Scheduled to Open Friday
BEFORE SUNSET (R) -- After nine years, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) reunite and ponder their life choices in Richard Linklaters sequel to his charming 1995 talkfest, Before Sunrise. The script, interestingly enough, was co-written by all three.
A CINDERELLA STORY (PG) -- Hilary Duff plays a shy, insecure high school student (um, sure) ruled by wicked stepmother Jennifer Coolidge and stepsisters and who struggles to fit in at her high school when a charming young man finds her lost cell phone. Straight-to-video vet Mark Rosman gets his feature-length directing debut in this umpteenth update of the fairy tale.
THE CLEARING (R) -- C First-time director Pieter Jan Brugge and first-time screenwriter Justin Haythe spin a fragmented story about the kidnapping of a wealthy man (Robert Redford) and the impact of the crime on his family. Helen Mirren plays the WASPy wife to perfection, her face a mask of fragility, decorum and loss. Redfords character is less well-defined; his rental car company tycoon is set up as an absentee husband and father, but his children (Alessandro Nivola and Melissa Sagemiller) seem to remember him differently. As Arnold, the down-on-his-luck kidnapper, Willem Dafoe delivers a clipped, melodramatic performance. Mirren and Redford realize they are in a play masquerading as a movie; Dafoe plays this one as though he were onstage. The overly long script contains far too much back and forth between Mirren on the homefront and Redfords dealings with Dafoe. Still, the opening moments are nice; Mirren and Redford share a poolside breakfast fraught with unspoken hostilities and time-worn affection. Looking at Redford after all these years, its hard not to imagine that this is what happened to Hubbell and his girl. (Carlson)
DE-LOVELY (PG-13) -- Legendary early 20th century songwriter and composer Cole Porter (Kevin Kline) looks back at his life in flashback, fantasy form in this biopic directed by Irwin Winkler (Life as a House) and co-starring Naomi Judd.
I, ROBOT (PG-13) -- Cop-of-the-future Will Smith suspects that a robot has done the unthinkable -- committed murder -- in this sci-fi film inspired by Isaac Asimovs nine-story anthology of the same name. Directed by Alex Proyas and co-starring Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell and Chi McBride.
Now Showing
AMERICAS HEART AND SOUL (PG) -- B+ Louis Schwartzerbergs documentary profiling people embodying the American spirit is as hopeful and sentimental as Michael Moores Fahrenheit 9/11 is cynical and biting. Sweeping, aerial shots of our country and the rather cliched 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) Canal Place
ANCHORMAN (PG-13) -- Swinging 70s TV anchorman Will Farrell 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. AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Chalmette, Grand, Holiday 12, Hollywood Cinemas 9, North Shore Square
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. Movies 8
BAADASSSSS! (R) -- Mario Van Peebles wrote, directed and stars as his father, Melvin, during the making of the pivotal 1971 blaxploitation film, Sweet Sweetbacks Baadasssss Song, which actually featured Mario in a small role. Co-stars Nia Long, Paul Rodriguez and David Alan Grier.
