Short Subjectives March 21 2007

Opening Friday

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BEHIND THE MASK: THE RISE OF LESLIE VERNON (R) Writer/director Scott Glosserman’s mockumentary satirizes slasher flicks by depicting a film crew who follows a young psycho with ambitions of becoming the next Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. Robert Englund, aka Freddie Krueger, turns up as the wannabe serial killer’s concerned psychiatrist.

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COLOR ME KUBRICK (NR) See review.

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THE DEAD GIRL (R) 3 stars. See review.

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THE HILLS HAVE EYES 2 (R) What started with the Carter family clearly didn’t end with the Carter family in the sequel to the remake directed by Martin Weisz. Co-stars Michael McMillan and Jessica Stroup.

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THE LAST MIMZY (PG) Directed by Robert Shaye and based on the sci-fi short story by Lewis Padgett, Mimzy tells the story of two children who discover a mysterious box containing strange devices they think are toys. The “toys” begin to teach the children extraordinary things, and soon the family learns the “toys” are part high-tech electronics, part organic and contain important secret messages about the future.

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PRIDE (PG) Sunu Gonera’s fact-based film follows inner-city Philadelphia swim coach Jim Ellis’ (Terrence Howard) fight to build a swim team in one of Philly’s toughest neighborhoods in the 1970s. Driven by his love of competitive swimming, Ellis refurbishes an abandoned recreational pool with the help of its custodian Elston (Bernie Mac). Recruiting teens from the streets, Jim struggles to transform a motley team of novices into capable swimmers — all in time for the upcoming state championships.

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REIGN OVER ME (R) Writer/director Mike Binder (The Upside of Anger) offers a drama about of two former college roommates (Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle) who reunite by chance — with one (Sandler) mourning over the loss of his family after 9/11 and the other (Cheadle) struggling to keep his family and career together.

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SHOOTER (R) 2 stars. See review.

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TMNT (PG) After the defeat of their old archenemy Shredder, the Turtles have grown apart as a family. Struggling to keep them together, their rat sensei Splinter becomes worried when strange things begin to brew in New York City. Directed by Kevin Munroe; voice cast includes Kevin Smith and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

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Duly Noted

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DIE ARCHITEKTEN (THE ARCHITECTS) (1990) Somber portrait of life in East Berlin depicts a young architect whose circumstances and goals are strangled by communist dogma. One of the first fiction films to deal with both the German Democratic Republic and reunification periods. Written and directed by Peter Kahane. In German with subtitles. Looking at History. Wed., March 28, 7 p.m. Goethe-Institut Atlanta, 1197 Peachtree St. $3-$4. 404-894-2388.

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KUNG FU HUSTLE (2005) A bumbling small-time thief (Stephen Chow) yearns to join the ruthless, tuxedoed Axe Gang that controls every part of the city except for Pig Sty Alley, a ramshackle apartment complex ruled by the fierce, chain-smoking Landlady and her goofy husband. Winner of six Hong Kong Film Awards. In Cantonese and Mandarin with subtitles. Hong Kong Panorama. Fri., March 23, 8 p.m., Woodruff Arts Center, Rich Theatre. 1280 Peachtree St. $7. 404-733-4570. www.high.org.

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LET JOY REIGN SUPREME (1975) A visually dazzling, razor-sharp satire that vividly recreates French political and social life half a century before the Revolution. It is set between 1720 and 1723, when Louis XV was too young to assume the throne and France was governed by his regent, Philippe d’Orléans (Philippe Noiret). Both a liberal and a libertine, Philippe finds himself at odds with his foreign minister, the Abbé Dubois (Jean Rochefort), a decadent and ambitious priest determined to become archbishop. Directed by Bertrand Tavernier. In French with subtitles. From Royalty to Revolution. Sat., March 24, 8 p.m., Woodruff Arts Center, Rich Theatre. 1280 Peachtree St. $7. 404-733-4570. www.high.org.

