Movie Reviews
Winter Passing
Stand in the middle of a film festival and swing a stick and you're bound to hit a movie just like "Winter Passing," a moody, character-driven, mostly plot-free drama about a broken family trying to reconnect. Reese (Zooey Deschanel), a struggling actress, returns home to Michigan to look for the love letters her famous novelist parents wrote to each other when they were dating, for which a publishing house has offered $100,000. This means dealing with her father (Ed Harris), though, a reclusive alcoholic nutcase who now lives in the garage of his home while two of his devoted fans (Will Ferrell and Amelia Warner) live inside. Fences are mended, tears are shed, etc., etc. It's nicely acted, for the most part, but it doesn't do anything you haven't seen done before.
The Second Chance
Depending on which poll you look at, anywhere from 20 to 45 percent of Americans attend church services regularly, a vast majority of them Christian. That's a big chunk of the population active in church, yet few movies are made specifically for that...
Night Watch (Russian)
The Light Others and Dark Others, good and evil supernatural beings who walk among us, keep tabs on each other in "Night Watch," an energetic and fully Hollywoodized Russian film from director Timur Bekmambetov. The story -- which involves vampires, shapeshifters, seers, apocalyptic prophecies and "X-Men"-esque legions of people with odd powers -- pops with visual momentum and has some fairly deep ideas hidden in all the mayhem. The story becomes nearly incomprehensible in the end, but the whole thing feels vibrantly familiar enough to make it worthwhile.
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (German)
"Sophie Scholl: The Final Days" uses transcripts and testimonies to recreate the events of February 1943, when Sophie Scholl and her brother Hans, students at Munich University, were arrested for distributing anti-Nazi propaganda on campus. You can imagine what happened to them -- this was not a government that responded well to criticism -- but the film, an urgent but not preachy drama from director Marc Rothemund, achieves some suspense anyway. The centerpiece is a series of interrogations of Sophie (Julia Jentsch) by Robert Mohr (Gerald Alexander Held), an austere German official. Their well-acted exchanges give the film its heart and soul.
CSA: The Confederate States of America
The idea behind "CSA: The Confederate States of America" is such a good one that I wish a more talented filmmaker had come up with it. Imagine we live in an alternate reality where the South won the Civil War. Now imagine you're watching a local TV station one evening as it airs a British-made documentary about American history. "CSA: The Confederate States of America" is that documentary, complete with commercials that reflect the culture of modern Confederate America. With a satiric eye, writer/director Kevin Willmott uses "historians" and faked news footage to show the last 145 years of American history, including Abraham Lincoln's exile to Canada, an early D.W. Griffith silent film depicting his capture, and clips from the 1955 thriller "I Married an Abolitionist" (abolitionists where the big boogeymen in the '50s, rather than communists). Some of the faked stock footage and newsreels are remarkably well done and raucously funny. But others are obviously low-budget and shoddily made, and few of the actors are convincing. One of the keys to success here is making this faux documentary and its accompanying TV commercials look legit, and much of the material just doesn't cut it.
The Sun (Japanese)
Japan's symbolic rising sun is in the process of setting in "The Sun" ("Solntse"), Russian filmmaker Aleksandr Sokurov's haunting, hypnotic account of Emperor Hirohito's actions in the final days of World War II.
What an anxious, contemplative mo...
C.R.A.Z.Y. (French)
The internal struggle faced by young gay men who have old-fashioned religious beliefs has never been portrayed with as much charm, humor, compassion and imagination as in "C.R.A.Z.Y." Leave it to the French-Canadians! Set mostly in the 1970s, the film's focus is Zac, a teenager who wants nothing more than for God to stop him from being gay. His mother and father, meanwhile, devout Catholics and loving parents, want the best for their children, including Zac's troubled brother Raymond. The conflict between accepting who you are and making your peace with God is poignantly explored in this richly entertaining film.
Final Destination 3
Once again, a group of teenagers escapes death when one of them has a premonition of a horrific accident (it's a roller-coaster disaster this time); once again, Death is angry at being cheated and comes around to kill the survivors anyway, one at a time, in elaborate and bizarre accident scenarios. Series creators James Wong and Glen Morgan, absent from Part 2, are back again, and the film has the macabre humor and fiendishly clever death scenes that made the original such a morbid gem.
The Pink Panther
Steve Martin's remake of "The Pink Panther" is an ill-conceived attempt at creating a hybrid of his past successes. It has the loopy slapstick comedy of something like "The Jerk" or "Three Amigos," combined with the family-friendly warm-and-fuzzies o...
Firewall
They kidnapped Harrison Ford's family, and he can't get them back unless he steals $100 million from the bank he works for! And Harrison Ford is ANGRY about it!! Ol' Harrison is no spring chicken, and it's too bad he's wasted so many years doing piffle like "Random Hearts" and "K-19: The Widowmaker" when he should have been doing piffle like this. The plot is ludicrous and predictable, but blandly diverting. It's like seeing a rerun of a TV show that you've seen before, but long enough ago that you've forgotten enough of the details to be entertained watching it again. (But still: Isn't there anything else on?)
Imagine Me & You
To the people who fear "Brokeback Mountain" has a gay-lifestyle-promoting agenda, here's a movie that actually does: "Imagine Me & You," in which a newly married Londoner (Piper Perabo) develops a crush on the lesbian florist (Lena Headey) who did her wedding reception. The film is sunny and funny, nearly always appealing, but writer/director Ol Parker sends mixed messages: On the one hand, marriage is a grand institution and a troubled marriage can be worth saving; on the other hand, it's OK for the bride to leave her decent, likable husband and run off with the new lesbian in her life. A little more thought into the characters' motives and the consequences of their actions might have made the film more resonant, instead of fluffy and mildly puzzling the way it is.
Through the Fire (documentary)
You know a filmmaker has done his job when his movie appeals even to people who couldn't care less about the subject. That's "Through the Fire," a generically titled but sincerely compelling documentary about basketball phenom Sebastian Telfair, a Co...
When a Stranger Calls
There's one creepy twist in this story of a terrorized babysitter (Camilla Belle), but you already know it from the 1979 film this is a remake of, or from hearing the oft-told campfire story, or from watching the film's trailer or TV commercials: The calls, it seems, are coming from inside the house! You'd assume the movie has more to offer beyond that one “surprise.� And you'd be wrong. Indeed, that revelation comes 60 minutes into the 86-minute movie, and all that follows it is the obligatory running, chasing and screaming. When the truth finally comes out, the film kicks into high gear, and the climax is admirably exciting and suspenseful. But the bare-bones story simply can't survive being stretched to feature length. There might be terror out there, but it's not coming from inside the movie.
