Punditries

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King of Kong (See Review) Competition for the world record in Donkey Kong; a documentary exposing the subculture of arcade video games.

Munich Steven Spielberg's story of the Israeli retribution for the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. An Israeli hit squad is dispatched to murder alleged Palestinian terrorist masterminds, but the men are not super-human action heros, just men, and leader, Avner (Eric Bana) begins to have second thoughts about his actions as his group's actions seem to be leading to escalating violence that many argue continues to this day. A parable that is much about post-9/11 America as about 1970's Israel (that will be clear at the very end of the film if you missed it up until then), but beyond the "message" this is just a very well made film without, simply telling a story without taking either side in the struggle.

Syriana The United States is deeply in bed with Saudia Arabia and middle east oil; this film gives several parallel stories to illustrate that idea. An aging CIA officer (George Clooney) is mustered out when his exploits in Lebanon upset his superiors; a lobbyist for a trading company (Matt Damon) learns some hard lessons in dealing with arab oil powers; a justice department lawyer (Jeffrey Wright) is wined and dined while asked to approve an oil company merger; a poor oil worker in an Arab country becomes taken in by radical Islam and turns to terrorism. Although ambitious, perhaps, the film doesn't really succeed in doing much more than making an obvious point (oil is currupting everything). The film is partly based on the terrific book "See No Evil" by former CIA officer Robert Baer.

Walk the Line Very good bio pic of Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) telling the story of his rise to fame, his battle with an addiction to pills, and his romance with June Carter (Reese Witherspoon). Compelling and well-acted.

The Wedding Crashers Another bad film for both Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn (both funny guys)! This is just an unimaginative string of gags, kind of a cheap copy of "Meet the Parents" without the heart. Rent "Old School" instead.

The 40-year-old Virgin Very funny (if goofy) movie starring Steve Carell as a 40-year-old man who just hasn't gotten it together with the ladies. The movie has a sweeter side than you might imagine - it's more than just a stupid movie, even if it is goofy. If you love Steve Carell, this is a MUST-SEE.

Jarhead An irreverant young man joins the US Marines on the eve of the first Gulf War and comes out a changed man from his intense experiences, despite the lack of actual combat. Director Sam Mendes ("American Beauty", "Road to Perdition") turns in a slightly smart-assed, cynical look at modern war - probably a good companion piece to the recent "Syriana."

Batman Begins From Christopher Nolan, diretor of "Memento" and "Insomnia": Batman from the beginning starring Christian Bale and Katie Holmes. The film starts out slowly and full of annoying cliches, but eventually develops a great intensity and, by the end, redeems itself.

White Noise Another attempt to cash in on the latest horror trend, with Michael Keaton playing a grieving widower who discovers his dead wife can talk to him through a staticy television. Nothing but cliche after cliche and poorly done at that. The film seems to have opted for the "less is more" approach to explaining the supernatural story, but even at the end you really know know what's going on - but then again, you probably don't care.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissouu I'll always cherish "Bottle Rocket" and "Rushmore," Wes Anderson's first two terrific films, but his latest film - part homage to Jacques Cousteau, part undersea fairytale - is just a mess. Bill Murray plays a washed-up maker of undersea documentaries who sets out to find a shark who killed his partner, but things are complicated when his long-lost son (Owen Wilson) shows up from Kentucky. Many of the scenes are just flat, and there is almost no chemistry between the characters. I laughed almost not at all.

Sideways Two middle-aged buddies head to California wine country for a fun week together before one of them is to be married. Miles (Paul Giamatti) is a depressive failed novelist and Jack (Thomas Haden Church) is a washed-up actor/ladies man and groom-to-be. Miles is a wine snob and Jack is not very bright; these two set out for a last adventure. It's a very talking film from Alexander Payne (Election, About Schmidt), and it's not always that interesting if you're not into wine, which is sort of a background character throughout the movie. In a way, it's a more serious version of the movie "Swingers."

The Aviator Leonardo DiCaprio plays the legendary and eccentric Howard Hughes, who inherited millions, made big-budget Hollywood films his own way, flew airplanes in his own aircraft company, and dated famous Hollywood actresses. DiCaprio is great and Martin Scorsese's direction is flawless, though the last 45 minutes of the film kind of drag in an attempt to tell the story as completely as possible.

