Alexander (2004)

Drama Rated R

Bad accents, bizarre wigs and dialogue that varies between windy speeches and hysterical screaming matches – many of which involve such phrases as, “By Zeus and all the gods!” – Alexander has all the makings of a camp classic, including the crucial element: deadly serious intentions. Once-vital director Oliver Stone (JFK) helps embarrass the likes

Alamo, The (2004)

Drama Rated PG-13

The Alamo trots out familiar names and thinks their mere history-book credentials will entertain us. Sam Houston (Dennis Quaid), Davy Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton) and Jim Bowie (Jason Patric) all show up on cue, but they – and the movie – are lifeless. The picture parades them around like politicians on a float whose significance

Aristocrats, The (2005)

Documentary Rated NR

There isn’t enough soap in the world to wash out the mouths blabbering away in this insider’s view of the comedy world, which centers around the legendary and profane joke of the title. If you can get past the obscenity of the joke itself – although there probably is something wrong with you if you

Antwone Fisher (2002)

Drama Rated PG-13

First-time director Denzel Washington brings a sincere, sympathetic touch to this tough story about a scarred, inner-city orphan (newcomer Derek Luke, showing real talent) struggling to put his painful past behind him after joining the Navy. The fact that this is the first screenplay from Antwone Fisher, who based the movie on his own life,

Before Sunset (2004)

Drama Rated R

When talk is an aphrodisiac, who wants the conversation to stop? Writer-director Richard Linklater’s sequel to 1995’s chatty Before Sunrise takes place nine years after the events of the first film, which chronicled a night of romance and conversation shared by an American drifter (Ethan Hawke) and a French student (Julie Delpy) after they meet

Batman Begins (2005)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

“…a superhero movie that’s surprisingly thoughtful, dark and adult.”

Big Bounce, The (2004)

Comedy Rated PG-13

How many times must Owen Wilson perform CPR on a comatose movie? Like I Spy, Shanghai Knights and other Wilson misfires, this Elmore Leonard adaptation about a con man in Hawaii occasionally flails about with signs of life, but mostly it’s dead on arrival. Wilson is as endearingly goofy as always, but for all his

Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999)

Comedy Rated R

Exhibit A in the curious career of Saturday Night Live veteran Rob Schneider. Schneider has no discernible comic talent, aside from giving the impression of being a 10-year-old stuck in a 40-year-old man’s body, yet here he’s given a plum part: that of a lowly aquarium cleaner who stumbles into a second career as a

Bewitched (2005)

Romantic Comedy Rated PG-13

This big-budget, star-laden adaptation of the 1960s television series, with a fellow headliner no less glittering than Nicole Kidman, represents one of Will Ferrell’s biggest platforms and blandest performances. Most of the problems are related to the movie’s needlessly convoluted structure, in which Ferrell plays a fading movie star looking to revive his career with

Bourne Supremacy, The (2004)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

The Bourne Identity was, above all things, muscular – lean, taut and physical – and its sequel, The Bourne Supremacy, has not let the series get flabby. There is a new director, Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday), but he and returning star Matt Damon maintain the skid-marked style of original helmer Doug Liman. Like its predecessor,