Thursday, August 14, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Film shorts

American Wedding

4 stars (R, 95 min.) Jim (Jason Biggs) and Michelle plan their nuptials. High jinks ensue, with scene-stealer Stifler (Seann William Scott), in the third American Pie flick. A film of howl-worthy gags, 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.) Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu and Cameron Diaz star in McG's horribly offensive sequel. With Demi Moore.--AA

Finding Nemo

3 stars (G, 104 min.) Pixar's digitally animated feature is a visual comic delight. With Albert Brooks, Willem Dafoe, Ellen DeGeneres, Geoffrey Rush.--TM

Freaky Friday

(PG, 95 min.) Mark S. Waters' remake of Disney's 1976 comedy, concerns a day-long personality switch between Jamie Lee Curtis and teen daughter Lindsay Lohan. Taps into Hollywood's familiar "girl power" ethos. But instead of breaking the mold, Lohan's character is just a cinematic billboard with Britney's body and Avril's clothes.--TM

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

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 videogame spinoff sequel isn't Angelina Jolie's bod, but a BASE jump from a Hong Kong tower. But one spectacular stunt does not a movie make. With Ciarán Hinds, Gerard Butler.--AA

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

2 1/2 stars (PG-13, 112 min.) Sean Connery makes a fool of himself in glib, formulaic action flick that fails to explore the intriguing subversiveness of Alan Moore's comic-book concept.--JC

Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde

1 1/2 stars (PG-13, 94 min.) If Reese Witherspoon's wise, she'll abandon this tired franchise right here. With Sally Field, Bob Newhart, Luke Wilson.--JC

The Legend of Suriyothai

2 stars (R, 142 min.) Prince Chatri Chalerm Yukol's spectacular epic is marketed as another Crouching Tiger, but is merely a sleeping Siamese, about a Thai princess (Piyapas Bhirombhakdi), who defeated Burmese invaders in 1549. Taking his cues from Gone with the Wind, Yukol makes his nation's history a tawdry soap opera populated by Regal Warriors and The Sassy Women Who Love Them. (Thai dialogue, with subtitles.)--RC

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

Northfork

2 1/2 stars (PG-13, 103 min.) In a 1950s Montana town soon to be flooded by a dam, evacuation agents (including James Woods and Peter Coyote) persuade residents to leave, while priest Nick Nolte cares for an orphan (Duel Farnes) who dreams of earthbound angels (Robin Sachs, Daryl Hannah, Ben Foster and Anthony Edwards). Michael and Mark Polish's ponderous allegory aims for depth but drowns in philosophical shallowness.--AA

Nowhere in Africa

3 stars (R, 141 min.) [Nirgendwo in Afrika] Caroline Link's film about a German Jewish family's wartime exile in Kenya is neither delightful nor dreadful. Dwarfed by the African landscape, their bickering seems trivial. Oscar: best foreign film. With Merab Ninidze, Juliane Kšhler. (English, German and Swahili dialogue, with subtitles.)--RC

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 is more than just the story of three men and a racehorse. There's a dream cast (Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper and Tobey Maguire), meticulous period detail and documentary-style interludes narrated by historian David McCullough. But this nostalgic trot down memory lane doesn't quite achieve movie magic. With William H. Macy.--AA

Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over

2 stars (PG, 85 min.)Daryl Sabara saves sister Alexa Vega from Sylvester Stallone's virtual reality game. Robert Rodriguez's third kiddie spy spoof, is colorful but mercifully short.--MP

S.W.A.T.

2 1/2 stars (PG-13, 117 min.) When high-budget hokum, like Clark Johnson's 1970s TV spinoff, is well crafted, it's almost watchable. L.A.P.D.'s S.W.A.T. squad escorts drug boss Olivier Martinez to prison. With Colin Farrell, Samuel L. Jackson, Michelle Rodriguez.--AA

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.) Arnold Schwarzenegger's back to help John Connor (Nick Stahl) defeat the fast-morphing T-X (Kristanna Loken) in Jonathan Mostow's explosive sequel. Everything The Matrix Reloaded is not.--JC

28 Days Later

3 1/2 stars (R, 108 min.) 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.--JC

Whale Rider

4 stars (PG-13, 105 min.) Through a direct, unpretentious narrative, 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