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THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) (R) The cult classic of cult classics, the musical horror spoof follows an all-American couple (Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick) to the castle of Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry), a drag-queen/mad scientist from another galaxy. It’s all fun and games until Meat Loaf gets killed. Dress as your favorite character and participate in this musical on acid. Midnight Fri. at Lefont Plaza Theatre and Sat. at Peachtree Cinema & Games, Norcross.

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Continuing

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300 (R) 4 stars. In 480 B.C., 300 Spartan warriors stand against an army of hundreds of thousands in an ultraviolent action epic that makes the Hercules and Conan movies look like flailing slap-fights. Like Sin City, it’s based on a macho graphic novel by Frank Miller and all the backgrounds are computer-generated; unlike Sin City, the painterly images don’t overwhelm the emotional investment of such actors as Gerard Butler and Lena Headey as Sparta’s king and queen. If it plays like the biggest Army recruiting commercial ever made (particularly given that the bad guys are Iranians — I mean, Persians), 300 nevertheless conquers its own overwrought tendencies to offer a thrilling, larger-than-life spectacle. — Curt Holman

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AMAZING GRACE (PG) 3 stars. Director Michael Apted (49 Up) examines the attempts of British reformers in Parliament led by William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd) to end the Empire’s slave trade toward the end of the 18th century. While Apted’s own attempts to quicken the film’s extended storyline spanning nearly two decades by using flashbacks falls a bit short, the compelling subject matter and Gruffudd’s earnest performance are engaging enough. Veteran British actors Albert Finney and Michael Gambon lend a capable hand in supporting roles. — David Lee Simmons

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THE ASTRONAUT FARMER (PG) 2 stars. Charles Farmer (Billy Bob Thornton) is a Midwestern rancher and dad with a devoted wife (Virginia Madsen), whose secret passion is to ride the rocket he is building in his barn into space. Directors Mark and Michael Polish’s film is an attempt to revisit the kind of idealized American small town and man-with-a-dream that propelled the 1930s and ’40s films of Frank Capra. But instead, the Polish’s improbable, ham-fisted attempt at homespun message film feels hopelessly contrived, full of nostalgia for a time when men were men and women were women and all was right in America. — Felicia Feaster

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BECAUSE I SAID SO (PG-13) 1 star. A nasty piece of cinema posing as a romantic comedy, Because I Said So is this year’s Monster-In-Law, a vicious stab at the maternal instinct that also manages to humiliate the iconic actress at its center. Diane Keaton headlines the film as Daphne, a 59-year-old woman who still dotes on her youngest daughter, Milly (Mandy Moore). Determined to find Mr. Right for Milly, Daphne interviews prospective suitors and settles on a wealthy architect (Tom Everett Scott), but her plans are upset by the additional presence of a struggling musician (Gabriel Macht). For all its faults, the movie’s most unforgivable sin is its treatment of the great Diane Keaton: Watching her humiliated on camera in the service of such a loathsome character (she shrieks! she whines! she falls on her ass!) is inexcusable. — Matt Brunson

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BLACK SNAKE MOAN (R) 1 star. Director Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow) returns to his favorite romantic triangle: a soulful black man, a white slut and the music that unites them. Samuel L. Jackson is a blues-playing farmer with a broken heart who decides he can heal the town slut (Christina Ricci) of her wanton ways (brought on by childhood sexual abuse) by chaining her to a radiator in her underwear. Both too stupid and too intent on the final-hour redemption of its cartoonish characters to qualify as camp, Black Snake Moan is a lame homage to ’70s drive-in movies and Southern Gothic feels more like the scenario for a Dixie-themed blue movie. — Feaster

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BREACH (PG-13) 3 stars. Breach chronicles the true-life saga of the apprehension of agent Robert Hanssen, who in 2001 was brought down for his role as a longtime spy for the Russians. The superb Chris Cooper plays Hanssen, who’s presented as a deeply religious man with a disdain for homosexuals, strong-willed women and many of his peers at the bureau. He’s assigned a clerk named Eric O’Neill (Ryan Phillippe), not realizing that the young man is a budding agent who’s been ordered by his superior (Laura Linney) to spy on him and collect any potentially incriminating evidence. Breach is competent without being particularly distinguished, with Cooper working hard to provide any psychological subtext to the story behind the headlines. — Brunson