Something New
"Something New" is a rather ironic title, given that the film is as stale as last year's canceled UPN sitcoms. Its characters are drawn with broad strokes, and its protagonist -- in a fatal move -- is frigid and unrelatable. Still, director Sanaa Hamri (working from a script by TV writer Kriss Turner) manages some warmth and the occasional laugh in this story of a Los Angeles corporate accountant named Kenya (Sanaa Lathan) who finds, loses, and regains love in classic romantic-comedy fashion. Race relations are explored haphazardly -- Kenya's man is white while she is black -- and all the plot points are standard-issue (including the First Kiss that occurs after being caught in the rain). You've seen all of this before, with more charming actors in more intelligent films.
Suits on the Loose
"Suits on the Loose" inspires more commentary from the Faint Praise Department: These low-budget, low-impact Mormon comedies still aren't very funny, but at least they're looking more and more like real movies. This one, the debut from writer/director Rodney Henson, has professional actors (i.e., ones who aren't awkwardly amateurish), and has been directed, shot and edited by people who evidently know how to do those things. Alas, this story of two juvenile delinquents who escape from a detention facility and assume the identities of Mormon missionaries in a small town is as benign and forgettable a film as you can imagine. It's neither good nor bad, but simply competent. A certain level of mania is required to pull off something farcical this, and "Suits on the Loose" seriously needs to loosen its tie.
Annapolis
A kid from the wrong side of the tracks scraps his way up to the Annapolis Naval Academy, where he challenges the traditions and makes everyone realize how wise he is. Oh, and he's a boxer, too, for some reason. "Annapolis" brims with clichés and mediocrity -- a shame, considering it's directed by Justin Lin, whose debut feature "Better Luck Tomorrow" (2002) was such an auspicious start.
Big Momma’s House 2
Martin Lawrence returns as an FBI agent with a fondness for putting on a giant latex fatsuit and posing as an elderly obese woman called Big Momma in this putrid, uninspired sequel to the 2000 hit. This time Big Momma infiltrates a suspect's home by getting hired as his children's nanny, making this even more of a "Mrs. Doubtfire" rip-off than it already was. (Throw in "The Pacifier," while you're at it.) The movie takes an unconvincing premise, applies untenable logic to it, and then strews idiocy through every simple-minded scene. It's actually impressive how bad it is.
Nanny McPhee
When a nanny runs screaming from an old English house and the narrator says it's because the children are brats, you think: I don't care how naughty the kids are, the nanny's not going to run screaming from the house. She may fume and sputter, and sh...
Cargo
"Cargo" is a movie that confuses obscurity with mystery. It thinks it is being cryptic in the way it reveals -- or, more often, does not reveal -- details, when in fact it is being impenetrable and dispassionate. It's a hard movie to like, and I'm no...
Son of Man (Xhosa)
If the biblical story of the life of Jesus Christ seems timeless to you, here's more evidence that you're right. It's "Son of Man," a film in the South African Xhosa language in which the New Testament story of Jesus is adapted to modern-day Africa. ...
Salvage
What a good short film "Salvage" would have made, and what a bad long film it is. It's a low-budget, low-impact, low-quality horror flick with a cool idea that simply doesn't withstand being stretched over 90 minutes. Chop it down to about 20 and you...
The Darwin Awards
Of course you know what the Darwin Awards are. They're sarcastic honors given to people who die because of their own stupidity, thus taking themselves out of the gene pool and strengthening the human race. Curiously, the movie "The Darwin Awards" wil...
Moonshine
You watch enough "Mystery Science Theater 3000," you get a feel for what kind of movie best lends itself to being heckled. It needs to be bad, obviously, but it helps if it's also self-serious, either over- or under-acted, and rife with peculiar deta...
The World According to Sesame Street (documentary)
Everyone knows "Sesame Street" is a quiet, stalwart part of American culture. But what of its influence abroad? Do other countries find it as useful as we do?
The answer, as found in the over-long and under-focused documentary "The World According...
Wide Awake (documentary)
"Self-indulgent" isn't usually a compliment, but I mean it that way for "Wide Awake," a fascinatingly self-indulgent look at one man's battle with insomnia.
Alan Berliner is a New York filmmaker whose previous documentaries have mostly been about ...
Somebodies
"Somebodies" may set the land speed record for going downhill fast. I laughed quite a bit in the first 20 minutes. And then I sat in mystified silence for most of the rest of the film, wondering what had happened to the promising movie I'd been watch...
Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out (documentary)
Before you watch "Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out," which is basically 75 minutes of Stewart Copeland's home movies of the seminal '70s and '80s rock band, consider this question: Do you REALLY want to watch 75 minutes of Stewart Copeland's ho...
Why We Fight (documentary)
"Why We Fight" purports to be about why America has gone to war historically, but let's be honest here: It's all about Bush and Iraq. Previous engagements like Korea and Vietnam are given only cursory treatment, the real thrust being that the current...
Underworld: Evolution
"Underworld: Evolution" is a true just-for-fans sequel. It has a simple plot, but it's told so complicatedly that anyone without a working knowledge of the first film would be completely lost. And I can tell you with some authority that if you haven'...
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
"Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World" is a great title for a movie. The movie's concept is great, too; it would even be great if it were employed in real life. And yet, despite all this greatness, the movie is not great. It is merely good. Good is...
End of the Spear
The amazing true story behind "End of the Spear" is ripe with dramatic possibilities. Reading it at the film's Web site, I thought: This is fantastic. So why isn't the movie better?
The movie is a respectable effort, well put together with product...
Hoodwinked
Here's a fun idea: Tell the "Little Red Riding Hood" fairy tale "Rashomon" style, with each participant -- Red, Granny, the wolf and the woodsman -- giving his or her version. Now here's a stupid idea: Do that, and then drag the story out for an additional half-hour by including an elaborate backstory that requires a complicated resolution! "Hoodwinked" takes the stupid path through the forest, doing serious damage to what was otherwise a fairly amusing animated film. The film will probably provide adequate delight to the youngsters, but it overstays its welcome too much for more discerning viewers.
