Snow Falling on Cedars (1999)

Drama Rated PG-13

At once a beautiful painting and a dull lecture, director Scott Hicks’ adaptation of David Guterson’s prize-winning novel awkwardly combines a nonlinear visual style with a preachy script. The result is a message-laden mess that makes star Ethan Hawke look even more lost than usual.

Infamous (2006)

Drama Rated R

This was a doomed project even before 2005’s Capote beat it to theaters, mainly because this second portrait of Truman Capote has no consistent creative vision. Part of the movie wants to be a comedy of manners, with Toby Jones as a far more flamboyant Capote than the one Philip Seymour Hoffman gave us. Another

Volver (2006)

Drama Rated R

Penelope Cruz gives a complicated, peerless performance in Pedro Almodovar’s Volver – and she looks like a classic screen goddess doing it. Cruz plays Raimunda, a working-class wife and mother in Madrid who gets caught up in a murder plot. I can’t say more – the movie operates on a series of startling revelations –

Chalk (2007)

Comedy Rated PG-13

"…will convince anyone who almost went into teaching that they made the right decision. Even if they’re currently on unemployment."

Flight of the Phoenix (2004)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

Dennis Quaid stars in this pointless and cliched remake of the 1965 adventure film as a pilot who picks up an oil crew in Mongolia and then promptly crashes in the middle of the desert. Only an overacting Giovanni Ribisi, as a mysterious passenger who may not be exactly who he claims, seems to understand

Freedomland (2006)

Thriller Rated R

Freedomland thinks it is igniting a powder keg of class and racial issues, but the movie relies on a faulty fuse – namely director Joe Roth. Among the many missteps of the auteur behind America’s Sweethearts and Christmas with the Kranks is a loose reign on stars Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore, playing a

Wild Thornberrys Movie, The (2002)

Family Rated G

A rare Nickelodeon feature worth paying to see at the theater, The Wild Thornberrys Movie gets a lot of mileage out of its clever concept: the adventures of a 12-year-old girl who has the ability to talk to animals. Unlike most of its Nickelodeon predecessors, this features lively animation and quite a bit of wit.

Frida (2002)

Drama Rated R

“The only freshness comes from the striking visual strokes of director Julie Taymor…”

Hollow Man (2000)

Action/Adventure Rated R

Only director Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct, Starship Troopers) could make a gruesome spectacle out of things we can’t even see. This takeoff on the invisible-man myth had potential, as Kevin Bacon’s disappearing scientist indulges in the voyeuristic nature of his newfound power, but Verhoeven soon becomes as obsessed with cruel sex and needless violence as

Friday Night Lights (2004)

Drama Rated PG-13

Adapted from H.G. Bissinger’s nonfiction book about a Texas high school team making a state championship run in the late 1980s, this drama admirably owns up to the way youth sports can trample a kid’s love for the game. Director Peter Berg captures both the highs and lows of playing football in a refreshing documentary