Thursday, November 18, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Film shorts

After the Sunset

1 star (PG-13, 90 min.) Director Brett Ratner obviously wants us to think of his film as a modern-day To Catch a Thief. But this tale of a jewel robber who may or may not have retired is hindered by Pierce Brosnan's robotic manner, Salma Hayek's inflatable-doll acting style, and a story that rehashes movie capers past without a fresh vision to resurrect them. Woody Harrelson livens things up as an FBI agent trying to prove himself by capturing the bad guy.--ADV

Alfie

2 1/2 stars (R, 98 min.) Charles Shyer's remake of the 1966 film, which starred Michael Caine as a swinging South London chauffeur who learns that picking off birds in the back seat is the not the secret to happiness, has the wrong tone and the wrong lead actor. Caine's character had a lot of fun before loneliness slowly crept up. Law has a few trysts and right away talks about how wrong it all is. Law's a fine actor, but he's too pretty and earnest to bring to the role the cynicism it needs (we know too early that Alfie's going to reform). The film is a sermon about the evils of noncommitment, and it's probably best that men keep their booty calls from seeing it. Things could get ugly.--ADV

Being Julia

3 stars (R, 105 min.) Annette Bening is as complete a reason for going to a movie as Jane Fonda was, or Brando. Director Istavan Szabo's film (an adaptation of a Somerset Maugham novel) takes shrewd advantage of Bening's ability to give loony characters a pulse by putting her at the center of this tale about a prewar actress who can't stop acting when the stage lights go down. Bening's knack for transforming lyrical chest tones into guttural snaps of warning tells you this is a lady who knows how to use drama to bring order to a chaotic world. If only the script were as good as its leading lady.--ADV

Birth

4 stars (R, 100 min.) Director Jonathan Glazer's brave sophomore effort following Sexy Beast is less about reincarnation than the tenacity of grief. Ten years after becoming a widow, Anna (Nichole Kidman) meets a boy (Danny Huston) who claims to be her dead spouse. As Anna moves from suspicion through hope to conviction, Glazer constructs scenes of haunting pain. A stately, ominous work, best surrendered to than actively engaged. With Lauren Bacall and Anne Heche.--JC

The Bourne Supremacy

4 stars (PG-13, 108 min.) Move over, 007. In Paul Greengrass' action-packed Bourne Identity sequel, Robert Ludlum's imperturbable, CIA-trained assassin is back, the ideal, conflicted hero for our amoral times. Matt Damon's pretty-boy looks make him an unlikely, but chillingly convincing killer; charismatic Joan Allen locks horns with grizzled spymaster Brian Cox, while Franka Potente and Gabriel Mann make welcome return appearances.--AA

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason

No stars (R, 108 min.) Are women really as shallow as director Beeban Kidron's sequel would have us believe? This time out our insecure, overweight British journalist heroine (Renee Zellweger) is worried that her elegant live-in lawyer boyfriend (Colin Firth) doesn't really, really love her. She gets in all kinds of "I Love Lucy"-like trouble, including a stint in a Thai jail where she teaches the other prisoners a choreographed Madonna tune. The big question of the movie is, will boyfriend pop the big question? At one point you think yes, but it winds up the guy just wants to know if Bridget will go on a skiing trip. ADV

Cellular

2 1/2 stars (R, 92 min.) Jessica (Kim Basinger) is kidnapped and locked in a room in an unknown location. She gets hold of a semi-functioning phone and makes random contact with a young slacker on a cell (Chris Evans). Can she keep him on the line long enough to convince him to help her? Can he figure out how to help a woman whose location can't be traced? And even if he can help her, will the good guys get there before the bad guys waste her? If you are on the edge of your seat already, then you may find director David R. Ellis' one-gimmick film a pleasant waste of time. Otherwise, definitely, stay away.--ADV

Everest

4 stars (NR, 44 min.) Co-director David Breashears' harrowing, 1998 Imax documentary chronicles the disastrous 1996 climbing season, when eight climbers perished in a freak storm on the world's highest peak. Featuring Jamling Tenzing Norgay, Ed Viesturs. Beck Weathers. Narrated by Liam Neeson.--AA

Faster

3 stars (NR, 103 min.) Mark Neale's documentary (narrated by Ewan McGregor) about the Motorcycle Grand Prix five-continent world championships during the 2001 and 2002 seasons isn't structured for maximum dramatic effect. Lots of people will be bored. But it throws you into the world of high-speed motorcross racing so thoroughly that it achieves its kick on its own terms. We get to know about a half-dozen competitors and come to understand why they're so willing to risk their life for a chance to feel fast.--ADV

The Forgotten

2 1/2 stars (PG-13, 90 min.) This is one of those psychological thrillers that keeps you on the edge of your seat--until it starts to make sense. The more you understand what's really going on, the less you like it. Julianne Moore plays a woman whose 8-year-old son may or may not have been killed in a plane crash 14 months ago. In fact, she may not have ever had a son at all. Is she delusional due to her miscarriage eight years ago? Or is her husband trying to make her think she's crazy? Or is there some diabolical group who wants her to think her son never existed? The answers, unfortunately, are far less interesting than the questions.--ADV

