Talented Mr. Ripley, The (1999)

Thriller Rated R

Hitchcock lives in this deeply creepy story about a young man with a gift for impressions (Matt Damon) who lets his passions get the best of him. Like the best of Hitchcock’s work, The Talented Mr. Ripley puts you in the shoes of a killer and makes them feel as comfortable as your own. Also

Flushed Away (2006)

Family Rated PG

The first computer-animated picture from the stop-motion masters of England’s Aardman Features (Wallace & Gromit) and made in California with DreamWorks Animation, this tale of an English pet mouse who must fend for himself in the sewer system depends on distinctly American storytelling: it’s loud, rushed and overly reliant on comic violence. Yet when it

Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)

Drama Rated R

From its subtitles on down, Clint Eastwood’s Letters From Iwo Jima inverts the war-movie experience – at least for those of us who expect such pictures to follow in the footsteps of Saving Private Ryan and Eastwood’s own companion piece, Flags of Our Fathers. With Japanese soldiers batting the same sacrificial puppy-dog eyes that blond-haired

Alpha Dog (2007)

Drama Rated R

There are plenty of contenders for the title of alpha male in Alpha Dog, a barking drama based on an actual account of a drug ring run by privileged California teens. Ben Foster (X-Men: The Last Stand) goes for broke as the requisite hothead, leaving little edible scenery for the likes of Shawn Hatosy, Anton

Babel (2006)

Drama Rated R

"Coincidence can be a heavy burden for a movie…"

Hollywood Homicide (2003)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

Harrison Ford, as a cop who would rather be selling real estate, is loose, lively and often very funny in this action comedy, but the movie itself is lively only in spurts. Writer-director Ron Shelton (Bull Durham, Tin Cup) is after something admirable, but he ends up delivering a combination of Anonymous Police Movie 3,001

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Horror Rated R

This remake of the seminal 1978 zombie flick – the one set in the mall – jettisons the consumerist satire of the original in favor of straight-ahead scares, which is fine by me. The first Dawn was so heavy-handed it had enough satire for four movies. This time, a larger cast of characters hides out

School of Rock (2003)

Comedy Rated PG-13

As a questionably talented bar-band guitarist who passes himself off as a substitute teacher, Jack Black has found the signature role for his singular talent. Black has made a career out of flailing his hair, limbs and devilishly gleaming eyes in all directions – in short, acting the way the rest of us wish we

End of the Affair (1999)

Drama Rated R

An atmospheric account of an affair between a married woman (Julianne Moore) and a novelist (Ralph Fiennes) in World War II London, this adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel has been described as a love triangle involving those two and God, so heavily do religious themes come into play. Indeed, the story seems like little more

Scorpion King, The (2002)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

In this spinoff of Universal Pictures’ Mummy franchise, professional wrestler The Rock proves to be less of a new kind of action hero than a hybrid of the old kinds: he has Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body and Bruce Willis’ sense of irony. It’s a fitting approach for a sword-and-sorcery adventure that winkingly acknowledges it’s just having