Scheduled to Open Friday
SURVIVING CHRISTMAS (PG-13) -- Record-label mogul Ben Affleck, alone during the holidays, convinces the family living in his childhood house to welcome him in for Christmas in this comedy directed by Mike Mitchell (Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo) and co-starring James Gandolfini, Catherine O'Hara and Christina Applegate.
Now Showing
ANACONDAS: THE HUNT FOR THE BLOOD ORCHID (PG-13) -- The cast is new but the snake is as big and menacing as ever in this sequel to the campy, so-bad-it's-good 1997 hit that starred Ice Cube, J-Lo and Jon Voight. Chalmette
THE BOURNE SUPREMACY (PG-13) -- Matt Damon returns as David Webb/Jason Bourne in the second installment of the Robert Ludlum spy trilogy. Causeway Cinema
BROTHERS IN ARMS (NR) -- Paul Alexander directed this documentary about the unique relationship between five swift boat crewmates and their commander, John Kerry, during their foray into the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday at Zeitgeist
BUSH'S FAMILY FORTUNES: THE BEST DEMOCRACY MONEY CAN BUY (NR) -- Greg Palast's documentary examines the Bush family, its connections, the handling of Osama Bin Laden and the Iraq war. Musical score by Moby. 9 p.m. Friday-Sunday at Zeitgeist
CELLULAR (PG-13) -- Kidnapped woman Kim Basinger places a panicky phone call to stranger Chris Evans in the hopes of saving herself and her family from kidnapper Jason Statham in this thriller directed by David R. Ellis. Co-stars Jessica Biel and William H. Macy. Movies 8
COLLATERAL (R) -- B+ Hitman Tom Cruise forces cab driver Jamie Foxx to drive him around as he does his 'errands' over the course of one night in this taut and surprisingly cheeky noir thriller from Michael Mann. (Simmons) Causeway Cinema
COOKOUT (PG-13) -- NBA rookie Storm P finds himself a fish out of water when he throws a picnic for his family and old friends in a posh white neighborhood in this comedy directed by first-timer Lance Rivera. Grand
THE CORPORATION (NR) -- Marck Achbar and Jennifer Abbott co-directed this documentary that explores the corporation as a dominant facet of modern American culture. Canal Place
CRIMINAL (R) -- This remake of the Argentine film Nine Queens features John C. Reilly as a con man (John C. Reilly) who teams with a younger man (Diego Luna) for the big score. Co-stars Maggie Gyllenhaal. AMC Palace 20
CULTURE AND COCKTAILS -- Longue Vue House and Gardens' film series continues. This week: F.W. Murnau's silent classic, Nosferatu. 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Playhouse at Longue Vue House and Gardens
DOLPHINS (NR) -- Fa love Pa! Actor Pierce Brosnan narrates Greg MacGillivray's documentary about the study of dolphins' communication skills. Featuring music by Sting. Entergy IMAX
DRIVE-BY SCREENINGS -- 3 Ring Circus' film series (co-presented by Callan Fine Arts and Verité Productions) continues. This week: The Party's Over, co-directed by Rebecca Chaiklin and Donovan Leitch and narrated by Philip Seymour Hoffman, who explores the political process in the United States. 7 p.m. Wednesday at The Big Top
THE FINAL CUT (PG-13) -- Robin Williams is a man in the future whose job it is to whittle down the memories of dead people's lives to make it easier for surviving friends and family, but he gets a jolt of a particular memory of his own. AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20
FIRST DAUGHTER (PG) -- President's daughter Katie Holmes falls in love with fellow college student Marc Blucas not realizing he's a Secret Service agent covertly assigned by her father (Michael Keaton). Haven't we been down this road before? AMC Palace 12, Holiday 12
THE FORGOTTEN (PG-13) -- C+ Director Joseph Ruben crafts what amounts to a just-average X-Files rip-off starring Julianne Moore and Dominic West. Moore plays a grieving mother whose sorrow is compounded when husband Anthony Edwards and psychiatrist Gary Sinise tell her that the child she mourns never existed.(Carlson) AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Chalmette, Grand, Holiday 12, Hollywood Cinemas 9, Movies 8
