Scheduled to Open Wednesday
KING ARTHUR (PG-13) -- Producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Antoine Fuqua, who tag-teamed on Training Day, reunite to present this epic version of the Arthurian legend, with Clive Owen as the titular king, Keira Knightley as Guinevere and Ioan Gruffudd as Sir Lancelot.
Scheduled to Open Friday
ANCHORMAN (PG-13) -- Swinging '70s TV anchorman Will Ferrell believes his career is threatened when the station hires female anchorwoman Christina Applegate, who actually appears to have a working knowledge of journalism in this period comedy. Directed by first-timer Adam McKay (former Saturday Night Live writer) and co-starring Fred Willard, Maya Rudolph and Chris Parnell with cameos by Jack Black, Tim Robbins and Ben Stiller.
SLEEPOVER (PG-13) -- Four teen girls staring down their first year of high school have a slumber party that turns into an all-night scavenger-hunt competition against their more popular rivals in this comedy directed by first-timer Joe Nussbaum and starring Alexa Vega (the Spy Kids trilogy).
Now Showing
AMERICA'S HEART AND SOUL (PG) -- B+ Louis Schwartzerberg's documentary profiling people embodying the American spirit is as hopeful and sentimental as Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 is cynical and biting. Sweeping, aerial shots of our country and the rather clich&233;d interviews with the subject make Heart and Soul prime IMAX material, but the deep sense of humanism and individualism that runs throughout provides a lasting impact on something that has such a postcard feel. (Simmons) (Reviewed in this issue.) Canal Place
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (PG) -- Jackie Chan and Steve Coogan co-star in this remake of the 1956 movie based on the Jules Verne classic about an eccentric London inventor (Coogan) who takes a bet on a world trip, with a thief (Chan) along for the ride. Directed by Frank Coraci (The Wedding Singer) and co-starring Kathy Bates, Jim Broadbent, Owen Wilson and Luke Wilson with cameos by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Wim Wenders and Macy Gray. AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Holiday 12, Movies 8
THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK (R) -- Vin Diesel returns in the title role in this sequel to 2000's Pitch Black, as a futuristic superhero who can see in the dark and gets ensnared in a galactic battle between two worlds. Co-stars Dame Judi Dench, Keith David, Colm Feore and Thandie Newton. AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Grand, Movies 8
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW (PG-13) -- C- Roland Emmerich's special effects-driven, apocalyptic take on global warming feels all wrong, from the weird science and clunky narrative to the poorly sketched characters and even the eye candy. The cast of Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ian Holm, Sela Ward and others are given very little to do but ride the storm out. In trying to keep a more somber tone than the one he provided in the 1996 guilty pleasure, Independence Day, Emmerich doesn't know what movie he wants to make. (Simmons)
AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Grand, Holiday 12, North Shore Square
DODGEBALL: A TRUE UNDERDOG STORY (PG-13) -- Vince Vaughn and the rest of his dorky friends try to save their local gym from a corporate-chain takeover led by Ben Stiller by facing off in a dodgeball challenge in Las Vegas in this comedy from first-time writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber. Co-stars Gary Cole, Jason Bateman, Stephen Root, Justin Long, Missi Pyle and Christine Taylor.AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Grand, Holiday 12, Hollywood Cinemas 9, North Shore Square
FAHRENHEIT 9/11 (R) -- B+ Oscar-winning director Michael Moore's scathing indictment of the Bush administration's reaction to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq is as polemic and loose with the facts as his previous works. But there is so much humanism to see here -- rarely seen footage of U.S. military and Iraqi civilian casualties, interviews with disillusioned military members and families of soldiers, reasoned accusations from observers and members of Congress -- that Fahrenheit 9/11 remains a compelling work. Moore remains the left's boldest filmmaker, and maybe that's why he's the most frustrating to watch; having been so emboldened, he seems unwilling to support his arguments with more specific research. (You can counter or temper half his arguments with about three clicks of a computer mouse.) Moore is at his most effective when he gets out of the way and allows his subjects to speak for themselves, for better or for worse. (Simmons) (Reviewed in this issue.) AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Canal Place, Causeway Cinema, Hollywood Cinemas 9
