Action/Adventure Rated PG-13
“…a superhero movie that’s surprisingly thoughtful, dark and adult.”
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
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
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
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,
Comedy Rated PG
An angry letter to a faceless utility company in the guise of science-fiction, Douglas Adams’ 1979 novel channeled all his frustrations at the inanities and bureaucracies that govern society into a tongue-in-cheek guide to extraterrestrial life – which is revealed to be just as bogged down in inanity and bureaucracy as our own. This adaptation
Horror Rated R
New levels of horror lunacy are achieved with this jokey entry in the Child’s Play series about a killer doll. Jennifer Tilly jiggles and squeaks as the doll’s lover – even after she becomes a doll herself – while the gonzo murders pile up (at one point Chucky proposes with a recently dismembered ring finger).
What sounds like a bad bar joke – a priest (Edward Norton) and a rabbi (Ben Stiller) fall in love with the same woman (Jenna Elfman) – is actually an endearing romantic comedy that’s respectful of religion and a riot all at once. There are some inherent theological questions that remain unanswered, but those looking
Action/Adventure Rated R
Talk about a tortured hero. The freelance exorcist of the title (Keanu Reeves) knows he’s going to hell, and so he runs around Los Angeles hoping to vanquish enough demons to earn his way into heaven. But is that the way it works? These and other knotty theological issues – as well as a stoic
This often-amusing exercise in geek chic garnered a cult following, especially among teens, possibly because they found its portrait of a high-school nerd (Jon Heder) reassuring: they could never be as cluelessly dorky as the title character. Heder’s commitment to the role – he makes being a loser a form of rebellion – goes a