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (PG-13) -- B Peter Berg's adaptation of H.G.Bissinger's book about the 1988 Permian High School football season in Odessa, Texas, is an effective look at a coach and a bunch of players under too much pressure from a town full of adults who need to live their own lives and not destroy the lives of their children. Formulaic in the big-game, last play strategy that sport flicks routinely employ, the film has its virtues, but the picture isn't Rocky and it certainly isn't Breaking Away. (Barton) (Reviewed in this issue.) AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Chalmette, Grand, Holiday 12, Hollywood Cinemas 9, North Shore Square
GARDEN STATE (R) -- B+ Zach Braff (TV's Scrubs) wrote, directed and stars in this self-consciously offbeat comedy-drama about a semi-successful actor who returns home to New Jersey for his mother's funeral and to confront both his past and his future. (Simmons) Hollywood Cinemas 9
HOWARD ZINN: YOU CAN'T BE NEUTRAL ON A MOVING TRAIN (NR) -- Documentary by Deb Ellis and Denis Meuller examines the author of the bestselling work A People's History of the United States, with interviews of Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg, Alice Walker, Tom Hayden and others. 9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday at Zeitgeist
INTO THE DEEP (NR) -- IMAX cameras take a journey through the undersea world. Entergy IMAX
LADDER 49 (PG-13) -- Fireman Joaquin Phoenix (The Village) contemplates his life while waiting to be rescued from a nasty fire in this drama directed by Jay Russell (My Dog Skip) and co-starring John Travolta, Morris Chestnut and Jacinda Barrett of TV's The Real World (London) fame. AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Chalmette, Grand, Holiday 12, Hollywood Cinemas 9, Movies 8
THE LAST SHOT (R) -- Aspiring indie filmmaker Matthew Broderick gets tangled up in an FBI investigation of the mob led by Alec Baldwin in this fact-based film directed by Jeff Nathanson. AMC Palace 16, Causeway Cinema
THE LIVING SEA (NR) -- Entergy IMAX's premiere film returns, with a look at aquatic life. Narrated by Meryl Streep. Oscar-nominated for Best Documentary Short. Entergy IMAX
MEAN CREEK (R) -- Writer-director Jacob Aaron Estes' drama about a high school group's efforts to rid themselves of a bully's tactics once and for all. Stars Rory Culkin, Josh Peck, Trevor Morgan and Ryan Kelley. Canal Place
THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES (R) -- Gael Gabriel Bernal, who was so compelling in both Amores Perros and Y Tu Mama Tambien, stars as a young Ernesto 'Che' Guevara at the beginning of his political awakening in this bio-pic directed by Walter Salles (Central Station) and co-starring Rodrigo de la Serna. Canal Place
MR. 3000 (PG-13) -- Hall of Fame baseball player Bernie Mac is forced out of retirement when he learns that three of his 3,000 hits don't count on his career stats total in this comedy directed by Charles Stone III (Drumline). AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Chalmette, Grand
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. (Simmons) Causeway Cinema
NOWHERE IN AFRICA (R) -- Writer-director Caroline Link's adaptation of the Stefanie Zeig book about a German Jewish refugee family's efforts to relocate to Kenya during the 1930s. 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Deutsches Haus
THE PRINCESS DIARIES 2: ROYAL ENGAGEMENT (G) -- Now that American teen Anne Hathaway is firmly set as the princess of Genovia, she must find her prince in this sequel to the 2001 hit. AMC Palace 12, Chalmette
RAISE YOUR VOICE (PG) -- Small-town teen Hilary Duff overcomes the grief of her brother's death by enrolling in a performing-arts school in Los Angeles, where she finds her voice and herself. Co-stars Ashlee Simpson, John Corbett, Rebecca de Mornay and Rita Wilson. Directed by Sean McNamara. AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Chalmette, Grand, Holiday 12, Hollywood Cinemas 9, North Shore Square
RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE (R) -- The sequel to the popular 2002 horror film (directed once again by Paul Anderson) features Milla Jovovich as a military type who joins other survivors of a virus outbreak to battle the zombified victims of the disease. AMC Palace 20, Chalmette, Grand, North Shore Square