Ocean's Twelve The sequel to the highly entertaining and cool "Ocean's Eleven," this new story follows the original thieves - George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle, et al. - as they are hounded by the guy they robbed in "Eleven" (Andy Garcia) to pay him back - or else. The story takes the cool crooks to Europe to try to steal money to pay back their debt, and in Europe they run into a beautiful detective (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and a competing thief. Unfortunately, the story - which focuses on a romance between Pitt's and Zeta-Jones's characters - is much more convoluted than the first film (itself a remake). There are too many characters, and including them all is awkward and slows the story down. Director Steven Soderbergh's constant time shifting is almost disorienting. Soderbergh still manages to turn in a stylistically beautiful film but one that is much less entertaining than the original. Julia Roberts has an amusing, movie-stealing turn about 2/3 of the way into the film.

Kinsey Liam Neeson plays famed sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, whose research broke ground and rattled moral sensibilities in the 1950's. Today, his research seems tame, largely accepted as conventional wisdom. The story is a fairly straightforward telling of Kinsey's life, though some audiences may be embarrassed by the graphic sexual talk. Neeson is terrific as Kinsey, and Laura Linney is also fantastic as his strong wife.

Garden State Andrew (Zach Braff) is a young actor in LA who returns home to New Jersey when his mother dies, but as Andrew catches up with old friends and makes new ones, his life finally starts to open up, even fall in love. Braff wrote, directed, and starred in this impressive debut aimed at 20-somethings, completely with the hip soundtrack. He does reach out to his audience with humor, intelligence, and sensitivity usually lacking in American film.

Napoleon Dynamite A geeky high school kid seeks happiness and love in a small town in Idaho, despite his wacky family and lack of social skills. This is an anti-Hollywood, low-budget film with heart. What it lacks in production values and name actors it more-than makes up for with imagination and an unusual outlook on life. Jon Heder's extremely subdued performance as Napoleon somehow carries the movie, which is infinitely entertaining, so much more than your standard Hollywood cliche. How often do you see a film shot in Idaho, anyway?

Team America: World Police The creators of "South Park" use puppets (with no special effects) in their violent new film mocking everyone from Bush's "bring 'em on" mentality to liberal Hollywood actors and Michael Moore. There are some great jokes here, but unfortunately they don't prop up the movie for a whole 95 minutes. We've got maybe 30 minutes of great stuff here. That and the film's keynote song more than make the film worth seeing, yet you leave the theater wishing the film had been a lot more funny.

The Five Obstructions Art house flick/documentary: Danish director Lars von Trier ("Dancer in the Dark", "Dogville") challenges his mentor, Danish director Jorgen Leth, to re-make Leth's early short film "The Perfect Human," each time with bizarre constraints. This is an entertaining art house movie but probably not all that exciting to mainstream audiences.

Wicker Park Matthew (Josh Hartnett) is obessed with finding a woman (Diane Kruger) he once knew when he sees her by chance at a restaurant. But what was his relationship with her - is she real or is he just disburbed? The story (told in part in flashback) gets even more complicated, with several audience-manipulating twists and turns, but it eventually turns into a genuine love story. The film is not really a suspense thriller as the trailer makes it out to be - it's really an intense, unconventional love story. The story itself is great (it's a remake of the French film "L' Appartement") but the acting is merely adequate, cast to appeal to a young audience. Critics will probably hate this film, but it should appeal to young women looking for an unusual love story.

The Manchurian Candidate Politically inauthentic thriller about a couple of gulf war veterans; one, Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber), is running for vice-president and the other, Ben Marco (Denzel Washington) is haunted by dreams, leading him to believe that something is terribly wrong with Shaw. The performances are excellent; Washington's is very understated. Meryl Streep plays Shaw's evil mother), but it's not much beyond your usual Hollywood thriller fare. This is a remake of a (very different) film of the same name (1962) starring Frank Sanatra in Denzel's role. The original film - a classic - is far superior to this one.

