Past Reviews

MARRIED LIFE (PG-13)
"Love is sex," says Pat to her husband, her eyes shining like the elegant foil wrapping on an unopened gift under the Christmas tree. Harry's eyes have dulled in their swanky suburban home. He's tired of her. He's seeing another woman. A younger woman. It's the 1950s. Like in Hitchcock films of that decade, middle-aged men who tired of their wives didn't get divorces. They plotted to kill them. Such is the case in MARRIED LIFE, a modest and urbane throwback to those '50s melodramas. Even though Harry tries to poison his wife, MARRIED LIFE is a comedy about the frustrations, disappointments and changes that come with the bond of the band -- that golden handcuff called the wedding band. At heart, it's a comedy of remarriage. Honestly, I didn't care what the plot was. I paid to see this because it stars the terrific Chris Cooper and Patricia Clarkson. An actress of great economy, Clarkson can express more emotions by the way she takes his hand than other actresses could with a page of dialogue. Even though Pat seems a bit sickly, she simmers with a seasoned sexuality that makes her way more interesting than her husband's mistress. We shouldn't like Harry, but Cooper finds an ineptness to the character that makes him seem more misguided than monstrous. Free from the bondage of being Bond, former James Bond Pierce Brosnan almost steals the picture with his comic turn as Harry's cad of a best friend. This is a good little movie.
Grade: B. A sly, wry look at the things we do for love. MARRIED LIFE is a seductive, dark comedy for mature folks.

THE HAMMER (R)
Did you see SIDEWAYS with Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church? THE HAMMER, starring Adam Carolla, is sort of like SIDEWAYS for Spike TV. Carolla plays Jerry, a working class underachiever. At 40, his life is still not quite in focus. Doing freelance construction work, he was once a very promising amateur boxer. On a job in Southern California with his best friend, he strikes back at racist comments from their boss. Before you know it, the Hispanic best buddy watches Jerry get back to the boxing gym where he meets Nicole, a local public defender with a black eye. What new obstacles will Jerry encounter midway along the road of life? Will he become another Rocky? We've seen this kind of comedy before, but that's okay. Carolla whips out wisecracks in this movie that broke me the heck up. Every man has a friend like Jerry somewhere in his life. If he doesn't, he should. Jerry is a good friend to have. That's the warmth of this movie. He's the underdog who sticks up for the even smaller underdog. I grew up in Los Angeles and this picture has a nice familiarity. THE HAMMER nails the low-rent section of Southern California class and manners. Although not a versatile actor like a Johnny Depp, Carolla has a regular guy grace that plays well on the big screen and sets the tone for this 90-minute comedy. Oswaldo Castillo is just too cool as Jerry's amigo. He's a great sidekick. Heather Juergensen is just the right choice as Jerry's love interest.
Grade: B. THE HAMMER is an easy, breezy buddy pic and Adam Carolla delivers some knock-out laughs.

DR. SEUSS' HORTON HEARS A WHO (G)
The Dr. Seuss books are short stories, written in verse that's accompanied by now-famous illustrations. Transferring them to half-hour animated TV specials was perfect. The problem came when Hollywood turned them into live-action movies with big name stars. The stories were bulked up to a feature length. The final products were often bloated family films with little, if any, magic. Dr. Seuss' simple messages were lost in the manufactured corporate fat. Remember Jim Carrey in DR. SEUSS' HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS? Can you recall the dismal results of DR. SEUSS' THE CAT IN THE HAT starring Mike Myers? The new HORTON HEARS A WHO is better than those two films. It's animated. That's the way to do Dr. Seuss. This movie works because it honors the heart of the book even as it stretches and pads the story to take us into Whoville. Jim Carrey voices Horton, the elephant who can hear microscopic creatures in danger and is determined to help them. Carol Burnett and Steve Carell also lend their voices for the message that "...a person is a person, no matter how small." Children in grades K through 5 should enjoy this the most. It's not fully an artistic winner like SHREK, THE INCREDIBLES, THE LION KING and THE LITTLE MERMAID, but it does satisfy. It's the best adaptation of a Dr. Seuss book in decades, right behind Chuck Jones' superb animated 1966 TV version of HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS and his 1970 TV version of Horton's adventures.
Grade: B-. If you want to head out for some family fun with the youngsters, this new "Who" will do. The doctor would approve.

PENELOPE (PG)
This picture was made in 2006. Nowadays, the story of sweet young female misfit who longs not to be a social outcast was trumped by the hipper, fresher, more contemporary JUNO. The modern day fable stars Christina Ricci, James McAvoy (before ATONEMENT) and Reese Witherspoon. A witch in a pair of red shoes puts a curse on a family of bluebloods for its shabby treatment of poor people. Wealthy and reclusive Penelope (Ricci) carries the curse today. She has the nose of a pig. A tough newspaperman stops at nothing to get her photo. He sets up a gambler to romance her and secretly get it. Penelope's parents feel that if she finds true love, the curse will be broken. However, many suitors who really want just her money come to call. PENELOPE looks at social acceptance and self-acceptance. The material is not exactly fresh but it's well-played by the energetic cast. Ricci has outgrown this kind of script when you consider her progress from THE ADDAMS FAMILY movies to her sexy roles in indie films like THE OPPOSITE OF SEX, PUMPKIN, MONSTER and BLACK SNAKE MOAN. However, Ricci has her own fabulous style of sophisticated comedy. When you think of it, she was a JUNO type before JUNO was made. She is perfectly cast as this rich Miss Piggy. The open of the movie promises magic that we don't quite get. We get more of a farce that drags a bit in the middle. It snaps to when Penelope runs away from home and finds a tough babe best friend (Witherspoon). Catherine O'Hara shines as the mom. Peter Dinklage stars as the hard-hearted reporter. The big surprise is the frantically funny performance from Simon Woods as one of the greedy suitors. He's the pale-eyed British actor who was so memorably chilling as Caesar on the HBO series, ROME.
Grade: C+. Ricci is right on but this fable is a little thin for grown-up taste. As a sweet storybook romantic comedy with a positive message for pre-teen girls, PENELOPE works just fine.

THE BANK JOB (R)
We go to the Great Britain of 1971. That's a year before Jason Statham, the star of THE BANK JOB, was born. Terry (Statham) has mellowed. A used car dealer with a slightly dented past, he's got a new life as a loving family man. A gorgeous model he once dated talks him into joining her for a foolproof bank heist. The London vault contains millions in cash and jewelry. Feeling that no one will get hurt, Terry calls some likable mates to help. Terry and his merry men don't know the vault also has photos of top British officials and a member of the Royal Family in compromising positions. That's not the only dirty little secret he discovers as the bank job goes all wrong. Corruption, sex, racism and murder complicate what seemed like a simple heist. Terry's got to expose the real bad guys. The constantly unshaven Statham doesn't do the wild stunts that trademark his action films. THE BANK JOB shows that he doesn't need them to hold your interest. He's got skills. The sexiness of the film's open quickly disappears and the director occasionally feels a need to spell out details, not giving the audience full credit to comprehend what unfolds. Maybe that's because it's a British film that plays to American filmgoers who may not be up on the United Kingdom's slang and manners. The double-crosses get a tad confusing too. Still, this retro thriller -- based on a real UK score that became known as the "Walkie-Talkie Robbery" -- is lively entertainment.
Grade: B-. Count THE BANK JOB as a good popcorn movie. Jason Statham pulls this crime caper off quite nicely.

MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY (PG-13)
This screwball comedy, starring Frances McDormand and Amy Adams, is the kind of "chick flick" that works well as a date movie. We stay in London and go further back in time. It's 1940 and Britain is on the brink of war. The outspoken Miss Pettigrew has been fired from another job. Her bad hair day has gone from her head to her wardrobe to her wallet. Now the unmarried middle-aged English governess is one step away from the gutter. But she's got the right stuff when it comes to survival. Frances McDormand rocks in the lead role. Pettigrew's quick wits and no-nonsense spirit land her a job in swanky surroundings as the secretary to the dizzy American showgirl, Delysia Lafosse (Adams). Lovely Delysia juggles lovers while trying to become a musical comedy star in London. This has Amy Adams ENCHANTED with sex. Basically, she plays the same cartoon princess key from her previous starring role -- only with carnal knowledge. Just like Princess Giselle, Delysia must learn how to deal with real life. Ms. Adams flutters way too much in the first act, as if she's doing the part onstage instead of on film. You almost want to shoot her with a tranquilizer dart. Eventually the talented actress does settle down. McDormand underplays and gets more mileage with a deadpan expression. She gives the film a nice, needed gravity when we learn the secretary's heartbreak and are reminded that Pettigrew is a woman who has known desperate times. The two leading ladies are a good team as they give each other a life make-over. Lee Pace from ABC's "Pushing Daisies" hits just the right note as the most sincere boyfriend. Pace also played one of the killers in INFAMOUS, the under-appreciated second biopic about Truman Capote while he wrote "In Cold Blood."
Grade: B-. A very light and sweet comedy, MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY has Frances McDormand in top form supplying the biggest laughs while the scrumptious Amy Adams supplies the sex.

VANTAGE POINT (PG-13)
Pick a point of view and stick with it, Mr. Director. VANTAGE POINT presents terrorists plus an Oliver Stone-type conspiracy theory with a car chase that has a vibe from THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM. The president is shot while in Spain for a summit meeting. Or was he? We keep seeing the crime from different points of view. One is that of an American tourist who got the whole crime on his camera. Dennis Quaid is the loyal Secret Service agent, Sigourney Weaver is the network TV news producer dealing with a field reporter who should be doing fashion updates on E! instead, Forest Whitaker is the freaked out tourist and William Hurt stars as our Commander-in-Chief. It feels a tad longer than its 90 minutes. Maybe that's because it keeps going back to the beginning of the same day for yet another viewpoint. This thriller begins well but gets really far-fetched. The high-testosterone action scenes can't hide the just-average screenplay. Why do movie guys in high-speed foreign car chases always drive down some public steps and through a sidewalk café? Matthew Fox of TV's "Lost" co-stars.
Grade: C. Global terrorism meets GROUNDHOG DAY + DAVE = a so-so political thriller.

THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL (PG-13)
In bio pics, we have seen more queens than Bette Midler did on her opening night in Vegas. This picture is a handsome production that, on the whole, is fairly well-acted. However, it plays like ancient history and not just because the action takes place in the 16th century. I felt like I saw this story already. Helen Mirren played royals on HBO and the big screen. Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett got Oscar nominations for playing the same queen. We had "The Tudors" on Showtime. In THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL, two sisters will bed the same king. One will give birth to Elizabeth, a queen played by Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, Helen Mirren and, back in the glory days of Hollywood, Bette Davis. In this new movie, Eric Bana is Henry VIII, the same Tudor king played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers in Showtime's historical series. Lusty, bold and ruthless, Bana is less a glam rock star ruler like Meyers and more like the earthy brawler Henry as he was done by Robert Shaw in A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS (1966). This new film is about ambition and the tragic consequences it can bring. Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman star as the Boleyn Sisters, Anne and Mary. These young medieval babes are close until they fall in love with the same king. Henry is basically just a big, horny bear who wants a male heir. His middle-aged wife, Queen Katherine of Aragon, can't produce one. Sex, religion, politics and the personal agendas of characters in King Henry's court change the life of ambitious Anne Boleyn (Portman). Heads will roll. Scarlett seems like she's doing GIRL WITH ANOTHER PEARL EARRING. Natalie sounds as British as Madonna. THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL needed sex -- and frisky sex with nudity like that in the DVDs of Showtime's "The Tudors." Or Scarlett and Natalie should've done the "Sisters" number from the old movie WHITE CHRISTMAS. This starchy costume drama needed something to keep me from dozing off.
Grade: C+. Medieval Girls Gone Wild with two miscast leading ladies. Eric Bana gives this dry epic some juice.

JUMPER (PG-13)
David is a polite high school geek in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His mom left when he was 5 and now he lives with his beer-guzzling, loser dad. At school, he likes a cute girl and gets picked on by a mean guy. While being bullied, an accident occurs and David discovers that he has teleportation powers. He leaves his father and runs away to New York City with his newfound freedom. Apparently being a young "jumper" means that you're instantly entitled to rob banks and disrespect ancient historical property all over the world. Wherever he pops up, he breaks the law. A few years pass, the cute girl is now a bartender, dad still drinks and David is being chased by a jumper villain, played by Samuel L. Jackson. Why does David possess these super-human powers? Why does Agent Roland (Jackson) want to kill him? Why couldn't the make-up people keep Jackson's wig glued to the back of his neck so it wouldn't ride up in some scenes? We never get those questions answered in this corn. In the lead role, Hayden Christensen is as lifelike as a PEZ dispenser. His eyes are blanks. Diane Lane appears briefly as his mother. Samuel L. Jackson wears his best bad hair since UNBREAKABLE. Sloppy product placement -- David's dad lives in Ann Arbor. Why does he watch New York 1 -- a local all-news station in New York City -- on his TV in Michigan?
Grade: C-. 90 minutes of sci-fi spray cheese on a stale cracker.

BE KIND REWIND (PG-13)
This low-budget comedy delivers a few nice laughs in a story about honoring the past and daring to be original. Jack Black and Mos Def play two friends in a raggedy section of New Jersey. Mike (Mos Def) is a clerk in "Be Kind Rewind," an indie neighorhood video rental store that still carries VHS tapes. His boss struggles to keep the store from being demolished. Due to an electromagnetic mishap, Jerry (Black) becomes magnetized and unwittingly erases all the tapes in the store. With the help of Alma, a Lady Spielberg hidden away in a local dry cleaners job, the two buddies make short versions of popular films for the customers. Those shorts are hits and turn the trio into three independent Davids going up against a corporate 
Goliath. A big Black male auto mechanic in drag doing Sigourney Weaver's role in their version of GHOSTBUSTERS was exactly what I needed to make me giggle on a cold, rainy day in Manhattan. Mos Def and Jack Black are a fine team. Def is such a gifted, versatile and charismatic actor who doesn't get the attention he deserves. Director/writer Michel Gondry, the man behind ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, made this film. It seems oddly dated for a new release, but it's still an engaging comedy. Mia Farrow and Danny Glover co-star. Melonie Diaz is very huggable as Alma.
Grade: C+. BE KIND REWIND is silly, yet it's so optimistic and fun that you can't help but smile. It's a guilty pleasure comedy

DEFINITELY, MAYBE (PG-13)
Ryan Reynolds makes that manpuppy face as a divorced dad telling his little girl a bedtime story about the ladies he wooed before he wed her mom. Abigail Breslin stars as his adorable daughter. In this romantic comedy, Reynolds' eyes are big brown pools of disappointment. The job Will Hayes (Reynolds) has is not what he thought he'd be doing when he arrived in New York City from Wisconsin in 1992. In flashbacks, we return to that year when he was in Manhattan working on Bill Clinton's presidential campaign. Hayes left his girlfriend behind, but he met two other women who won his heart during the Clinton years. Halfway through this tale of "Young Democrats in Love," I started to wonder why this bedtime story was 
taking so long. Maya (Breslin) becomes Little Miss Matchmaker to heal daddy's heart. Reynolds gives a nicely restrained performance as the heartbroken ad man. Despite his great looks, charm and talent, life didn't turn out the way Will had hoped. There's such warmth between Ryan Reynolds and Abigail Breslin that you wish there were more scenes of them together. For the guys -- have you ever dated a girl who wanted to go on a nice meandering walk without a fixed destination? DEFINITELY, MAYBE often feels like one of those walks. We never learn exactly why Maya's parents divorced. That would have added some nice weight to the marshmallow story of this well-played feature. Not the best romantic comedy since ANNIE HALL, as the commercials say. SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, ALMOST FAMOUS and KNOCKED UP were better.
Grade:
C+. Pleasant and fluffy. The biggest romance in DEFINITELY, MAYBE is the camera falling in love with Ryan Reynolds' face. Cher didn't get that many close-ups in MOONSTRUCK, for heaven's sake.

THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES (PG)
Soulful-eyed Freddie Highmore is one talented kid actor. Now 16, he skillfully starred opposite Johnny Depp in FINDING NEVERLAND followed by CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. Young Freddie plays two of a divorced mother's three children in this fantasy. All four are moving to a new home. One of the twin boys is rebellious and sad. He has father abandonment issues. The other twin is a shy bookworm. The big sister keeps the peace. The secluded new place was once owned by their great, great uncle. It's not a haunted house, but it sure is unusual. Uncle Arthur left a chronicle behind. When it's opened, out come old family secrets along with friendly creatures and an evil ogre with a goblin army from another dimension. The kids band together to save each other, their mother and the elderly aunt they find along the way. She has father abandonment issues too and she knows the curse of Spiderwick. Bravo to British Highmore for his clever work as American twins. The story's "inner child" element provides the silvery heart and sentiment of THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES. Seth Rogen (KNOCKED UP) is the voice of Hogsqueal, Nick Nolte is the evil ogre and veteran actress Joan Plowright stars as the great-aunt Lucinda.
Grade: B. Treat the kids and have fun. THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES is a very entertaining fantasy adventure showing that the most incredible journey of all can be to come together again as a family. It's a winner.

FOOL'S GOLD (PG-13)
Matthew McConaughey -- does he ever utilize an acting coach when preparing for a film role nowadays? Or does he just check the script to see if any scenes require him to be shirtless? FOOL'S GOLD is practically a Matthew McConaughey beach wear commercial with a plot. He and Kate Hudson play a divorced couple reunited to hunt for an 18th century sunken treasure near Key West. Being a comedy of remarriage, they'll bicker but fall in love all over again while they fight off thugs out to steal the gold. McConaughey's hot beef body can't hide his ham acting in this picture. Making big eyes and tacking on a rakish grin is not a technique. It's laziness. There's no depth or nuance to his work. He's like a Christmas present in a department store window display -- nice to look at, but there's nothing inside. Kate Hudson shines in FOOL'S GOLD. Once again, she shows that she's got major romantic comedy skills like her mother, Goldie Hawn. Unfortunately, Kate can't float it alone. Why can't she get another script as great as ALMOST FAMOUS, the movie that got her an Oscar nomination? The legendary Billy Wilder loved her in that film. Since then, she hasn't had two scripts nearly as good.
For classic Hollywood comedies of remarriage, check out three DVDs starring Cary Grant -- THE AWFUL TRUTH (1937), THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940) and HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940). Compare Grant's work to McConaughey's and you'll see what I mean about MM's laziness.
Grade: D+. Little glitters in FOOL'S GOLD. Matthew McConaughey's Bowflex Acting Academy performance gets tired after the first 20 minutes. Kate Hudson does the best she can in this leaden comedy.

VINCE VAUGHN'S WILD WEST COMEDY SHOW (R)
I expected this to be a bargain basement version of "Dane Cook's Tourgasm" on HBO. I was prepared to see moderately amusing young comics hanging out with Vince Vaughn and acting like they're the new version of Frank Sinatra's very talented Rat Pack. I was pleasantly surprised. Emcee Vaughn picked four male comedians to share a bus, share rooms and go on the road to do an emotionally grueling 30 shows in 30 days. They travel from the West Coast to the South and through the Midwest. The four funnymen will tell how they came to be comedians and talk about the difficulties of trying to break through
in the comedy profession today. We'll meet relatives of theirs. Ethnic stereotypes will be challenged. We'll see the quartet humbled by the less fortunate. The revelation of personal heartbreaks and hurdles will make us realize the bravery of their work. Ahmed Ahmed, John Caparulo, Bret Ernst and Sebastian Maniscalco are the comics. I've heard Ahmed do better material as a member of the hysterically funny Axis of Evil comedy group. He seems to be shown doing his B instead of his A material. However the story of his homelife is very interesting. Maniscalco, a waiter, deserves a big break. Also on the bus is executive producer Peter Billingsley. When Billingsley was a kid, he played Ralphie in A CHRISTMAS STORY.
Grade: B-. VINCE VAUGHN'S WILD WEST COMEDY SHOW plays more like an extended cable TV special, but it's still a funny and touching documentary with more laughs, heart and surprise than some big studio comedies.

RAMBO (R)
He's the angry war vet who could shoot down a spacecraft with a bow and arrow. Rambo's back in a missionary position. Living in Thailand, the ex-Green Beret we met in 1982 is dressed liked a former Chippendale's choreographer who's currently staging a dinner theatre production of "Miss Saigon" in Boca Raton. Middle-aged Rambo works as a snake wrangler. A boatload of Caucasian missionaries, as clueless as a can of sardines, asks for his escort into the civil war- torn Burmese jungle to aid and convert the poor natives. All hell breaks loose. Rambo's main objective becomes to save the one blonde Christian babe from being raped by the evil Burmese army. Stallone directed and co-wrote this sequel. He must have sat in on the post- production and said, "I want to see more heads explode." Men, women and children are gunned down, blown up, hacked or maimed. There's even a mini-atomic bomb explosion that the beefy hero outruns. The screen goes red with blood for the message that war is bad. This fourth installment of RAMBO is really just a save-the-chick flick with extreme gore. Next time, Rambo faces a tougher challenge -- he tries to get good outpatient care at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Grade: F. Too grisly to be fun. The aging Vietnam war vet returns with a vengeance to kill just about every bad Asian in Burma. You wonder if RAMBO gets an AARP discount on ammunition.

