Here are selected capsule reviews of movies in current release (for films released this week, see full reviews in this section).
About a Boy (star)(star)(star)1/2
A 38-year-old selfish bachelor (Hugh Grant) who likes dating single mothers strikes up an unlikely friendship with the 12-year-old son (impressive newcomer Nicholas Hoult) of a depressed woman (Toni Collette). PG-13. 1:42.– M.C.
All About the Benjamins (star)(star)
Rapper turned actor Ice Cube gives his best performance since “Three Kings” in this buddy action flick involving a diamond heist and a lottery ticket. With Mike Epps, Carmen Chaplin. R. 1:30.– R.E.
American Chai (star)(star)
A low-budget American indie romantic comedy-drama about a young Indian-American student who has defied his wealthy parents and is majoring in music — instead of pursuing a pre-med program. R. 1:32.– M.W.
Atanarjuat — The Fast Runner (star)(star)(star)(star)
The remarkable Canadian Inuit film, made by a mostly Inuit cast and crew, that won the Camera d’Or (for Best First Feature) at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. Full of painstaking ethnographic detail, breathless excitement and epic beauty, the movie takes place in an Inuit community in the Canadian Far North. Guided by first-time director Zacharias Kunuk, we are immersed in a timeless tale (based on Inuit legends) of jealousy, murder and savage justice: of an evil tribal chief’s son who tries to kill two Inuit brothers to steal a wife, and of how one brother — Atanarjuat (Natar Ungalaaq) — survives, runs fast and fights back. Written and co-produced by the late Paul Apak Angilirq; beautifully photographed by Norman Cohn, this is a landmark work. In Inuktitut (Eskimo); English subtitled. No MPAA rating (adult: sensuality, nudity and violence). 2:52.– M.W.
Bad Company (star)(star)
“Bad Company” matches Chris Rock with Anthony Hopkins — Rock as a reluctant CIA operative from the New York streets and Hopkins as his rock-solid British-American mentor — and though they’re a good pair, it’s not a very good movie. It’s slick but hollow, a commercially calculated fish-out-of-water comedy thriller. PG-13. 1:51.– M.W.
The Believer (star)(star)(star)
A portrait, in movie-thriller terms, of a smart, fierce, argumentative young New York City Jewish man who tries to turn himself deliberately into an anti-Semitic thug. With Ryan Gosling, Theresa Russell, Billy Zane. R. 1:40.– M.W.
The Bourne Identity (star)(star)(star)
Matt Damon portrays Jason Bourne, the man discovered floating in the Mediterranean Sea with bullet holes in his back who can’t remember who he is. The 1980 Robert Ludlum novel is a gripping spy-thriller, as Bourne tries to figure out who he is — and why he’s being hunted. Damon may not be one of your beefier action heroes, yet he has the physical presence to make the fight scenes and danger-dodging more than credible. With Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen. PG-13. 1:51.– M.C.
Changing Lanes (star)(star)(star)
Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Affleck as two drivers racing for crucial court dates crash on New York City’s FDR Drive and ignite a day-and-a-half-long war waged over cell phones and computers. R. 1:38.– M.W.
Cherish (star)(star)1/2
The idea of using house arrest as a situational spark for personal growth is a lively one, and “Cherish” deserves kudos just for the surprising freshness it brings to the romantic-thriller genre. The film uneasily shifts tone from offbeat comedy to thriller as Zoe (Robin Tunney) is falsely accused of murder and confined to a warehouse with a monitoring device around her ankle. R. 1:40.– L.K.
Cinema Paradiso: The New Version (star)(star)(star)(star)
A cinema event: the greatly expanded director’s cut of the well-loved modern Italian classic about Toto/Salvatore, a small-town boy who loves movies (played by the child Salvatore Cascio and the adults Marco Leonardi and Jacques Perrin) and Alfredo (Philippe Noiret), the great wounded bear of a projectionist who nurtures that love. Tornatore has added 51 minutes that were removed before the movie won its 1989 Cannes Grand Jury Prize and foreign language Oscar. This restoration deepens the characters and adds more romance and pathos: filling out the previously sketchy story of Toto’s loss of youthful love, Elena, and what happens when they meet again. The drastic trims probably did help make “Paradiso” a worldwide hit, but I prefer this version. In Italian; English subtitled. R. 2:53.– M.W.
CQ (star)(star)(star)
Roman Coppola, son of Francis Ford Coppola, follows in sister Sofia’s footsteps (she made “The Virgin Suicides”) with a film — an endearing send-up/valentine to personal filmmaking a la the French New Wave — that is visually compelling and highly entertaining, in an in-jokey sort of way. R. 1:31.– L.K.