Last Holiday
"Last Holiday" is 112 minutes long, and not one of those minutes is logical, believable or rational. To start with, we have larger-than-life Queen Latifah (unconvincingly) playing a mousy, reclusive sales clerk named Georgia Byrd who, upon learning she has only three weeks to live, flies to Prague's Grandhotel Pupp to run out the clock in luxury. She touches the hearts of the hotel staff with her down-home wisdom and aw-shucks humility, even causing one of them to blurt out, "She's the most amazing person who ever came to this hotel!" Oh, and her boss AND her local congressman (Giancarlo Esposito) are at the hotel by coincidence, and her favorite chef (Gerard Depardieu) happens to work there. Simple-minded, amateurish and fakely warmhearted, "Last Holiday" is the sort of movie you pity, not enjoy.
Glory Road
This story of the first basketball team to play an NCAA championship game with an all-black starting lineup is exactly like every other sports movie you've ever seen. It's chock-full of impassioned speeches, come-from-behind victories, and a coach's wife who exists but gets no screen time. Yet I can say that the preview audience I saw it with, who were mostly African-American, loved it immensely. Perhaps having a personal connection to the story helps it overcome its mediocrities. Or perhaps they'd never seen "Remember the Titans" or "Miracle" or "Coach Carter" or "Hoosiers" or....
Tristan & Isolde
If you're familiar with the Dark Ages legend of ill-fated lovers Tristan and Isolde, you'll probably be appalled at the WB-style prettiness and shallowness that have been applied to it in this murky telling. If you're not familiar with it, you'll probably think Romeo and Juliet make for a story that's far more passionate, romantic and tragic. At any rate, James Franco and Sophia Myles play the titular couple, he from one of the unorganized British tribes, she from the enemy state of Ireland. Their love is safely a secret until she winds up married to the British king (Rufus Sewell), and then you can see the trainwreck coming a mile away. Classic themes of greed, jealousy and betrayal are broached in the story, but in the end they feel as glossed-over as Franco's British accent.
Film Geek
You know the guy who works at the video store who's super-nerdy about movies and recommends obscure foreign classics and babbles endlessly about movie trivia? You don't? Then don't see "Film Geek." You won't get it.
For those who know such people ...
Grandma’s Boy
One thing almost all movies have is a plot. Good movies, bad movies, average movies, most of them have stories of some kind. Why, a story is such a basic element of filmmaking that one would almost consider it a prerequisite. Yet here is "Grandma's Boy," a movie that does not have a story. It’s sort of about a video game tester who gets evicted and has to live with his grandma and her two old-lady housemates, and sort of about his man-child friend and their pot-dealer friend, and sort of about the pretty new boss they have at the video-game company. But none of these can really be called a plot, let alone THE plot of the movie. It's just random stuff happening, ingredients in a stew with no broth to hold them together. The comedy is mostly of the good-natured/potty-mouth/slacker-stoner variety, and there are funny moments. I laughed several times. But there are no entire scenes that are good; only individual lines or incidents here and there. The movie is a series of supporting paragraphs with no thesis.
Hostel
Eli Roth's follow-up to his 2003 cult hit "Cabin Fever" is less comical and more gruesome, though his skills as a filmmaker still shine through. This time it's a couple of American kids getting lured into a Slovakian hostel that boasts many gorgeous nubile women, yet that also ... well, let's just say there's torture, murder and mayhem afoot. This is lurid, horrific entertainment -- not everyone's cup of tea, for sure, but it's pretty slickly done.
BloodRayne
It's the year's first disaster! German half-wit Uwe Boll, having previously plumbed the depths of bad filmmaking in "House of the Dead" and "Alone in the Dark," manages to lower the bar even further with this medieval swords-and-castles vampire-hunting mess. Based on a video game (always a bad sign), the movie's about a girl who's half-vampire, half-human, who teams up with some other folks to destroy her blood-sucking father (played by Ben Kingsley, who won an Oscar for playing Gandhi). Every line in the lame screenplay is spoken either with apathy or with over-the-top melodrama, and you never think of the film as anything other than a silly, ineffective vampire adventure.
The Matador
It has seemed for a while now that Pierce Brosnan is going to keep playing variations of James Bond until he dies. Even when he's on the opposite side of the law, as in "The Thomas Crown Affair" or "After the Sunset," he's always the suave, dashing p...
Match Point
"Everybody's afraid to admit what a big part luck plays in life," says Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) in Woody Allen's delicious new drama "Match Point." For a tennis player like Chris, luck is pivotal. Sometimes it's all that determines whether the ball falls on your side of the net or your opponent's. Sometimes it's how you get a plum job giving tennis lessons at a snooty London country club. Why, with luck on your side, you can get away with just about anything. Those are the themes of this adultery suspense-melodrama that explores the division between the classes in English society while telling a story of Hitchcockian proportions. The long takes and elegantly simple shot compositions remind us that it's a Woody Allen movie, but the content, while not totally without precedent (see "Crimes and Misdemeanors," in particular), is certainly not typical of him -- and it's far better than any of his last several films. Even people who don't like Woody Allen are liable to enjoy this one.
Wolf Creek
The indie Australian horror flick "Wolf Creek" takes a good 45 minutes to get going -- waaaaay too long -- but once it does, it is relentless and punishing. Three young vacationers are stranded in the middle of nowhere and are rescued by a folksy fellow named Mick, who says he'll get their car fixed and have them on the road in a jiffy. Things go down hill from there. When the terror begins, it does so abruptly and without warning, a nightmarish situation fast becoming unimaginably worse. Ambitiously written and directed by newcomer Greg McLean (and based on a somewhat-true story), the film does a splendid job focusing on first one protagonist and then the next, thus preventing us from guessing in advance who will survive and who won't, as the film never seems to favor anyone. The showdowns between the three figures and their enemy are suspenseful, frightening and often surprising, even for viewers who have seen their share of these movies. There will be, I suspect, not a dry seat in the house.
Casanova
Lasse Hallstrom makes trifling, negligible movies that are often good but seldom of any consequence. (This doesn't stop them from being treated by some people as if they were consequential, but that's another matter.) "The Cider House Rules," "Chocol...
Rumor Has It…
"Rumor Has It..." is a high-concept comedy whose high concept is the most interesting thing about it. Once that's out of the way, it's just your basic relationship melodrama. A Pasadena woman named Sarah Huttinger (Jennifer Aniston) comes to realize that her grandmother and mother both slept with the same man, and that their story was subsequently fictionalized into the book and film "The Graduate." What's more, she thinks she might be the offspring of the affair between her mother and the man in question. Shirley MacLaine steals every scene she's in as Sarah's grandmother, and Kevin Costner is affable as the man who slept with everybody. But in general the film moves ploddingly, with individual scenes that don't "build," and an overall story that doesn't, either. And it eventually devolves into standard soap opera emotions, no longer a comedy but some kind of gangly hybrid. There's a lot of wasted potential here.