OVER HER DEAD BODY (PG-13)
Eva Longoria Parker goes from "Desperate Housewives" to being the ungrateful dead and haunting the new love of her former fiancé. The new girlfriend is a klutzy psychic who has fallen for the heartbroken veterinarian, played with perfect deadpan by Paul Rudd. Ms. Longoria Parker brings her TV persona to the film as a demanding diva
accidentally killed by her own Bridezilla excess before the wedding.
Technically, Kate is a supporting character. Lake Bell has a larger part as Ashley the psychic. The two actresses click together for their supernatural catfights in the earthbound script. Why is a ghost knocking on a live person's door? Spooks usually just come on in. Of course, the late Kate has lessons to learn about letting go before she can move on in the Afterlife. OVER HER DEAD BODY is not in a league with the 1978 remake HEAVEN CAN WAIT starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, GHOST (for which Whoopi Goldberg won an Oscar), TRULY MADLY DEEPLY or David Lean's BLITHE SPIRIT, the 1945 film version of Noël Coward's famed stage farce. Nevertheless, this wafer thin comedy does deliver some chuckles. OK...I'll admit it.
The overweight dog and Paul Rudd with the possessed parrot made me laugh out loud.
Grade: C+. A spirited cast makes OVER HER DEAD BODY a light choice as a weekend date movie.

UNTRACEABLE (R)
It's THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS sandwich instead of the whole platter. Just like Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling, Diane Lane's character, Jennifer Marsh, is a sharp FBI agent on the trail of a psycho villain. Special Agent Marsh is also a widowed single mother. The UNTRACEABLE killer is a cyber-stalker who hacks into sites and streams the torture of his victims online. He hacks in Marsh's home computer. But you knew that was going to happen, didn't you? We've seen this kind of thriller before. UNTRACEABLE doesn't have the budget, the style and a screenplay as sophisticated as Jonathan Demme's classic. It does boast a good performance from the always-dependable Diane Lane. Colin Hanks, son of Tom Hanks, does a nice job as her friend and co-worker. Joseph Cross plays the All-American boyish monster who invites viewers to download death. The torture scenes are very creepy and render the point that the script tries to make about web voyeurism totally hypocritical.
Grade: C. Diane Lane's strong, smart performance make this net flick seem better than it is.

THE ORPHANAGE (R, Subtitled)
Is the strength of a mother's love any match for supernatural forces? How far will a woman go to save a child? Those are the questions posed in a subtitled ghost story from Spain. Laura and her husband, Carlos, acquire the large orphanage by the sea. The manor had been abandoned for years. She wants to re-open it as a center for sick and disabled children. Before Laura was adopted, she spent some of her childhood in that place. There's a mist of sadness in the house only felt by their little boy. She tells him of her sunny youth. Laura finds comfort in the past. The boy talks about his imaginary friends. At first, he has two. His behavior grows erratic as the number of invisible playmates increases. Then, one day, he disappears. You'll squirm in your seat and gasp as Laura confronts the force she believes threatens the lives of her family. Belén Rueda was a popular TV host in Spain until she made her feature film debut opposite Javier Bardem in THE SEA INSIDE (2004). As the mother in THE ORPHANAGE, she's magnificent. Geraldine Chaplin, daughter of silent film icon Charles Chaplin, stars as the psychic who may find a clue to the terror that breaks down the ideal family. This excellent import was produced by Guillermo Del Toro, the Mexican filmmaker who gave us PAN'S LABYRINTH.
Grade: A. Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona works your last good nerve as he builds the suspense in THE ORPHANAGE. It's a terrific supernatural thriller with great emotional depth. Bayona did a beautiful job.

27 DRESSES (PG-13)
Like a Doris Day/Rock Hudson romantic comedy in the late '50s, there's a pretty career woman in New York City who has a fabulous apartment, a fabulous wardrobe and no husband. She encounters a handsome guy who irritates her but we know he'll turn out to be Mr. Right. The leading lady and the leading man each has a wisecracking sidekick who is a) less attractive, b) older, c) plump, d) ethnic or e) all of the above. Think of Meg Ryan with Rosie O'Donnell or Tom Hanks with Dave Chappelle in the 1990s. At some point, there's a "snap out of it" slap. 27 DRESSES follows that same, exact romantic comedy format. But why does Doris Day's 1959 classic, PILLOW TALK, seem fresher than 27 DRESSES? Better material. Katherine Heigl and James Marsden click but the screenplay is mediocre. Dependable Jane is a New York wedding planner who has 27 bridesmaid gowns in her closet. Secretly in love with her boss, she's humiliated to see him fall in love with her sexy, shallow and somewhat racist younger sister, over-acted by Malin Akerman (Ben Stiller's annoying bride in THE HEARTBREAK KID). Jane meets Kevin, a handsome reporter who pushes all her buttons. He sees wedding planners as a silly trend and....well, you know the rest. Like he did in HAIRSPRAY and as the storybook prince in ENCHANTED, James Marsden proves he's got skills and screen charisma. Katherine Heigl has a sweet knack for romantic comedy. Let's hope they reteam in a better one. This movie was directed by Anne Fletcher and written by Aline Brosh McKenna. You'd never guess she also wrote the screen adaptation of THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA.
Grade: C+ . There's not enough fizz in this forced romantic comedy. Seeing 27 DRESSES is like watching two talented lead actors try to turn bottled water into champagne. Heigl and Marsden do the best they can.

THERE WILL BE BLOOD (R)
I live nearly three miles from where the World Trade Center stood.
After the 9/11 attacks, when New Yorkers in my area gathered for candlelight marches, I constantly heard people say "This is all about oil." I thought of that during THERE WILL BE BLOOD. Director Paul Thomas Anderson based his screenplay on a 1927 novel by Upton Sinclair. In the frontier of early 1900s California, single father Daniel Plainview loses his soul when he strikes oil. The director, as he did with the fathers in MAGNOLIA and with Joanna Gleason as Dirk's angry mother in BOOGIE NIGHTS, reveals the creation of the chasm between a good child and a detached parent. Plainview's lust for black gold outsizes any love he has for his disabled little boy.
His greatest rival is a young preacher who wants money. Daniel Day- Lewis stars as the rugged and ruthless Plainview. Paul Dano, the mute brother in LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, makes a strong impression as twins -- one of whom is the fanatical evangelist. There's no lead female character in this film. However, Plainview's oil drill is a phallic symbol that could make Dirk Diggler feel really inadequate. Southern California is the woman. The oilman rapes the land with his greed. A gusher is his gratification. When madness for oil clashes with religious fanaticism, there will be blood. Daniel Day-Lewis' unforgettable character sounds like a forefather to the water tycoon, Noah Cross, in CHINATOWN. This film has a very good score. Jonny Greenwood's original music is reminiscent of Bernard Herrmann's work for Hitchcock's PSYCHO and Jerry Goldsmith's in CHINATOWN. Daniel Day- Lewis' portrayal in THERE WILL BE BLOOD is astounding. He burns a hole in the screen. Scriptwise, after a running time of 2:38, we still don't quite know why Plainview was the way he was.
Grade: A- . Wow. What a performance from Daniel Day-Lewis. The power and fury of his monumental acting achievement leaves you in awe. He takes you on quite a journey in Anderson's gripping epic about greed.

THE BUCKET LIST (PG-13)
Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman portray working seniors, newly diagnosed with cancer, who embark on a big adventure to live it up before they "kick the bucket." It's a standard, by-the-numbers buddy pic. Nicholson's overbearing and wealthy executive gets a life-change from a polite auto mechanic, played by Freeman. They take an international road trip and learn sentimental life lessons. Rob Reiner's direction is as imaginative as microwaving last night's leftovers for tonight's family dinner. Mark Shaiman's original music sounds like a lazy rewrite of Dave Grusin's 1989 score for THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS. A thread in the story about coffee is supposed to be cute and heartwarming. Ultimately, it's ludicrous. Good actors are handicapped with a middling script. Sean Hayes, as the rich man's assistant, has such a corny final scene to perform that he should be given an award of merit from the Screen Actors Guild. To see Jack Nicholson in a far better film with a character fighting a fatal illness, rent TERMS OF ENDEARMENT. He won an Oscar® for that 1983 classic starring Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger. 
Grade: C. "Code Blue -- these two stars need a script doctor now! Now!" THE BUCKET LIST is a so-so buddy movie and the cheesiest commercial for Chock Full o' Nuts coffee that I've ever seen.

ATONEMENT (R)
When this British picture ends, you expect a pair of local PBS hosts to appear onscreen and tell you that if you pledge $100, you'll get the ATONEMENT soundtrack and a PBS totebag. Keira Knightley and James McAvoy star as unlucky lovers Cecilia and Robbie. It's summer in 1935 England. She's a wealthy snob. He's the educated son of the servant. Briony, Cecilia's sister, is an aspiring writer at age 13. She has a crush on her sister's lover. She tells a lie about Robbie that separates him from skinny Cecilia. The reading of private letters. The power of a child's lie. The shame of having sex against a bookshelf with someone of a lower class in Great Britain. The inconvenience of World War II. Jealousy, regret, forgiveness, a major water motif. That's the drama of a movie that often comes off like a 2-hour Elizabeth Arden perfume commercial. Some critics raved about the evacuation from Dunkirk sequence with its too-long tracking shot. Director Joe Wright vainly uses that shot to holler "Look at me!" We pay more attention to the technical aspects all those extras, horses and a Ferris wheel than we do to the lead character. The scene looks staged and calculated. Wright's lack of humility there is a disservice to actor James McAvoy. ATONEMENT copies parts other works like SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, THE ENGLISH PATIENT, TITANIC and Merchant Ivory films from the 1980s. Newsweek printed that the chemistry between Knightley and McAvoy is "white hot." Please. The lovers aren't as compelling as Jack and Rose in TITANIC, Jack and Ennis in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, Jack and Louise in REDS or even Shrek and Fiona. Saorise Ronan rates very high marks as young Briony as does Vanessa Redgrave as old Briony.
Grade: C+ . A lovely cup of lukewarm tea. ATONEMENT should be awesome instead of just slightly above average. There's a lot of water in this movie. Empty your bladder before you see it.

SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (R)
Bravo, Tim Burton! He directed one of the finest film adaptations of a hit Broadway musical that I've ever seen. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are wickedly good in this tale of revenge and industry. Ripped away from his wife by a corrupt judge, the unjustly imprisoned Mr. Todd has turned into a madman bent on revenge when he's released. His barber shop sits above Mrs. Lovett's miserable pie shop. Business is bad in old London for the amoral single woman, secretly in love with him. She's kept his razors all these years. When Sweeney kills, she merrily grinds the bodies into meat pies. Business booms. It's a nasty little corporation she operates, making a small fortune off the misfortunes of others. Rather like the war business, isn't it? Most of the Stephen Sondheim score remains. The orchestrations are lush. The production is gorgeous. Depp is great. He sings well and nails the inner fury of the character. Bonham Carter is a comic revelation as Mrs. Lovett. Sacha Baron Cohen shows his dramatic chops as a child-beating rival barber. Alan Rickman plays the evil judge. As only he can do it, Burton makes the slashings so bloody that SWEENEY TODD is a musical many straight guys might actually want to see. The 1979 original Broadway cast starred Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett. Yes, the same dame from TV's "Murder, She Wrote." 
Grade: A. Johnny Depp as SWEENEY TODD -- he's all the rage. This macabre masterpiece is one of the best pictures of 2007. Under Burton's sharp and witty direction, Depp delivers a sensationally sinister performance.

THE SAVAGES (R)
Childhood is the blueprint for the rest of your life. From that blueprint, you build a theatre in which you try to perform as best you can. Jon and Wendy (rather like the characters in "Peter Pan") are grown children forced to deal with their only available elderly parent. Mr. Savage needs to go into a nursing home. The siblings have done okay, but not really well. She's an office temp who has yet to fulfill her promise as a playwright. He's a college professor whose home looks like a depressed frat house. Halfway on the road of life, they got stuck in neutral. He's writing an intellectual book that would have limited appeal. She's got a married neighbor as a recreational sex buddy. Brother and sister bicker, but you know that they truly love and need each other. As we get to know more about dad, we'll see that he's been one heavy piece of furniture for a long time. In his annoying behavior is a clue to why his kids are the way they are. THE SAVAGES is unsentimental, compassionate, and kooky. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney are Jon and Wendy. He's brilliant as the white-collar crook in BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD and as the likeable lump in this picture, matched all the way by Linney. As for the story, we don't exactly learn the whereabouts of Mrs. Savage. Still, Tamara Jenkins wrote and directed a satisfying film that strikes a nerve.
Grade: B +. This complicated, honest comedy about the bittersweet burdens of family ties is quite good. Laura Linney hits another homerun with her amusing, amazing work in THE SAVAGES

THE GOLDEN COMPASS (PG-13)
Here's another feature with a critter as a sidekick. There was the rat with the cartoon chef in RATATOUILLE, the chipmunk with the displaced princess in ENCHANTED and now there's a woodland creature with the girl in THE GOLDEN COMPASS. In Lyra's world, humans have souls that take the shape of animal companions. She's the spunky ward of a magical college. Her best friend disappears. He's being held captive in the North Pole with other kids. She wants to rescue him. Enter the glacially elegant control queen, Mrs. Coulter. She's a powerful woman who picks Lyra to be her assistant on a trip up North. Lyra possesses psychic strength, manifested in a gift she was given -- the Golden Compass. In it, she can see the truth of the past and future. Cruel Mrs. Coulter wants it. But Lyra's a brave little warrior who will keep it and keep a promise to save her missing friend. She'll encounter witches, flying ships and talking animals. She will ride a huge white bear (a fantasy I've had for years). The role of the silky villainess fits Nicole Kidman like a velvet glove. Sam Elliott is the essence of cowboy cool as a Texan who helps Lyra and hooks her up with an armored polar bear. You can tell the movie is based on a rather busy book. The screenplay feels a bit rushed. THE GOLDEN COMPASS comes from a best-selling trilogy by Philip Pullman. Missing is an air of magic in this children's movie. It's crammed with spectacular special effects and big battle scenes. Trust me on this -- it's all about the bear fight. A furry Daniel Craig co-stars.
Grade: C+. THE GOLDEN COMPASS is a handsome, satisfactory fantasy with a fine performance from newcomer Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra. The kids will dig it. Moms will dig Nicole Kidman's dazzling wardrobe by Ruth Myers.

JUNO (PG-13)
She's sweet 16, she's got a vocabulary like Alex Trebek and she's pregnant. You've heard of a "starter marriage"? This funny indie pic has a "starter baby." Juno MacGuff is smart, but not mature. She gets sperminated by a shy high school classmate named Bleeker.
Lanky Michael Cera goes from SUPERBAD to baby-daddy. Juno's level- headed Midwest parents try to help her through the crisis. So does her best friend, a babe who has a crush on her sweater-clad English Lit. teacher. Juno finds an upscale, suburban married couple desperate to adopt a child. In the seasons of her trimester, she will learn about love and make some of most Taser-like wisecracks we've heard onscreen from an actress since Preston Sturges was in his screwball comedy filmmaking prime. Ellen Page makes Juno an embraceable smart-ass. You get a sense the precocious kid knows that the joke is ultimately on her. She's afraid the world will find out that she has no idea who she is. Page is marvelous, making Juno prickly yet precious at the same time. Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman stand out as the affluent couple. We'll see that the beige sterility of their tasteful home design matches the state of their marriage. There's one screenplay bump -- why would a brainiac like Juno have unprotected sex when she was cold sober and with a guy who wasn't pressuring her? That contradicts her intellect. Otherwise, the debut screenplay by Ms. Diablo Cody is a winner. J.K Simmons and Allison Janney are fabulous as the pregnant girl's parents. Cera shines as the heartbroken Bleeker.
Grade: A-. Thank heaven for Ellen Page. You just can't think of any other actress who could have played JUNO any better. She owns the role and she'll win your heart. This quirky comedy of self- discovery is tart and touching.

AUGUST RUSH (PG)
Jonathan Rhys Meyers stars as the singer with an Irish rock band in New York City. Keri Russell is the classical cellist. It's love at first sight. They have one sweet night together before her twisted father intervenes. Eleven years later, the singer is in San Francisco unaware that he fathered a child. She's in Chicago, unaware that the child is alive. Charming Freddie Highmore plays the lost boy in Manhattan who falls into the clutches of Wizard, a red-haired Robin Williams dressed as Bono and acting like Fagin in OLIVER! The boy is a musical prodigy, abducted and exploited by the abusive Wizard for financial gain. With help from Terrence Howard as the sad-eyed child services worker, we hope that the birth parents will somehow wind up back in Manhattan to find their son in time to hear the symphony he wrote. By the way, Wizard changed the kid's name to August Rush. There's good music in the mix with corny "follow the music in your heart" dialogue and irritating ethnic images. Notice that the Irish bandmembers are constant boozers and the Black folks are either jive-talking, streetwise hustlers or noble Baptist church people who sing gospel in Harlem. In the upscale fine arts center, classical music is supported by and played by Anglos and Asians. Somebody please tell Hollywood that Black people such as Leontyne Price and André Watts gained fame in the field of classical music. Millions of Black Americans are Catholic. Not all Irishmen are drunken hooligans. Caucasians also live in Harlem and there are Asians in New York who can rap, dance hip hop and play some serious funk on a guitar. 
Grade: C-. No need to rush. AUGUST RUSH is far from magic. The tired ethnic stereotypes and the child abuse in this PG movie are disturbing. The very talented cast works hard to scrape the mold off the cheesy screenplay.

I'M NOT THERE (R)
This is a movie collage based on the life of folk rock artist, Bob Dylan. Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett are the stars who re-enact him at different times in his life and career. However, none of them plays a character called "Bob Dylan" in any of the vignettes. Don't expect a traditional biopic like Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash in WALK THE LINE or Forest Whitaker as Idi Amin in THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND. Director Todd Haynes previously gave us VELVET GOLDMINE and FAR FROM HEAVEN. Again, he shows us how a person changes in society and becomes different things at different times. A gender-bender Blanchett is Dylan at his celeb brattiest in the 1960s when he was, apparently, irked by The Beatles. The film style of that section is very Federico Fellini. It's the best section of I'M NOT THERE. Blanchett's performance is a beauty. Her scenes with the excellent Bruce Greenwood as the provocative British journalist have humor and sparks. Also tops is Marcus Carl Franklin playing Dylan as a young Black man. Gere is good in a Billy the Kid era setting. Unless you could score in a game of Trivial Pursuit based on Bob Dylan, you'll be lost. You won't understand why Gere is in a Billy the Kid era setting. The movie has merit but, like National Public Radio shows, it's often too artsy and too exclusive for its own mass appeal. We see the singer as a socio-shapeshifter. We learn nothing new about the music icon that mostly-Caucasian babyboomers call "the poet of our generation." Why did Robert Zimmerman, a middle-class Jewish guy from suburban Minnesota, need to morph into folk rocker Bob Dylan, a man who took on a country twang, defied categorization and later became a Christian? We never find out. The director stays with the myth and the music. All things considered, the Todd Haynes direction rocks. 
Grade: B. These shorts based on the bio of Bob Dylan entertain and dazzle, but there's no weight to I'M NOT THERE. Dylan remains a mystery man artist. Blanchett is bodacious and brilliant in this original, over-long work.

SOUTHLAND TALES (R)
It's like seeing a major auto collision that involves a car full of circus clowns fully made-up and on their way to work. It's awful, but you're laughing. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson plays an action movie star with amnesia in Southern California. He teams up with an angry policeman played by Seann William Scott. Sarah Michelle Gellar plays a porn star. L.A. is on the brink of a socio-economic disaster. There's plenty of gunfire, a blimp, and a twin brother in another time dimension. All the scenes with Jon Lovitz are so brilliantly bad that you can't help but laugh. He's a macho cop with his hair dyed the same color as Rutger Hauer's in BLADE RUNNER. Justin Timberlake, as a war vet, does a good musical number in SOUTHLAND TALES. But why is there a musical production number in a sci-fi thriller about a post-9/11 political conspiracy? You get a sense that every actor is thinking "I know the script sucks, but this gig will help me keep up the payments on my health care insurance." Co-stars are Mandy Moore, Will Sasso, Cheri Oteri, Amy Poehler, Kevin Smith, John Larroquette and Zelda Rubinstein (the little psychic lady from POLTERGEIST). This film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival -- and the French hated it. That's pretty deep, considering that the French hailed Jerry Lewis as a film genius and gave a top award to a movie musical starring Björk.
Grade: D. From the creator of DONNIE DARKO come 2 hours and 24 minutes of apocalyptic drama called SOUTHLAND TALES. How bad is this movie? It's practically SHOWGIRLS with bullets.

