr. 51 R (sexual content, profanity, marijuana) — Carrie Rickey
DADDY'S LITTLE GIRLS 2 ½ stars. Idris Elba stars as the humble single dad and Gabrielle Union as the snooty lawyer in this Tyler Perry film that weds an uplift-of-the-downtrodden narrative with Harlequin Romance storytelling. 1 hr. 36 PG-13 (drug and sexual content, profanity, violence) — Carrie Rickey
THE DEAD GIRL 3 stars. Karen Moncrieff's five-episode film about a corpse uncovered in a field near Los Angeles and the characters who in different ways are affected by her death. A bitter pill, worth swallowing for performances of Toni Collette, Marcia Gat Harden and Kerry Washington. 1 hr. 25 R (violence, sexual violence, profanity, drugs, nudity, sex.) — Carrie Rickey
DREAMGIRLS 3 ½ stars. This dazzling and energizing adaptation of the Broadway musical rockets at warp speed from Detroit to the stratosphere, boosted by the performances of Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson as singers left behind in soul's crossover to the pop charts. With Jamie Foxx and Beyonce Knowles as figures inspired by Motown Records' Berry Gordy Jr. and Diane Ross. 2 hrs. 11 PG-13 (sexual candor, profanity, drugs) — Carrie Rickey
EPIC MOVIE 1 ½ stars. A breezy and brainless mockup of "The Chronicles of Narnia," with side trips to a dozen other movies. It's drive-by satire for those who find "Family Guy" too cerebral. 1 hr. 26 PG-13 (crude humor, profanity, cartoonish violence) — David Hiltbrand
FACTORY GIRL 2 ½ stars. Sienna Miller shines as meteoric '60s It Girl Edie Sedgwick in this exploitative biopic that suggests she is important mostly because she inspired artist Andy Warhol and troubadour Bob Dylan. 1 hr.30 R (nudity, sex, drugs, profanity) — Carrie Rickey
GOD GREW TIRED OF US 3 stars. A Brad Pitt-executive-produced documentary, narrated by Nicole Kidman, that follows three young Sudanese men as they leave behind their war-torn homeland and its hundreds of thousands of refugees, for a strange new life in the U.S. 1 hr. 26 PG (disturbing images, adult themes) — Steven Rea
THE GOOD SHEPHERD 3 stars. Matt Damon stars as a career CIA man in this decades-spanning thriller, and deft character study, tracing the evolution of America's foreign espionage bureaucracy. Robert De Niro directs, and gives himself a key small role, in this very fine film. With Angelina Jolie, Tammy Blanchard, Alec Baldwin, William Hurt and John Turturro. 2 hrs. 47 R (violence, profanity, sex, adult themes) — Steven Rea
GRAY MATTERS 2 stars. Mildly diverting but slight screwball comedy starring Heather Graham and Tom Cavanagh as Manhattan professionals, brother and sister, who fall for the same girl (Bridget Moynahan). The feature debut of Sue Kramer. 1 hr. 36 PG-13 (sexual candor, language) — Carrie Rickey
HANNIBAL RISING 2 stars. A marvelously risible prequel that explains the origins of Thomas Harris' celebrated sociopath Hannibal Lecter, scarred by war and orphanage bullies, who starts on his road of dismemberment and cannibalism in the company of a lovely Japanese aunt-in-law (Gong Li) and a gang of nasty men who once did a very bad thing to his sister. 2 hrs. 01 R (violence, gore, adult themes) — Steven Rea
HAPPILY N'EVER AFTER 1 star. Garish and shrill revisionist retelling of Cinderella, beneath the standards of Saturday-morning cartoons. 1 hr. 27 PG — Carrie Rickey
THE HOST 3 ½ stars. A wonderful, witty mix of horror and social satire, Bong Joon-ho's monster-from-the-deep pic takes its simple, time-tested premise and runs with it. Talk about wrestling with your personal demons! Japanese with subtitles. 1 hr. 59 R (violence, profanity, adult themes) — Steven Rea
THE ITALIAN 3 stars. A powerful indictment of Russia's illegal adoption industry — and a story of pipsqueak resolve and resilience — this mostly clear-eyed, tough little tale follows a 6-year-old foundling as he makes a run from his orphanage and goes looking for his real mom. 1 hr. 37 PG-13 (violence, profanity, adult themes) — Steven Rea
I THINK I LOVE MY WIFE 2 stars. Chris Rock wrote, directed and stars in the one about the married man trying not to scratch his seven-year itch. With Gina Torres as his spouse and Kerry Washington as his seductress. A remake of Eric Rohmer's "Chloe in the Afternoon." 1 hr. 30 R (sexual situations, profanity) — Carrie Rickey
THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND 3 stars. A Scottish doctor (James McAvoy) on a mission in Uganda is chosen as Idi Amin's (Forest Whitaker) personal physician. Forest Whitaker is brilliant as the dictator whose brutality stuns his new doctor. 2 hrs. 01 R (intense violence, gruesome images, nudity, sex, profanity) — Carrie Rickey