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BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA (PG) 4 stars. Though the trailers for Gabor Csupo’s children’s story suggest two middle-schoolers (in touching performances from Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Robb) lost in their own private Narnia or Middle Earth, the melancholy but lovely effect of this film is more Finding Neverland. Deeply progressive by most kid’s-film measures, Bridge features two protagonists who challenge the usual boy/girl stereotypes and really conveys both the exquisite heights of imagination children achieve, as well as how crushing loss looks through their eyes. — Feaster

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DEAD SILENCE (R) A newlywed (Ryan Kwanten) investigates the deat of his wife after they moved to a haunted small town in this thriller directed by James Wan.

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GHOST RIDER (PG-13) 2 stars. Is it possible that writer/director Mark Steven Johnson had never even read a Ghost Rider comic book before making the big-screen version? The original Johnny Blaze wasn’t a joke-a-second character; he was more somber, as one would expect from a biker who sold his soul to the devil (to save a loved one’s life) and then found himself living under a curse that transformed him into a flaming-skull creature whenever in the presence of evil. Of course, when you hire Nicolas Cage to star in your movie, it’s safe to assume that camp was what was intended all along. On the plus side, the special effects are pretty cool, and it was inspired to cast Peter Fonda as Mephistopheles (Easy Rider, meet Ghost Rider). Otherwise, Ghost Rider is yet another comic-book adaptation that goes up in flames before our very eyes. — Matt Brunson

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GLASTONBURY (R) 3 stars. Director Julien Temple’s documentary ushers you into the experience of attending rural England’s 35-year-old Glastonbury Music Festival, featuring performances from the likes of the Velvet Underground, Björk, Joe Strummer, Pulp and David Bowie. Drawing on more than three decades of footage, Temple conveys the sights, sounds and pungent smells of the festival and particularly its flamboyantly costumed attendees. Despite being well more than two hours, Glastonbury features few in-depth interviews and its accounts of the festival’s controversies prove opaque to U.S. audiences, despite its strong points. — Holman

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GRAY MATTERS (PG-13) Writer/director Sue Kramer’s romantic comedy stars Heather Graham and Tom Cavanaugh as siblings so close everyone believes them to be an actual couple (but not related to each other). Trouble brews when he meets the girl of his dreams. Molly Shannon, Alan Cumming and Sissy Spacek co-star.

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THE HOST (R) 4 stars. A dysfunctional family bands together when an amphibious mutant in Seoul’s sewers kidnaps a young girl as a midnight snack. Reinvigorating the long-neglected giant-monster genre, The Host negotiates some dizzying mood swings, from horror flick to broad political satire (aimed primarily at America) to family drama occasionally reminiscent of Little Miss Sunshine. The film mirrors South Korean anxieties without stinting on superbly staged sequences with its freaky, rampaging creature. — Holman

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I THINK I LOVE MY WIFE (R) 2 stars. A bland comic remake of French director Eric Rohmer’s Chloe in the Afternoon starring, written and directed by Chris Rock about a Manhattan banker with a perfect home life in the suburbs, children and a pretty wife who nevertheless lusts for a sexpot (Kerry Washington) who tempts him away from home and hearth. Nothing new in the marital angst genre in an unsatisfying, mostly unfunny, oddly bitter translation of Rock’s standup comedy to film. — Feaster

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IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS (NR) 4 stars. Exceptionally photographed for a documentary set in a war zone, director James Longley’s three-part film looks at the chaos in Iraq following the 2003 American invasion from the vantage of a Sunni orphan, a Shiite religious fundamentalist and a Kurdish farmer’s son. What emerges is an unsettling portrait from the Iraqi point of view of a disturbingly imperialist American presence and a country already grappling with quotidian disaster and uncertainty and with the rise of fundamentalism and religious persecution, perhaps destined for even more. — Feaster