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (star)(star)
Pairing live action with animated sequences, “Altar Boys” documents five teens’ hell-raising through cartoon sequences, while their real lives produce the more serious consequences. Fine performances can’t keep the gimmick afloat, as this thematically sprawling film never finds its dramatic core. R. 1:45.– R.E.
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (star)(star)1/2
A movie of high spirits and ambition — a long, deep, richly textured story that covers a period from the early ’30s through the mid-’90s. Callie Khouri takes the girl group of the title, the Ya-Yas, from feisty girlhood to reckless youth to cantankerous old age. With Sandra Bullock, Ashley Judd, Ellen Burstyn, Fionnula Flanagan, Shirley Knight and Maggie Smith. PG-13. 1:57.– M.W.
The Emperor’s New Clothes (star)(star)(star)1/2
One of the cleverest, most enjoyable historical fantasies to hit screens in a long time, “The Emperor’s New Clothes” is a sumptuous showcase for Ian Holm, who delivers not one but two great performances: one as the exiled emperor and another as the commoner who impersonates him. The script wittily plays with the public’s long-held fascination with enigmatic Napoleon, arguably the most written-about, speculated-about figure in history. The film enriches this complex web of truth and myth by weaving deft romantic comedy, history, and even a dazzling, poignant bit of psychology into this delightful period piece. PG. 1:47. — L.K.
Enigma (star)(star)(star)
A British romantic spy thriller that’s a skillful entertainment with a unique setting: 1943 in Bletchley Park, center for the elite code-breakers whose job was to monitor and decipher messages to and from the Nazi high command. With Dougray Scott, Kate Winslet, Jeremy Northam, Saffron Burrows. R. 1:57.– M.W.
Enough (star)(star)1/2
Jennifer Lopez plays a battered wife and at first, she’s excellent. But it’s probably symptomatic of what’s wrong the movie that, by the end, we may have trouble believing she’s in any real danger. Despite a story that starts off convincingly and well, “Enough” turns into melodramatic mush. With Billy Campbell. PG-13. 1:55.– M.W.
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (star)(star)(star)(star)
Spielberg’s gentle science-fiction tale about a little boy from a broken home and the lost space creature with whom he secretly bonds, has been extensively restored and even partly reshot for its 20th anniversary. PG. 2:00.– M.W.
Hey Arnold! The Movie (star)(star)
Urban renewal gets the Saturday morning cartoon treatment in this big-screen adaptation of the likable but lightweight animated TV series “Hey Arnold!” In the movie version, the assorted characters mobilize to save their funky neighborhood from conversion to a state-of-the-art shopping mall. It’s a refreshing theme for a kids’ movie, one that incorporates history and urban flavor, not to mention a little street activism, into the usual mix. But ultimately “Hey Arnold!” is modest, unremarkable fare, suited more to the small screen. PG. 1:18. — L.K.
Hollywood Ending (star)(star)(star)
An often ingenious satire on modern moviemaking — with Woody Allen as once-brilliant, neurotic filmmaker Val Waxman who suddenly goes psychosomatically blind right before the shooting of his comeback vehicle. With Mark Rydell, Tea Leoni, Treat Williams. PG-13. 1:54.– M.W.
Ice Age (star)(star)(star)
An often rollicking show about an awesome trek by a mismatched animal band to return a human infant to its tribe just as the last Ice Age begins. Voice cast includes John Leguizamo, Ray Romano, Denis Leary, Goran Visnjic. PG. 1:28.– M.W.
The Importance of Being Earnest (star)(star)1/2
Director and screenwriter Oliver Parker harnesses the raw genius and comedy of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” through a cinematic parliament of fine performances, but succumbs to his need to “add” to works that require little ornamentation. PG. 1:40.– R.E.
Insomnia (star)(star)(star)
Director Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to “Memento” is a crafty but conventional remake of Erik Skjoldbjaerg’s 1997 Norwegian thriller about a tainted cop who can’t sleep while investigating a girl’s murder. Al Pacino plays the homicide detective who, with his young partner (Martin Donovan), travels to Alaska and gets involved in a cat-and-mouse game with the chief suspect, played by Robin Williams. R. 1:58.– M.C.
Juwanna Mann (star)
When bad-boy basketball star Jamal Jeffries (Miguel A. Nunez Jr.) gets bounced out of the NBA for his offensive antics, he is selected by the WNBA (in drag as Juwanna Mann). With no laughs and even less originality, the film fouls out early in the game. With Vivica A. Fox, Tommy Davidson, Kevin Pollack, Kim Wayans. PG-13. 1:31.– R.E.
