Comedy Rated PG-13
“…a cast composed of actors who are bad enough on their own, and who together amount to something unholy.
Action/Adventure Rated R
If you thought Mel Gibson had a screw loose after his DUI arrest, wait until you see Apocalypto. This bizarre action epic set amidst the last throes of the Mayan civilization reveals a mind obsessed with the ways human flesh can be eviscerated. Yet it also reveals a filmmaker curious about other things – history,
Drama Rated PG-13
A carefully constructed consideration of the themes at play in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, The Hours features three great actresses doing great work: Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman, portraying Woolf as she battles mental illness while writing Dalloway; Julianne Moore, as a brittle mother suffocating beneath the domestic responsibilities of the 1950s; and Meryl Streep, playing a
Action/Adventure Rated PG-13
Director Zhang Yimou follows up Hero with another martial arts extravaganza set in ancient China. If Hero was an exercise in opulent color, this is a celebration of sound, from the delicate rustle of falling leaves to the reverberating ping of crossed swords. The focus on sound makes sense, considering the main character (Ziyi Zhang
Horror Rated R
This loose remake of the 1953 Vincent Price frightfest features a handful of clueless youths (Chad Michael Murray, Elisha Cuthbert and an extremely bored-looking Paris Hilton) who get stranded in a small town with an old wax museum and a high murder rate. Director Jaume Collet-Serra excels at establishing a consistent mood, so this works
Casually bashed as another one of Robin Williams’ pandering pieces of sentimental pap (Patch Adams, Bicentennial Man), this story of a recent widower in Nazi-occupied Poland is actually understated and respectful; the humor here is mostly bitter and rarely sweet. As the widower, who pretends he has a radio to bring hope to his fellow
Another chapter in the Chainsaw canon – this one purportedly a remake of the low-budget, 1974 original – this is heavy on gore, torture and dismemberment and light on scares, suspense or even laughs. It’s a macabre mess, though not in the way the filmmakers intend. Once again, a group of kids on the road
The Queen speculates on the behind-the-scenes turmoil that engulfed England’s royal family in the days following Princess Diana’s death. Helen Mirren anchors the picture as Queen Elizabeth II, and she’s able to simultaneously evoke disgust and sympathy at once. Even as she coldly dismisses the significance of Diana’s death, especially to her grandsons, Elizabeth exhibits
“It’s entrancing to watch and wonder just how crazy Bug is going to get. Then the movie goes absolutely bonkers, and you wish you hadn’t asked.
I would have enjoyed Man on Fire much more if director Tony Scott wasn’t constantly standing in front of the screen in the theater. OK, so his intrusion isn’t that literal, but the twitching, fidgety filmmaking style he brings to this Denzel Washington kidnapping drama – he plays a bodyguard protecting a little girl (Dakota