ENCHANTED (PG)
Disney magically brings more illegal aliens into New York City. In a cartoon fairytale land, Giselle is a princess who communicates with woodland creatures while waiting for Prince Charming to ride in and propose marriage. His evil queen of a wicked stepmother hates Giselle and hurls her into an unmagical land of constant chaos. Yes, Giselle pops up as a real person in Manhattan. With all her Disney cartoon sensibilities and talents intact, the polite princess tries to find the prince for her "happily ever after," but she meets another man. He's a single papa played by Patrick Dempsey of GREY'S ANATOMY on ABC (owned by Disney). Amy Adams is perfectly cast as the displaced princess. She takes her storybook character seriously and that makes it work. Giselle is the unpredictable female who disrupts the life of a fairly settled male. That's the same kind of format used in classic screwball comedies like MY MAN GODFREY, BRINGING UP BABY, TOPPER and THE LADY EVE. Other cartoon characters follow Giselle into Times Square. Susan Sarandon stars as the wicked stepmother. Disney execs weren't brave enough to hire a drag queen for the role, so they went with Sarandon. She'll do. Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz will be Best Song Oscar® nominees for the fun original tunes. ENCHANTED opens with a great musical animated sequence. The middle of the film is bubbly. However, the last act showdown with the evil queen at a costume ball looks more like old footage of a Liza Minnelli party gone bad at Studio 54. It's a bit clumsy. The dad's corporate girlfriend (Idina Menzel) also poses a script problem. Dempsey, as the divorce lawyer dad, is fine. Prince Charming (James Marsden) is livelier.
Grade: B. The main magic in ENCHANTED is that radiant redhead, Amy Adams, as the princess. This screwball comedy is a sweet treat that will appeal to 'tween girls. You'll dig how the princess cleans an apartment.

BEOWULF (PG-13)
"Just don't take any course where they make you read Beowulf." In the Woody Allen comedy, ANNIE HALL, that was Alvy Singer's advice to his girlfriend when she decided to take adult education classes. Robert Zemeckis, director of BACK TO THE FUTURE, FORREST GUMP, CAST AWAY and the motion capture yuletide film, THE POLAR EXPRESS, has used that last film's computerized technique on his lively adaptation of the 12th century epic poem that many of us had to read in high school. This movie about the ancient Danish warrior is such old school, occasionally campy fun that Woody Allen's character might have changed his mind about reading the source material. Shot in 3D, you need to wear special glasses to get the full impact of the spectacular special effects. BEOWULF gives you that back-in-the-day feeling of seeing a movie for the sheer weekend fun of it, not caring whether or not it was high art, just as long as you got a thrill. The hero is not a great Dane, but a good Dane. Beowulf and the old king, Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins) have parenting issues. Both cheat on their wives. Beowulf will have years to work this all out while he fights a demon named Grendel and deals with Grendel's superhot mom, played by Angelina Jolie. She is constantly naked and can turn into a giant reptile creature when seeking revenge. By the way, who knew that hot mamas had high heels in 1100 A.D.? Teen boys are going to love this. Ray Winstone stars as the hunky, blond Beowulf. Robin Wright Penn is Mrs. Beowulf. Crispin Glover plays Grendel, the man-eating mama's boy. Beowulf's nude smackdown with Grendel alone makes this flagons and dragons tale an instant guilty pleasure.
Grade: B. It's time to "Mead the Parents." I dare you to sit through BEOWULF without saying "Wow!" Robert Zemeckis delivers a clever and visually stunning production.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (R)
I like the Coen Brothers. They've done some brilliant filmmaking. But, writing and directing their own material, I feel that they've, at times, become like a two-headed Peter Pan saying "Ah, the cleverness of me!" Their egos can get in the way. The unnecessary remake of THE LADYKILLERS is proof. Making me pay to see that obvious, oddly offensive thing reminded me of one of their other titles -- INTOLERABLE CRUELTY. They regained a sense of humility while making NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, an adaptation of someone else's work. This extraordinary film is like a Biblical fable told in modern times. The America we see in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN is a land of plenty and a land of lawlessness that has started to turn in on itself because of greed and old customs being kicked to the curb. The drug trade paves the way for a new evil that is neither easily contained nor controlled. Tommy Lee Jones stars as Sheriff Bell, an elder apostle in West Texas who senses a plague is coming, but can't do anything about it except fight it as forcefully as he can. Josh Brolin is Llewelyn Moss, the unsmiling yet likeable modern-day cowboy who forgets the old code of the west and gets tripped up by greed. He's awesome. You almost can't believe that he's the same actor also playing a crooked 1970s New York cop in AMERICAN GANGSTER. Brolin should be an Oscar nominee. The same goes for Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh, the screen's most diabolical and idiosyncratic villain since Hannibal Lecter. A man in black with a haircut that's somewhere between a medieval monk and a surfer, the Spanish actor locks into an unblinking, unsympathetic gaze and a vocal quality that sounds like a phone-sex call from Lucifer. His most frightening weapon is his brain and the power it has over his own physical pain. Chigurh is an approaching apocalypse. If you're lucky, you can get out of his way. Other great performances come from Woody Harrelson and Scottish actress Kelly MacDonald (THE GIRL IN THE CAFE) as Llewelyn's protective girlfriend. Adapted by the Coen Brothers from the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, this is their most generous work and their finest film since FARGO.
Grade A. Bleak, bold and blistering, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN is one of the best pictures of the year. Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem do remarkable work. For the Coen Brothers, this film is a career zenith.

FRED CLAUS (PG)
Vince Vaughn is the Christmas Crasher. He's Fred, the fast-talking brother to Nick. Mom always liked Nick best. Fred is jealous.
Chubby, co-dependent Nick grew up to become a saint called "Santa" while slacker Fred is a repo man in Chicago. The distant brothers come together at Christmastime when Fred needs bail money. Fred winds up working with the elves and dealing with the corporate meanie (Kevin Spacey) who wants to shut down Santa's toy shop. When a bedridden Santa can't make his scheduled deliveries, guess who comes to his fat brother's rescue? Vince takes the Tim Allen route without the weight gain. Paul Giamatti plays Nick with about 20 lines in the whole movie. Kathy Bates stars as Mama Claus. A miscast Rachel Weisz and Miranda Richardson are the women loved by the bickering brothers. Ludacris plays an elf. FRED CLAUS is a holiday comedy that lingers in your memory -- like the time you sat on the lap of department store Santa with liquor on his breath.
Grade: C-. This "Bros Before Ho-Ho-Hos" comedy is safe and goofy enough for gradeschoolers, but grown-ups will see that FRED CLAUS has some very talented actors trying hard to lift this heavy piece of fruitcake.

LIONS FOR LAMBS (R)
Robert Redford directed LIONS FOR LAMBS, a short drama focused on the roles of media, education and politically-involved youth in America today. We see three stories -- two minority schoolmates leave a Southern California university to serve in Afghanistan, their idealistic college professor (Redford) confronts an apathetic privileged kid in his office, and a TV news reporter (Meryl Streep) meets with a rightwing senator (Tom Cruise). The battle scenes in which the two former students fight for their lives break up the film's constant chatter. Streep, a master at screen technique, comes off best. Watch her react to Tom Cruise's character. As a good reporter would, she seems to mentally document his every gesture, his every article of clothing. In her previous political thriller, RENDITION, Streep was a top Washington official who came off like Donald Rumsfeld in a dress. In this, her reporter misses the days of ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN when newsrooms weren't owned by corporations, when journalists could save the First Amendment and protect the country from totalitarianism. If Cruise's performance as the aggressive GOP hawk looks familiar, it's because he acted the same way opposite Matt Lauer during their verbal smackdown about Scientology vs. psychiatric care on the TODAY show. Meryl's political rant in her boss' office truly rocks. Viva Streep!
Grade: C+. Talky and preachy, LIONS FOR LAMBS is a liberal wake-up call of moderate strength. Redford's done better. Rent the film that he directed about ethics in television -- QUIZ SHOW -- and you'll see what I mean.

AMERICAN GANGSTER (R)
Before he turned informant, Frank Lucas was a Harlem hood who ran his heroin trade like a major corporation. We go back to the days of the Viet Nam War to see Denzel Washington don the role of the real-life Lucas. He's a vicious killer businessman, obsessed with getting to the top of his crime game. Russell Crowe plays Richie Roberts, the honest cop obsessed with bringing him down. Washington, who often takes himself a bit too seriously, gives pretty much a one-note performance but he plays that note like the pro he is. The GQ gangster has a violent rant in his penthouse that briefly spins into an angry lesson on how to use club soda to remove red spots from an alpaca rug. It's darkly funny, the kind of dialogue that Ray Liotta or Robert De Niro could have floated. From Washington, the whole rant is heavy. Effective but heavy. Crowe finds more variation in Richie. Two supporting performances really shine -- Ruby Dee as Frank's mother and Josh Brolin as a tainted cop. The big star of AMERICAN GANGSTER is its director, Ridley Scott. The movie runs 2:30 but that last half hour flies by with top action, tension and fine acting. We've seen this kind of cop drama before, but Scott really holds your interest showing how corrupt men profit in wartime. Cuba Gooding Jr as a rival hood redeems himself for summer's DADDY DAY CAMP.
Grade: B. This gangster pic is a good, gritty look at the dark side of the American Dream. Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe are in fine form. Josh Brolin knocks out another great supporting performance this year.

MARTIAN CHILD (PG)
A successful sci-fi novelist adopts a strange but sweet little orphan boy. In David Gerrold's award-winning autobiographical short story of the same name, the writer is a single gay man. In the movie, he's a widower who gets emotional support from a shapely female friend who has a crush on him. Little Dennis is different. He's so pale, you'd think he tans by the refrigerator light. He walks under an umbrella's shade in bright weather. He avoids the sun. Why? He believes that he's from Mars. Young Bobby Coleman is commendable as Dennis, the delusional youngster. That Martian routine could've been really grating if overdone in a cutesy way. Coleman keeps it tolerable. You never find yourself wishing he'd been adopted by Joan
Crawford instead. John Cusack plays David, the lonely dad figure.
Cusack is smart enough not to fish for your sympathy which makes you like his character. MARTIAN CHILD is about alienation and misfits finding a way to fit into society with the help of parental love. But the New Line Cinema press material doesn't explain why David was "straightened" for the film adaptation. Hollywood isn't so liberal after all, I guess. John's real life sister, Joan Cusack, plays David's loving sister. Amanda Peet stars basically as proof that David's not gay. The filmmakers made the dad hetero but the kid looks like the lead in a gradeschool production of DEATH IN VENICE.
Go figure. David Gerrold, by the way, wrote the classic STAR TREK episode, "The Trouble with Tribbles."
Grade: C. Cusack and Coleman are good together, but the sap really runs in the last act of this conservative, sentimental mush. It's so sappy, you'll wish the final scenes were disrupted by invaders from MARS ATTACKS!

