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Quick reviews of films in theaters |
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Written by McClatchy-Tribune
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Friday, 13 April 2007 |
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Capsule reviews of feature films
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
BLADES OF GLORY 2 ½ stars. Will Ferrell and Jon Heder star as arch figure skating rivals forced to train - and compete - together in this goofball farce. It's Zoolander with a Zamboni. 1 hr. 33 PG-13 (comic violence, mayhem, profanity, 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
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
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
FIREHOUSE DOG 3 stars. Touching, family-friendly entertainment about a show dog who goes from being a screen hero to the real thing. With Josh Hutcherson and Bruce Greenwood. 1 hr. 51 PG (suspense, animal in peril)
—Carrie Rickey
FIRST SNOW 3 stars. Smooth-talking salesman Jimmy Starks (Guy Pearce) becomes paranoid when his boss agrees to financially back his business venture. 1 hr. 42 R (profanity, sexual situations, violence, adult themes)
—"W.S.
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
GRINDHOUSE ("Planet Terror," 2 ½ stars; "Death Proof," 2 stars) Two movies in one. An ambitious stunt_perpetrated by Robert Rodriguex (whose film deserves an extra half-star) and Quentin Tarantino_to simulate and celebrate the scratched negatives, bad, splices, triple-D titilattion and nonstop sensation of an exploitation-theatre double-bill. With Rose McGowan, Kurt Russell and Rpsario Dawson. 3 hrs. 15 R (extreme gore, extreme violence, sex, dismemberment, sadism)
—Carrie Rickey
THE HOAX 2 ½ stars. Richard Gere stars in this smart, witty tale based on a stranger-than-fiction yarn that really, truly occurred: Clifford Irving's legendary 1971 scam in which he convinced a publisher to pay him almost $1 million for the exclusive, authorized biography of billionaire recluse Howard Hughes. 1 hr. 56 R (profanity, adult themes)
—Steven Rea
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
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 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 LOOKOUT 3 stars. A cooly crafted crime thriller starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a guy whose memory has blown apart in the wake of a deadly car crash. He's trying to piece together his life, when a bunch of hoods show up asking him to help them rob a bank. Jeff Daniels, Matthew Goode and Isla Fisher co-star. 1 hr. 42 R (violence, sex, profanity, adult themes)
—Steven Rea
MEET THE ROBINSONS 3 ½ stars. A wonderful, whiz-bang digital `toon inspired by children's book author/illustrator William Joyce's "A Day With Wilbur Robinson" and presented in many theaters in 3-D. Its hero is a 12-year-old orphan inventor who travels to the future, where he encounters a wild and wacky family - and a dinosaur, an octopus, a robot and some talking (and singing) frogs. 1 hr. 32 G (mildly scary images)
—Steven Rea
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
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
THE REAPING 3 stars. An effectively scary mix of southern Gothic and Old Testament huggermugger, with shades of "The Exorcist" and "Rosemary's Baby." Hilary Swank stars as a miracle debunker who sallies to a small Louisiana town where the biblical plagues seem to be happening - dead cows, river turned to blood, the whole drill. 1 hr. 38 R (violence, profanity, plaguesm adult themes)
—Steven Rea
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
THE SITUATION 2 ½ stars. A thriller set in Iraq, where an American journalist (a burqa-cloaked Connie Nielsen) has a CIA boyfriend, a handsome Iraqi photographer pal and a story about a U.S. military coverup to deal with. Philip Haas' movie deserves credit for not trying to reduce the events in Iraq to simple equations, but the narrative nonetheless implodes. 1 hr. 46 No MPAA rating (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
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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