GARFIELD (PG) -- After all these years, the fat, lazy house cat gets the CGI animation treatment, with Bill Murray supplying the voice. Feels about as relevant as, say, a movie version of Bloom County, but we're game. Co-stars Breckin Meyer and Jennifer Love Hewitt and the voices of Debra Messing, Brad Garrett and Alan Cumming. AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Grand, Holiday 12, Hollywood Cinemas 9, Movies 8
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN (PG) -- A- Finally, a film that matches the gorgeous imagination of author J.K. Rowling. Harry and friends return for a third year at Hogwarts, shadowed by prison escapee Sirius Black (Gary Oldman). Predictably, Michael Gambon dutifully steps into the role of Dumbledore, but the late Richard Harris is sorely missed. Also predictably, director Alfonso Cuarón steps in, and no one misses Chris Columbus one bit. With his artist's eye and Gothic-tinged sensibility, Cuarón provides the texture, dimension and thrill that has been missing from this film series all along. (Carlson)
AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Entergy IMAX, Grand, Holiday 12, Hollywood Cinemas 9, Movies 8
I'M NOT SCARED (R) -- Gabriele Salvatores directed this story based on Nicolo Ammaniti's novel about a young boy who suspects his parents are guilty of a vicious crime. Causeway Cinema
LEWIS & CLARK: GREAT JOURNEY WEST (NR) -- The famed explorers, here portrayed by Kelly Boulware and Sonny Surowiec, set out West commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson in this IMAX version of their story. Entergy IMAX
NAPOLEON DYNAMITE (PG) -- A square-peg teenager (Jon Heder) struggles to find his niche in a small Idaho town while trying to figure out the shady dealings of the uncle with whom he lives in this Sundance fave directed by first-timer Jared Hess. Canal Place
NASCAR 3-D: THE IMAX EXPERIENCE (PG) -- The IMAX cameras go deep inside the race cars and race tracks of NASCAR land. Entergy IMAX
THE NOTEBOOK (PG-13) -- Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams co-star in Nick Cassavetes' adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks romance novel about a romantic triangle recalled by an older man (James Garner) to his former love (Gena Rowlands), who is now suffering from Alzheimer's disease. (Gosling and McAdams play two of the younger lovers.) Rowlands, it should be noted, is the mother of Cassavetes and widow of John Cassavetes. AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Grand, Holiday 12, Hollywood Cinemas 9, Movies 8
OCEAN WONDERLAND (NR) -- IMAX takes its cameras to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the coral reef of the Bahamas. Directed by Jean-Jacques Mantello. Entergy IMAX
RAISING HELEN (PG-13) -- On-the-go model agency exec/self-absorbed yuppy Kate Hudson gets stuck with three kids when her sister and brother-in-law are killed in a car accident in this comedy from warhorse director Garry Marshall (Runaway Bride). Co-stars John Corbett, Helen Mirren and Paris Hilton for the obligatory model jokes. Script alert: one revision and one polish. Beware! North Shore Square
SAVED! (PG-13) -- B+ This sweet and funny look at life in the halls of a Christian high school is written with all the affection of the proximate. Saved! is definitely an inside job, its satire knowing and notable, from the altar-call school assemblies of wannabe hipster Pastor Skip (Martin Donovan) to the holier-than-thou head trips of cheerleadery church girl Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore). Brian Dannelly and Michael Urban's story focuses on Jena Malone (Stepmom, Cold Mountain) making good use of her permanently protruding lower lip as Mary, a confused high school senior who sleeps with her gay boyfriend because she has a vision of Jesus telling her to help him. She gets pregnant, and Christ-filled chaos ensues. Urban and Dannelly, who also directs, take a page from Christopher Guest (Waiting for Guffman) and actually seem to like the people they make the most fun of. Saved! isn't a searing (or particularly subversive) indictment of religion; its believers are simply human with all the attendant absurdities. Look for Mary-Louise Parker, Macaulay Culkin, the ever-charming Patrick Fugit (Almost Famous) and Eva Amurri. (Carlson)
AMC Palace 20, Canal Place, Causeway Cinema, North Shore Square
SHREK 2 (PG) -- A- Mike Myers is certainly seeing the green, as everyone's favorite ogre returns with his new wife, Fiona (Cameron Diaz), for this record-breaking sequel. The animation is twice as sophisticated, Myers is just as lovable, and the script is, at times, almost as crazily clever as the 2001 original. Aided considerably by Ab Fab's Jennifer Saunders as a scheming fairy godmother and the purrfect addition of Antonio Banderas as a positively feline Puss in Boots, the story turns Fiona's homeland of Far, Far Away -- and every accepted fairy tale convention -- on its ear. Nothing could match the come-from-nowhere charm of the original, but Shrek 2 is undeniably a very close second. (Carlson) AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Grand, Holiday 12, North Shore Square