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IMAX THEATER Deep Sea (NR) Get an up-close-and-personal look at sea turtles, giant octopi and other strange and colorful marine life in this visit to the ocean floor. Greece: Secrets of the Past (NR) Documentary explores the archeological secrets of Ancient Greece and features the Parthenon in its original glory as well as the volcanic eruption that buried the island of Santorini. Fernbank Museum of Natural History IMAX Theater, 767 Clifton Road. 404-929-6300. www.fernbank.edu.

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THE LIVES OF OTHERS (R) 4 stars. Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s film is a cautionary tale, offering a possible window into our own future for its message about the life-sapping potential of a government that puts power above its human citizens. An Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, The Lives of Others follows an East Berlin secret policeman or “Stasi” as he has his first twinge of guilt over a life spent spying on and subsequently destroying the lives of his fellow Germans. When ordered to spy on a playwright and his girlfriend, Capt. Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) begins to feel affection and sympathy for them. — Feaster

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MUSIC AND LYRICS (PG-13) 3 stars. A has-been 1980s pop star (Hugh Grant) gets a chance to jump-start his career if he can write a new song, so he enlists a quirky amateur (Drew Barrymore) to come up with the words. After a shaky start, Music and Lyrics turns into a surprisingly smart and pleasant romantic comedy that persistently avoids the genre’s cliched complications. Grant proves reliably amusing and Barrymore has never been more charming, and their relationship credibly unfolds against a backdrop of the forced intimacy of a creative partnership, as well as the strains of the music industry’s pressure to artistic compromise. — Holman

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NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM (PG) 4 stars. The occasionally unfunny Ben Stiller is inspired and feeling his comic imp in a very enjoyable romp about a slacker divorced dad Larry (Stiller) who tries to win back his son’s affection by taking a job as a night watchman at the Museum of Natural History and discovers that the displays of animals, explorers, cavemen and soldiers come alive at night. With its subtext of male anxiety and championing of book learnin’ and the lessons of history, Shawn Levy’s film offers equal entertainment for adults and children including a crack-comic cast featuring Ricky Gervais and Mickey Rooney. — Feaster

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NORBIT 2 stars. There’s a reason makeup artist Rick Baker owns six Academy Awards, and it can be seen in his latest collaboration with Eddie Murphy. Baker (The Nutty Professor) had a hand in the designs Murphy dons in his latest comedy, and as usual, his efforts elicit gasps of admiration. Also worthy of (guarded) praise is Murphy himself, who once again is able to create a deft comic persona. That would be the title character, a mild-mannered nerd who ends up marrying a frightening, 300-pound behemoth named Rasputia (also Murphy). Like the geek Murphy played in Bowfinger, Norbit is a likable man whose rotten luck and sweet demeanor earn our sympathies. What doesn’t engender audience goodwill is the rest of the film, which is mean-spirited to its core. The stereotype most likely to offend is its centerpiece: Rasputia, an African-American caricature who’s oversexed, overfed and in all other regards over-the-top. — Brunson

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NOTES ON A SCANDAL (R) 4 stars. From Patrick Marber’s script and Zoe Heller’s novel, Richard Eye’s film begins as an engrossing thriller about the parasitic relationship between a beautiful, bourgeois inner-city London schoolteacher (Cate Blanchett) and the older dominatrix schoolmarm (Judi Dench) who develops an unhealthy fascination with her colleague’s indiscretions and supple flesh. But its initially thrilling knee-deep cynicism soon mutates into a blatantly misogynist, homophobic portrait of Dench’s hellbent crone, a turnaround which makes it into a very guilty pleasure indeed. — Feaster