GONE BABY GONE (R)
Big Ben's got skills! Ben Affleck has not had box office hits like his best buddy, Matt Damon, since they won screenwriting Oscars for GOOD WILL HUNTING (1997). He bombed in PEARL HARBOR, had another dud as DAREDEVIL, followed by GIGLI and that lump of holiday coal called SURVIVING CHRISTMAS. Affleck has a new movie out that boasts two of his best performances. One is as co-writer of the screenplay, based on the book of the same name. The other is behind the camera for GONE BABY GONE. Ben's directorial debut is good baby good. A little girl from a low-income section of Boston is missing. Her irresponsible mother is troubled. Two private investigators are hired to do what the police can't seem to do -- locate the child. Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck, Ben's brother) promises the mother that he'll bring her kid back but the whole case isn't what it seems. Bitter cops and local thugs complicate this tale of moral ambiguity. The writing has real snap and wit to it. Under Affleck's direction, Amy Ryan is a revelation as the slovenly single parent. Ed Harris is powerful as a grizzly bear of a veteran cop. Michelle Monaghan's role as the private eye partner seemed a bit underwritten but she's good. Morgan Freeman and Amy Madigan (Mrs. Ed Harris) co-star. The film provokes us by asking if the laws we have in place to take care of our children really do take care of our children.
Grade: B+. Bravo, Ben Affleck! This moody mystery is one of the best crime thrillers of the year. Don't be surprised if Amy Ryan gets an Oscar nomination next year for her supporting work in GONE BABY GONE.

DAN IN REAL LIFE (PG-13)
This wholesome comedy is as predictable as tax time, but how many films out there now work as nice family fare and a good date movie? This is one of the very few. I wasn't surprised to see that Steve Carell could touch my heart in a serious scene. I was surprised to see that Dane Cook could be subdued and charming. They play brothers. Dan (Steve Carell) is an advice columnist. He's a lonely widower raising three daughters. It's love at first sight when Dan meets Marie (French actress Juliette Binoche) in a bookstore before attending a big family get-together at his parents' house. Later, Dan and the extended family are excited to meet the younger brother's new girlfriend. The couple arrives. Guess who the girlfriend is? Correct. Marie. Comic complications ensue. When Dan strums a guitar and sings a song that reminds him of his late wife, we see that Steve Carell is not only a funnyman. At its heart, DAN IN REAL LIFE is the kind of romantic comedy that the French do with a superb light touch. Corporate Hollywood tossed in some calculated Steve Carell moments that would look funny in the coming attractions trailers -- like Steve falling off a roof and Steve doing a goofy dance. They satisfy, in a fast food way, but he's best in the quieter guitar scene. Dianne Wiest, Emily Blunt (THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB), John Mahoney and Amy Ryan (GONE BABY GONE) co-star.
Grade: C+. Sweet corn. A Disney crowd-pleaser with a dandy Carell and a delicious Binoche. Think of DAN IN REAL LIFE as a mash-up of ingredients from SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE plus HANNAH AND HER SISTERS.

LARS AND THE REAL GIRL (PG-13)
An introverted, harmless office worker named Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling) has fallen in love with a life-sized sex doll that he purchased online. It's a funny visual. But, if you've ever been so lonely that your bones ache, so heartbroken by life that you've retreated alone into some invisible shell, you'll totally get the essence of this picture. When Lars' brother and his wife meet "Bianca" for the first time, it's not long before the whole small town finds out about the plastic mate. Patricia Clarkson plays the doctor wise enough to know that Lars' doll is filling some hole in his soul. She's not the only woman in town who knows he needs kindness more than ridicule. She wants to find out why he doesn't like to be touched. A few folks really want to hug him -- like the office co-worker who keeps a teddy bear on her desk. If the audience can't tell that Lars believes the doll is a real girl, the movie doesn't work. This movie does work because Ryan Gosling is a gifted actor. He captures the hurt, fear, strength and delusion of Lars without making him a freak. He's more an ordinary guy boxed in by pain than he is a mental case. Patricia Clarkson shines as his doctor. Bright work also comes from Paul Schneider and Emily Mortimer as the brother and sister-in-law who accompany Lars into the valley of the doll. Keep this family-friendly indie comedy in mind.
Grade: B. LARS AND THE REAL GIRL is a quirky charmer. Ryan Gosling gives a subtle, surprising, funny and heartfelt performance. (One more thing -- is it just me or did that Bianca doll look a lot like Angelina Jolie?)

THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE (R)
This is Halle Berry's finest film since she won the Academy Award for MONSTER'S BALL (2001). She's Audrey, the wife and mother whose happy marriage is shattered when her husband is killed. During her grief, she reconnects unexpectedly with his closest friend from childhood.
Jerry (Benicio Del Toro) is now a drug addict. Audrey could never understand why her husband continued to be loyal to a junkie. She deals with the pain by being in control. Jerry has dealt with pain by losing control and shooting up. Can these two help each other through an emotional darkness? David Duchovny is endearing as the good husband and true friend. He leaves a lasting impression. The movie is a bit too glossy and, as a grieving widow, Ms. Berry constantly looks ready for a Revlon commercial close-up. However, I feel that was more the work of Hollywood studio execs getting involved with the production. They probably wanted to make sure that a bi-racial American family looked "marketable." We're in the 21st Century but, unfortunately, race is still an issue for some Hollywood corporate types. Berry and Del Toro are excellent together. This movie was sensitively directed by Danish filmmaker, Susanne Bier. I like how she handles the emotional journey of father figures.
Grade: B+. THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE gives Halle Berry her strongest role in years and she totally delivers. Benicio Del Toro's intensity jumps right off the screen. Despite a couple of bumps in the script, this story of loss and recovery gets the emotions right and it's well worth your time.

ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE (PG-13)
History repeats itself. Just like Hollywood movie legend Bette Davis, Cate Blanchett has now played the same royal icon twice in her film career. This time Queen Elizabeth I has become the ultimate single working woman, caught between career and love. She must defend England from a holy war with Spain while she yearns to hook up with the handsome adventurer, Sir Walter Raleigh. What's in the stars for her? Will she be married or will she be murdered by conspirators? Can she keep her royal cousin from coming over to visit and staying at her place? Will Sir Walter Raleigh land on her before the Spaniards land on the British coast? Maybe she can find out from Ye Olde Astrologer. Cate is the same actress who played the low-income Southern psychic in THE GIFT, the hightone Katharine Hepburn of Connecticut enjoying her new Hollywood fame in THE AVIATOR, and a resident of Middle-Earth in THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. She's amazing but this script is just average. Clive Owen, as Raleigh, is one of the few actors who can make medieval clothing look butch and contemporary. What queen wouldn't have fallen for him? He's basically eye candy here and seems to be posing for new headshots during most of his onscreen time. Grade: C. ELIZABETH in 1998 had a stronger story. ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE is a historical "chick flick," if you will. Think "Lifetime TV Goes to the History Channel" with a bigger budget and Cate Blanchett. Satisfactory.
Grade: C. ELIZABETH in 1998 had a stronger story. ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE is a historical "chick flick," if you will. Think "Lifetime TV Goes to the History Channel" with a bigger budget and Cate Blanchett. Satisfactory.

MICHAEL CLAYTON (R)
I said the same thing to myself watching George Clooney play MICHAEL CLAYTON that I said in the '80s when I saw Paul Newman star in THE
VERDICT: "This is the best thing he's ever done." Clooney got the Oscar® for his supporting role in SYRIANA. He's even better as the weary corporate law veteran who discovers that there's something worse than being middle-aged and broke in America. It's being middle- aged and morally bankrupt. He has to run for his life when he learns the truth about a class action lawsuit. This is a crisp, mature thriller juiced by great dialogue, character development and fine acting. Tilda Swinton as the executive who has lost her soul and Tom Wilkinson as Clayton's friend who has gone robustly mad make their roles extremely memorable. There's a couple of credibility gaps in the script and we've had the company whistleblower story before, but
it doesn't matter when the overall product is as good as this.
Writer/Director Tony Gilroy did the screenplays for all three Jason Bourne thrillers starring Matt Damon plus the screenplay for DOLORES CLAIBORNE, with a great performance by Kathy Bates in the title role.
Grade: A-. George Clooney triumphs as MICHAEL CLAYTON. Tilda Swinton and Tom Wilkinson should be Oscar contenders for their supporting work in this taut drama about modern-day morality in a country gone corporate.

THE HEARTBREAK KID (R)
Funny about Hollywood. It keeps giving you the message that it's all about youth and new ideas. Yet, it cranks out remakes of movies that are over 30 years old. THE HEARTBREAK KID was a 1972 release. Critics loved it. The Neil Simon screenplay followed a New York Jewish groom who desires a rich blonde gentile he meets in Miami during a disastrous honeymoon with his undesirable, painfully sunburned and unsophisticated Jewish bride. He wants to divorce her and step upscale by wedding the wealthy shiksa babe from the Midwest. Simon's story of how we pursue, possess and wound each other with our egos has been diluted into your basic Ben Stiller comedy, written and directed by the Farrelly Brothers. Expect broad "R" rated honeymoon sight gags. Comparing this to the 1972 film is unfair because the original soul has been gutted out and replaced with a THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY-meets-ALONG CAME POLLY stuffing. Michelle Monaghan as the other woman is a charmer. Malin Akerman scores as the sex freak, sunburned bride. I like Ben, but he's given this performance before and the movie loses steam in the last act.
Grade: C. The standard Ben Stiller comedy formula wilts a bit after the big box office freshness of this year's KNOCKED UP and SUPERBAD. He and the Farrelly Brothers rely on old tricks. 

THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB (PG-13)
If you've got a hot date with a librarian, then this is the picture for you. Six diverse female friends in suburban Sacramento form a Jane Austen book club. As they read and discuss her classics, their lives and loves echo the stories they're reading. Ms. Robin Swicord wrote the screenplay and directed this low-budget indie comedy. She shot the whole movie in under two months. Emily Blunt (the catty British assistant in THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA) once again displays her screen charisma as the prim French teacher teetering on the brink of an affair with a handsome boytoy. Jimmy Smits, Amy Brenneman, Maria Bello, Hugh Dancy and the always dependable Kathy Baker co-star. If you think you're going to have a problem getting your boyfriend or husband to go with you to see this, just say "There's a sexy lesbian couple in it." That always seems to work on the American male.
Grade: B. The plot is as light as a tea time snack. A most appealing ensemble cast obviously loved making THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB. Jane would be pleased that a woman got a greenlight to direct this sweet comedy.

