Thursday, August 07, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Film shorts

American Wedding

4 stars (R, 95 min.) Hapless Jim (Jason Biggs) and band geek Michelle plan their nuptials. High jinks ensue, especially with flamboyant scene-stealer Stifler (Seann William Scott). The third installment of writer Adam Herz and producers Chris and Paul Weitz's American Pie franchise isn't exactly band camp. Boners, strippers and excrement make for howl-worthy gags, but perversity doesn't diminish the loving bonds that sweeten maturity. A film of irresistible charm and disarming tenderness.--MP

Bad Boys II

1 star (R, 146 min.) Martin Lawrence and partner Will Smith help Gabrielle Union nab Miami drug lord Jordi Mollˆ. Ludicrously over-extended setpieces in Michael Bay's uninspired 2 Fast 2 Furious replica.--AA

Bend It Like Beckham

1 star (PG-13, 112 min.) It's "My big formulaic Sikh soccer romance." Gurinda Chadha's feel-good mix of sports flick and culture-clash satire is the painful epitome of "crowd-pleaser." With Keira Knightley, Parminder Nagra, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers.--AA

Bruce Almighty

3 stars (PG-13, 101 min.) Indulgent deity Morgan Freeman endows TV reporter Jim Carrey with his powers. Jennifer Aniston's comedic talents are wasted, but Tom Shadyac's comedy is sweet and poignant.--TM

Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle

1/2 star (PG-13, 105 min.) "This is such bullshit!" mutters Bernie Mac in McG's sequel to his 2000 TV spinoff. Cringe-worthy double entendres, antediluvian depiction of women: It's amazing Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz don't find this impossibly offensive. With John Cleese, Demi Moore, Justin Theroux.--AA

Finding Nemo

3 stars (G, 104 min.) Andrew Stanton's digitally animated feature is a visual comic delight about single father Albert Brooks' struggle to let his child (Alexander Gould) take risks. With Willem Dafoe, Ellen DeGeneres, Barry Humphries, Geoffrey Rush. Plus John Lasseter's charming 1989 short Knick Knack.--TM

Gigli

1 1/2 stars (R, 121 min.) Martin Brest murders romance with his contrived gangster scenario/retarded sidekick comedy, with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez (off-screen lovers with neither chemistry nor class) kidnapping a federal prosecutor's mentally challenged brother (Justin Bartha). Nothing but that old homophobic standby, "the protagonist's only gay till the right straight comes along." With scenery-chewing cameos by Christopher Walken, Lainie Kazan and Al Pacino.--AA

Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets

2 stars (NR, 40 min.) Kieth Merrill's 1984 Imax movie mixes spectacular footage with a brief history lesson about early explorers John Wesley Powell and Garcia de Cardenas.--AA

Haunted Castle

Not reviewed (PG, 38 min.) Aspiring rock star Jasper Steverlinck visits dead mom's spooky English mansion and learns that rock 'n' roll really is the devil's music, in this 2001 3-D Imax horror flick from Belgian director Ben Stassen.--AA

How to Deal

1 1/2 stars (PG-13, 101 min.) Mandy Moore stars in overwrought, teen-oriented melodrama. The talents of supporting actors Allison Janney, Peter Gallagher, Dylan Baker and Nina Foch are wasted.--TM

The Hulk

3 stars (PG-13, 138 min.) When scientist Bruce Banner (Eric Bana), emotionally repressed because of the "sins" of father Nick Nolte, is exposed to gamma radiation, the rage within becomes the beast without. With imaginative tweaking, Ang Lee harkens back to the Marvel comic, with characters artfully presented as compelling mixtures of love, hate, fear, regret, ambition and madness. Co-starring Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliott.--TM

Into the Deep

1 1/2 stars (NR, all ages, 35 min.) Howard Hall's 1994 3-D Imax flick explores California kelp forests, with sea lions, rays, jellyfish and opalescent squid. Narrated by Kate Nelligan.--AA

The Italian Job

1 1/2 stars (PG-13, 110 min.) Mark Wahlberg, Edward Norton, Donald Sutherland and Charlize Theron star in F. Gary Gray's disappointing remake of the 1969 caper. Sexy as sump oil, with an underwhelming climactic car chase.--AA

Johnny English

1 1/2 stars (PG, 78 min.) Bumbling Rowan Atkinson saves Britain from Frenchman John Malkovich, in bad Bond spoof. A waste of filmmaking talent.--AA

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life

1 star (PG-13, 116 min.) The only reason to see Jan De Bont's sequel to the 2001 videogame spinoff isn't Angelina Jolie's bodacious bod, the plot (Ciarán Hinds seeks world domination with Pandora's Box) or unlikely love interest Gerard Butler. It's a BASE jump from a Hong Kong tower. But one spectacular stunt does not a movie make. Resist the hype.--AA

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

2 1/2 stars (PG-13, 112 min.) At 72, Sean Connery makes a godawful fool of himself as Allan Quatermain, who saves the world with fellow, fictional anti-heroes the Invisible Man (Tony Curran), Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah), Mina Harker (Peta Wilson), Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend, Dr. Jekyll (Jason Flemyng) and Tom Sawyer (Shane West.) Stephen Norrington's glib, formulaic action flick fails to explore the intriguing subversiveness of comic-book legend Alan Moore's concept.--JC

Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde

1 1/2 stars (PG-13, 94 min.) Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) fights for animal rights. Pinker, perkier and decidedly more gay than its 2001 predecessor, Charles Herman-Wurmfeld's sequel is an exhausted idea dressed up with tired stereotypes. If Witherspoon's wise, she'll abandon Elle right here. With Sally Field, Bob Newhart, Luke Wilson.--JC