SPIDER-MAN 2 (PG-13) -- Director Sam Raimi and stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst return in the sequel to the 2002 movie version of the popular comic-book hero. This time Peter Parker deals with college life and relationship issues while Spidey takes on the evil Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina) and the still revenge-minded Harry Osborne (James Franco). Co-stars Dylan Baker and Brooke Adams. AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Grand, Holiday 12, Hollywood Cinemas 9, Movies 8, Prytania
THE STEPFORD WIVES (PG-13) -- C+ As rejiggered as the idealized suburban wives of novelist Ira Levin's imagination, director Frank Oz's new version of the 1975 classic sports a decidedly different vibe, creepy suspense giving way to hopped-up hilarity. The cast is immensely enjoyable, and Paul Rudnick's script is chock full of dialogic smarts, if a bit lacking in logic of any other kind. The Stepford Wives is a mess, but it's fun, and it's probably the best bad movie you will see this summer. (Carlson) (Reviewed in this issue.) AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Holiday 12
SUPER SIZE ME (NR) -- B+ Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock (Best Director, Sundance Film Festival) provides a one-man show as he does the unthinkable: live for one month on McDonald's fat-laden, cholesterol-amping offerings. Spurlock, who is sort of a poor man's Michael Moore but with better research, is likeable enough as he balances the dueling narrative elements of his descent into ill health, personal observations of same, and a nicely paced series of interviews with all the proper talking heads. The rhythm starts to falter toward its rather predictable conclusion, but Super Size Me remains personal filmmaking at its most entertaining and informative. (Simmons)
Canal Place
THE TERMINAL (PG-13) -- C+ In a film that feels trapped in a Bermuda Triangle of E.T. , Cast Away and the inverse of Catch Me If You Can, Steven Spielberg reunites with Tom Hanks in this loosely fact-based story of an eastern European immigrant (Hanks) who becomes trapped inside JFK Airport with an invalid visa when his country is dissolved in a civil war. This is Spielberg at his most constructed, sentimental and obvious; every character and situation feels two-dimensional and calculated. Hanks gamely tries to rise above the material with some of his best physical comedy in years, but Stanley Tucci, Catherine Zeta-Jones and others are all but wasted here. Kudos to Spielberg and a crew that included cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Schindler's List) and production designer Alex McDowell (Minority Report), who indeed create an airport that feels like a world unto itself. (Simmons) AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Holiday 12, Hollywood Cinemas 9, Movies 8
TROY (R) -- C+ Wolfgang Petersen's account of the Trojan War turns Homer's The Iliad on its head. The Greeks are brutes. Achilles (Brad Pitt) is his century's Terminator. And the Trojans are the noble doomed. At least this film bothers to denounce arrogant religious presumption. Had the Trojan king (Peter O'Toole) listened to his wise son, Troy would have endured, but instead he listened to his high priest who was wrong and wrong again. Take note, George W. Bush. Wary should be the leader who chooses courses because he thinks God is on his side. (Barton)
Causeway Cinema, North Shore Square
TWO BROTHERS (PG) -- Two tigers who were separated as cubs reunite under difficult circumstances in Cambodia in this film by Jean-Jacques Annaud, who scored a wild-kingdom blockbuster with 1998's The Bear. Co-stars Guy Pearce and Christian Clavier. AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Holiday 12, Hollywood Cinemas 9, Movies 8
VAN HELSING (PG-13) -- Legendary monster hunter Abraham Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman) takes on the greatest hits of monsterdom: Count Dracula (Richard Roxburgh), Frankenstein (Schuler Hensley) and the Wolf Man (Will Kemp) in this potential franchise-starter from Mummy franchise director Stephen Sommers. Co-stars Kate Beckinsale.
Causeway Cinema
WHITE CHICKS (PG-13) -- FBI agents Shawn and Marlon Wayans assume the identity of the white heiresses they've been assigned to protect in this comedy directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans and co-written by every Wayans brother not named Damon, and others. We've come a long way from Imitation of Life, eh? AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Grand, Holiday 12, Hollywood Cinemas 9, North Shore Square
| AMC Palace 12 734-2020; AMC Palace 16 734-2020; AMC Palace 20 734-2020; Canal Place 581-5400; Chalmette 277-9797; Downtown Joy 522-7575; Entergy IMAX 581-4629; Plaza 245-0102; Prytania 891-2787; Zeitgeist 525-2767
Compiled by David Lee Simmons
Contributors: Rick Barton, Shala Carlson, David Lee Simmons |
Other Stories This Week in Movies:
Film Review
America's Heart and Soul