The Lady and the Duke (star)(star)(star)1/2
France’s master filmmaker Eric Rohmer breaks new ground at the age of 81 with this superb new film, using digital technologies to capture the history of both France and the cinema. A tense, romantic fresco of the French Revolution, as seen through the eyes of real-life Scots aristocrat Lady Grace Elliott (Lucy Russell), whose passionate friend is the “radical” Duke of Orleans (Jean-Claude Dreyfus), it’s a vivifying film, though done in a style — the action depicted in theatrical tableaux against dozens of 18th Century period settings painted by Jean-Baptiste Marot — that takes some getting used to it. Lovers of Rohmer and of classical cinema, though, will have few problems. (In French; English subtitled.) No MPAA rating (family, with caution for disturbing themes of war and violence). 2:09.– M.W.
Last Orders (star)(star)(star)(star)
This superb little picture about three old South London drinking buddies (Bob Hoskins, Tom Courtenay, David Hemmings) driving to the funeral of their best friend, Jack (Michael Caine), with frequent flashbacks to the packed half-century they all shared together — is so perfectly done that just thinking of it afterward puts a smile on my face. With Helen Mirren. R. 1:49.– M.W.
Late Marriage (star)(star)(star)1/2
The winner of nine Israeli Academy Awards, “Late Marriage” is an inventive cinematic contradiction: a romantic comedy with a downbeat ending, a family drama with no sympathetic family members, a love story where love takes a back seat to security. (In Hebrew and Georgian; English subtitled.) No MPAA rating (nudity, graphic sex, strong language). 1:40.– J.P.
“Les Destinees”
Olivier Assayas’ highly sympathetic, often marvelous adaptation of the long family novel by Jacques Chardonne — set in the French provinces among the Barnerys and the Pommerels, two families that deal, respectively, in fine porcelain and cognac. Starring Emmanuelle Beart (dazzlingly beautiful) and Charles Berling as the central couple, and Isabelle Huppert as the first wife, this is a literary film on the grand scale of “Gone With the Wind” or Visconti’s “The Leopard,” spanning three decades and a wealth of passionate incident and social detail: sumptuous, intelligent and made, like the Barnery porcelain, not for the mass market but for connoisseurs. (In French; English subtitled.) No MPAA rating. Parents cautioned for some mature suggestions of sensuality. 2:53..–M.W.
Like Mike (star)(star)(star)
Young rapper Lil Bow Wow stars in this sports film that blends the durable, heartstring-tugging underdog-makes-good plots from family-friendly sports movies such as “Angels in the Outfield” and “The Bad News Bears” with the wide-eyed, idealistic orphans of “Annie.” The result is predictable sentiment from first shot to last, but sweet and likable fun. Running time: 100 minutes. PG (for brief mild language). 1:40.–L.K.
Lilo & Stitch (star)(star)1/2
Departing from the cute and spunky talking animals that have long been its stock-in-trade, Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch” features a diabolical creature from outer space with pointy ears and teeth who speaks a Pokemon-style garbled gibberish. Lilo, a lonely little Hawaiian girl who adopts Stitch as a pet when the creature is banished to Earth, is the more familiar Disney character who will strike a chord with both parents and kids. Lilo, a cute misfit inexplicably drawn to Elvis Presley records, bonds with the unlovable Stitch and teaches him a thing or two about family as “Lilo & Stitch” borrows a bit heavily from Steven Spielberg’s “E.T.” PG. 1:25.–L.K.
Men in Black 2 (star)(star)
This sequel seems to have everything going for it, not the least being Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith reprising their roles in the surprise smash-hit comedy of 1997 as Agents Kay and Jay of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, Division 6. That agency keeps tabs on all the scaled, furry and bug-eyed extraterrestrials who actually live among us. But “MIB II” follows a business-as-usual blockbuster blueprint that rarely surprises you, a prototypical big-Hollywood redo in which even the potentially cool jokes tend to sputter and the batty zest and spirit of the first is absent. PG-13 (for sci-fi action violence and some provocative humor). 1:22. –M.W.
Minority Report (star)(star)(star)(star)
Based on science-fiction genius Philip K. Dick’s 1956 “Fantastic Universe” story, this riveting futuristic journey fuses Steven Spielberg’s moviemaking expertise and sunny personality with a chillier, more pessimistic, far less populist vision. It’s sci-fi noir full of spellbinding menace: with Tom Cruise oozing superstar charm and intensity as a Pre-Crime cop-on-the-run in a future where murders are solved and killers are arrested in advance of the crimes. With Colin Farrell, Max von Sydow, Samantha Morton, Tim Blake Nelson, Peter Stormare. PG-13. 2:25.– M.W.