THE LAST MIMZY 3 stars. An involving fantasy in which a brother and sister in present-day Seattle find a toybox that will help them save the future from death by pollution. With Chris O'Neil, Rhiannon Leigh Wryn and the wryly funny Rainn Wilson. 1 hr. 30 PG (mild violence) — Carrie Rickey
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA 4 stars. Clint Eastwood's companion piece to" Flags of Our Fathers looks at the battle of Iwo Jima from the Japanese side. With its simple structure, and superb performances, this unflinching and bloody take on the historic World War II battle is one of the great war movies — or anti-war movies — of all time. 2 hrs. 21 R (violence, profanity, adult themes) — Steven Rea
THE LIVES OF OTHERS 4 stars. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's astonishing debut feature, a duet for a bohemian and bureaucrat who never meet but whose lives decisively intersect in 1984 East Berlin, is illuminated by Ulrich Muhe's performance as the functionary. 2 hrs. 17 R (sex, violence, profanity) — Carrie Rickey
THE MESSENGERS 2 stars. An unfortunate family moves to a sunflower farm where lots of scary and generally bad things happen. Kristen Stewart, Dylan McDermott and Penelope Ann Miller star. 1 hr. 24 PG-13 (mature themes, disturbing terror, creepy ghosts) _Tirdad Derakhshani
MUSIC AND LYRICS 3 stars. Frothy rom-com starring Hugh Grant as a has-been popster and Drew Barrymore a never-was poet who collaborate on a hit love song for a pop tart. Irresistible. 1 hr. 36 PG-13 (profanity, sexual candor) — Carrie Rickey
THE NAMESAKE 3 ½ stars. Mira Nair's adaptation of the Jhumpa Lahiri novel follows two generations of a Bengali family living in America: the parents who brought their culture and traditions from India, and the children who rebel against them. Bollywood stars Irrfan Khan and Tabu, and "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle's" Kal Penn are all terrific in this rich, revelatory drama. PG-13 (sex, profanity, adult themes) — Steven Rea
NORBIT 2 stars. Eddie Murphy can do anything. The question is, why he would want to make a movie as squirmingly unfunny as this one in which he plays the title character, a nerdy orphan, a politically-incorrect Chinese/American restaurateur and a morbidly obese woman who marries Norbit and manhandles him. 1 hr. 42 PG-13 (sexual situations, profanity, crude humor) — Carrie Rickey
NOTES ON A SCANDAL 2 ½ stars. Juicy, high-class trash full of sex, blackmail and betrayal, with Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett as colleagues at a London secondary school — and actors who never really find the heart of their roles. But it's fun watching them look. 1 hr. 38 R (sex, profanity, violence, adult themes) — Steven Rea
THE NUMBER 23 1 ½ stars. Jim Carrey stars in this numeroligical, super-dumb-ological thriller, about a dog catcher who reads a mystery novel and quickly loses his hold on reality, making a big deal about the number 23 and how it's showing up in every aspect of his life. Virginia Madsen co-stars, and almost everybody gets double roles — in the "real" world and the cartoonishly noir world of the book. 1 hr. 35 R (violence, sex, adult themes) — Steven Rea
THE PAINTED VEIL 3 ½ stars. Edward Norton and Naomi Watts star as a mismatched British couple in 1920s China in this quiet but roiling melodrama, where marital infidelity and a cholera epidemic collide with profound results. Rich with history and heartbreak, it's stirring stuff. 2 hrs. 05 PG-13 (violence, sex, adult themes) — Steven Rea
PAN'S LABYRINTH 4 stars. Against the repressive backdrop of Franco's post-civil-war Spain, a young girl delves into a fantasy world. Spanish with subtitles. 1 hr. 59 R (fairytale grotesquerie, war violence and torture) — Carrie Rickey
PREMONITION 2 stars. Sandra Bullock stars in this supernatural, super-sappy thriller about a housewife whose husband dies in a car accident — or he hasn't died, and she's just envisioned his demise in a dream. Deja vu-doo ensues. 1 hr. 43 PG-13 (violence, profanity, adult themes) — Steven Rea
PRIDE 2 stars. An "inspired by a true story" inspirational sports drama, about Philadelphia Dept. of Recreation swim coach Jim Ellis and his against-the-odds program training inner city kids to compete in major swim meets. Terrence Howard stars as Ellis, with Bernie Mac and Kimberly Elise also on board. The talent pool isn't shallow, but the film is. 1 hr. 48 PG (profanity, violence, adult themes) — Steven Rea