The New World
"The New World" is the sort of film that, left to its own devices, can completely engulf you. On a big screen with a modern sound system, undisturbed by a noisy audience or other distractions, it's a mesmerizing, nearly unique piece of work. It will ...
Munich
In "Munich," Steven Spielberg has made his most grown-up film so far. The director best known for his wide-eyed adventure movies has dealt with mature themes before, as in "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan," but never has the web of values ...
The Ringer
"The Ringer" isn't a bad movie because it makes fun of retarded people. It's a bad movie because it makes fun of retarded people, then tries to tell us that making fun of retarded people is bad. Johnny Knoxville plays a man who pretends to be retarded so he can compete in the Special Olympics, handily defeat everyone, and make a fortune from betting on the events. He falls in love with a Special Olympics volunteer along the way, but how will she feel when she finds out he's not really retarded? Will she be able to tell the difference? Mostly I sat in awe at the film's wrong-headedness, at its inability to convey even its very basic message about all people being worthy of respect. Sorry, "The Ringer." This isn't the Special Olympics. You don't get a medal just for playing.
Cache (French)
The French film "Caché" ("Hidden") is shot voyeuristically, giving the impression that we are intruding on the lives of its characters. We're not the only ones, either: The Laurents keep getting videotapes on their doorstep, tapes that show their home being under surveillance for hours at a time. But why? Who's doing it? What point is he or she trying to make? is a film about chickens coming home to roost, about arrogant people refusing to accept responsibility for their past sins. As the Laurents conduct a search for their videographer, they reopen old wounds and uncover prior offenses they had forgotten about. And through it all, we are watching closely, examining every frame, feeling the tension and suspense grow stronger. It's a low-key, high-intensity thriller with one moment that will almost certainly make you gasp out loud. The rest of the time, you'll be looking for clues....
Fun with Dick and Jane
The barely remembered 1977 film "Fun with Dick and Jane" is updated for the 2000s with Jim Carrey as a man whose corporation goes belly-up, leading him and his wife (Tea Leoni) to try robbery as a means of paying the bills. There are some solid laughs as they try to find honest means of support, the rather somber subtext being that there are no jobs to be had, anywhere. It's no surprise that the frothy comedy has an undertone of pathos, considering the screenplay is by Judd Apatow and Nicholas Stoller, the former the creator of the painfully true TV comedies "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared," the latter one of his collaborators. It would be easy to show a suburban couple turning to a life of a crime; it takes finesse to make us truly believe, as Dick and Jane do, that life has given them no other choice. Carrey does too much of his trademark hamming and mugging, but not enough to ruin the film.
Cheaper by the Dozen 2
If "Cheaper by the Dozen" was a tolerable chunk of family-friendly fluff, its sequel is a mindless, pandering waste. Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt return as the parents of 12 children as the Baker family heads to Lake Winnetka for a Labor Day vacation. There they encounter the Murtaughs, a large family of overachieving kids whose smarmy patriarch (an over-tanned Eugene Levy) is a life-long rival of Pa Baker's. Competition between the haves and the have-a-little-lesses is inevitable. So, apparently, is a nonstop parade of bumbling, falling, spilling, exploding, exaggerating, hamming, and over-doing. For what it's worth, Martin and Hunt are charming together and deserve a better movie; Hunt, in particular, seems to be having her own kind of fun in her own little world. If you love movies where the emotional climax is introduced by the family's discovery of nostalgic items that a rat has dragged into its nest, then this is the film for you, because that's what happens.
The Family Stone
"The Family Stone" is set in a magical winter wonderland, where the parents accept their gay son's interracial relationship, where Mom is amused when her other son's old-fashioned (read: fusty) girlfriend doesn't think they should share a room together, where Dad and another son's pot smoking is just "one of those boy things," like tinkering with cars or watching football. It's a liberal fantasyland, in other words, and somewhere, Sean Hannity's head is exploding. (Not that that's a bad thing.) Anyway, idyllic fakeness aside, the film is a warm and funny take on the "Meet the Parents" scenario, with Everett (Dermot Mulroney) bringing his uptight girlfriend (Sarah Jessica Parker) home for Christmas. Hilarity ensues, as do emotional epiphanies and romantic entanglements. Diane Keaton, Craig T. Nelson, Luke Wilson, Claire Danes and Rachel McAdams round out the cast. Their performances are uniformly solid and intelligent -- always funny, never silly -- and if the film's maudlin life-or-death subplot feels unnecessarily weepy, find solace in the otherwise merry proceedings. This Hollywood version of family life may not be realistic, but it sure is fun.
The Producers
The big-screen adaptation of the huge 2001 Broadway hit "The Producers" (which itself was a musical version of a 1968 film) captures most -- but not all -- of the comedic mayhem that slew thousands of theatergoers. Nathan Lane plays an artistically bankrupt Broadway producer who convinces his mousy accountant (Matthew Broderick) to help him with a scheme: Collect $2 million in investments, stage the worst show imaginable for 1/20th of that, then run off to Rio with the difference. Their sure-fire flop? "Springtime for Hitler," a musical love letter to Der Fuhrer which, unfortunately for them, turns out to be a hit. Susan Stroman, who directed the stage version and makes her film debut, captures most of the frenetic energy of the live show, and the performers -- many from the original Broadway cast -- recreate their roles almost exactly, down the last, biggest, most over-the-top gesture. It's often howlingly funny, once you get used to the broad, intentionally unnatural style of setup/punchline delivery. The humor is large, loud and fast-paced, rarely subtle. Watching it is like watching an old 1960s movie musical -- a raucous, randy, delightful one.
King Kong
Peter Jackson's remake of the 1933 classic "King Kong" is an epic experience, three solid hours of high-flying entertainment and special effects wizardry. It follows the same story as the original, but it magnifies everything -- the scary parts are scarier, the exciting parts are more exciting, and so on. The middle part of the movie, set on Kong's home of Skull Island, comprises some of the most ingeniously crafted horror, suspense and adventure scenes ever put on film. It's 90 minutes of buoyantly paced, adrenaline-pumping action, each sequence seeming to top the one before it. However, the consequence is that the subsequent finale -- back in New York, with Kong on the loose -- is a bit of a letdown. But the film achieves a level of realism only dreamed of by previous versions, and is altogether exhilarating.