Friday Night Lights

4 1/2 stars (PG-13, 117 min.) Director Peter Berg draws us remorselessly into the dying town of Odessa, Texas, circa 1988, and a community obsessed with its high school football team's tumultuous path to the state championship. It's one of those rare sports movies that places the seductive cruelties of the game front and center. There are some standard sports movie clichés, but the wood here is much more interesting than the trees. With Billy Bob Thornton and Lucas Black.--JC

The Grudge

3 1/2 stars (PG-13; 96 min.) Takashi Shimizu's fifth in a series about a curse emanating from the scene of a violent murder delivers more creep per minute than your average haunted house thriller. Sarah Michelle Gellar plays an exchange student who discovers a bedridden old woman in a messy house with bodies in the attic, a little boy imprisoned in a closet, an amorphous black shape and more scary noises than an episode of "American Idol." You may never go to bed again.--JC

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.

I Heart Huckabees

4 stars (R, 106 min.) Writer-director David O. Russell's messianic screwball comedy is an attack on surfaces and those who cling to them. There is a story of sorts having to do with an environment activist Jason Schwartzman) trying to prevent a retail chain from building on valuable wetlands. But Russell refuses to make it easy, and most people will leave the theater looking dazed. With Mark Wahlberg, Isabelle Huppert, Naomi Watts and Lily Tomlin and a hilarious Beatle-haired Dustin Hoffman as a pair of existential detectives.--JC

The Incredibles

5 stars (PG, 115 min.) A dynamic and immensely entertaining computer-animated adventure comedy from Pixar, as inspired as it is inspiring. The Parrs are a quintet living like any other household, except that each of them was born with powers they're supposed to keep suppressed. They don't. Pixar has outdone itself with visuals, excitement and human characterizations. With the voices of Craig. T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jason Lee.--MP

The Inheritance

3 1/2 stars (NR, 115 min.) Director Per Fly's chilly little Danish melodrama about the erosion of personal values by the soulless tide of business explores the consequences of poor choices. It combines "Dynasty"-esque moments with a wonderfully bleak atmosphere of slow suffocation.--JC

Ladder 49

1 1/2 stars (PG-13; 112 min.) Baltimore. Modern day. Firefighter Jack Morrison (Joaquin Phoenix) lies trapped in a burning building and thinks back on his past. Lucky for him, he apparently lived a life full of happy clichés. Lewis Collick's script subscribes so heavily to typical pre-adolescent boys' fantasy image of maleness, that never once does it slip and create a three-dimensional hero. Director Jay Russell provides some first-rate action sequences, and Phoenix fills the void of his role well. But the film is an insult. It suggests firemen are as shallow and simple-minded and lacking in variety as cardboard caricatures.--ADV

NASCAR: The Imax Experience

2 1/2 stars (PG, 48 min.) Simon Wincer's flagrant promo flick is expensive entertainment that requires tiresome 3D glasses to watch. But it delivers some of the visceral, ear-shattering excitement of race day. Narrated by Kiefer Sutherland.--AA

Ocean Wonderland 3D

Not reviewed (NR, 44 min.) Filmed in the Bahamas and Australia, this Imax doc features rays, sharks, dolphins and other marine life in 3D.

The Polar Express

2 1/2 stars (G, 100 min.) Junky filmmaking dressed up in fancy duds. The breathtaking visual images come at you nonstop. But they are put at the service of a story that takes major issues of belief and loneliness and (implied) child abuse and turns them into a Hallmark card. The point seems to be that children, like all good Americans, should believe in capitalism. Scores of dramatic motifs are introduced and then go nowhere, while intriguing characters are given nothing to do. With the voices and rotoscoping of Tom Hanks, Tom Hanks, Tom Hanks, Tom Hanks, and, in a special appearance as Santa Claus, Tom Hanks.--ADV

P.S.

2 1/2 stars (R, 97 min.) Laura Linney and Topher Grace as Louise and F. Scott are an unlikely dynamite onscreen couple in director/screenwriter Dylan Kidd's film about a Columbia admissions officer who has an affair with an applicant. Subplots aimed at adding to the complexities of Louise's life are awkwardly introduced and presented. The narrative's transitions possess little subtlety, though the lead couple make the most out of the movie's last half. It's a shame Kidd didn't see the story through.--MP

Raise Your Voice

2 stars (PG, 100 min.) Hilary Duff is a 16-year-old Flagstaff high school student who wants to get into an exclusive Los Angeles music summer school. She gets in, but her brother dies just before she's accepted. At school, she meets this hunk (Oliver James) who says things like, "You can't blame yourself." There's also a vixen (Lauren Mayhew) out to get the hunk and, worse, all of Hilary's solos. Plus, Daddy (David Keith) wants his little girl at home where he can protect her. It's Fame, Footloose, Peyton Place and "Hilary Duff's Greatest Hits" all rolled into one moist glob.--ADV