Monsoon Wedding (star)(star)(star)1/2
Mira Nair’s film is a sexy, sweet, entertaining movie about the huge wedding reception that unites two upper-middle-class families in Delhi — the bride’s an earthy Punjabi group, the groom’s more sedate Hindus. (In English, Punjabi and Hindi; English subtitled.) R. 1:53.– M.W.
Mr. Deeds (star)1/2
With his cool-doofus comic style and engaging little-boy grin, Adam Sandler is one actor who often triumphs over the badness of his own movies — and “Mr. Deeds” gives him a lot to triumph over. It’s a terrible remake of Frank Capra’s “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,” that great Depression-era comedy about a small-town hero who inherits a fortune and is whisked off to Manhattan, where he wins hearts and outwits the city slickers. Sandler and Wynona Ryder bravely take on the old Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur parts, but the new movie is just a smart-aleck show with lead-footed jokes about a bad-tempered grinning boob making monkeys out of transparent crooks, snobs and meanies. Misdirected by Steven Brill; John Turturro steals the only laughs as Deeds’ flamboyant butler. PG-13. 1:31.– M.W.
Murder By Numbers (star)(star)(star)
In her best performance in years, Sandra Bullock portrays an emotionally damaged detective who, with her level-headed partner (Ben Chaplin), investigates a Leopold-and-Loeb-type murder committed by two alienated teens. R. 1:59.– M.C.
Murderous Maids (Les Blessures Assassines) (star)(star)(star)
Lucidity, austerity and quiet compassion are among the surprising main virtues of writer-director Jean-Pierre Denis’ “Murderous Maids,” based on the notorious 1933 Papin sisters case, where two lower-class sisters, employed as maids, murdered their employers with unusual savagery. (In French; English subtitled.) No MPAA rating (adult: nudity, sensuality, language and violence). 1:34.– M.W.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding (star)(star)
Ethnic caricatures abound in this airy Cinderella story about a Greek-American ugly-ducking-turned-princess who meets her WASP-y Prince Charming. PG. 1:35.– L.K.
Panic Room (star)(star)(star)
David Fincher steps up to the Alfred Hitchcock plate with a thriller that has Jodie Foster’s character hiding in a high-tech bunker with her daughter as home invaders look for loot. R. 1:48.– M.C.
Pepe le Moko (star)(star)(star)(star)
One of the great 1930s French poetic-realist films, beautifully restored and re-subtitled after more than a half-century of U.S. neglect: Julien Duvivier’s exotic, cynical-romantic noir thriller about Pepe le Moko (Jean Gabin) the expatriate gangster and King of the Casbah, who rules Algiers’ crime-ridden quarters but longs for Paris — and is lured from safety by a chic Parisian socialite (Mireille Balin) and a wily cop (Lucas Gridoux). A tremendous entertainment and a major influence on later noirs like “Casablanca” and “The Third Man,” this classic offers racy writing, rich atmosphere and photography, peerless ensemble acting and the kind of pop-mythic romance that can still win and break audience hearts. With Marcel Dalio, Fernand Charpin, Gabriel Gabrio, Frehel. In French; English subtitled. No MPAA rating (parents cautioned: violence, drug use and strong suggestions of sensuality). 1:32.– M.W.
The Powerpuff Girls Movie (star)(star)1/2
The big-screen version of Cartoon Network’s hip and clever TV series retells the basic story of how Professor Utonium created Blossom (the level-headed leader), Bubbles (the cute one) and Buttercup (the hot-headed one), and, by mistake, the evil monkey Mojo Jojo. Familiar stuff to Powerpuff fans, but the movie has most of the power-pop rock spunk that makes the TV show work on so many levels. PG (for non-stop frenetic animated action). 1:24.–S.P.
Pumpkin (star)(star)(star)
This wildly uneven but intermittently droll collegiate comedy about a designer-clad sorority sister who falls in love with a handicapped guy comes replete with certain insouciance and an admirable sense of daring. Thanks to a nicely whacked-out performance from star Christina Ricci, there’s a consistent tension between good and bad taste, warm emotionalism and outlandish stupidity. It’s enough to make “Pumpkin” more interesting than most of the films with which it is competing. R. 1:53. –C.J.
