Here are selected capsule reviews of movies in current release (for films released this week, see full reviews in this section). Information is based on the most up-to-date theater schedules available and subject to change.
Agent Cody Banks (star)(star)
Not academic, awkward with the ladies and ticked off at his folks, Cody Banks is your basic teen. He’s also the CIA’s chosen junior agent/world-saver. Cody (Frankie Muniz) has been plucked from obscurity and given a mission: to cozy up to his new schoolmate Natalie Connors (Hilary Duff) to get close to her scientist father–compromised by his villainous partner who’s hell-bent on world domination. The movie succeeds when it bends toward parody, but ultimately founders in its overwhelming tendency to play it straight. PG. 1:35.–A.B.
Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony (star)(star)(star)(star)
A wonderful documentary about South Africa’s five-decade journey from apartheid to freedom, as mirrored by the popular songs and ballads that served as battle cries and spirit-raisers for its persecuted populace. The infectious music blends with moving archival footage and interviews to summon up the soul of a nation; the appearance of key figures such as Nelson Mandela and musicians Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba (both introduced to U.S. audiences by Harry Belafonte) heightens the authenticity. No MPAA rating (family). 1:43.–M.W.
Basic (star)(star)1/2
John Travolta and Samuel Jackson keep us amused and intrigued in this almost absurdly complex military thriller about an investigation–by an unbuttoned DEA agent (Travolta) and a skeptical Army Lt. (Connie Nielsen) into the mysterious disappearance and possible murder of a tough drill sergeant (Jackson) on maneuvers in the Panama Canal Zone with a motley crew of trainees (Giovanni Ribisi, Brian Van Holt, Taye Diggs, etc.). There are almost too many surprise twists here for the movie’s own good, and few of them make real sense–but director John McTiernan (“Die Hard”) and his stars keeps things cracking along with dash and irreverence. R. 1:35.–M.W.
Blue Collar Comedy Tour (star)(star)(star)
This film that tracks the Blue Collar tour, featuring Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, Ron White and Dan Whitney, tries to take advantage of the “Original Kings of Comedy” film. Though not as good as the “Kings,” “Blue Collar” does capture the spirit of the actual show–with jokes witty and universal enough for everyone–as well as showing off the chemistry of the lead quartet of stand-up comedians. PG-13. 1:45.–A.J.
Bowling For Columbine (star)(star)(star)(star)
Michael Moore’s savagely funny, sad and sometimes horrifying documentary about America’s love affair with guns. The film takes off from the massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., to investigate the links between among guns, killers and culture all over the world. It’s Moore’s best film; his special mix of humor and left-wing polemics never has been as effective or entertaining. Tackling this provocative subject, climaxing with a bizarre interview with NRA President Charlton Heston, Moore raises dozens of important issues and keeps us laughing–and fascinated–throughout. R. 1:59.–M.W.
Bringing Down the House (star)1/2
The goodwill engendered by Steve Martin and Queen Latifah can’t compensate for the misguided racial humor and stale gags of this comedy from director Adam Shankman (“The Wedding Planner”). Martin plays a divorced tax lawyer, and Latifah is a jive-talkin’, head-boppin’ escaped convict who extorts him into helping her; she’s wake-the-neighbors obnoxious, but we’re cued to like her because most of the white folks she encounters are racists straight out of the pre-Civil Rights era. The movie leans on just as many stereotypes as it tweaks. PG-13. 1:45.–M.C.
The Core (star)(star)
Electro-magnetism and the mysteries of the Earth’s core are fascinating subjects, but “The Core,” unhappily, turns them into pseudo-sci-fi nonsense. This elaborate misfire — which misuses an unusually good cast (Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Delroy Lindo, Stanley Tucci, D.J. Qualls, Tcheky Karyo and Alfre Woodard) is an end-of-the-world movie about a group of scientists drilling to the center of the Earth in order to restart the planet’s mysteriously dormant core. And it’s such a preposterous idea and movie that even though director Jon Amiel and company try to play it for laughs and irreverent satire right from the start, they’re working to increasingly diminishing returns. PG-13. 2:16.–M.W.
Chicago (star)(star)(star)
Based on the 1942 movie “Roxie Hart”–and the 1975 Broadway show by director-choreographer-co-writer Bob Fosse and “Cabaret” partners John Kander and Fred Ebb–this is a cynical Cinderella musical about corrupt people with big appetites in Prohibition-era Chicago, with Renee Zellweger as killer-cherub Roxie, who tries to parlay tabloid notoriety as a murderess into a show-biz career, Catherine Zeta-Jones as fellow killer Velma and Richard Gere as their silky, amoral mouthpiece Billy Flynn. They may not be great musical performers, but this is great musical material. The original choreography has been refashioned by director Rob Marshall, but Fosse is present in spirit in the hip-grinding dances. It’s a shame he isn’t around as director too. PG-13. 1:53.–M.W.
