Rookie, The (2002)

Family Rated G

Based on the life of Jim Morris, a Texas high-school science teacher and father of three who took a second shot at making it into Major League Baseball as a 35-year-old, The Rookie is a sun-dappled celebration of second chances and small-town camaraderie. Things are kept from becoming too sugary by Dennis Quaid’s Mr. Mom

Skeleton Key, The (2005)

Horror Rated PG-13

Slow-burn horror films can be a refuge of sorts for talented actresses in search of a lead role. Just as Jennifer Connelly anchored the excellent Dark Water, Kate Hudson headlines The Skeleton Key, a clever little thriller under the spell of Louisiana voodoo. As Caroline, a hospice worker who goes to work for a stroke

Bedazzled (2000)

Comedy Rated PG-13

Director Harold Ramis’ Bedazzled relies on the same obvious humor that made his Analyze This feel like one of Jay Leno’s inane Tonight Show monologues. Here Brendan Fraser’s computer nerd trades his soul to the devil (Elizabeth Hurley) for seven wishes, each of which leads to gags that could be followed by a drummer’s rim

Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)

Action/Adventure Rated R

A Chinese bodice-ripper, this is the latest martial-arts epic from writer-director Zhang Yimou. Curse is an emptier visual feast than his other films, but you still won’t be able to take your eyes off it. As it details the plotting that take place among the royal family members of the later Tang Dynasty, Curse throbs

Children of Men (2006)

Drama Rated R

“Now this is a nativity story.”

Rocky Balboa (2006)

Drama Rated PG

Sylvester Stallone should have never made another movie after this. I don’t mean that as an indictment of the sixth installment in Stallone’s ongoing exercise in can-do Americana. Rather, I mean that Rocky Balboa encapsulates the entire Stallone phenomenon in one film. His dumbbell appeal, his considerable limitations – everything is here, as well as

Proposition, The (2006)

Drama Rated R

Full of Biblical bleakness, The Proposition depicts 1880s Australia as an infernal landscape. As the captain (Ray Winstone) charged with maintaining a semblance of law and order says, “What fresh hell is this?” Winstone tries to reign in a band of ravaging brothers by capturing one of them (Guy Pearce) and convincing him to bring

Sweet Sixteen (2002)

Drama Rated NR

British director Ken Loach (Riff-Raff) offers another gritty slice of underclass life with this story of a Scottish teenager caught between his jailed mom and her drug-dealing boyfriend. Martin Compston makes the movie with his fearless lead performance as a no-good kid who is doing his best not to do worse. The movie’s predictability –

God Grew Tired of Us (2006)

Documentary Rated PG

Seen through the eyes of a group of Sudanese refugees as they try to establish a new life in the United States, we Americans look like a lonely and isolated bunch of workaholics. In many ways, this country is a land of promise for these orphans, who fled war-torn Sudan, wandered through the Sahara, spent

Transporter, The (2002)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

The Transporter features little more than a guy, some fast cars, a lot of guns and a girl. But it knows what to do with them. Jason Statham, as the underground courier of the title, brings a calm but lethal concentration to the ensuing action scenes. “Some fancy driving,” a police inspector observes at one