Ram Dass: Fierce Grace (star)(star)(star)
Author and spiritual adviser Ram Dass emerges as a humble, warm and thoroughly likeable subject in this documentary profile by filmmaker Mickey Lemle. “Fierce Grace” tells the story of Richard Alpert’s evolution from scion of privilege to Harvard University professor whose controversial experiments with LSD led to his firing and finally to his transformative journey to India in in 1967. What’s most moving about the film is how Ram Dass uses the stroke that left him partially paralyzed in 1997 as a metaphor for his own spiritual limitations. No MPAA rating. 1:33.–L.K.
The Rookie (star)(star)(star)
Based on the real-life tale of a Texas high school science teacher and baseball coach who gets a late shot at becoming a big-league pitcher, this Disney drama is soft and fuzzy and full of emotional father-son dynamics a la “Field of Dreams.” Stars Dennis Quaid. G. 2:09.–M.C.
Scooby-Doo (star)(star)1/2
The live-action “Scooby-Doo” succeeds in gleefully resonating its cartoon counterpart, as long as we remember how slapstick and repetitive cartoon humor can be. Unlike other lead-balloon cartoon adaptations, “Scooby-Doo” has the wisdom to both take itself seriously and laugh at itself. PG. 1:27.– R.E.
The Scorpion King (star)(star)
A desert actioner without much character, story or real suspense, it’s also a star-making vehicle for pro wrestling’s glowering hunk The Rock — which recasts him as the monster he played in “The Mummy Returns,” drops him into ancient Egypt and surrounds him with fiendish villains, comic boobs, desert babes and lots of CGI effects. PG-13. 1:34.– M.W.
Spider-Man (star)(star)(star)
Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” boasts appealing lead performers — Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker/Spidey and Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson — plus a formidable villain (Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin/Norman Osborn) and, of course, the lure of the most everyday of superheroes, a spider-bit teen who can shoot webs out of his wrists and swing Tarzan-like around Manhattan. The movie’s fun until it grows tedious and violent. PG-13. 2:01.– M.C.
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (star)(star)(star)
Borrowing a page from Walt Disney’s book on sweeping, epic animated adventures, DreamWorks’ “Spirit” trots confidently in the hoof-steps of old-fashioned family films like “Black Beauty” and “The Black Stallion.” The film doesn’t break much new ground stylistically or story-wise, but it’s a solid family adventure. G. 1:22.– L.K.
Star Wars: Episode II–Attack of the Clones (star)(star)(star)(star)
George Lucas has the penultimate chuckle with “Episode II”: The fifth movie in his long-running series of grandiose, light-hearted space operas and the second in chronological order is the most visually spectacular and exciting of all “Star Wars” movies to date. Lucas carries the saga 10 years past “Episode I — The Phantom Menace,” extending the yarns of old favorites and newer additions such as the young Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), and his cocky protege Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen). PG. 2:22.– M.W.
The Sum of All Fears (star)(star)
The latest movie from a Tom Clancy techno-thriller is a big, dull, empty picture with telegraphed plot lines, until a stolen nuclear device is detonated by terrorists in Baltimore during the Super Bowl. Then the special effects people take over for about 20 breathless minutes, with Ben Affleck, as CIA agent Jack Ryan running around in a devastated city, looking horribly worried. A good director (Phil Alden Robinson) and cast (Morgan Freeman, James Cromwell, Leiv Schreiber, Alan Bates, Philip Baker Hall) waste their time and ours. PG-13. 1:59.– M.W.
Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (star)(star)(star)1/2
A disquieting, introspective meditation on life’s big questions, Jill Sprecher’s second feature is a Manhattan-set ensemble drama with characters whose lives collide through fate, luck, and chance. R. 1:42.– L.K.
Ultimate X (star)(star)1/2
ESPN’s “Ultimate X” delivers breathless action by putting the viewer in the centrifuge of “extreme sports.” It’s too bad that writer/director Bruce Hendricks subtracts from the experience by crafting a corporate propaganda film posing as a documentary. PG. 0:42.– R.E.
Undercover Brother (star)(star)(star)
Director Malcolm D. Lee’s cheerful blaxploitation spoof has Eddie Griffin’s retro-’70s title character trying to bust up a conspiracy that turns a viable black presidential candidate into a fried chicken huckster. This is no work of art, and most of the white characters are lame, but the movie delivers laughs. PG-13. 1:26.– M.C.
Unfaithful (star)(star)(star)1/2
A mesmerizing drama of adultery, the three central actors — Richard Gere and Diane Lane as a seemingly happy White Plains couple and Olivier Martinez (“The Horseman on the Roof”) as the SoHo bookseller who seduces her — are three of the best-looking people in movies today and the story depends as much on their beauty, as on the plot twists. R. 2:04.– M.W.