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
“The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada� works on three levels: as a visually appealing modern Southwestern saga, as an old-fashioned cowboy story, and as a compelling, slightly troubling look at modern ideas superimposed against an old-fashioned lifestyle. Choose which level you prefer and enjoy a very confident, well-made film, a striking debut from actor Tommy Lee Jones, who also plays the protagonist, a decent cowboy named Pete Perkins. Pete’s best friend, the illegal alien of the title, wanted to be buried in his Mexican hometown when he died, and Pete aims to see it done now that the time has come. This means transporting the body across the border, and taking a black-hearted border patrol officer named Norton (Barry Pepper) with him, as a way of forcing the bastard into the mighty change of heart he so desperately needs. But does a change wrought by such invasive means really count? Does Pete have any right to appoint himself as the one who must help Norton become a better person? Those are the questions that sweep across the sunny, sagebrushed vistas in this elegant parable of modern cowboyism.
The Grace Lee Project (documentary)
Grace Lee is an American-born girl of Korean parents who grew up in Columbia, Mo., and was one of only three Asian girls in her school. Of the other two, one was also named Grace Lee.
This was no crazy coincidence. As "The Grace Lee Project" demo...
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
It's ironic that "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" could brim with religious allegory, yet turn out to be just as soulless as its secular blockbuster counterparts. It's gorgeous and amazing, sure -- every penny of the $...
Memoirs of a Geisha
Geishas are not prostitutes! Don't call them that, or they'll get mad. That is what I learned about the mysterious geisha lifestyle in the film "Memoirs of a Geisha," a lengthy, soggy adaptation of a novel by Arthur Golden, a man who was almost certainly never a geisha himself. This dull and somber affair tracks the doings of a young girl in 1930s Japan who is sold to a geisha house and subsequently is mentored by one of the city's top geishas. Director Rob Marshall has made a very sterile film, one where we spend a great deal of time with the characters without ever getting to know them -- or, really, what the life of a geisha is all about. The three leads, Michelle Yeoh, Ziyi Zhang and Li Gong, perform nobly, almost breathing life into the turgid screenplay. Certainly they are dressed beautifully, and the movie is often lovely to look at, if nothing else. And, indeed, there is nothing else.
Brokeback Mountain
"Brokeback Mountain" is the story of two people who fall in love with the person they least expected to. In that regard, it is no different from hundreds of other movies about mismatched couples and surprise romances. That the romance is doomed and t...
Mrs Henderson Presents
In "Mrs Henderson Presents," Judi Dench stars as Mrs. Henderson, a daft British woman who ran a theater called the Windmill in London in the 1930s and '40s, famous for two things: It never closed during the Blitz; and it was London's first theater to feature nude women onstage. The screenplay, by playwright Martin Sherman, gets plenty of mileage out of the juxtaposition between veddy proper English society and the inherently bawdy nature of Mrs. Henderson's proposed show; sure, they're calling it "art" to make it legal, but they know it will be soldiers on leave filling the seats, not museum patrons. And Dench does a fine job keeping the eccentric character down-to-earth, save for one rousing speech near the end that is filled with clichés. It's all in good fun, though, and you leave the film smiling. And not just because it has naked ladies in it.
Aeon Flux
As happens so often with sci-fi films, the ideas in "Aeon Flux" are more interesting than the movie they're trapped in. It touches on politics, human genetics, the nature of personality and the purpose of government, and it features a woman who has an additional pair of hands where her feet should be. The fact that a movie containing all of those elements could be as sterile and monotonous as this one is a wonder in itself. It's set in 2415, where most of civilization has been wiped out and what's left is governed by a fascist dictatorship. A group of rebels, led by Aeon Flux (Charlize Theron) are trying to bring down The Man, and secrets about the society's past are unveiled in the process. It all feels cold and impersonal, as if it hopes its story alone will entice you into liking it even though the characters mean nothing to you.
Transamerica
Felicity Huffman is sure to be Oscar-nominated for her performance in "Transamerica," where she plays a transsexual man who has nearly completed his journey to full womanhood (except for The Big Operation) when he/she discovers he fathered a child nearly 18 years ago. That child (Kevin Zegers) is now in desperate need of a parent, and he and Huffman embark on a cross-country road trip. Huffman is astounding in the role, bringing humanity to a character that could have been a caricature or a martyr. Written and directed by Duncan Tucker, the film finds sly humor everywhere and plenty of drama, too, often in the same places. It's surprisingly centered and calm, neither exploiting the story's sensational aspects nor ignoring them, but giving us an entertaining journey.
First Descent (documentary)
"First Descent" is to snowboarding what "Dogtown and Z-Boys" was to skateboarding and "Riding Giants" was to surfing -- or at least it tries to be. Rather than using new interviews and old footage to tell the history of the sport, it features an awkward mix of those elements and a newly shot, just-for-the-film document of a team of current pros on an Alaskan snowboarding expedition. It's interesting to see the evolution from despised thrashers of ski runs to mainstream athletes competing in the Winter Olympics, but ultimately the film needs more cohesion -- more focus on the fascinating history and trivia, less footage of the Alaska trip. Because honestly, with all due respect to Alaska, one guy zipping down a mountain on a snowboard looks about the same as any other, regardless of what state he's in.
The Libertine
John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester, portrayed with the usual playful dementia by Johnny Depp, speaks directly to the camera in the first scene of "The Libertine." He says that in the story of his life that is about to be presented, "You will not like me." How right he is. The 17th-century writer is a philanderer, an abusive jerk and a mean-spirited alcoholic, and the film never overcomes that. In addition, the whole thing feels vulgarly useless, filled with some amusing episodes and randy dialogue, sure, but no real point. The other characters all seem to love John Wilmot, but darned if I can figure out why. Maybe they see something I don't, or that the movie fails to show us.
Down to the Bone
A film like "Down to the Bone," about the stark reality of drug addiction, couldn't be set in spring or summer. To get the full impact, you need the desolation of winter: the barren trees, the bleak skies, the grayish slush on the sidewalks.
I fee...
Just Friends
Somewhere in "Just Friends" is a pile of honest emotions, withheld from the characters who so desperately need them. The film's about a smarmy music exec (Ryan Reynolds) who gets a second chance to woo his high school-era best friend (Amy Smart) while simultaneously trying to keep tabs on a Paris Hilton-type pop star (Anna Faris), and when it focuses on the funny business -- the guy's frustration over his inability to be suave around the girl, and the pop star's self-absorbed idiocy -- it's a riot. When we're asked to care about the central couple, it comes up empty, because we never get a good look at how they really feel. Still, the movie comes out ahead, more funny than not.