Fahrenheit 9/11 Michael Moore's propoganda piece about George W. Bush, Oil, Saudi Arabia, September 11, and the Iraq war. The film is very well done, and although nothing is technically untrue as presented in the movie, even Moore freely admits that many conclusions in the film are his opinion and not proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Seabiscuit Polished, crowd-pleasing story of Seabiscuit, an underdog race horse who won (and lost) big in the 1930's. Actually the story is more about the people around the horse than about Seabiscuit himself. The book is better.

The Italian Job Mildly entertaining but completely unimaginative heist/revenge film (a remake) about a gold robbery and a betrayal - starring Mark Wahlberg, Edward Norton, and Charlize Theron. There's a lot of glitz and choreography of events (this is one of those movies where nothing ever seems to go wrong in the plan) but not much real excitement. Norton plays a completely forgettable bad guy.

A Mighty Wind An icon of folk music past has died, and his son decides to put on a concert in New York City reuniting some old folk acts - including The Folksmen and Mitch and Mickey. This is another "mockumentary" from Christopher Guest, in the same form as "Best in Show" and "Waiting For Guffman". Most of the cast look familiar from the previous two films. But the most fun is seeing the three principals from "Spinal Tap" (Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer) playing new music as The Folksman. The icing on the cake is Fred Willard, who pops up as always to provide belly laughs with his outlandish, assinine asides.

Phone Booth A New York hot shot publicist (Colin Farrell) thinks he's on top of the world until a nut traps him in a phone booth with a rifle. Farrell is quite good considering he spends most of the film in a phone booth.

The Hunted Filmed in and around Portland, Oregon: a renegade special ops soldier (Benicio Del Toro) slays some hunters in an Oregon forest. Man-of-the-wild Tommy Lee Jones (who trained the soldier to kill) is brought in to help track him down. The movie is flat in just about every respect: boring fight scenes, ho-hum car chase that have been better done hundreds of times, and - worst of all - dull characters who have zero chemistry together. The filmmakers must have realized this clunker wouldn't last long in theaters when they cut it to only 90 minutes - extremely short by action film standards. Very bloody, needlessly so.

Catch Me If You Can Inspired by a true story: in the mid-60's, a teenager (Leonardo Dicaprio) impersonates an airline pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer, passing bad checks all along the way. A dogged FBI agent (Tom Hanks) keeps chasing him. The real star is Steven Spielberg, who makes this breezy, entertaining film seem as effortless to make as to watch.

Star Trek Nemesis The Star Trek: Next Generation cast is back in a ridiculous story about a clone of Captain Picard who threatens to blow up earth with some dastardly new nuclear weapon. The movie is lifeless, devoid of all creativity, and full of the worst cliches from previous Star Trek movies and TV shows. If you love Star Trek, please stay away and pretend they never made another movie.

Maid In Manhattan A slick, crowdpleasing Cinderella story with Jennifer Lopez as a lowly hotel maid and Ralph Fiennes as the rich politician who mistakes her for a society woman - and falls in love. It's a light, predictable, forgettable film with a simple story but it's entertaining and not too mushy. Not a whole lot of effort required for Lopez or Fiennes for their roles (not much chemistry between them either). My favorite part of the film is Lopez's character's little boy and his 70's obsession (and his fascination with Richard Nixon). Stanley Tucci has a nice little supporting role as the overprotective campaign manager/handler.

Analyze That Billy Crystal and Robert De Niro are back in the sequel to "Analyze This", in which Crystal plays mobster De Niro's psychotherapist. The original was a sloppy "mob movie" parody that went for cheap laughs first and ignored the story; the new movie is no different. The whole point really is the supposed chemistry between Crystal and De Niro - does it work for you? If it did in the first film, it probably will again. There are a few great laughs here and there, but this one seems like another instantly-forgettable braindead comedy.

