Drama Rated R
An overwrought adaptation of a Sam Shepard play in which a horse-racing scam from the past comes back to haunt three friends (Jeff Bridges, Nick Nolte and Sharon Stone, each giving showy auditions for an Academy Award).
Drama Rated PG-13
Robin Williams is in serious, simpering mode for this science-fiction drama about a “cutter” who edits footage that a person with a video-recording implant records from the day of his or her birth. The assembled movie, or “rememory,” is then shown at the person’s funeral. Intriguing ethical, technical and even theological questions arise, but writer-director
Comedy Rated PG-13
An easygoing comedy that would have benefited from some more work. To help pay for his niece’s college tuition, an uncle (Jason Lee) and his clueless friend (Tom Green) attempt some petty thefts. Lee makes for an affable hero and Green’s bizarre antics produce a few laughs, but the downtime between gags is long and
Thriller Rated R
If it wasn’t for the sleek, hilltop house in which the hostage situation of Hostage takes place, the movie would be a complete wash. As a thriller, Hostage disappoints, but it makes for a fairly gripping episode of HGTV’s “Dream Homes.” Bruce Willis plays a small-town sheriff negotiating the release of a kidnapped family who
Comedy Rated R
Despite the slight novelty of having women as its main characters, The Sweetest Thing is a redundant exercise in gross-out humor. Cameron Diaz – returning to There’s Something About Mary territory, but without the benefit of an original script and a director with comic timing – stars as a single girl on the dating scene
This would-be comedy, about a professional basketball player who tries out for a women’s team, is so astonishingly, obviously bad you’re left wondering who even considered going to see it. I suppose star Miguel A. Nunez Jr. has a few relatives who attended out of duty, but for the rest of us, the broad, redundant
Empire pits a Bronx drug dealer (John Leguizamo) against a yuppie broker (Peter Sarsgaard) after the broker coaxes the dealer to try his hand at high finance, only to disappear with the earnest money. What could have been a gritty exploration of cultural conflict instead spends too much time on the generic thug life of
Documentary Rated PG
You couldn’t imagine a more genial guy than Brian Herzlinger, whose movie documents his attempts to have dinner with longtime crush Drew Barrymore, yet the creepiness of the endeavor still lingers. He’s the kind of stalker you want to pet. That doesn’t mean you’ll want to watch My Date with Drew. Full of grainy, in-your-face
Silly, superficial and even infantile, this misguided drama about a single woman (Madonna) who has a baby after a one-night stand with her gay best friend (Rupert Everett) thinks it’s making a brave social statement about the makeup of the new American family. But it’s too poorly crafted – check out the inept lighting –
Occasionally interesting, but mostly a paint-by-numbers biography of American artist Jackson Pollock. Star Ed Harris, who also directed and produced, has moments of emotional power, but he never sews them together into a complete and revealing portrait of the man.
