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.
Anger Management (star)(star)(star)
This new Adam Sandler comedy could be called “Punch-Drunk Love” for the masses, as a likably toned-down Sandler once again plays a meek, mumbly, too-often-the-doormat kind of guy with a surprisingly explosive temper. But where “Punch-Drunk Love” aimed for an offbeat lyricism while aggressively making viewers share Sandler’s discomfort, the more conventional “Anger Management” lets you laugh at a safer distance. And “Anger Management” boasts Jack Nicholson in all of his eyebrow-raising, scruffy-faced glory as the therapist who becomes Sandler’s court-appointed caretaker. PG-13. 1:41.–M.C.
Assassination Tango (star)(star)(star)
The tango is a dance of savage grace and aggressive sexuality, and writer-director-star Robert Duvall creates a character, John J. Anderson, who becomes obsessed with it: a professional killer learning the tango while killing time before his latest hit. He’s a man who brings to the dance floor the same gifts of organization, style and attack he applies to his murders-for-hire. Though scarcely a great dancer, Duvall lets us see how Anderson’s love of the tango connects with his skill as a killer. He also shows us how a dancer, preoccupied with beauty and precision, may be able to maneuver amid the messy torrent of Argentine politics and crime into which he’s been dropped. R. 1:54.–M.W.
Better Luck Tomorrow (star)(star)
Justin Lin’s controversial first feature about assimilated, wealthy Asian-American teenagers carrying out an idealized fantasy existence as amoral criminals and thrill seekers has style and mood to burn, though it lacks a single emotionally authentic moment. It’s a movie of actions rather than ideas, and Lin never creates a realistic social context for their alienation. It’s also the work of an intriguing new talent, though there remains something fundamentally amiss about a movie so desperate to legitimize its own daring. R (language, violence, drug use and nudity). 1:41.–P.M.
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.
Bulletproof Monk (star)(star)
Based on a disjointed, but high-concept comic book, “Bulletproof Monk” stars upstart Seann William Scott as a kung fu pickpocket and Chow Yun-fat as the monk protector of the all-powerful Scroll of the Ultimate. Like all objects of unimaginable power, this one promises god-like authority and is, of course, sought after by Nazis. Our stars have to overcome massive odds and a chronically uninspired script to save the world, but don’t quite break away from lead-weight Hollywood cliches. R. 1:44.–R.E.
Chasing Papi (star)(star)
This glossy major studio release, in English but with an all Latino cast, is promising for its attention to a huge untapped Latino audience, but ultimately falls short with its fluffy plot and poorly written script. Three Latino women — a Chicago lawyer, a Miami cocktail waitress and a Manhattan socialite — are all in love, and dating, the same man: Tomas, a.k.a. Papi. Eventually the girls find out about each other and find Papi passed out cold from taking tranquilizers, and the buddy movie adventure begins. PG. 1:20.–A.B.
DysFunKtional Family (star)(star)
George Gallo, who directed Eddie Griffin in the intermittently amusing 2001 movie “Double Take,” puts the comic actor center stage in a one-man show modeled on Richard Pryor’s concert films and Eddie Murphy’s “Raw.” Griffin isn’t untalented but he seems unpolished, not quite ready to carry the weight of a 90-minute concert film. Like Murphy, Griffin’s material is raunchy, and not nearly as edgy as he thinks it is. Peppered with the n-word from start to finish, Griffin’s routines don’t go far enough when he turns to topical material about race or terrorism, although a bit about Michael Jackson turning so pale he’s become invisible, making him well-suited to fighting terrorism will get some laughs. R. 1:24.–L.K.
Ghosts of the Abyss (star)(star)
This 3D IMAX film presents lovely pictures, as “Titanic” director James Cameron takes us on a deep sea tour of the wreck of the famous, but doomed ocean liner. Though the film tries to create drama with silly narrative and computerized recreations, this is ultimately another trite, empty IMAX visual feast complete with cliched 3D imagery. G. 1:00.–K.W.
The Good Thief (star)(star)(star)1/2
There’s a racy zest and brilliance in Neil Jordan’s heist thriller “The Good Thief.” A modern remake of Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1955 French noir classic “Bob le Flambeur,” it’s about modern day French Riviera high and low life and an aging but honorable gambler, Bob (Nick Nolte) who gets sucked into an elaborate casino robbery scheme. Ravishingly shot (by Chris Menges), with an intriguing international cast (Tcheky Karyo, Nutsa Kukhianidze, Gerard Darmon, Emir Kusturica and Marc Lavoine), “Thief” is smarter and more stylish than most of the recent big movie heist thrillers–a bit hectic but also vibrant, witty and exciting. R. 1:49. –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.