Empire See this film if A) you hate Denise Richards and/or B) you like to see her get knocked around. In this film, she's a wall street swindler's girlfriend. But the main story concerns Vic (John Leguizamo), a likeable Puerto Rican gangster/drug dealer in New York City trying to figure out his life. He gets a chance to invest in a seemingly legitimate business deal with Jack (Peter Sarsgaard), who is not quite who he seems. The film was obviously put into production before the US economy faltered (well, at least it was shot before 9/11); Jack's too-good-to-be-true business deal would have seemed more plausible in 2000, but today it seems a little unlikely. Anyway, though nothing special, the film is entertaining and Leguizamo gives an engaging performance - so much so that when this drug-dealing murderer gets swindled, the audience cheers when he gets his revenge. So wall street swindlers are worse than drug dealers these days?

The Trials Of Henry Kissinger Documentary: an exploration of the supposed "crimes" of Henry Kissinger while he was National Security Adviser and Secretary of State for Nixon and Ford. The "trial" consists of a bunch of interviews with supposed experts on Kissinger. Though it makes a weak attempt to seem "balanced" (Kissinger himself appears through clips that were not intended for the movie), the film is more of an indictment of Kissinger than a trial. Perhaps the filmmakers did not look harder than Alexander Haig for witnesses to defend Kissinger; Haig unwittingly scores more points for the prosecution than for Kissinger. Still, the film provides disturbing and damning evidence that Kissinger indeed quarterbacked US involvement in some horrible events in Cambodia, Chile, and Indonesia. Is Henry Kissinger, America's most famous foreign policy figure, no better than Slobodan Milosevic?

Igby Goes Down What an amazingly powerful film! Although it seems like yet another teenager-comes-of-age story, this one is brilliantly acted and written. Igby (Kieran Culkin) is an upper-middle-class kid living near New York; he gets bored with school and his overbearing mother and ditches school for New York City, where he hangs out with an assortment of wacky characters. In the process, does he figure out some things about life? Perhaps. Culkin is great and so is the supporting cast that includes Jeff Goldblum, Amanda Peet, Ryan Phillippe, and Susan Surandon. The movie is not upbeat, sometimes intense and not always very pleasant to watch, but it's a knock-out. (Ignore comparisons to the film "Rushmore", another great film; "Igby" is really nothing like it.)

Auto Focus Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear) starred in the hit TV show "Hogan's Heros" for a few years, during which his addiction to sex and photographing women escalated along with his stardom. Stuck doing dinner theater on the road after his show went off the air, Crane was murdered in Arizona in the 70's. Did his long-time sleaze buddy John (Willem Dafoe) kill him out of revenge? The film tells us the story of Crane without giving us much insight into the man's life at all. It's like having the script read to you with good visuals. The film is often pretty flat, story is never compelling, and Kinnear's impression of Crane is good but shouldn't be confused with a great performance. Dafoe, however, is perfectly cast as Crane's creepy cohort.

Punch-Drunk Love OK, I DON'T like Adam Sandler, I admit it! And this isn't a "serious" role for him - it's a quirky role in a weird art house experimental-type film from Paul Thomas Anderson ("Boogie Nights", "Magnolia"). What's it about? Oh, yes: it's about a loser-type guy (Sandler) who gets in trouble after calling a phone-sex line, tries a scheme to cash in on frequent flyer miles by buying pudding, fights with his sisters, and improbably has a dream romance with his sister's beautiful friend (Emily Watson). It's a surreal-seeming movie, seen through the eyes of its neurotic loser/hero, and often isn't pleasant to watch. Sure, it's something different for Sandler, but simply walking through a movie with a straight face isn't the same as giving a good performance. It's the type of unpleasantly twisted movie that critics love but mainsteam audiences won't dig.

The Truth About Charlie Regina (Thandie Newton) returns to Paris from vacation to find that Charlie, her husband, is dead, and an odd assortment of characters she's never met will do anything to recover some valuable property he hid away. Who are these people, and who can she trust? This remake of the Cary Grant/Audrie Hepburn classic "Charade" is an almost lighthearted romp through Paris, despite the occasional bloody fights and dead bodies, with fun twists. Mark Wahlberg is charming in the Cary Grant role, but Tim Robbins is terrific as one of the other players.