Syriana
I'm not going to lie to you: I have no idea what's going on in "Syriana." It's about the oil industry, and like "Traffic" (which was written by Stephen Gaghan, who wrote and directed this), it covers the topic from a variety of angles, with multiple characters and documentary-style filming. But the plot is so labyrinthine, the characters so numerous, the connections so fleetingly explained, that constant vigilance is required if one expects to have even a basic grasp of what's going on. You go out for popcorn and you're doomed. This movie shouldn't come with a rating, it should come with a syllabus. However, I'm giving it a "recommended" grade because it's well-shot and convincingly acted, and because I think there are things lurking in it that would emerge with a second viewing. Those who have lavished great praise on the film either were among my colleagues who managed to grasp it all on the first try, or else they're pretending to get it because they don't want to look stupid. Me, I have no problem looking stupid: I have no idea what's going on in this movie.
Yours, Mine & Ours
This remake of the 1968 Lucille Ball/Henry Fonda comedy where a widow and widower get married and combine their huge households must have gotten screwed up at the factory, because it came out looking just like "Cheaper by the Dozen." Anyway, this time it's Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo, he a no-nonsense Coast Guard admiral with eight kids, she a free-wheeling hippie chick with 10. The two groups of children, each with personalities matching their natural parent, want life to go back to the way it was before the wedding, and to that end attempt to break Mom and Dad up -- a sort of reverse "Parent Trap," if you will. In the process, wouldn't you know it, they all grow to like each other, and there's a warm, hug-based finale. The humor often centers on Dennis Quaid falling face-first into puddles of things, but there are some amusing plays on the Red state/Blue state living arrangements, too. Family comedies this unabashedly old-fashioned are rare -- well, except for the "Cheaper by the Dozen" sequel coming out next month. If you govern a large brood yourself, it might be worth seeing.
The Ice Harvest
"The Ice Harvest" is set on Christmas Eve for no reason other than to be iconoclastic. Strippers juxtaposed with yuletide cheer? What's more outrageous than that?! That said, it's a very dark and often very funny crime comedy about a Wichita Mafia lawyer played by John Cusack who steals $2 million from his boss and plans to skip town -- except that an ice storm comes and prevents him from leaving. His partner in the crime is played by Billy Bob Thornton, who has done the foul-mouthed Christmas thing before ("Bad Santa"). Reminiscent of a film noir (including a femme fatale played by Connie Nielsen), the movie is caustically funny (and shockingly vulgar) for a while, until the novelty wears off and it loses steam. On the other hand, it does impart some valuable information along the way on the body-storage capacity of a Mercedes.
Rent
While it's not wise to be slavishly devoted to your source material when making a movie out of a book or play, it's worth noting that most of what's wrong with the film version of "Rent" is because they made unnecessary changes.
Here's an easy on...
Walk the Line
"Walk the Line" is the same as "Ray," but with the races and musical genres switched. In both cases, your enjoyment of the film may depend on your esteem for the subject going into it: I already liked Johnny Cash quite a bit, and the film did nothing to increase or diminish that. Joaquin Phoenix does a phenomenal job duplicating Johnny's voice and style, and Reese Witherspoon is a fine June Carter. The emphasis is on their relationship and the way it carried over into Johnny's music, which is presented here in all its plaintive, stoic simplicity. I don't know if non-Cash fans will be converted -- we often see what Johnny is doing but rarely what he is thinking -- but people already in his camp will find that the film walks the line quite nicely.
Bee Season
There is a lot of smug mysticism masquerading as universal truth in "Bee Season." It's about a family in which each member is having a spiritual crisis of some kind -- Mom (Juliette Binoche) is going a little crazy, Dad (Richard Gere) is ignoring everyone to focus on helping their young daughter (Flora Cross) win the spelling bee, while teenage son Aaron (Max Minghella) is searching for religious footing -- but instead of resolution, what we get is some weird-so-it-must-be-deep symbolism, a condescending pat on the head, and the sense that we ought to feel really, really enlightened now. But I'm not enlightened. I feel like I've watched a movie so confident it's being meaningful that it forgot to include any actual meaning. Not bad, exactly -- just not as wise as it thinks it is.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Do the parents of the wizarding world know that when they send their children to Hogwarts, there is a chance little Johnny or Susie will be eaten by a dragon as part of an intermural sport? Just thinking of all the permission slips and liability waiv...
Breakfast on Pluto
"Breakfast on Pluto" is the story of an Irish transvestite named Kitten, who might be the son of a priest, who flounces through the early 1970s seeking only the fluffiest things in life, trying to ignore the IRA bombings and other turbulent events that surround him. It's an affectionately free-spirited film from Irish director Neil Jordan, whose 1997 film "The Butcher Boy" was, like this one, based on a novel by Patrick McCabe. The story is a merry one, and Jordan and McCabe tell it creatively, with an infectious zest for life. It does one of the best things a movie can do: It makes you feel good.
Derailed
Mikael Hafstrom is Swedish, but it's Alfred Hitchcock, not Ingmar Bergman, that he'd like you to think of while watching "Derailed." It's the director's first English-language film, and it's a ridiculous little thriller, the sort of movie that is wor...
Zathura
A decade after "Jumanji" introduced rhinoceroses to America's living rooms comes "Zathura," also about a board game that becomes real, and also based on a book by Chris Van Allsburg.
Van Allsburg didn't wander far from "Jumanji" when he wrote "Zat...
Pride & Prejudice
My, how the marketing for the sumptuous new production of "Pride & Prejudice" fibs! Focus Features describes the film on its Web site as "the first movie version of the story in 65 years," which is blatantly untrue. Clearly they are trying to mak...
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Shane Black is back! Remember Shane Black? OK, I didn't either, but I've seen his work. He wrote "Lethal Weapon," "The Last Boy Scout," "Last Action Hero" and "The Long Kiss Goodnight," huge, noisy films, all of them, with ludicrous plots and over-th...
Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic
Sarah Silverman's hilarious new concert film "Jesus Is Magic" demonstrates what a treasure she is: socially observant, wickedly funny, and genuinely unafraid of being politically incorrect. ("I don't care if you think I'm racist," she says. "I just want you to think I'm thin.") The film has a few backstage skits and musical numbers of varying quality interspersed, but mostly it's a filmed record of her standup act, in which the pixie-ish girl with the sweet voice and adorable face waxes scathing on the usual comic subjects of sex, politics, war and race. Her jokes hit all the taboos, but they're also funny -- you never get the sense she's being taboo just for the sake of it.