SHALL WE DANCE? (PG-13) -- Stressed-out accountant Richard Gere decides that taking dance lessons from Jennifer Lopez will save his marriage to Susan Sarandon. Remake of the enchanting 1996 Japanese film of the same name that remains that country's top-grossing Japanese-language film, and is directed by Peter Chelsom of Town and Country fame. AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Holiday 12, Hollywood Cinemas 9, Movies 8, Prytania
SHARK TALE (PG) -- The mafia goes truly underworld, or more accurately, underwater, in this animated story about a little fish (voice of Will Smith) who is mistakenly blamed for the accidental death of the son of a shark mob boss (Robert De Niro). AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Chalmette, Grand, Holiday 12, Hollywood Cinemas 9, Movies 8
SHAUN OF THE DEAD (R) -- London pub crawler Simon Pegg tries to rescue his friends from zombies, with disastrous results, in director Edgar Wright's spoof of the classic horror flick, Dawn of the Dead. AMC Palace 20
SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW (PG) -- Sky Captain Jude Law teams with ex-girlfriend and reporter Gwyneth Paltrow to prevent a mad scientist from destroying the world in 1930s New York City in this sci-fi film written and directed by first-timer Kerry Conran, a CGI whiz. Co-stars Michael Gambon, Giovanni Ribisi and Angelina Jolie. AMC Palace 20, Holiday 12, Movies 8
STATE PALACE LATE-NIGHT MOVIE SERIES -- New film series kicks off with 1982's Fast Times at Ridgemont High, based on Cameron Crowe's adventures while passing himself off as a student at his former California high school. Stars Judge Reinhold, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Phoebe Cates and a young Sean Penn. (Don't forget Eric Stolz!). 9 p.m. and midnight Friday-Saturday at the State Palace
TAXI (PG-13) -- This latest version of the buddy movie (and Queen Latifah star vehicle) appropriately enough puts the Queen behind the steering wheel of a cab, recruited by detective Jimmy Fallon to help him catch a gang of pretty female bank robbers. AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Chalmette, Grand, Holiday 12, Hollywood Cinemas 9, North Shore Square
TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE (R) -- B+ South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker co-directed this puppet-character parody of Hollywood action movies (among other things), with an average Joe puppet recruited by a superhero team to battle evil around the world. (Reviewed in this issue.) AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Chalmette, Grand, Holiday 12, Hollywood Cinemas 9, Movies 8
VOLCANOES OF THE DEEP SEA -- Actor Ed Harris narrates this look at life 12,000 feet below sea level, including the strange creatures that thrive near underwater volcanoes. Entergy IMAX
WHAT THE #$*! DO WE KNOW? (NR) -- C This 'documentary' is one part primer about quantum physics, one part rumination about how God perhaps works through sub-atomic particles (which are certainly curious stuff) and one-part narrative about an unhappy photographer (Marlee Matlin) who needs an attitude adjustment.
(Barton) Canal Place
WIMBLEDON (PG-13) -- Fading tennis player Paul Bettany (Master and Commander) romances promising but rebellious newcomer Kirsten Dunst during his last shot at the All-England Lawn Tennis Championships in this romance directed by Richard Loncraine (Richard III). AMC Palace 12
WITHOUT A PADDLE (PG-13) -- City slickers Seth Green, Matthew Lillard and Abraham Benrubi decide to pick up on their dead friend's quest for stolen loot on a canoe trip in this film billed by more than one source as City Slickers meets Deliverance. Movies 8
WOMAN THOU ART LOOSED (R) -- Bishop T.D. Jakes' best-selling self-help book gets a dramatic treatment from director Michael Schultz, with Jakes starring as a man helping a troubled woman (Kimberly Elise) rise above her world of prostitution and crime. AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Grand, Hollywood Cinemas 9, North Shore Square