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THE NUMBER 23 (R) 2 stars. Jim Carrey attempts to tap into his manic energy for darker currents with his portrayal of a family man increasingly obsessed with both an enigmatic book and the seemingly coincidental presence of the number “23” everywhere he looks. Unlike the JFK assassination or “Da Vinci Code” conspiracies, the film’s numerology lacks deeper implications and feels more like a fixation of the tinfoil-hat crowd. Director Joel Schumacher’s emphasis on stylishness offers some grisly Goth eye candy but never builds suspense or empathy for the characters. — Holman

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OLD JOY (NR) 5 stars. In Kelly Reichardt’s exquisite, heartfelt, cerebral buddy film, two aging slackers, one (Daniel London) expecting his first child, and the other (musician Will Oldham) still drifting, meet up for a weekend camping trip that becomes a melancholy examination of their flagging friendship and a changed world, where connection and communication have been replaced by isolation and dashed dreams. — Feaster

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PAN’S LABYRINTH (R) 4 stars. Mexican director Guillermo del Toro’s (Hellboy, Cronos) exquisitely gothic fairy tale concerns a little girl (Ivana Baquero) who escapes the nightmarish Spanish Fascist stepfather and violence of the adult world in prolonged fantasies of descent into a magical underworld overseen by an enormous talking faun, Pan. Del Toro, supported by an excellent cast of female actresses, delivers an achingly beautiful parable about the willful desire of children to imagine an alternative reality. — Feaster

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PREMONITION (PG-13) 3 stars. Sandra Bullock plays a housewife who begins doubting her sanity after his husband’s death when she experiences her days out of sequence. Reminiscent of the premises of both Memento and Groundhog Day, director Mennan Yapo’s supernatural thriller intrigues the audience with Bill Kelly’s reasonably clever script instead of horror-house jolts. — Holman

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RENO 911!: MIAMI (R) 4 stars. In this made-for-film version of Comedy Central’s hit show “Reno 911,” the extremely dysfunctional police force heads down to Miami for a national police convention (that they were mistakenly invited to) and ends up “policing” the entire city as a bio-terrorism threat keeps all of the other officers detained. — Noah Gardenswartz

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TYLER PERRY’S DADDY LITTLE GIRLS (PG-13) Reverse-Cinderella tale centers about a successful attorney (Gabrielle Union) who falls in love with a financially challenged mechanic (Idris Elba) who is a single father of three children. The relationship hits a snag when the janitor’s ex-wife comes back into his life and threatens to take away their kids.

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VOLVER (R) 5 stars. Pedro Almodóvar balances intense feeling and giddy silliness without sacrificing humanity or heart in his tale of a devoted mother, played by an intoxicating Penélope Cruz, who finds herself disposing of a dead husband, running an illegal restaurant and fending off her mother’s ghost. Blending elements of Italian neorealist cinema, classic Hollywood melodramas such as Mildred Pierce and outrageous wit, Volver is an earthy, heartfelt pleasure from top to bottom. — Feaster

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WILD HOGS (PG-13) 1 star. Simple-minded comedy has the audacity to reference Deliverance in one scene, yet the only folks who’ll be squealing like a pig are the ones who fork over 10 bucks, only to find themselves royally screwed after enduring its inanities. Four Cincinnati bunglers (John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy), decide to embark on a midlife-crisis road trip to the West Coast. The “gay panic” humor is so rampant that it’s reasonable to wonder if cast and crew wrapped each shooting day by beating up a homosexual off-screen. — Brunson

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ZODIAC (R) 4 stars. As if refuting his own overly stylish, dramatically thin serial killer film Se7en, director David Fincher focuses on the institutional weaknesses and moral ambiguities in his procedural thriller about the pursuit of California’s notorious “Zodiac” murderer. Mark Ruffalo’s police inspector wrestles with the challenges of building a case, while Jake Gyllenhaal’s newspaper cartoonist becomes increasingly obsessed when the killer remains at large for years. Fincher doesn’t stint on disturbing, visceral crime scenes, but also makes Zodiac one of the rare serial killer films that, instead of almost glorifying mass murderers as supervillains, weighs in with insights as to how such criminals seize the public and private imagination. — Holman