Thursday, July 24, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Film shorts

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

Bruce Almighty

3 stars (PG-13, 101 min.) Indulgent deity Morgan Freeman endows Jim Carrey with his powers, in sweet, poignant comedy.--TM

Capturing the Friedmans

4 1/2 stars (NR, 107 min.) Layered, lurid and profoundly unsettling, Andrew Jarecki's film details one of the most shocking sex-abuse scandals ever documented. With each new revelation, the truth becomes more elusive.--JC

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

The Eye

3 1/2 stars [Jian gui] (NR, 100 min.) Blind Lee Sin-je has a corneal transplant, then sees ghoulish figures, in Danny and Oxide Pang's twanging Thai psychological thriller. (Subtitled.)--JC

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

Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets

2 stars (NR, 40 min.) Kieth Merrill's 1984 Imax movie mixes spectacular footage with a history lesson about early explorers.--AA

Haunted Castle

Not reviewed (PG, 38 min.) Aspiring rocker Jasper Steverlinck learns that rock really is the devil's music, in this 2001 3-D Imax horror flick.--AA

Holes

3 1/2 stars (PG, 117 min.) Shia LeBeouf digs holes at a juvenile detention camp run by Sigourney Weaver and Jon Voight, in witty film of Louis Sachar's teen novel.--AA

How to Deal

1 1/2 stars (PG-13, 101 min.) Mandy Moore stars in overwrought, teen-oriented melodrama. With Allison Janney, Peter Gallagher, Dylan Baker.--TM

The Hulk

3 stars (PG-13, 138 min.) Eric Bana, Nick Nolte and Jennifer Connelly's characters are artfully presented as compelling mixtures of love, hate, fear, regret, ambition and madness, in Ang Lee's Marvel Comics spinoff.--TM

Into the Deep

1 1/2 stars (NR, all ages, 35 min.) A 3-D Imax flick exploring California kelp forests, 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 remake of the 1969 caper. Sexy as sump oil.--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

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 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.--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

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

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. (Part-subtitled.)--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

2 Fast 2 Furious

1/2 star (PG-13, 107 min.) Paul Walker and Tyrese nail drug kingpin Cole Hauser. Fast cars, fast women--pure carnography.--TM

28 Days Later

3 1/2 stars (R, 108 min.) Danny Boyle's post-apocalyptic killer germ thriller has a fresh, frantic energy. With Brendan Gleeson, Naomie Harris, Cillian Murphy.--JC

Whale Rider

4 stars (PG-13, 105 min.) Niki Caro's New Zealand crowd-pleaser stars newcomer Keisha Castle-Hughes as a Maori girl defying her tradition-bound granddad Rawiri Paratene.--MP

Winged Migration

(G, 85 min.) Jacques Perrin's Oscar-nominated film about various bird species is technically great but its soporific narration and empty epiphanies mock the regal airs of these thrilling creatures.--RC

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