Dreamcatcher (star)(star) 1/2
Steven King, like all major popular writers, has the gift of creating self-contained fictional worlds. Though in many ways “Dreamcatcher” is a traditional monsters-from-outer-space movie, it’s a typical King story, set in King territory — the snowy Maine woods — a celebration of boyhood camaraderie and an intimate exploration of adult nightmares. But despite King’s approval, “Dreamcatcher” loses its grip, gets too scattered. It’s the kind of story that probably would have worked better as a four-hour mini-series. R. 2:11. –M.W.
Far From Heaven (star)(star)(star)(star)
In Todd Haynes’ great new movie melodrama, the pristine New England suburban streets, discreet repressions and lurid passions of the story, set in 1957, become achingly close. The movie catches us in a web of silken style, just as it catches its characters–a repressed housewife (Julianne Moore), a closeted gay husband Dennis Quaid) and a black gardener (Dennis Haysbert)–in devious traps of Eisenhower-era social and sexual mores. Using the “women’s pictures” of Douglas Sirk (“All That Heaven Allows”) as his model, Haynes shows us a seemingly perfect ’50s couple who fall from a heaven of prosperity and prominence into a hell of secret deviance, broken taboos and social disgrace. It’s a near-perfect film, even if its loves and lies are written in the wind. PG-13. 1:47.–M.W.
Frida (star)(star)(star)1/2
“Frida” takes the tortured, fervent life of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and turns it into a wildly colorful fever-dream that whips and whirls the already extraordinary events of her biography–the crippling adolescent accident, lifelong alliance with fellow painter/genius Diego Rivera and Frida’s unique, audacious autobiographical paintings. If there’s a precursor to director Julie Taymor’s approach, it’s Ken Russell and his wild, cheeky composer bio-dramas in the ’60s and ’70s on Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Delius, Richard Strauss and others. R. 2:00.–M.W.
Head of State (star)1/2
This political comedy preaches staying true to your ideals rather than playing to the crowd, but like an actual politician, writer/director/producer/star Chris Rock has watered down his material for broader consumption. Playing an alderman enlisted to make a hopeless bid to become America’s first black president, Rock offers a variation on his standard who-are-we-kidding rap about society’s sorry state while demonstrating that as an actor, he’s an effective stand-up comedian. You wish Bernie Mac, who plays the candidate’s brother and running mate, were the one running for president. PG-13. 1:32.–M.C.
The Hunted (star)(star)(star)
William Friedkin’s new thriller, with Tommy Lee Jones as a survivalist tracker hunting down the star pupil-government assassin he taught to kill (Benicio Del Toro), shines with expertise in almost every area but the script, which has few new ideas and fewer surprises. But the actors, director and cinematographer (Caleb Deschanel) give it a glossy knockout realization that keeps the chases racing and the tension crackling. This is Friedkin’s best theatrical feature since 1985’s “To Live and Die in L.A.,” just as fast and almost as exciting. R. 1:34.–M.W.
Laurel Canyon (star)(star)(star)
“Laurel Canyon” delves into the world of hipster artists, with all the accompanying ego, self-involvement and drama. An engaging, entertaining glimpse into the lives of musicians nestled in the titular Hollywood Hills enclave, “Laurel Canyon” is an ensemble piece built around a pair of buttoned-down medical school grads, Sam (Christian Bale) and fiance Alex (Kate Beckinsdale). The film finds its groove, anchored by Frances McDormand’s magnetic performance as Jane, Sam’s mother. “Laurel Canyon” itself feels musical: languid, rich in color and light and deliciously sensual. R. 1:43.–L.K.
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (star)(star)(star)(star)
Here is a movie once again packed to the brim with marvels, chockfull of rip-roaring action, breathtaking landscapes, intoxicating spectacle and full-blooded characters (the Andy Serkis-voiced Gollum is one of the top computer characters ever). Here are visions to haunt your dreams and action to set your heart pounding: vast bloody battle scenes, whimsical comedy, macabre horrors and shimmering beauties–as heady a draught of fantasy and high adventure as the movies have ever given us. PG-13. 2:59.–M.W.
Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (star)(star)(star)1/2
The pictures are worth a thousand words or more in the Oscar-winning “Miyazaki’s Spirited Away,” the Disney Studio’s delightful English-language version of the Japanese feature cartoon that dethroned “Titanic” in Japan and now holds that country’s all-time box-office record. In this case, popularity is not an index of hype: writer-director Hayao Miyazaki’s spellbinding tale of a little girl named Chihiro lost in an alternative world of tricky ghosts and bizarre monsters is both universally engaging and deeply personal, a movie full of bewitching images and timeless fun and beauty. The voice actors include Suzanne Pleshette, David Ogden Stiers, Daveigh Chase. PG. 2:04.–M.W.