Secretary A slightly disturbed young woman, Lee (Maggie Gyllenhaal) goes to work for a very quirky lawyer, Mr. Grey (James Spader) who might just have trouble keeping secretaries? In any case, Grey's unorthodox methods for, er, disciplining his secretaries turn out to be perfect for the directionless Lee, who quickly falls in love with her spanking boss. This is an odd type of love story, fairly light in tone but somehow refreshingly honest. Though there is little nudity or simulated on-screen sex, some may be offended by the otherwise graphic sexual scenes.

The Ring Pretty decent horror flick. A video tape exists where, if you watch it the surrealistic short film on it, you die in exactly seven days. The movie starts off looking like a cheap teen horror romp but quickly shows it's much more than that. Rachel (Naomi Watts) is a reporter who starts nosing around into her niece's death. After she watches the tape, she has a week to unravel the mystery before she too dies. It's fairly conventional as a film but well-made and often - creepy. Don't leave the theater at the end til the credits start to roll.

Red Dragon Remake of the book on which "Manhunter" was based - the first chapter in the Hannibal Lecter story. Anthony Hopkins is back of course, but the movie is pretty flat, even ho-hum, despite the appearance of a whole slew of great actors (Emily Watson, Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes, and Philip Seymour Hoffman). Mildly entertaining at best - worth a look only if you adore seeing Hopkins play Lecter one more time...

24-Hour Photo Fairly routine thriller about a lonely photo clerk (Robin Williams) who invades the lives of a seemingly-happy model family he idolizes. Williams is OK - one of his serious films where he manages not to crack a smile or tell a joke.

Blood Work Fairly standard crime film directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, who doesn't hide his age in his movies and continues to make movies about aging in general. This time Clint plays an aging FBI agent who must "retire" after getting heart disease and a heart transplant. Of course, he can't stay retired for long when trouble looks him up. Beyond the themes about aging and a few semi-interesting twists, this film isn't much beyond entertaining and well-made. Clint Eastwood fans should enjoy.

Signs A parable about a preacher (Mel Gibson) who has lost his faith after the death of his wife. Will the preacher regain his faith? Oh, yeah, and aliens from outerspace are invading the earth, too - but that's just the back story...
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13 Conversations About One Thing A decent, intelligent little indy film with a lot of A-list actors (Alan Arkin, Matthew McConaughey, John Turturro). It's a talky contemplation about the consequences of the choices we make in life when s**t happens.

Austin Powers In Goldmember (See Review) Easily the weakest of the three Austin Powers films, despite some hilarious stuff here and there, especially in the beginning.
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Road To Perdition An entertaining story of a mob hit man, Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks) working for the local boss (Paul Newman) who basically adopted him as another son. Michael, as seen through the eyes of his young son, gets in some kind of trouble with the boss's real son, a hapless thug, and this leads down a bloody path almost to ruin. Can Michael take care of his son? Can Michael escape another, quirky, hitman played suberbly by Jude Law? For all of this, there's nothing particular profound or original in the story - it's just a well-made, entertaining film.
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Men In Black II Unlike most people, I thought the original was merely "OK" - entertaining and cute but nothing special. The sequel is, by contrast, little more than a rehash of the original, with more cuteness (a talking dog stealing the movie is always a sign of trouble) and much less imagination. The story is a completely forgettable tale of a extraterrestrial witch (Lara Flynn Boyle) on earth searching for some sort of light source, which for some reason the retired Kay (Tommy Lee Jones) is privy to. Jay (Will Smith) is given a love interest (Rosario Dawson) and there's a predictable subplot about re-recruiting Kay back to Men in Black. But otherwise, it seems more like a sequel to the sequel to "Ghostbusters" than anything else.
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Undercover Brother The plot is irrelevant: Imagine the "Austin Powers" formula recycled with an inept hero (Undercover Brother) from another time - from "Blaxploitation America" instead of from the "Swinging 60's" - awash in inane references to African-American culture and rapid-fire, stupid jokes about black stereotypes. There are some genuinely funny moments here, but it's low humor, surface level, and fairly predictable. Still, the movie is good as a guilty pleasure, a brain-dead escape for a few laughs at the bargain show.
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Insomnia A high school girl is beaten to death in a small Alaska town. A veteran LA detective (Al Pacino) and his partner are sent up to help the local cops (including Hilary Swank) figure it out. Unfortunately, Pacino's detective doesn't always play by the rules and it gets him in trouble. Will they catch the bad guy (Robin Williams)? This is a great suspense film with some nice twists - a remake of an equally terrific Norwegian film of the same name - from Chistopher Nolan, director of "Memento".
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The Piano Teacher (In French with English Subtitles) A lonely, self-hating woman piano teacher (Isabelle Huppert) with some nasty sexual hangups meets a young, handsome student (Benont Magimel) who forces her to confront some of her inner demons. Since it's not a Hollywood film, don't expect a Hollywood story - this is a somber, unsentimental, painfully honest portrayal of an empty woman, and it's certainly not a love story. The film is kinda slow at 130 minutes, but in a way, the pace of the story sort of fits the character. Beware of the graphic violent and sexual nature of this film - it would certainly be NC-17 if rated in the US.