THE GAME PLAN (PG)
Just about every big butch muscleman who becomes an action movie hero inevitably winds up in a comedy where he's emasculated by a little girl in a tutu or toddlers who need help going to the potty. Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Hulk Hogan, Vin Diesel -- and now, "The Rock."
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson becomes a Disney babydaddy in THE GAME PLAN. He's the vain NFL superstar who discovers he's fathered a little girl when she literally shows up on his high-tech high-rise apartment doorstep during football season. She's precocious, curly- haired and makes a lot of messy boo-boos in his tidy bachelor pad.
He can't cope. You know the format. This is predictable entertainment geared for a family outing with gradeschoolers. The youngsters will like it. Johnson is sweetly goofy and comfortable with comedy. Madison Pettis gets overbearingly cute as the motherless child. Roselyn Sanchez as her ballet teacher is a welcomed bit of true sophistication. THE GAME PLAN shows you how "The Rock" looks in dance tights and it also answers the question "What ever happened to Morris Chesnut?"
Grade: C. Average Disney fare with a nice Johnson. THE GAME PLAN goes from some funny moments, mostly supplied by Dwayne Johnson, to a last half hour that's so syrupy you could pour it on a stack of pancakes.

EASTERN PROMISES (R)
Viggo Mortensen is terrific as a tough Eastern European connected to a Russian crime family in EASTERN PROMISES. He's totally in the skin of his character and you'll see every inch of it as he keeps you guessing the entire film. You can't predict what Nikolai will do next. The family is based in London where a midwife discovers a diary in a foreign teen mother's belongings after her baby is born. The mother dies. The humanitarian midwife unknowingly puts herself in conflict with the crime family while trying to get the diary translated from Russian to English. The book holds dark secrets.
Director David (A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE) Cronenberg does not shy away from bloody visuals, so be prepared. There's an intense knife fight in a steam bath that will make you cringe. It's also a film highlight. Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassell and silver-haired Armin Mueller-Stahl co-star in this story about sins, death of the soul, and redemption.
Grade: B. Bravo, Viggo! EASTERN PROMISES pack a punch as it proves Viggo Mortensen's acting versatility. It's violent and a bit slow at the beginning, but this is a smart, complicated crime thriller with good actors in fine form.

INTO THE WILD (R)
Brilliant actor Sean Penn wrote and directed one of the most annoying message movies of 2007. Annoying and long. The message is "If you want something in life, reach out and grab it." What we really see is that you can only afford to have an existential meltdown if you're a privileged suburban college grad. INTO THE WILD shows the hubris of a self-absorbed guy who's angry at his parents and basically runs away on a cross-country trip that will end in Alaska. He rejects a new car and a $24,000 savings account because he's discovered that material things are not important. That's his message to everyone he meets on the road. Fine. But in this age of house foreclosures and FEMA trailers, why does Sean Penn think I'd be thrilled to see some upscale Anglo kid set cash money on fire simply because he doesn't need it? Based on a book of the same name, it stars a very impressive Emile Hirsch as Christopher McCandless. Hal Holbrook is pure gold in a short supporting role as a lonely old widower who helps the young traveller. Christopher could've used his skills to aid the poor and sick like another young man his same age did on the road -- Gael Garcia Bernal's character in THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, a more substantial and shorter film. William Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden and Catherine Keener co-star. Vince Vaughn is miscast as a South Dakota farmer.
Grade: C-. The main movie character is packaged as a tragic hero on a spiritual quest but he comes off more like a selfish runaway. Penn's camerawork truly shows America the Beautiful. Good performances and stunning photography but there's something sour about INTO THE WILD.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (PG-13)
The Beatles' catalogue of songs inspired this musical directed by Julie Taymor. A poor English boy falls in love with an upper class American girl here in the States during the turbulent 1960s. He's Jude. She's Lucy. Yes, the story is slim, but it's a musical and the big stars are really Lennon and McCartney. The one problem with ACROSS THE UNIVERSE is that a good 1:45 film clocks in at 2:10. You often wish the likeable characters would stop talking and say it with music. As for the numbers, they range from good to great. My favorites were the gospel choir doing "Let It Be" followed by a pimped out Joe Cocker wailin' "Come Together" and the army induction number done to "I Want You" (She's So Heavy). Taymor's visual style dazzles in those. One of the best is also one of the simplest. Lucy
looks longingly at Jude across a crowded room and sings "If I Fell."
No hyper MTV cuts. The camera just rests on her sweet face as she sings. Less is often so much more. Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess play the young lovers.
Grade: B-. It takes itself a little too seriously. Still, on the whole, ACROSS THE UNIVERSE is a fine family film with classic Beatles' songs and fun cameos by such stars as Bono and the scrumptious Salma Hayek.

IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH (R)
What kind of youths are we sending into war and what has war done to their souls? That is the main question posed by Paul Haggis, the man who wrote/directed CRASH and wrote MILLION DOLLAR BABY. The question comes within a military murder mystery. Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon are the parents of a soldier who's missing after he returns from duty in Iraq. His Viet Nam veteran dad gets involved in the search with help from a police detective, very well played by Charlize Theron. Ugly truths surface. Haggis' screenplay for IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH doesn't repeatedly bazooka his theme at you, like his "racism-is-bad" message in CRASH. He gives the audience more credit to get the point here. For Haggis, this is a subtle film. Tommy Lee Jones is remarkable. Keep your eye on square-faced new actor Wes Chatham as Penning. After four years in the navy, he chose to try acting. Good choice.
Grade: A. Paul Haggis wrote and directed IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH, a strong drama lifted by a powerful performance by Tommy Lee Jones -- one that should make him an Oscar® nominee for Best Actor.

THE BRAVE ONE (R)
This drama is about death of the spirit. It has what have become trademarks of a Jodie Foster film. She's an independent, smart, likeable female whose personal space is surrounded and invaded by hyper-masculinity at its worst. When victimized, her brain and brass ovaries transform her into a warrior woman who fights back. Think THE ACCUSED, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and PANIC ROOM. Intellectually, no alpha male bully is a match for a Jodie Foster character. In THE BRAVE ONE, she's a Manhattan broadcaster whose fiancé dies after they're both brutally attacked by hoods one night in Central Park. Now paranoid, she buys a gun as protection. In a strange twist of fate, she becomes a vigilante with her ultimate target being those who killed her fiancé. She's a morning radio show host by day and a killer by night. Foster is brilliant at showing the woman's gradual emotional shutdown and ravished soul. But why exactly do we need this kind of revenge drama? Is meeting violence with violence and taking the law into one's own hands the mark of a truly brave person? Terrence Howard, as the disillusioned detective, gives another fine performance this year. He and Foster should reteam. Those two actors really connected.
Grade: C+. Jodie Foster is bold and blistering in a thriller that is suspenseful but more than a little absurd come the last act. The ending is all wrong. Still, I think THE BRAVE ONE will shoot to the Top 5 spot at the box office.

3:10 TO YUMA (R) 
Russell Crowe and Christian Bale pack a solid punch in a psychological western remake that's just as good as the original. In some ways, it's even better. Bale plays the hard-luck rancher who sticks to his personal code to do the right thing even when no one in the town supports him, even when he's not feeling special to his own family. Crowe is the intelligent, captured killer the rancher is hired to put on a train to court. Can notorious outlaw Ben Wade get into the rancher's head and seduce him with a bigger fee to set him free? Will the moral rancher keep other citizens from going Abu Ghraib on the prisoner? Some of the shoot-out action is too over-the-top and there are times when Ben Foster, as the head of Wade's gang, looks like he's doing Bob Fosse's THE REVENGE OF BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. That aside, this is still a mighty fine movie. Director James Mangold did a smart job finding a contemporary heart in the 1957 classic. Great work by Logan Lerman as the rancher's oldest boy. Christian Bale -- amazing actor. Love that name. It sounds like something you'd have to raise for Ted Haggard.
Grade: B+. This new arrival of 3:10 TO YUMA ranks as one of Hollywood's best westerns to come along in years.

THE HUNTING PARTY (R)
An undercover Midwest cop can catch a senator tapping his foot in a men's room stall like Ann Miller in KISS ME KATE, but the CIA still hasn't caught Osama bin Laden after six years. That's the political point of this conspiracy theory comedy with Richard Gere as a has-been network news star reporter. Now filing minor reports for obscure foreign markets, he intends to make a big USA comeback by interviewing the most wanted war criminal in Bosnia. Simon Hunt (Gere) is the hard-drinking, aging wild west cowboy chasing the bad guy. Instead of a horse, he's got a used, stolen car. Terrence Howard and Jesse Eisenberg score as his trusty journalism sidekicks. 
Grade: C+. Good Gere but THE HUNTING PARTY starts off as a funny road movie then makes a dark u-turn and becomes a revenge drama.

NO END IN SIGHT (Unrated)
What a level-headed, intelligent, enlightening, frightening and infuriating documentary about the war Charles Ferguson has written and directed! There's no one like a Michael Moore putting his entertainer persona into the scenes. It's a straight-forward, no-frills examination of how we got into the Iraqi conflict and the effect our military occupation is having on our nation's image. Ferguson talks to top Washington, DC insiders. You'll get the uncomfortable feeling that "We the People of the United States" (the words that begin our Constitution) lost control of our elected officials, especially members of the current administration. You will learn facts and see footage that should have made light years ago on network newscasts. The revelations in this production made me want to rant like Charlton Heston's angry astronaut when he finds the broken Statue of Liberty in PLANET OF THE APES. To see if this documentary is playing near you, go to www.NoEndInSightMovie.com.
Grade: A. Take family. Take friends. NO END IN SIGHT is one of the best and most important releases of 2007.

BALLS OF FURY (PG-13)
The Year of the Bear continues. Dan Fogler is the newest full-figured, furry guy who gets a foxy lady. BALLS OF FURY doesn't score a B+ like KNOCKED UP with Seth Rogen or SUPERBAD with stocky Jonah Hill, but Dan has major comedy chops and a warm screen personality. He's the former pingpong champion whose career and life fell apart after his G.I. father was killed. Now the FBI recruits him to play once again in order to help find his father's killer. To do this, Randy Daytona (Fogler) gets guidance from legendary table tennis coach, Master Wong (James Hong). Wong is blind. And he's got a hot niece. Feng, the villain who runs a underground pingpong tournament, is played with expert daffiness by Christopher Walken. George Lopez co-stars in this comedy equivalent to fast food cheese.
Grade: C+. A few good yuks for a few good bucks. Like THE NANNY DIARIES, it's average but clever actors give it a boost. Screen veterans Christopher Walken and James Hong are a hoot handling BALLS OF FURY.