Nowhere in Africa (star)(star)(star) 1/2
Based on Stephanie Zweig’s novel, “Nowhere in Africa” is about a German Jewish family adjusting to the chaos and peril of World War II by fleeing to Kenya, where they are safe from the Holocaust, but robbed of the status and comforts of their old life. But daughter Regina (played as a child by Lea Kurka and as an adolescent by Karoline Eckertz) is young enough to adjust rapidly and learn to love her new homeland. This is her memoir, and the film lets us feel her youthful delight and open-eyed wonder — while also suggesting things (her mother’s adultery, her father’s alienation) she could probably fully appreciate only in retrospect. No MPAA rating. Adult. Overall, a good film for families, but parents are cautioned for scenes of nudity and sensuality and for mature themes (adultery). 2:18.–M.W.
Open Hearts(star)(star)(star)
When a car crushes Joachim’s (Nikolaj Lie Kaas) spine, his fiance, Cecilie (Sonja Richter), is emotionally shattered. When Niels (Mads Mikkelsen), the doctor who also happens to be the husband of the driver who hit Joachim, tries to put her back together, an unlikely romance sparks between broken people. Emotionally potent acting from an ensemble cast carries this Dogma 95 film. R. 1:53.–R.E.
The Pianist (star)(star)(star)(star)
“The Pianist” is the film Roman Polanski may have been born to make: a great movie on a powerful, essential subject–the Holocaust years in Poland. Telling the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman (beautifully played by Adrien Brody), a young Polish-Jewish classical pianist who lived through the WWII Nazi invasion years in Warsaw, Polanski makes us feel, definitively, what it must have been like to live as a Jew under the Nazis–to experience, firsthand, the myriad insults and injuries that gradually escalated into the annihilating brutality of massacres and concentration camps. In English and German, with English subtitles. R. 2:28.–M.W.
Piglet’s Big Movie (star)(star)(star)
With its welcome lessons on friendship and self-esteem, “Piglet’s Big Movie” is not only appropriate for preschoolers, but has enough sophistication for older kids. The put-upon Piglet feels underappreciated; the other denizens of Pooh Corner get recognition and attention while he’s overlooked, owing to his small size. When a storm hits the Hundred Acre Wood and Piglet turns up missing, Pooh, Tigger, Rabbit and the gang try to find him, using Piglet’s scrapbook of drawings as their guide. G. 1:15.–L.K.
Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time (star)(star)(star)
This 90-minute documentary by Thomas Riedelsheimer clearly, brilliantly explains Goldsworthy’s projects even to the unfamiliar. Rivers and tides provide sources of energy Goldsworthy perceives flowing through all things. So his effort is to harmonize with them, ultimately to comprehend them better inside himself. He does not impose himself on nature; instead, he waits for the right time when nature will accept his additions and, for a moment, become clearer thereby. No MPAA rating. 1:30.–A.A.
Stevie (star)(star)(star)1/2
“Stevie,” the latest documentary by one of the modern masters of the form, Steve James (“Hoop Dreams”) of Chicago’s Kartemquin Films, is a film so troubling and unflinchingly honest, that watching it becomes a test of empathy and compassion. It is the disquieting tale of a dysfunctional family in rural Southern Illinois, and the “monster” they seemingly produce: a gap-toothed, balding, tattooed, profane, chronically unemployed troublemaker named Stevie Fielding, who is now in serious trouble but who, as a likable, troubled 11-year-old was James’ charge in the Big Brother program. This almost unbearably intimate film anatomizes a family tragedy. It’s a remarkable experience. No MPAA rating. Adult. (for language and frank discussions of sexuality, sex crimes, violence and drug use). 2:25.–M.W.
View From the Top (star)(star)
The title is apt; this bland comedy about an ascendant flight attendant always seems to be looking down on its characters, whose dreams you never share. Gwyneth Paltrow goes slumming as Donna, a small-town girl who broadens her horizons by working in the skies, Christina Applegate is her friend/rival, and Mark Ruffalo is the love interest who lives in Cleveland, which seems to be a major problem even for a flight attendant. With Mike Myers in the Martin Short role of a wacky, cross-eyed flight-attendant instructor. PG-13. 1:27.–M.C.
Willard (star)(star)(star)
“Willard” is a morality play about loyalty in which rats kill because their “leader” tells them to and they turn on him only after his betrayal. Yet this faithful resurrection of the original “Willard”–a twisted gem in its own right–also is funny. Willard, brilliantly overacted by Crispin Glover, is a wimp–pure and undistilled–a friendless mama’s boy. His magnificent, 80-minute slow burn engenders empathy and ultimately pity when he goes too far. Willard isn’t legitimately evil, and with this shade of gray, we empathize. He is a man marooned on an emotional island: Think of it as “Survivor”–only the rats eat instead of being eaten. PG-13. 1:35.–K.W.