Canal Place
THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK (R) -- Vin Diesel returns in the title role in this sequel to 2000s 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 20, Grand, Movies 8
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW (PG-13) -- C- Roland Emmerichs 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 doesnt know what movie he wants to make. (Simmons) AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Causeway Cinema, Grand
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, North Shore Square
FAHRENHEIT 9/11 (R) -- B Oscar-winning director Michael Moores scathing indictment of the Bush administrations 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 work. 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 is still the lefts boldest filmmaker, and maybe thats why hes 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) AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Canal Place, Causeway Cinema, Grand, 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 were 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
GERMAN FILM SERIES -- The Deutsches Haus summer film series continues with screenings of Robert Wienes 1920 silent film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Werner Herzogs 1972 vampire homage, Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night. 7 p.m. Thursday at the Deutsches Haus
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). Michael Gambon dutifully steps into the role of Dumbledore, but predictably, the late Richard Harris is sorely missed. Thankfully, director Alfonso Cuarón steps in, and no one misses Chris Columbus one bit. With his artists eye and Gothic-tinged sensibility, Cuarón provides the texture, dimension and thrill that has been missing from this superbly cast film series all along. (Carlson) AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Chalmette, Entergy IMAX, Holiday 12, Movies 8
KING ARTHUR (PG-13) -- C+ Director Antoine Fuqua and screenwriter David Franzoni combine their mediocre talents to offer a visually flat, only superficially smart demolition of Arthurian legend. The reenvisioning of Camelot iconography is, at times, satisfying, but gets lost in the murkiness of both story and scene. Ultimately, the poorly shot film survives on charismatic performances: Clive Owens brawny, brainy Arthur; Keira Knightleys manipulative, pugnacious Guinevere; Ioan Gruffuds long-suffering Lancelot; and a host of spectacular second-tier characters including Ray Winstones bawdy Bors and Stellan Skarsgards wicked Saxon warrior Cerdic. (Carlson) (Reviewed in this issue.) AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Chalmette, Grand, Holiday 12, Hollywood Cinemas 9, North Shore Square
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- Co-writer and director Jared Hess has created one of the most blissfully abstract comedies in recent memory in his story about Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder), a dorky high school student who might actually be a superhero. In what almost feels like a goof on John Hughes 80s teen comedies, Hess has produced something thoroughly offbeat and surprisingly profound, displaying a love for people who arent nearly as ordinary as we think. Plus it has one of the coolest opening title sequences of all time. (Simmons) (Reviewed in this issue.) 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 novel about a romantic triangle recalled by an older man (James Garner) to his former love (Gena Rowlands), who is now suffering from Alzheimers 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, 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
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 Urbans 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! isnt a searing (or particularly subversive) indictment of religion; its believers are simply human with all the attendant absurdities of trying to do good and be good in a world where very few of us can do either on our own. Look for Mary-Louise Parker, Macaulay Culkin, the ever-charming Patrick Fugit (Almost Famous) and Eva Amurri. (Carlson) Canal Place, Causeway Cinema
SHREK 2 (PG) -- A- Mike Myers is certainly seeing the green, as everyones 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 Fabs Jennifer Saunders as a scheming fairy godmother and the purrfect addition of Antonio Banderas as a positively feline Puss in Boots, the story turns Fionas 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, Chalmette, Grand, Holiday 12, North Shore Square
SPIDER-MAN 2 (PG-13) -- A- Director Sam Raimi finally displays his spidey sense in this superior sequel to the 2002 hit movie. An unhinged-yet-sympathetic Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina) is the villain, but the real struggle here is between identity and secret identity, as Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) wrestles with the tangled question: to be or not to be a webslinger. In the best Stan Lee tradition, Alvin Sargents screenplay offers believable characters, touches on (but doesnt belabor) some grand themes, and never forgets that the whole thing is supposed to be fun. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon teamed up with Smallville co-creators Miles Millar and Alfred Gough on the screen story. (Tisserand) AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Chalmette, 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 Levins imagination, director Frank Ozs 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 Rudnicks script is chock full of dialogic smarts, if a bit lacking in logic of any other kind. The Stepford Wives is a mess, but its fun, and its probably the best bad movie you will see this summer. (Carlson) AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Holiday 12
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 (Schindlers 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, Causeway Cinema, Hollywood Cinemas 9, Movies 8
TROY (R) -- C+ Wolfgang Petersens account of the Trojan War turns Homers The Iliad on its head. The Greeks are brutes. Achilles (Brad Pitt) is his centurys Terminator. And the Trojans are the noble doomed. At least this film bothers to denounce arrogant religious presumption. Had the Trojan king (Peter OToole) 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
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 1998s The Bear. Co-stars Guy Pearce and Christian Clavier. AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Holiday 12, Movies 8
WHITE CHICKS (PG-13) -- FBI agents Shawn and Marlon Wayans assume the identities of the white heiresses theyve been assigned to protect in this comedy directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans and co-written by every Wayans brother not named Damon, and others. Weve come a long way from Imitation of Life, eh? AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Chalmette, Grand, Holiday 12, Hollywood Cinemas 9, North Shore Square
