Remember the Titans (2000)

Drama Rated PG

As a “respectable” picture from bullets-and-babes producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Con Air, Coyote Ugly), this fact-based story about the 1971 integration of a high school football team calculatedly hits all the right notes for a socially conscious drama, but it also contains a strong performance by Denzel Washington and a few moments of feel-good truth. All

Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (2006)

Documentary Rated R

The perfect venue for Chappelle’s ironic blend of inflammatory yet inclusive comedy. In staging “the concert I’ve always wanted to see” in Brooklyn, Chappelle brings together mostly black hip-hop artists (Kanye West, Mos Def, Erykah Badu), a college marching band and two ancient hippies who live on the block, among others. It’s not exactly a

Scary Movie 2 (2001)

Comedy Rated R

This flimsy horror movie spoof offers more infantile humor, lazily delivered. Considering three early gags involve urinating, defecating and vomiting, you could save yourself $8 and find equal entertainment by spending an evening in a public restroom (and this is coming from a guy who found redeeming qualities in Tom Green’s Freddy Got Fingered).

Banger Sisters, The (2002)

Drama Rated R

Overcoming an icky concept and title – Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon star as former rock groupies who reunite decades later – The Banger Sisters uses genuine humor to explore the ways we deal with our former selves. Both Hawn, as the barmaid still living in the past, and Sarandon, as the uptight suburban mom

Ride With the Devil (1999)

Drama Rated R

Ang Lee’s unfairly maligned Civil War drama, with Tobey Maguire and Skeet Ulrich as Southern bushwhackers defending their homeland from Northern attackers. Sure, it’s slow, but the landscapes often are as beautiful as those of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the conflicting allegiances – ironically, one of the heroes’ riding partners is a former slave,

Bad News Bears (2005)

Comedy Rated PG-13

Billy Bob Thornton takes over for Walter Matthau from the 1976 original film as the shiftless coach of an inept youth baseball team, but he’s not into not being into it. That’s odd, for the actor’s commitment to crude sluggishness is what made Bad Santa such a success. Bad News Bears clearly means to capitalize

Ring, The (2002)

Horror Rated PG-13

Borrowing its concept from 1998’s Ringu, a hit in its native Japan, The Ring follows a journalist (Naomi Watts) investigating a videotape that supposedly kills anyone who watches it. The movie’s narrative is a bit patchy at times, but there are enough genuine scares to keep your teeth clenched. And the malevolently open-ended finale, like

Death to Smoochy (2002)

Comedy Rated R

This misguided spoof of the ruthless world of children’s television programming is one of those wild Hollywood misfires, a movie of spectacular potential that makes an even more spectacular failure. The film traces an ongoing battle between two rival kid-show hosts – the disgraced, corrupt Rainbow Randolph (Robin Williams) and his squeaky-clean replacement, Smoochy the

Ringer, The (2005)

Comedy Rated PG-13

The Ringer, in which Johnny Knoxville plays a failed actor who tries to fix the Special Olympics by posing as one of the athletes, skillfully handles its subject by turning the tables on its characters. Much like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which gave more dignity to its title nerd than the womanizers who surround him, this

Duplex (2003)

Comedy Rated PG-13

This wicked little black comedy is a study in the niceties of sharing personal space, and the greed with which we pursue property to get more of it. Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore play a pair of seemingly harmless New York yuppies who inherit an aging tenant (Eileen Essel) in a rent-controlled apartment when they