Ray

3 1/2 stars (PG-13, 152 min.) Jamie Foxx embodies Ray Charles so completely in look, mannerism and speaking voice that he magnetizes our gaze. Unfortunately, Taylor Hackford's film takes a trite, by-the-numbers approach that ticks off the major plot points of Charles' life with more thoroughness than imagination. Strong supporting performances by Kerry Washington as the long- suffering wife, and Regina King as his lover and back-up singer.--JC

Saw

3 1/2 stars (R, 100 min.) Two men--a nervy twenty-something photographer (played co-writer Leigh Whannel) and an older cancer surgeon (Cary Elwes) are imprisoned in a dank and filthy bathroom with no memory of how they can to be there. Between them is a corpse, a gun and a tape recorder. There are clues as to how they can escape. A clock is ticking, a psychopath is lurking. How badly does each of them want to live? Co-writer/director James Wan's film is more than a stunt yet less than its hype. Though at times muddled and incoherent, its gripping, grisly plot is one of the most ingenious set-ups the serial-killer genre has yet produced.--JC

Shall We Dance?

2 1/2 stars (PG-13, 90 min.) Richard Gere is a basically happy attorney who takes dance lessons on the sly when he realizes he wants something more in life. The passion of dance--along with the blue-collar friends he makes at the studio--awakens the passion in his life. It's a sweet story sabotaged by routine characters and dumb plot turns. A very gooey everybody's-happy finale has been tacked on to make sure the audience goes out weeping with love. The film is kept afloat by a top-notch supporting cast (excluding the waxen Jennifer Lopez).--ADV

Shark Tale

1 star (PG, 90 min.) In a time when computer animation flicks have raised the standard of family-geared entertainment, Shark Tale is just plain lazy, from its derivative premise and unimaginative aesthetic to its witless gags and one-dimensional characterizations. The film essentially pits Oscar, a fish voiced by Will Smith, against a family of Mafia-like sharks, and this opens the stereotype floodgates within seconds of the film's beginning. Lots of generation-specific references that make the film already feel dated.--MP

Shaun of the Dead

4 stars (R, 99 min.) A welcome blast of fetid air that is a lovingly hilarious tribute to just about anyone who ever had fun with rotting flesh. An underachieving TV salesman (Simon Pegg) who's about to lose his girlfriend (Kate Ashfield) because he spends too much time with his freeloading best friend (Nick Frost) is caught in the middle of the shambling undead who are taking over his North London neighborhood. Director/co-writer Edgar Wright's film is devastatingly clever.--JC

Stage Beauty

2 1/2 stars (R, 105 min.) Director Richard Eyre's adaptation of Jeffrey Hatcher's play about an actor (Billy Crudup) who plays female characters in 17th century England until his life is left in limbo when King Charles II (Rupert Everett) suddenly allows women to perform on the stage is interesting and perplexing. The actor is helped along by a stagehand and aspiring actress (Claire Danes) and it's implied that he must go straight to solve his dilemma. Crudup overcomes the narrative flaws with what may be his best performance.--MP

Surviving Christmas

1 star (PG-13, 92 min.) Ben Affleck plays a successful but lonely marketing executive who "rents" a family (headed by the Sopranos' James Gandolfini) for the Christmas holidays. Affleck's role calls for him to be annoying, and though he does that well, he's treading on Adam Sandler territory. His exasperating demeanor isn't enough to sell the flick's holiday schmaltz.--MP

Taxi

1/2 star (PG-13, 97 min.) Jimmy Fallon plays an inept New York cop who stumbles upon a bank robbery and gives chase in the cab of newly licensed Queen Latifah, only to find the robbers are a posse of lethal Brazilian supermodels, led by Gisele Bundchen (minus her Victoria's Secret wings). The script relies on endless repetition of unfunny ideas. No one gets out of director Tim Story's mess alive.--JC

Team America: World Police

4 stars (R, 98 min.) "South Park" masterminds Trey Parker and Matt Stone outrageously skewer anyone participating in the debate over American identity and foreign diplomacy, delivering equal-opportunity hilarity. The plot follows a task force's exploits to prevent terrorist attacks all over the world. The characters are marionettes who battle, sing, grandstand, puke and have sex. The film essentially isolates the overearnest American response 9/11 and makes it seem even more ridiculous.--MP

Undertow

4 stars (R, 107 min.) Shot in rural Georgia for less than $2 million, director David Gordon Green's film is a "Southern tall tale" about two brothers (Jamie Bell and Devon Alan) on the run following the murder of their father (Dermot Mulroney) by his relentlessly violent and mercenary brother (Josh Lucas). Emphasizing texture over tension, it plays like a mud-splattered "Hansel and Gretel"--and a sideways look at what it means to be a man when wives and mothers are no longer around.--JC

Reviews by: AA: Anthony Allison; ADV: Anthony Del Valle; JC: Jeannette Catsoulis; MP: Mike Prevatt; RC: Robert Chancey