PUCCINI FOR BEGINNERS 3 stars. A smart, screwball romantic comedy set in New York, about a lesbian who seduces a guy and then, unknowingly, the guy's freshly minted ex. Elizabeth Reaser, Justin Kirk and Gretchen Mol star. 1 hr. 22 No MPAA rating (sex, profanity, adult themes) — Steven Rea
THE QUEEN 4 stars. Compassionate as it is critical, satirical as it is serious, "The Queen" is less a docudrama about British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Elizabeth II in the aftermath of Princess Diana's death than it is a political romantic comedy. Its concern is how the Labor leader and the wary wife of Windsor change each other, as people and as leaders. 1 hr. 43 PG-13 (profanity) — Carrie Rickey
REIGN OVER ME 3 stars. Don Cheadle, as the man who has it all, encounters his former roommate, Adam Sandler, who has lost it all. Mike Binder's exceptional character stury is about the impossibility and necessity of male friendship. Also the impossibility and necessaity of sorting through the post-9/11 emotional debris. With Jada Pinkett Smith, Liv Tyler and the snarkily funny Paula Newsome. 2 hrs. 08 R (adult situations, profanity, sexual candor) — Carrie Rickey
SHOOTER 3 stars. Mark Wahlberg stars as Bob Lee Swagger, an ex-Marine sharpshooter lured out of seclusion to help the feds foil an assassination attempt — not knowing that he's being set up as the fall guy. A taut, crafty thriller, with high-speed chases and plenty of action. 2 hrs. 04 PG-13 (violence, profanity, adult themes) — Steven Rea
SMOKIN' ACES 2 ½ stars. All pumped up with no place to go, this super-crazed, super-violent crime pic stars Jeremy Piven as a Vegas showman that everyone — the FBI, hired killers, bail bondsmen and neo-Nazi maniacs — are out to get. For a while it's a rush, and then just exhausting. R (violence, drugs, profanity, nudity, adult themes) — Steven Rea
STARTER FOR 10 3 stars. If "The History Boys" was mashed up in a John Hughes retrospective, and the music was '80s Brit-rock, and the dashing co-star of "The Last King of Scotland" — James McAvoy — was onboard, well, there you have this likable coming-of-age lark about a working-class kid struggling with academics and amours at an English university. 1 hr. 36 PG-13 (sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll) — Steven Rea
TMNT 2 ½ stars. A noirish, computer-animated revisit of the crime-fighting, Cowabunga!-exclaiming quartet — pizza-scarfing terrapins that crack heads and crack wise from their lair beneath the streets of New York. With the voice talents of Sarah Michelle Gellar, Patrick Stewart, Laurence Fishburne and Zhang Ziyi. 1 hr. 26 PG (cartoon violence, mayhem, scary monsters, dark places) — Steven Rea
300 2 stars. "Gladiator" for gamers, this digitally-rendered reenactment of the legendary Battle of Thermopylae is adapted from Frank Miller's brooding, bloody graphic novel. It's one amazing, mind-numbing digi-tableau after another, with a troop of scultpted actors in codpieces and capes marching around pretending they're in ancient Greece. 1 hr. 50 R (violence, sex, nudity, adult themes) — Steven Rea
VENUS 3 ½ stars. Peter O'Toole gives a sly and touching performance as a fading British thespian who strikes up an improbable friendship — and courtship — with a foul-mouthed 19-year-old (Jodie Whittaker). Sounds smarmy, but it's not. The film, full of wisdom, sadness and raunchy humor, is really about the deep need for connections, for intimacy, for understanding. 1 hr. 34 R (sex, profanity, nudity, adult themes) — Steven Rea
VOLVER 3 ½ stars. After being overhyped and underutilized in a series of American films, Penelope Cruz returns to form in this magnificent performance that in any other year would have been an Oscar lock. 2 hrs. 01 R (sexual content, profanity) — Carrie Rickey
WE ARE MARSHALL 2 ½ stars. Matthew McConaughey stars in this true story of a young coach determined to rebuild the Marshall University football program after a plane crash wipes out the entire team. 2 hrs. 04 PG (mild profanity, crash scene) — Carrie Rickey
WILD HOGS 2 stars. Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence, William H. Macy and John Travolta play middleaged, motor-biking buddies who go on a "no rules" road trip in this mild-mannered male menopause comedy. With Marisa Tomei and Ray Liotta. 1 hr. 39 PG-13 (profanity, cartoon violence, adult themes) — Steven Rea
ZODIAC 3 ½ stars. Enthralling character study of the cops and journalists who unsuccessfully dogged the tracks of the Bay Area serial killer over two decades. Directed by David Fincher, with Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey, Jr. and Jake Gyllenhaal. 2 hrs. 28 R (violence, profanity, drugs) — Carrie Rickey
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