Get Rich or Die Tryin’
If you think 50 Cent is hard to understand when he raps, wait till you see him try to act! Always sounding like he just left the dentist's office, the inarticulate Fiddy plays a fictionalized version of himself in this "8 Mile" clone, including a stint in prison and a few gunshots to the ol' torso. Can he act? Heavens no. He can barely speak. (And he narrates the movie, too!) Terrence Howard is good as his prison buddy-turned-manager, though. He is this violent, dull film's only bright spot.
The Dying Gaul
A fantastic premise is squandered in "The Dying Gaul," only to be saved by a riveting final act, as well as by superlative performances from Peter Sarsgaard, Campbell Scott and Patricia Clarkson. Sarsgaard plays a man who has written a screenplay about the recent AIDS death of his lover. A movie executive (Scott) offers him $1 million for it -- but only if he changes the dying boyfriend to a dying girlfriend, to make the film more marketable. Clarkson plays the exec's wife, and the three characters' lives become intertwined as the writer wrestles with his conscience and the exec grapples with his own demons, including the kind of demon that makes him commence an affair with the writer. Sound soapy and melodramatic? Not a bit. By the end, when everyone finds out everything about everyone else, we are so caught up in their lives that we can't wait to find out what happens next.
Shopgirl
Steve Martin's novella "Shopgirl" was a bittersweet love story marked by extremely beautiful language and characters. The film, adapted by Martin and directed by Anand Tucker, is nearly as lovely. Claire Danes plays Mirabelle, a lonely and depressed sales clerk in Los Angeles who meets two men: One, played by Jason Schwartzman, is eccentric and unthinking but sweet; the other, played by Martin, is an older millionaire who dotes on her with affection and gifts. What follows is a yearning, wistful drama (with a liberal sprinkling of comedy) about nothing less than the very nature of love itself. Danes' performance is especially tender, with a vulnerability that instantly wins a viewer's heart. "Mirabelle" is a perfect name for her, with Latin and Spanish roots that suggest "beautiful to look at." She is, and so is the movie.
Chicken Little
Its relationship with Pixar on the rocks, Disney is using "Chicken Little" as an experiment to see whether it can create successful computer-animated films on its own, without the geniuses behind "Toy Story" and "The Incredibles" doing it for them.
...
Jarhead
Based on Anthony Swofford's autobiography detailing his stint in the Persian Gulf War of 1990, "Jarhead" is an intriguing examination of what war does to a warrior -- or, more specifically, what near-war does to a near-warrior. Swofford (played by Jake Gyllenhaal), like his fellow Marines, wants nothing more than to kick some Iraqi butt during those long, boring days in the desert, but the war is over before it starts -- good news for America, slightly frustrating for the soldiers who have rearranged their psyches for what turns out to have been no reason. Surprisingly non-political, "Jarhead" gives us a glimpse into the macho male mind as it tells a humor-tinged but ultimately haunting story.
States of Grace (aka God’s Army 2)
Richard Dutcher ("God's Army," "Brigham City") returns to the Mormon Cinema movement with "States of Grace," a film set, like "God's Army," among Mormon missionaries in Los Angeles. Dutcher is more daring than before, though, brilliantly weaving several stories of lost souls seeking redemption and centering it on two missionaries: Elder Farrell (Lucas Fleischer) is solid but (at first) unmemorable; Elder Lozano (Ignacio Serricchio), a Latino gang member before his conversion, is leaving his mission in a few weeks and has lost his drive. The two encounter a gang member seeking to give up his wicked ways, a would-be actress with a dismal past, and a homeless street preacher with a woeful spiritual story of his own, and all five characters add to the film's very deep spiritual themes. It has the audacity to suggest that there is life after sin, that even good, decent people transgress, sometimes quite seriously, and that EVERYONE needs redemption. "States of Grace" is unabashedly Christian in its message, and it's the most faith-affirming, uplifting film I have seen in a long time.
Saw II
What "Saw" had going for it were its ideas. If it was occasionally too ugly for its own good, its stylishness and clever storytelling techniques made up for it. "Saw II," by comparison, has a lot of blood but almost no ideas. The maniac with a God complex who punishes people for their sins wasn't exactly original with "Saw," and it's even less original in the sequel, where it's the same killer with the same agenda, though this time instead of two people trapped in a room, it's eight people trapped in a house. My general impression is that people who hated the first film did so because of its brutality and gruesomeness. The sequel still has those traits, though perhaps not quite as vividly; what it lacks is the devious reasoning behind them. If you thought the violence in "Saw" was senseless, wait'll you see it now.
The Weather Man
Gore Verbinski's career as a director has been all over the place, from the slapsticky ("Mouse Hunt") to the quirky ("The Mexican"), from the terrifying ("The Ring") to the swashbuckling ("Pirates of the Caribbean"). My admiration for "The Mexican," ...
Three … Extremes (Chinese/Japanese/Korean)
Just in time for Halloween, we have "Three ... Extremes," a sampler platter of short horror films from three different Asian directors: "Dumplings" (by Hong Kong's Fruit Chan) is the darkly comic tale of a woman who sells dumplings that have rejuvenating powers ... because they're made from (spoiler warning) ... something gross. "Box" (from Japan's Takashi Miike, of "Audition" and "Ichi the Killer") is a dreamy, nearly wordless story about a woman haunted by her past. And my favorite, "Cut" (by South Korea's Chan-wook Park, of "Oldboy"), is a flashy, over-the-top story about a movie director captured and tortured by a frustrated actor. Separately, none of the films is particularly noteworthy, but together, they comprise a macabre anthology of mayhem that may be just the thing to satisfy your cravings for horror and subtitles.
New York Doll (documentary)
Only rock historians and punk buffs remember the New York Dolls, the early-'70s forerunners to The Clash, the Sex Pistols and the Smiths (to name only a few of the bands that drew influence from the Dolls). "New York Doll" tells not the band's story, but the story of one of its members: Arthur "Killer" Kane, the rather sedate bass player who, in 1989, joined the Mormon Church. The documentary, directed by fellow Mormon Greg Whiteley, picks up Kane's story in 2004, when Kane is working at the Los Angeles Temple and contemplating a reunion with the old bandmates. Kane is uncool, dotty and completely lovable, a man with a pure heart and innocent intentions. Seeing him re-live a bit of his brief glory days is extraordinary, and what happens afterward makes for a sweet, satisfying, immensely enjoyable film.
The Legend of Zorro
"The Legend of Zorro," the not-awaited sequel to "The Mask of Zorro," is self-contained and requires no foreknowledge of the story, which is good, because I have no memories of the first film whatsoever. The sequel, in which Zorro (Antonio Banderas) spars with his wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and defends 1850s California against injustice via swordplay and derring-do, is good fun, but not great fun, and it's much longer than it ought to be. It has a plot that is elaborate and silly, and everyone seems to be having a good time enacting it, especially Banderas. It's a little tiring, but it's a pleasant, upbeat film with happy endings and a lot of amusing banter. It's easy to overlook a film like this in a crowded marketplace, and I suspect that's what most viewers will do.
