Pursuit of Happyness, The (2006)

Drama Rated PG-13

This surprisingly genuine drama reminds us that homelessness can be a frighteningly simple – even mundane – process. Take underemployment, mix it with overdue rent and taxes and add a dash of plain old bad luck, and suddenly you’re fighting for a place in line at a shelter. That’s the predicament faced by Chris Gardner

Matador, The (2005)

Comedy Rated R

Pierce Brosnan gloriously goes to seed as Julian Noble, a hard-drinking hit man who parades his ample gut around in skimpy swimsuits and uses his assassination assignments to sample the world’s brothels. Working in Mexico City, Julian buddies up with a nerdy businessman (Greg Kinnear) for some fun and games that turn serious. Actors who

Panic Room (2002)

Thriller Rated R

A first-rate thriller from director David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club) about a single mother (Jodie Foster) whose cavernous New York brownstone is invaded by three men. There’s a streak of feminism beneath Fincher’s fancy camera work, making Panic Room a guys’ movie fueled by girl power.

Paycheck (2003)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

Action maestro John Woo (Face/Off) plays director-for-hire with this run-of-the-mill Hollywood take on a Philip K. Dick story. The movie is about having your memory erased – Ben Affleck plays a corporate shark who loses three years of his life – and Woo fans will want to add it to the list of forgettable efforts

Secondhand Lions (2003)

Drama Rated PG

The distinguished cast of Secondhand Lions – Haley Joel Osment, Robert Duvall and Michael Caine – do their best with a script that strains toward quirkiness and sentimentality, and their best is just good enough. The story of a shy 14-year-old who spends the summer with his eccentric uncles, the film has a lot of

Unaccompanied Minors (2006)

Family Rated PG

“…features more smart, funny people than any other dumb, unfunny film I’ve ever seen.

Last Samurai, The (2003)

Action/Adventure Rated R

Sometimes by intent, often by chance, director Edward Zwick makes military-themed movies that prick our national consciousness. After Glory, The Siege and Courage Under Fire comes this grand Tom Cruise vehicle about a Civil War veteran who is recruited to modernize the Japanese army. Arriving at a time of heated debate over U.S. involvement in

Blue Velvet (1986)

Thriller Rated R

Blue Velvet sent a shock wave through the film world in 1986, just when Hollywood was in another one of its factory-production heydays. While most pictures were being engineered by studio marketing departments, here was a movie that seeped directly from its maker’s consciousness (a crazy consciousness at that). Blue Velvet opens in a satirically

Polar Express, The (2004)

Family Rated G

This hyperactive adaptation of Chris Van Allsburg’s children’s book is not content to echo the gentle beauty of the original illustrations (though some of the images do that wonderfully). Instead, director Robert Zemeckis and his team of computer animators kick things up several notches with frantic action filler. If there is any conceivable way a

Basic (2003)

Thriller Rated R

Basic may set a record for plot twists, and the movie seems to think that’s a good thing. Simply having surprises is only half the battle, however. It helps tremendously if they’re clever. John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson star – Jackson plays an elite Army commander who disappears with some of his men in