Death To Smoochy Robin Williams and Edward Norton star as rival stars of kids' TV shows. This is a dark satire (from Danny DeVito) that doesn't come near to fulfilling its promising premise, but Norton is great as the innocent, new agey entertainer, and Williams is his usual manic bundle of comic energy as the displaced rival out to get him. Together, Norton and Williams more than make the film worth seeing. There are a few hilarious moments, but most of it is simply amusing.

Panic Room (See Review) Jodie Foster plays a determined woman hiding in a vault/shelter (panic room) in their home trying to keep away from bad guys. A tight suspense thriller directed by David Fincher ("Fight Club").
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Y Tu Mama Tambien (Mexico - In Spanish with English Subtitles) Y Tu Mama Tambien ("And Your Mother, Too") is a road movie concerning two 17-year-old middle-class Mexican guys, Julio and Tenoch - best friends - who somehow go on a road trip with a beautiful "older" woman, Luisa, who teaches the immature, horny boys about life and sex. This film has a nice sweetness to it that is unfortunately nearly ruined by an intrusive narration, which chimes in from time to time with a heavy-handed (and often irrelevant) social commentary about Mexican life. The ending is a little jumbled as well. The sex in this film is fairly explicit, and there is some serious (mostly male) frontal nudity.
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Kissing Jessica Stein Jessica, a copy editor in New York City, can't seem to hook up with a guy she likes. On a whim she answers Helen's ad in the personals; should she "experiment" with women? How will Jessica's Jewish family accept this? This is a light, intelligent, but forgettable comedy, a crowd-pleaser that you will probably enjoy if you are hip on girl-girl relationships.
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Collateral Damage Arnold Schwarzenegger's long-delayed terrorist film that was to come out just after September 11 would have been awful even then. He plays a fireman who loses his wife and daughter in a terrorist blast (though these terrorists are Columbian) and vows to go to Columbia to hunt down the mastermind. The film is full of shoot-outs and explosions - most of the cliche's we've seen dozens of times - but the story is almost choreographed without making complete sense. Worst of all is Arnold himself, who shows the worst of his wooden acting style in a role that might have been better with some sensitivity; perhaps he's unable to express it.
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Black Hawk Down In the midst of the American hunger relief mission in Solalia in 1993, an American military mission went tragically wrong; a few weeks later the US withdrew. This is a blow-by-blow account (probably with a few cinematic liberties taken) of what happened. It's a brutal, graphic, disturbing film but also very intense.
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Behind Enemy Lines Another cut-and-paste action film with lots of explosions and shooting but not much real suspense - and no soul. Owen Wilson is a pilot who gets shot down over Bosnia; Gene Hackman plays the stern-but-grandfatherly admiral who insists on getting his "boy" back. Skip it and rent "Crimson Tide" again...
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A Beautiful Mind A sad but touching story (Directed by Ron Howard, "Apollo 13") based on the life of John Nash, a Nobel Prize winner from Princeton, who is brilliant yet haunted by his own mind. Russell Crowe gives a complete performance - a brilliant job probably assuring him another Best Actor Oscar nomination.
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The Royal Tenenbaums From Wes Anderson (and Owen Wilson), creators of "Rushmore" and "Bottle Rocket", comes this star-studded story about a family of child prodigies (Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson) and their estranged father Royal's (Gene Hackman)'s attempt to reconcile with them before he dies. Royal is a likeable failure, and it's really his story. The film might be considered dryly funny and a little quirky, but it has its moments. Anderson uses a lot of "moving photograph" shots he used in "Rushmore" - clever or annoying? Anjelica Huston, Danny Glover, Bill Murray, and Owen Wilson also appear in smaller roles.
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Vanilla Sky A wealthy playboy (Tom Cruise) see his whole life change abuptly after encounters with two women (Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz) and a nasty car accident ruins his face. Is he going mad, or is the board of directors trying to force him out of his father's company? This movie has a definite surreal element, but sadly it's spoiled by too much clarity and explanation near the end.
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Ocean's 11 Ex-con Danny Ocean (George Clooney) assembles a team (including Brad Pitt) to rip off a Vegas casino. With so many odd characters and complications involved, can they pull it off? A terrific re-make of the old Rat Pack (Sinatra, Martin, Davis Jr., etc.) film of the same name. Steven Soderbergh is at the top of his game; this film is wonderfully directed, with careful attention to every detail. The film's balance of light tone and delicate robbery plot is perfect. What an amazing followup to "Traffic" and "Erin Brockovich".
