Falls (star)(star)(star)1/2
Director Julian Schnabel’s poetic film biography about Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas. The movie is filled with indelible images, and Johnny Depp and Sean Penn appear in supporting roles. (MPAA rating: R)
— Mark Caro
Dungeons & Dragons (star)
The movie portrays a fantasy world of elves, dwarfs, thieves and magicians ruled over by an idealistic young queen. It is testament to the weakness of the script that it even drags down a master actor like Jeremy Irons, who gives a wide-eyed scenery-chewing performance as the evil wizard Profion. (PG-13)
— John Petrakis
Requiem for a Dream (star)(star)(star)
A bleak, jazzy nightmare of a movie squeezed memorably out of Hubert Selby Jr.’s horrific 1978 novel about the underbelly of Brighton Beach, N.Y. Set near the Coney Island amusement park, the film throbs with emotion, especially when star Ellen Burstyn appears as the good-hearted mother of luckless junkie Harry (Jared Leto). (no MPAA rating)
Vertical Limit (star)(star)1/2
A morass of dimwitted family crises and hack action-movie cliches packed with some of the most visually exciting thrill scenes ever to crawl up (and fall off) a mountainside. Laced with jaw-dropping cliffhangers and cursed with twice as much mind-numbing silliness, “Vertical Limit” is a movie that’s split right down the middle. (PG-13)
FAST-FORWARD
A peek at future DVD/video release dates (dates subject to change by studios):
Proof of Life — June 19
Thirteen Days — July 10
Chocolat — Aug. 7
THIS WEEKEND ON CABLE TV
Capsule reviews, by Michael Wilmington unless otherwise credited, of selected movies shown on premium cable TV during prime time.
The Skulls (star)1/2
9 p.m. Friday, STARZ
Joshua Jackson plays an underprivileged, overachieving Harvard pre-law student drawn into a world of an elite campus secret society. (PG-13)
Screwed (star)
7 p.m. Saturday, STARZ
A comedy of errors and a bungled crime are at the center of this movie, which stars Norm MacDonald, Dave Chappelle and Danny De Vito. The press notes say this film is a homage to those plot-driven screwball comedies of the 1930s. If so, this film has not only been recut prior to its release, but also chopped, filleted and minced. (PG-13) — J.P.
Scream 3 (star)(star)
11 p.m. Saturday, SHO
Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox Arquette and other familiar characters return for the final installment of the horror triology, where a masked slasher once again wreaks havoc on a group of young adults. The film takes itself too seriously and adheres too strictly to its formula to avoid becoming what it parodies. (R) — M.C.
Keeping the Faith (star)(star)1/2
7 p.m. Sunday, STARZ
Ben Stiller, Edward Norton and Jenna Elfman play a rabbi, a priest and a girl who grow from childhood friends to love-crossed adults in this romantic comedy. (PG-13) — M.C.
The Whole Nine Yards (star)(star)
9 p.m. Sunday, MAX
An unassuming dentist (Matthew Perry) who innocently befriends a contract killer (Bruce Willis) stumbles into a world of assassins for hire and must fight his way out. (R)