RESURRECTING THE CHAMP (PG-13)
As the struggling Denver newspaperman, separated from his wife and trying to get out from under the shadow of his celebrated broadcaster father, Josh Hartnett does some of his best work to date. Samuel L. Jackson, speaking in a higher pitch, is in peak form as the feisty, alcoholic homeless man who meets the sports writer behind a bar one night and tells him about the legends he fought when he was pro boxer "Battling Bob Satterfield" -- legends like Jake LaMotta and Rocky Marciano. The amazed reporter profiles the forgotten man many thought dead. That human interest story brings him more attention than he's ever gotten in his newsroom or from his father. He gets network TV facetime. He becomes a hero to his little boy.
Unfortunately, while in the glow of the spotlight, shadows appear again -- shadows for the journalist and his subject. Alan Alda and Teri Hatcher co-star in this story that doesn't quite know if it wants to be a statement about father figures or the need for more responsibility and substance in today's field of journalism where reporters themselves can become celebrities overnight. For both the boxer and the writer, RESURRECTING THE CHAMP is definitely a tale of redemption.
**** 4 out of 5. A powerful performance by Samuel L. Jackson lifts the standard inspirational script to another level. Just imagine the take-off Dave Chappelle could've done of this movie on Comedy Central.

THE NANNY DIARIES (PG-13)
A spoonful of WORKING GIRL, a pinch of MARY POPPINS and a pint of THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA. Blend with a bestseller about babysitters and you've got THE NANNY DIARIES. It's a fluffy "chick flick" comedy with a twist. A down-to-earth New Jersey girl graduates with a degree in anthropology. She's unexpectedly hired as a nanny by a demanding Upper East Side Manhattan Mrs. with no maternal skills whatsoever. On that turf, the graduate observes the divisions due to race and income in that concrete jungle area inhabited by the rich.
Women of color and low income white immigrant female domestic helpers are shown the same regard as kitchen appliances. Annie the nanny charms her little charge and senses a cheating husband. For young audiences, Scarlett Johansson is perfect as a working class Mary Poppins. Laura Linney is absolutely sensational as the socialite mom. She'll make you laugh. She'll make you mad. She'll break you heart as she loses a child's love because she hasn't given any. Paul Giamatti and singer Alicia Keys co-star. Just like Lance Bass, Keys has only one facial expression which she uses for every single scene. Chris Evans, the handsome flamer from FANTASTIC FOUR, plays Annie's romantic interest.
**** 4 out of 5. Predictable, yes, but also the THE NANNY DIARIES is a wise and witty comedy in places. The bright pace, the racial divide element, plus the outstanding Laura Linney give it some snap.

SUPERBAD (R)
Two doofy dudes graduating from high school in Los Angeles are really afraid to grow up. Their fears are masked by an obsession to get liquor and sex. That obsession puts them on a road to one of the most mortifying nights of their lives. They'll discover that what they really want is something more than liquor and sex. We'll discover that SUPERBAD is one of the funniest, freshest comedies of 2007. Stocky Jonah Hill and slim Michael Cera connect like Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder in THE PRODUCERS, Jack Klugman and Tony Randall. Screenwriter Seth Rogen, with a Village People moustache, plays "Officer Michaels." Rogen is my new comedy hero. I loved "McLovin" and the sleeping bag scene is a minor classic. I wished I'd written it. Like KNOCKED UP, it's about 15 minutes too long but, overall, it really works. I hadn't laugh so hard at a movie this year since....well, since KNOCKED UP.
**** 4 out of 5. Rude, crude, sweet and smart. SUPERBAD is a sure-bet for big laughs.

THE INVASION (PG-13)
This is the third remake of the 1956 low-budget sci-fi classic, THE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. The producers of THE INVASION must've felt that any work of art can be fixed with shots of hot babes in their underwear, high-speed car chases and lots of gunfire. Nicole Kidman stars as the divorced psychiatrist in a tight skirt on the run to save herself and her little boy from her ex-husband. He's been infected with the alien virus that turns humans into emotionless, soulless zombies who seek to turn other humans into the same. The original film is an edgy paranoic nightmare about forced political conformity. The most terrifying thing about this version is the script. What a stinkbomb. Poor Nicole. Did she learn nothing after re-doing THE STEPFORD WIVES?
** 2 out of 5. Nicole Kidman works hard in another clumsy, clunker of a remake. Kill it before it multiplies.

DADDY DAY CAMP (PG)
Two bumbling dads take over a summer day camp. One dad gets the chance to stand up to the camp bully from his own youth. That bully now runs a nearby rival camp. Cuba Gooding, Jr. assumes the role previously played by Eddie Murphy in this sequel to DADDY DAY CARE. With clueless family guys and dorky kids in the woods, can puke and poop gags be far behind? Unfortunately, no. I understand the actor's life. Sometimes you just have to book the gig, take the money and run so you can pay the bills. But if there was ever a good actor who needed to get a better agent as quickly as possible, it's Cuba Gooding, Jr. This picture was directed by Fred ("The Wonder Years") Savage.
* 1 out of 5. What a skunk. Take the kids only if they've been bad and you need to teach them a lesson.

STARDUST (PG-13)
Good parents, wicked witches, a magical kingdom, a handsome hero, power-hungry princes, pirates and the proof that true love is the most powerful force in the universe -- all those elements are in this lively fantasy. The most fantastic elements of all, however, are the rich performances by Michelle Pfeiffer as the witch who'd kill to retain her beauty and Robert De Niro as the pirate leader on a flying ship. Parts of the first hour lose a little fizz when the young leads -- played by Charlie Cox and Claire Danes -- are squabbling before they fall in love. Things pop again as soon as Pfeiffer and De Niro appear. The last hour sparkles. Welcome back, Michelle! You look marvelous.
**** 4 out of 5. STARDUST shines. It's a hip, funny, storybook surprise that will keep the kids and you entertained. De Niro's comedy is king and Pfeiffer is Pfabulous. Peter O'Toole and Rupert Everett co-star.

EL CANTANTE (R)
What could hurt the marketability of this film is the fact that mainstream America is not as familiar with the late Latin music legend Hector Lavoe as it is with Ray Charles, Johnny Cash or Judy Garland. It won't know how accurate Marc Anthony is in his portrayal. He stars as Lavoe, who angers his father by leaving Puerto Rico to seek a singing career in New York City. Lavoe falls for the beautiful and tough Puchi, played with ghetto fabulousness by Jennifer Lopez. Like most bio pics, there's addiction. He loves drugs. She becomes his wife and enabler as he finds fame. It's boogie nights until death appears. Great soundtrack and nice job by actor John Ortiz as salsa great Willie Colón.
*** 3 out of 5. Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony have several strong moments as the characters change from the 1960s to the 1980s. EL CANTANTE is a satisfactory, but standard bio pic with that made-for-LifetimeTV feel.

THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM (PG-13)
A fast action movie with a soul -- and the compromised soul here belongs to the lapsed Catholic we know as Jason Bourne. He came to New York City to reinvent himself. He succeeded. In a way, it's "A Star Is Bourne" with Jason trying to flee his fame. This is one intelligent thrill ride of a picture. Matt Damon, playing the drama of man who wants to reclaim his real self and come to terms with the deeds of his past, makes Bourne a tainted hero who is perfect for the tone of our times. You sense that he's aware of his sins and knows there must be some kind of penance as he runs for his life all over the globe. David Strathairn, Joan Allen and Albert Finney add to the quality.
***** 5 out of 5. Wow! In the category of 2007 summer sequels, THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM is the best. Applause to Paul Greengrass for directing this paranoid, high-speed thriller. It's also the best of the Bourne trilogy.

THE SIMPSONS MOVIE (PG-13)
Homer must deal with his selfishness, his family, Flanders, religion, global warming, the government, and being undressed by small woodland creatures. Is it great? No. Does it always seem fresh? No. But it's funnier and more believable than I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK LARRY or most reports on ACCESS HOLLYWOOD. Excellent guest voiceover work from Albert Brooks as Cargill. Writer (and director) James L. Brooks is my hero.
*** 3 out of 5. Some big, inspired laughs. The bit with Homer and the pig had me giggling several hours later. Rated PG-13 for full frontal cartoon nudity. D'Oh!

NO RESERVATIONS (PG)
This romantic comedy has "in-flight movie" written all over it. For something light to pass the time, it'll do. Catherine Zeta-Jones stars as a high maintenance restaurant chef with an empty life in Manhattan. Suddenly, an unmarried relative's death makes her the guardian of her niece, a sweet girl played by Abigail Breslin. While taking on that complicated role at home, a handsome and happy-go- lucky new assistant chef upsets the single aunt's routine back at work. You can guess the rest. Aaron Eckhart (the dude with a chin like Catherine's father-in-law, Kirk Douglas) rounds out the trio. Little miss Breslin is the best ingredient.
*** 3 out of 5. Pleasant. No more, no less. It's like a Food Network show with a plot. A wafer-thin plot.

HAIRSPRAY (PG)
What was originally cool and subversive onscreen and on Broadway is now cute and synthetic family fare. As a concerned, plus-sized mom in segregated Baltimore, John Travolta is very good but he's not Divine. He's more like "Bear in the Big Blue Housedress." He's too safe and clean in a role made famous by a drag queen. Queen Latifah is too young for her role. Newcomer Nikki Blonsky is the right choice for the lead. Michelle Pfeiffer and Christopher Walken are wonderful. But they're all at the mercy of one-dimensional direction. The John Waters 1988 indie cult classic about a chubby white girl who upsets a local teen dance show by being pro-Civil Rights in 1962 has become a mass market movie musical that is way too perky. It's like being trapped in an elevator with Richard Simmons.
It'll make money but it's not in a class with ON THE TOWN, WEST SIDE STORY, FUNNY GIRL or CABARET.
*** 3 out of 5. Like a theme park revue, HAIRSPRAY has been packaged to please everybody. I miss the low-rent edge of the original film. Think of this incarnation as GREASE 3: IT'S NEGRO DAY!

I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK & LARRY (PG-13)
Two burly New York firefighters (one a grieving widower with kids and the other a macho ladies' man) pretend to be gay domestic partners so the widower can retain insurance benefits for his children. Hijinks and homophobia ensue. Adam Sandler and Kevin James star. Kevin commits to the dad's heartbreak and rises above the script. One Asian character is such an awful ra