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Novocaine A dentist (Steve Martin) engaged to his hygenist (Laura Dern) is tempted by a trampy pillpopping babe (Helena Bonham Carter). But is our dentist also a murderer? A clever idea for a film, but the characters aren't fleshed out (so to speak), and the ending is kind of cheesy. In a way this is kind of a parody of whodunnit mysteries with lots of twists. Part of the effect seems to be the over-the-top suspense music played through the film that, quite frankly, is annoying as hell.
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Amelie (In French with subtitles) A young French woman, Amelie (Audrey Tautou), takes it upon herself to help make people's dreams come true. She goes to great lengths to orchestrate helping even complete strangers fulfill their greatest wish. But can she in the process get her own wish? A sweet fantasy with the bold styling of Jean-Pierre Jeunet, whose darker films include "Delicatessen" and "The City of Lost Children". Terrific film craftsmanship even if the story is a little fluffy.
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Spy Game Nathan (Robert Redford) is a senior spy in the CIA, about to retire, when he learns that his young protege, Tom (Brad Pitt) is in trouble and the CIA won't help him. Much of the film is told from a conference room in flashback (from Nathan's point of view) to events in the past. Redford and Pitt have few scenes together, and there is pretty much no chemistry between them. This is an interesting story, never boring, but rarely is it very intense or involving. The flashback technique is a little clumsy - but the film is still entertaining.
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Heist Gene Hackman plays a veteran thief leading a team of sophisticated robbers toward one last robbery. Unfortunately, things go wrong at every turn. The latest from writer/director David Mamet.
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The Man Who Wasn't There Joel and Ethan Coen's latest - a film noir (shot in black and white, too), set in 1949, about a small-town barber (Billy Bob Thornton) who tries to manipulate the man (James Gandolfini) who seems to be having an affair with his wife (Frances McDormand). Predictably, everything soon goes wrong for the droll barber and especially for those around him. The film is more subdued than recent Coen works, but as usual, it's speckled with humor throughout.
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From Hell Johnny Depp plays the investigator on the trail of Jack the Ripper in the new Hughes Brothers' film about the infamous murder spree in 19th Century London. It's bloody (well, JACK THE RIPPER after all), and the first half is a bit murkey and unfocused. The second half picks up in intensity.
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Waking Life Richard Linklater's recent film - live action that was turned into animation - following a young man apparently stuck in a dream; in this dream, he meets and talks to countless people, who go on endlessly about the nature and meaning of life, right out of some Beatnick coffee house. Still, the monologues have some amusing turns, and the animation technique is unique and - well, amazing, though it's unclear whether it added much impact to the story.
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Bandits Two bank robbers (Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton) break out of prison and go on a spree of new robberies, in a world where the cops are really, really dumb. The robbers pick up a disgruntled housewife (Cate Blanchett) who of course complicates their lives with her charms. The film is light, full of crowd-pleasing humor including the requisite back-handed slap at the modern media. Thornton's character, as usual, is a raving eccentric - this time, a hypochondriac, to an almost annoying degree. "Bandits" is mildly entertaining but cliched and unoriginal, destined to be forgotten after its big #1 opening weekend.
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Zoolander Ben Stiller's new film, in which he plays a shallow, stupid male model (Derek Zoolander) brainwashed to kill a world leader at a fashion show. A few inspired moments of comedy can't save this overlong one-note parody of the fashion industry.
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Ghost World Enid (Thora Birch) graduates from high school to alienation as she finds she doesn't fit into modern society. She happens onto an unlikely friendship with the older, geeky Seymour (Steve Buscemi) who also seems to live in an earlier era. Terry Zwigoff ("Crumb") directed and co-wrote the script with Daniel Clowes, on whose comic series the film is based. Zwigoff's spare, documentary style will seems familiar to fans of "Crumb". Buscemi is terrific, but isn't he always?
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O Tim Blake Nelson's timely - too timely? - updating of Shakespeare's "Othello" set in a high school. The film was put off due to all the high school shootings. Worth checking out.