Holes (star)(star)
How does a movie called “Holes” manage to have no center? Louis Sachar’s adaptation of his own popular older-kids novel, as directed by Andrew Davis (“The Fugitive”), is all over the place, jumping around in time, place and tone. The main story involves a teen boy named Stanley (Shia LaBeouf) who’s wrongly accused of stealing designer sneakers and is shipped off to a teen work camp where the Warden (Sigourney Weaver) orders the kids to dig holes in the desert. But instead of focusing on this likable kid, the movies spreads its attentions among Stanley’s cursed great-grandfather, an Old West bandit (Patricia Arquette) and her doomed interracial love story, and even Stanley’s dad’s quest to find a cure for shoe odor. With all that rubble, the movie can’t dig itself out. PG. 1:57.–M.C.
Malibu’s Most Wanted (star)(star)
Gangsta rap gets the sitcom treatment in this showcase for Jamie Kennedy. His Brad “B-Rad” Gluckman is a blond haired, blue-eyed, Jewish suburban kid so immersed in hip-hop culture that he actually believes he’s a gangsta rapper, despite groan-inducing rhymes about his hard life in the Bu. Despite some laughs, B-Rad is never more than a harmless cartoon. He’s a jive-spouting rapper but really just a marshmallow whose mantra is “Don’t be hatin’ the white fantasy of gangsta rap.” PG. 1:26.–L.K.
A Man Apart (star)1/2
Vin Diesel–the glowering, bullet-headed new star of “The Fast and the Furious” and “XXX”–plays another surly, hot-tempered action hero: ex-L. A. gangbanger turned DEA agent Sean Vetter, who joins up with fellow gangster-turned-narc Demetrius Hicks (Larenz Tate) to wage brutal war with a murderous Mexican drug ring, while trying to avenge the murder of his wife Stacy (Jacqueline Obradors) by cartel agents. Standard stuff, violent, fast and senseless–and it also puts you in a sour, grim mood. R (for language, violence and sensuality). 1:54.–M.W.
A Mighty Wind (star)(star)1/2
This latest Christopher Guest “mockumentary” (“Best in Show,” “Waiting for Guffman”) returns the actor/director and his improvising cohorts to the music world, which he last explored in the great “This Is Spinal Tap.” The focus is the folk scene and a tribute concert featuring long-lost acts, and we’re once again treated to spot-on music biz jokes and genre-parroting tunes that are catchy in their own right. But despite the broad cast–which includes “Tap” mates Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, plus Fred Willard and Parker Posey–the focus is narrow, the material thin, perhaps because Guest is content to play up folk’s fruity qualities while bypassing any social commentary. The movie might blow away if not for Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara’s surprising tender portrayal of a romantic ’60s duo. PG-13. 1:32.–M.C.
Phone Booth (star)(star)(star)
High concept isn’t such a bad thing when the idea is such a grabber: An obnoxious press agent and would-be philanderer (Colin Farrell) answers a phone in Manhattan’s last phone booth only to be told that if he hangs up, he’ll be shot by a gunman lurking in a nearby window. Despite some clumsy plotting, director Joel Schumacher (“The Client,” “Batman and Robin”) and writer Larry Cohen keep the action taut and the stakes high as the victim, the caller (Kiefer Sutherland) and the police (led by Forest Whitaker) engage in a tense standoff. This thriller hits the mark. R. 1:21.–M.C.
Raising Victor Vargas (star)(star)(star)1/2
While trying to catch the eye of neighborhood Venus “Juicy Judy” (Judy Marte), family tradition weighs heavily on teenage Victor Vargas (Victor Rasuk). Under the thumb of his feisty Old World grandmother (Altagracia Guzman), Victor struggles against the cycles of infidelity and abandonment that defines his immediate family. Freshman filmmaker Peter Sollet directs nonprofessional actors to pitch-perfect performances from a watertight cast in a loose, joyfully fresh film. R. 1:28–R.E.
Ten (star)(star)(star)1/2
This latest work from Iran’s Abbas Kiarostami is so simply and subtly executed that it may unsettle you. With breathtaking economy, Kiarostami (“Close-Up,” “Taste of Cherry”) strips cinema down to its bare structural bones. Using only two camera setups and two actors in each scene, he gives us 10 interconnected vignettes, all shot in the front seat of the same moving car–as a fashionably beautiful, unnamed wife and mother (Mania Akbari) drives through downtown Tehran traffic, engaging in conversations either lively, sad, bizarre or reflective. “Ten” is a work capable of changing the ways you look at the movies–and at life. In Farsi, with English subtitles. No MPAA rating (parents cautioned for brief, candid discussion of prostitution). 1:32.–M.W.
What a Girl Wants (star)1/2
Teenager Daphne Reynolds (Amanda Bynes) goes to England in search of her father, Lord Henry Dashwood (Colin Firth), a stuffy politician who doesn’t know she exists. A “kick-the-English” sense of humor prevails, forcing its actors into dusty cultural stereotypes and silly, stale slapstick. Only star Bynes comes out shining. PG. 1:45.–R.E.