The Matrix Reloaded

2 1/2 stars (R, 138 min.) Andy and Larry Wachowski go for breadth over depth in the sequel to their 1999 hit. With Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne. [Also playing in cut, cropped Imax version.]--JC

Nowhere in Africa

3 stars (R, 141 min.) [Nirgendwo in Afrika] Caroline Link's film of Stefanie Zweig's novel about a German Jewish family's wartime exile in Kenya is neither delightful nor dreadful. Dwarfed by the grandeur of the African landscape, their petty bickering seems trivial. Preaches tolerance, but could easily be mistaken for a pro-apartheid commercial. Oscar: best foreign film. With Merab Ninidze, Juliane Kšhler. (English, German and Swahili dialogue, with subtitles.)--RC

Owning Mahowny

3 stars (R, 107 min.) Philip Seymour Hoffman is the nondescript drone with a serious gambling problem, in Richard Kwietniowski's film about the largest one-man bank fraud in Canadian history. Maurice Chauvet's adaptation of Gary Stephen Ross' book Stung: The Incredible Obsession of Brian Molony bravely resists the easy melodrama of addiction for a flat tone of almost emotionless intensity. A measured march toward one man's tragic self-destruction. With Minnie Driver, John Hurt.--JC

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

1/2 star (PG-13, 143 min.) Johnny Depp sashays down the gangplank to defeat Geoffrey Rush's undead brigands in Disney's overlong zombie farrago. With Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Pryce.--AA

Seabiscuit

4 stars (PG-13, 140 min.) Gary Ross' film of Laura Hillenbrand's 2001 book is more than just the story of three men and a racehorse. There's a dream cast (Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper and Tobey Maguire as owner Charles Howard, trainer Tom Smith and jockey Red Pollard), meticulous period detail and documentary-style interludes narrated by historian David McCullough. But this nostalgic trot down memory lane doesn't quite achieve that ineffable quality, movie magic. With William H. Macy, Gary Stevens.--AA

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas

2 stars (PG, 86 min.) Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michelle Pfeiffer star in mercifully brief animated dud.--MP

Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

2 stars (PG, 85 min.) Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara) must save sister Carmen (Alexa Vega) from Sylvester Stallone's virtual reality game. Using James Cameron's Ghosts of the Abyss 3-D technology, Robert Rodriguez's third kiddie spy spoof, is colorful but mercifully short. Has neither the original's daftness, nor the narrative depth to keep adults interested.--MP

Swimming Pool

3 1/2 stars (R, 102 min.) Mystery writer Charlotte Rampling deals with unexpected houseguest Ludivine Sagnier, in Franãois Ozon's titillating meditation on fiction vs. reality. (French and English dialogue, with subtitles.)--AA

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

4 stars (R, 109 min.) For 12 years we waited, knowing Arnold would be back. Sure enough, our favorite cyborg returns to help John Connor (waifish Nick Stahl) defeat the frequently-morphing T-X (Kristanna Loken). Despite the Law of Diminishing Sequels and the absence of creator James Cameron, Jonathan Mostow's explosive sequel is everything The Matrix Reloaded is not. Mostow retains the T-101's lighter side, a crucial ingredient being the humanizing of an already-robotic Schwarzenegger.--JC

The Trip

1 1/2 stars (NR, 95 min.) Writer-director Miles Swain tries harder than most of his queer auteur peers to give gay-rights historical depth to his story of two unlikely lovers, proud go-getter Steve Braun and late-to-the-party ex-conservative Larry Sullivan taking their dream road trip. But he can't balance drama and comedy, the characters aren't very likeable and the unraveling of the journey becomes a drag.--MP

28 Days Later

3 1/2 stars (R, 108 min.) Fighting a title that sounds like a Sandra Bullock sequel, Danny Boyle's post-apocalyptic killer germ movie has a fresh, frantic energy. After an outbreak of a deadly virus, Cillian Murphy wakes in a London hospital to find a nightmare of emptiness where healthy souls hide from the marauding "infected." With Brendan Gleeson, Naomie Harris.--JC

Washington Heights

3 stars (R, 88 min.) Evocatively set in the titular New York neighborhood, Alfredo De Villa's creditable, low-budget debut centers on wannabe comic book artist Manny Perez, who takes over the bodega after his Dominican immigrant dad (Tomas Milian) is shot by a robber. An improbable twist leads to an underwhelming climax amidst the groceries. De Villa and Nat Moss' script doesn't sparkle with scintillating wit, but editor Tom Donahue deftly papers over the creakier aspects. With Danny Hoch, Andrea Navedo, Bobby Canavale.--AA

Whale Rider

4 stars (PG-13, 105 min.) Through a direct, unpretentious narrative and authentic expression of its native elements, writer-director Niki Caro's film of Maori author Witi Ihimaera's beloved novel is a stirring crowd-pleaser, with breathtaking shots of coastal New Zealand. Pai (12-year-old newcomer Keisha Castle-Hughes, who effortlessly embodies both humility and confidence) defies her grandfather, tribal chief Koro (Rawiri Paratene), who believes in the patriarchal traditions of his downtrodden people. When fate steps in, Pai proves she's the tribe's natural leader. With Cliff Curtis, Vicky Haughton.--MP

Reviews by: AA: Anthony Allison; JC: Jeannette Catsoulis; MP: Mike Prevatt; RC: Robert Chancey; TM: Tammy McMahan