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The Deep End A "soccer mom" (Tilda Swinton) goes to extraordinary lengths to protect her college-bound son (Jonathan Tucker) from being implicated in a crime, to the point where when you think, "What else could go wrong?",...guess what? Unfortunately, the story is full of implausibilities, to the point where you need a VERY sturdy "willing suspension of disbelief" to get through it.
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Rat Race Fun chase flick - in the tradition of "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and the "Cannonball Run" films - about people sent off on a race to collect $2Million before the others. Lots of physical humor and some silly/gross-out stuff via director Jerry Zucker (co-director of "Airplane!" and co-creator of "The Naked Gun"). Unfortunately, the film starts to wane in the last third, losing the fun momentum it had in attempt to wrap it up in a nice, neat way. This is one of those films I would have like to have seen go on an EXTRA hour in favor of the hasty wrap-up.
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Sexy Beast Gal (Ray Winstone) is a retired British thug living in Spain is put upon by a scary mob leader, Don (Ben Kingsley), to do one last job. Gal doesn't want to do it, but Don is really, really, really persistent. The film has some amusingly dark moments but too much slow-motion photography makes the film seem over-stylized. Though the robbery premise is clever, it's mostly postscript to what is really an acting vehicle for Kingsley, who is, of course, fun to watch.
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Monsoon Wedding (not previewed)
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Return To Neverland (not previewed)
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We Were Soldiers (not previewed)
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The Time Machine (not previewed)
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Monsters, Inc. (not previewed)
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Monster's Ball (not previewed)
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In The Bedroom (not previewed)
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Training Day (not previewed)
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The Shipping News (not previewed)
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Mulholland Drive (not previewed)
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Count Of Monte Cristo (not previewed)
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Brotherhood Of The Wolf (not previewed)
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The Rookie (not previewed)
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National Lampoon's Van Wilder (not previewed)
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Ice Age (not previewed)
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High Crimes (not previewed)
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Gosford Park (not previewed)
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Frailty (not previewed)
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Clockstoppers (not previewed)
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Changing Lanes (not previewed)
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Lord Of The Rings (not previewed)
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Harry Potter (not previewed)
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Spider-Man (not previewed)
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Ali (not previewed)
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A Walk To Remember (not previewed)
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I Am Sam (not previewed)
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Snow Dogs (not previewed)
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Shallow Hal (not previewed)
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Orange County (not previewed)
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Mothman Prophecies (not previewed)
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Queen Of The Damned (not previewed)
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Hart's War (not previewed)
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Super Troopers (not previewed)
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Dragonfly (not previewed)
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Crossroads (not previewed)
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Scorpion King (not previewed)
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The New Guy (not previewed)
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Unfaithful (not previewed)
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About A Boy (not previewed)
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Enough (not previewed)
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Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (not previewed)
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Star Wars II: Attack Of The Clones (not previewed)
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The Civil War (not previewed)
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