Prime
"Prime" is about a woman who starts dating her psychiatrist's son, and none of the three people involved realize it. Rafi (Uma Thurman) doesn't know her new boyfriend David (Bryan Greenberg) is the son of her psychiatrist, Lisa (Meryl Streep), and Lisa doesn't know her son's new girlfriend is her patient, and so forth. I think Ben Younger, who wrote and directed the film, has all his bases covered. Which isn't to say that the whole scenario is plausible, merely that it's possible. Even when the truth does come out (which is very entertaining to watch, as each person realizes what's going on slowly and separately from the others), there is still plenty of time left to deal with the aftermath. Younger keeps the focus on the characters as people, not just as pawns in a silly movie plot. I like that a movie with such a farcical premise can be so upscale and witty. It's enough of a romantic-comedy to satisfy fans of that genre, but different enough from the usual template to be worth recommending to regular people, too.
Ballets Russes (documentary)
As with most documentaries, "Ballets Russes" is probably more fascinating if you're already interested in the subject matter. But unlike many of its peers, the film doesn't assume we revere its subject as much as the filmmakers do. Instead, directors...
After Innocence (documentary)
"After Innocence" is a documentary torn from the headlines. It reports that more than 150 convicts in the U.S. have had their sentences overturned after being proven innocent by DNA evidence. The film wants to know what happens next, when these innoc...
Protocols of Zion (documentary)
It is astounding to me that anti-Semitism exists at all, let alone that it flourishes, yet here is "Protocols of Zion," an eye-opening documentary that examines what it is to be Jewish in New York in 2005. There has been an upsurge in anti-Semitism since 9/11, led in part by the insidious rumor that 4,000 Jews were warned not to go to work in the Twin Towers that day and thus had their lives spared -- "proof" that the Jews were ultimately behind the plot. How can anyone believe that no Jews were killed in the 9/11 attacks when the memorial wall listing the victims is brimming with -steins -bergs and -baums? How can anyone think that Jews masterminded an attack that was carried out by Arabs, a group that hates the Jews? Here's how: PEOPLE ARE STUPID. The film's major accomplishment is that it removes the lid from one of America's most shameful underground movements.
North Country
"North Country" is not about the gray-area type of sexual harassment, where someone says something innocently but phrases it poorly. No, it is about the other kind, the obvious, blatant, frightening kind, in this case perpetrated against female mine employees in a blue-collar Minnesota town. (The film is based on a true story, but loosely.) Charlize Theron plays the woman who finally files a lawsuit against the company, and it's always good to see an underdog fight the big guys -- but come on. The harassment she suffers is so outrageously vulgar, obscene and hostile that it becomes laughable. I find it hard to believe that any group of men ever behaved THIS badly in the workplace, much less that their behavior was condoned all the way up the corporate ladder, and much less that it all happened as recently as 1990. Realistic or not, it weakens the film's case to have the villains portrayed so one-dimensionally. The black-and-white of the movie's ideas could use a little color.
Doom
In almost 100 years of history, Hollywood has rarely produced a series of films as consistent as those based on video games: A dozen of them now, and not one has been any good. Not one! (Don't bother naming one and saying, "What about that one?!," be...
Dreamer
Original? Heavens, no. But "Dreamer," about a Kentucky family that helps an injured horse recover and run races again, is so full of sunshine and joy that it's impossible not to be pleased by it. Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning and Kris Kristofferson are the humans, and all are tenderhearted and sincere, with the sort of extremely likable faces that you can comfortably hang a movie on. The movie's ordinary in a lot of ways, but it excels in the important areas of warmth and honesty. Most people enjoy a sweet, wholesome movie with an inspiring story; "Dreamer" is a reminder that those people need not be suckers.
Stay
"Stay," about a psychiatrist (Ewan McGregor) trying to stop his patient (Ryan Gosling) from committing suicide, is a basic "Twilight Zone"-inspired "What is reality?" brainteaser where at least one of the major characters is imagining at least some of the events. But it's written by a gifted writer (David Benioff, of "25th Hour" and "Troy"), and directed by a talented director (Marc Forster, of "Finding Neverland" and "Monster's Ball"), so it's smartly told, with a bevy of visual tricks that make it a treat to puzzle out.
The Work and the Glory: American Zion
An improvement over its stodgy, slow-moving predecessor (simply called "The Work and the Glory"), "The Work and the Glory: American Zion" is still a little dispassionate and formal, but it's markedly better in other ways: It's more streamlined, more tightly focused and better acted. Chapter 2 in the saga, which puts fictitious characters amidst real-life early Mormon history figures such as Joseph Smith, focuses on things movie-goers can relate to: family rivalries, unjust persecutions and good ol' heroes and villains. And the fiery finale suggests some tantalizing prospects for Part 3.
Nine Lives
Rodrigo Garcia's first film was "Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her," a series of well-acted, self-contained vignettes that introduced us to several Los Angeles women in various emotional situations. Garcia's new work is "Nine Lives," a series of nine incomplete stories, each told in 10 real-time minutes, shot in one continuous take. This is a showcase for the actresses -- Kathy Baker, Amy Brenneman, Glenn Close, Holly Hunter, Sissy Spacek and Robin Wright Penn among them -- but as soon as you grow fond of someone, the vignette ends and we're on to the next one. These are nine orphan scenes desperately in need of movies to take them home. I see some good acting, a few interesting characters, an occasional glimpse of excellent writing -- all components of a great film, yes, but more components are necessary before the film is whole.
Domino
To watch "Domino" is to be pummeled with relentless audio-visual tomfoolery for two hours. I knew Tony Scott, director of "Top Gun," "Enemy of the State" and "Crimson Tide," liked his movies full of motion and chaos, but when did he commence his all-crack diet? It's like someone smashed open a piñata full of film-school devices and Tony Scott knocked over the other kids to get everything for himself. Oliver Stone, on his best day, couldn't make a movie this incoherent. It's about a female bounty hunter (played by Keira Knightley), and a crazy double-cross that gets everyone in trouble, and at one point Jerry Springer is involved. It has an over-the-top, at times incomprehensible screenplay by Richard Kelly ("Donnie Darko"), and is a marvel of editing, sound and music -- all wasted on a movie too dumb to deserve such attention.
