Deuces Wild (2002)

Drama Rated R

Another MGM/United Artists mess from 2002, though not quite as inept as Rollerball. Two brothers (Stephen Dorff and Brad Renfro) try to protect their neighborhood from a violent gang in 1958 Brooklyn, and the result – tough guys marching down the street in matching white T-shirts, more fake lightning than a heavy metal music video

Millions (2004)

Family Rated PG

Genre-hopping director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later) makes this family drama something they rarely are: tough, funny and delightfully strange. When two British brothers find a bag full of money, they grapple with the issues of charity and guilt that ensue. Acting newcomer Alex Etel, as a 7-year-old who receives regular visits from various

Frequency (2000)

Thriller Rated PG-13

When a modern cop (Jim Caviezel) hooks up an old ham radio, he’s somehow able to communicate back in time with his late firefighting father (Dennis Quaid). They change history in order to save the father from a fire, but their alterations inadvertently set a serial killer loose. If you take a deep breath and

Proof of Life (2000)

Thriller Rated R

Despite the tabloid reports, there’s no proof of romance here between stars Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe, which makes this silly thriller – about a hostage negotiator (Crowe) who falls for the wife (Ryan) of a kidnapping victim – a lifeless, chemistry-free affair. If they were trying to hide something on the set, they took

Nashville (1975)

Drama Rated R

Perhaps the defining moment of Robert Altman’s legendary career. It was here, after all, where Altman’s signature traits were all assembled and perfected: the extensive ensemble cast, the fluid and unforced narrative, the overlapping dialogue that freed the movies from the stilted patter of the stage and injected them with the interrupted babbling of real

Punisher, The (2004)

Action/Adventure Rated R

Perhaps because it is the directorial debut of screenwriter Jonathan Hensleigh, The Punisher has just the sort of narrative economy most comic-book movies lack. Thomas Jane plays a FBI agent bent on avenging the murders of his family. It’s a story born of brutality, and the graphic violence grows wearying. Yet the movie offers plenty

Bright Leaves (2003)

Documentary Rated PG

When does a home movie deserve to be shown to people other than close friends and relatives? Documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee inexplicably earned a national release for this narcissistic consideration of McElwee’s mildly interesting family history. It likely would put most of his distant aunts and uncles to sleep, let alone mainstream America. A native

Skulls, The (2000)

Thriller Rated PG-13

Numbskulls is more like it. Joshua Jackson (television’s “Dawson’s Creek”) plays an Ivy League student who joins a Firm-like secret society. This is a suspense thriller without an inkling of suspense, largely because every move Jackson makes is governed only by the obvious demands of a flimsy script.

Benji: Off the Leash! (2004)

Family Rated PG

It will take a lot of affection for the Benji films of the 1970s and ’80s to endure this belated entry, once again involving endless close-ups of cute pups, repeated chase scenes with inept animal-control wardens and a PETA-friendly story and theme. It’s all fairly innocuous, but you’ve likely had more fun hanging out at

Tears of the Sun (2003)

Action/Adventure Rated R

Tears of the Sun deals with messy subject matter – Africa, ethnic cleansing, American foreign policy – but it wades through such subjects wearing big rubber boots, and then spends its silly finale hosing them off. What begins as a provocative drama about a U.S. rescue mission in civil war-torn Nigeria turns into an ignorant